PURSUE Record — FBI Photo B14: FBI · Western United States · Late 2025

FBI Photo B14 is a declassified PDF released by the Federal Bureau of Investigation on May 8, 2026, as part of the PURSUE Release 01 package coordinated by the U.S. Department of War. The record documents a UAP encounter from late 2025 over the Western United States, captured by a U.S. military imaging system and submitted by the FBI to the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office. The original imagery includes redactions, no accompanying mission report was provided, and the operator was unable to positively identify the object or objects photographed.

What this record contains

The record is a single-part PDF (File Part 1 of 1), released by the FBI. Its incident date of late 2025 places it among the most contemporary cases in the PURSUE Release 01 set — recent operational data rather than declassified archive material. The encounter occurred somewhere in the Western United States; no more precise location is given in the public release.

The official description explains that the FBI submitted a report to AARO consisting of a still image derived from a U.S. military system. Before submission, the original imagery was altered with redactions, meaning portions have been withheld from the public record. No accompanying mission report was provided, leaving significant operational context absent. The operator at the time reported they were unable to positively identify the UAP. A notable technical complication: the date embedded in the image itself is incorrect because the system's clock was not properly set, which limits any independent timeline verification. The document's narrative description characterizes the frame as a monochrome image with a grainy texture and a simplified central crosshair — consistent with military electro-optical sensor output. Near the center of the frame, two small, dark, circular objects are visible. A digital artifact or distortion is also present along the edge of the redaction box in the lower right quadrant.

Historical & documentary context

While the FBI maintains an extensive record of UAP-adjacent case files stretching back to 1947 — files that form a separate historical strand within the PURSUE Release 01 collection — FBI Photo B14 is not an archival artifact. Its 2025 incident date makes it a product of the modern reporting pipeline that emerged from AARO's establishment in 2022. Under that framework, federal agencies including the FBI are formal participants in UAP data collection, and when a platform within their coordination encounters an unexplained phenomenon, the reporting chain runs through AARO. This record represents exactly that process.

The involvement of a U.S. military imaging system matters for technical interpretation. Contemporary military electro-optical and infrared sensors are engineered for high-fidelity target detection, yet they carry documented artifacts: lens aberrations, sensor noise, compression distortions, and point-spread effects that can render small, distant objects as dark circular shapes in a monochrome frame. The grainy texture described in the official narrative is consistent with low-light or digitally-processed output from that sensor class. Without the mission report — not provided in this release — it is not possible to determine sensor type, altitude, range, or operational mode, all of which would be necessary for any meaningful technical assessment of what the two circular objects represent.

What this does and does not prove

What the public record establishes: in late 2025, a U.S. military system captured imagery over the Western United States that included two small, dark, circular objects the operator could not identify. The FBI submitted that imagery — redacted — to AARO, and it was included in the May 8, 2026 declassification. What the record does not establish is the nature, origin, altitude, speed, or behavior of those objects. The missing mission report is a meaningful evidentiary gap; without it, no conventional explanation (drone, balloon, debris, sensor artifact) can be ruled in or ruled out — nor can any anomalous one. The incorrect embedded timestamp further limits reconstruction. The official narrative description explicitly cautions that it "should not be interpreted as reflecting an analytical judgment, investigative conclusion, or factual determination regarding the described event's validity, nature, or significance." That caveat is load-bearing.

How it fits PURSUE Release 01

FBI Photo B14 sits within the FBI contribution to the 162-document PURSUE Release 01 set — a release that spans military video, NASA archive imagery, and both historical and contemporary FBI files. Unlike the FBI's older case files in this release, which document Cold War-era reporting culture and civilian sighting coordination, this record reflects the agency's role in the post-AARO era of structured federal UAP data sharing. Its inclusion alongside resolved cases and unresolved ones reflects the release's stated goal of analytical discipline over selective disclosure. For context on how this record relates to the broader FBI and Department of War submissions in the same package, see additional PURSUE coverage on the SkyLens blog.

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.