Pantex Plant Airspace Intrusion (2015) – PURSUE Files

Department of Energy incident report and enhanced radar-tower imagery of an unidentified object over the Pantex nuclear weapons plant in Texas on September 1, 2015

⚠ Note on validity: Unidentified objects over U.S. nuclear sites in the 2010s were very often small drones. The report is listed as unresolved, and pages of it were first released in more redacted form in May 2026.

Pantex, 2015
Date	September 1, 2015
Location	Pantex Plant, near Amarillo, Texas
Agency	U.S. Department of Energy / National Nuclear Security Administration
Released	Release 02 (May 22, 2026); Release 04 (July 10, 2026)
Files	2 (PDF)
Previously public?	No — new in PURSUE (Releases 02 and 04)
Official releaseUnresolved

On September 1, 2015, an unidentified object intruded into the airspace over the Pantex Plant near Amarillo, Texas, the primary U.S. facility for assembling, disassembling and maintaining nuclear weapons. Release 02 published an enhanced image from a ground surveillance radar tower; Release 04 added the full incident report, including two pages first released in more redacted form.^[1]

The records

DOE-UAP-D001, Enhanced PANTEX Imagery

Open DOE-UAP-D001 (PDF) on war.gov →

A Pantex Unidentified Object Incident Report that includes an enhanced image from ground surveillance radar tower.
— Official PURSUE description

DOE-UAP-D005, Pantex Unidentified Object Incident Report, 2015

Open DOE-UAP-D005 (PDF) on war.gov →

This file contains imagery and a report documenting the circumstances surrounding a September 1, 2015, incident involving an unidentified object intruding the airspace above the Pantex Plant near Amarillo, Texas. The Pantex Plant is a sensitive national security site that contains the primary facility for the assembly, disassembly, maintenance, and life-extension of nuclear weapons. Pages 5 and 6 of this report were originally released under the PURSUE initiative in a more redacted form on May 22, 2026. (See: DOE-UAP-D001, Enhanced Pantex Imagery)
— Official PURSUE description

Analysis

Context. In 2015–2016, the Department of Energy and the Air Force recorded a series of drone incursions over nuclear sites, which led Congress to grant DOE and DoD new counter-drone authority in 2016–2017. A small object detected by a ground surveillance radar over Pantex fits that pattern. Reports of UAP over nuclear facilities also have a long history (see Malmstrom and Minot), which keeps such cases of interest to researchers.

New or previously released? New.

Released files

PURSUE ID	Title	Type
DOE-UAP-D001	Enhanced PANTEX Imagery	PDF
DOE-UAP-D005	Pantex Unidentified Object Incident Report, 2015	PDF

References

^ U.S. Department of War (2026). PURSUE Release 02 (May 22, 2026), Release 04 (July 10, 2026): DOE-UAP-D001, DOE-UAP-D005, with official descriptions. war.gov/ufo.

Source: U.S. Department of War, PURSUE (Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters), war.gov/ufo. Official records are U.S. government works in the public domain; summaries and analysis on this page are by UFO UAP Wiki.