PURSUE Record — FBI Photo A3: FBI · Late 2025

FBI Photo A3 is a still image submitted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation to the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) and declassified as part of PURSUE Release 01 on May 8, 2026. It is one of several FBI-sourced image files in the release, each designated by alphanumeric label. The incident is dated to late 2025, placing it among the most recent records in the entire 162-document package. The submitting operator reported being unable to positively identify the object depicted.

What this record contains

The record is a single-part image file (1 of 1) derived from an unspecified U.S. government system. No incident location has been made public, and the official metadata lists the field as N/A. The FBI submitted the image to AARO alongside a report of an unidentified anomalous phenomenon; however, no accompanying mission report was provided with the submission. The original imagery was also altered — specific portions were redacted before the file reached AARO — meaning what appears in the public release is a processed version of the source material, not the raw capture.

AARO's narrative description characterizes the image as monochrome, with a mottled background that may depict ground terrain. At the precise center of the frame sits a crosshair reticle, and a dark, circular object is positioned exactly at the reticle's center. The description is carefully qualified: AARO states explicitly that it is provided "for informational purposes only" and does not constitute an analytical judgment, investigative conclusion, or factual determination about the event's validity or significance.

Imagery & sensor context

The characteristics described — monochrome rendering, a crosshair reticle overlaid on the image, and what appears to be a top-down or oblique view of terrain — are consistent with imagery produced by surveillance, reconnaissance, or law-enforcement aerial platforms. Crosshair reticles are a standard feature of targeting, tracking, and wide-area surveillance systems: the reticle anchors a point of interest in the frame and allows operators to maintain lock or reference during recording. The fact that the object sits exactly at the reticle's center suggests the system had already cued onto the target — passively or actively — at the moment of capture.

Monochrome imagery in contemporary government systems is often associated with electro-optical sensors operating in specific spectral bands, or with older archival digitization, though the late-2025 incident date argues against the latter. The "mottled" background texture is consistent with overhead imagery of irregular terrain, vegetation, or urban surfaces viewed at altitude. None of this is confirmatory — these are contextual observations drawn from the described visual properties, not from any source document that identifies the platform or sensor type.

What this does and does not prove

The documented facts are narrow: an FBI-operated or FBI-accessed U.S. government system captured a monochrome image in late 2025 showing a dark circular object centered on a crosshair reticle against what may be ground terrain. The operator could not positively identify the object. The image was redacted before submission. That is the complete public record. What the image does not establish — and what no responsible reading of it can support — is any claim about the object's origin, speed, altitude, behavior, or nature. "Unable to positively identify" is an operational notation, not a conclusion of anomalous origin. Round or circular objects photographed at distance by aerial surveillance systems encompass a wide range of mundane explanations, from balloons and drones to sensor artifacts and image compression. The redactions compound the interpretive gap: the portions of the frame that were removed may have contained contextual detail that would have aided or foreclosed identification. You can see the full release context for this and related records on the SkyLens UAP files page.

How it fits PURSUE Release 01

FBI Photo A3 belongs to the FBI image series within PURSUE Release 01 — a cluster of still images the Bureau submitted to AARO from recent operational contexts, distinct from the historic FBI files in the release that date back to 1947. Where those older documents reflect the early Cold War climate of UAP investigation, the late-2025 FBI submissions represent the Bureau's current-era reporting pipeline into AARO's unified intake process. Taken alongside the Department of War mission reports and NASA archive materials also in the release, this image illustrates that UAP reporting is now a cross-agency, multi-domain activity — and that the FBI is actively participating in the AARO submission framework. Browse the full 162-document set and filter by agency on the SkyLens UAP files page, or explore other PURSUE coverage in the SkyLens blog archive.

Editorial note: This analysis is independent commentary on a publicly released document. The original record, source links, and full release metadata are catalogued on the SkyLens UAP files page alongside every other case in the PURSUE Release 01 set.