PURSUE Record — FBI Photo B17: FBI · Western United States · Late 2025

FBI Photo B17 is a single-page declassified PDF submitted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation to the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office as part of PURSUE Release 01, published May 8, 2026 by the U.S. Department of War. The record documents a still image captured by a U.S. military system in late 2025 over the western United States. It represents one of the contemporary FBI-sourced submissions in a release that otherwise spans nearly eight decades of accumulated federal UAP documentation.

What this record contains

The file is a single-part PDF released by the FBI on May 8, 2026, covering an incident dated to late 2025 at a location described only as the western United States. The source imagery was derived from a U.S. military system, then altered with redactions before being forwarded to AARO. No accompanying mission report was provided alongside the submission. The FBI's own description notes that the date embedded in the image itself is incorrect, attributed to the sensor platform's date/time settings not having been properly configured — a technical anomaly that affects the evidentiary chain for the image timestamp specifically.

The official narrative description characterizes the image as monochrome and grainy, organized around a simplified central crosshair consistent with targeting or sensor overlay displays. Within the frame, two small, dark, circular objects are visible near the center. The operator who captured the image reported that they were unable to positively identify what the UAP was. The public record does not include platform type, altitude, airspeed, sensor wavelength, or any additional environmental data beyond what is stated above.

Historical & documentary context

The FBI's role in UAP documentation is not new — the Bureau maintained files on aerial phenomena dating back to 1947, several of which appear elsewhere in the PURSUE Release 01 catalogue. What distinguishes FBI Photo B17 is that it is a contemporary record, not a declassified Cold War artifact. It reflects the post-2022 framework under which federal agencies are required to report UAP encounters to AARO for centralized analysis and eventual public disclosure. In this context the FBI's submission pipeline functions less as a counterintelligence inquiry and more as a conduit for forwarding military sensor data that intersects with the Bureau's operational jurisdiction or awareness.

Monochrome imagery from military sensor systems often originates from infrared, electro-optical, or targeting cameras operating in conditions — altitude, lighting, atmospheric distortion — that inherently produce low-resolution, high-noise output. The grainy texture described in the official narrative is characteristic of such systems, particularly when objects appear small relative to the sensor's field of view. The crosshair overlay is consistent with standard targeting or observation sensor interfaces. None of these contextual details explain what the two circular objects are; they simply describe the technical environment in which the image was produced.

What this does and does not prove

What the record establishes: a U.S. military sensor captured two dark circular objects in the western United States in late 2025, the operator could not identify them, and the FBI forwarded a redacted version of that image to AARO. What it does not establish is the nature, origin, size, altitude, speed, or significance of those objects. The image timestamp is acknowledged as unreliable. Redactions obscure portions of the original. No mission report exists in the release to supply flight parameters or corroborating sensor data. "Unidentified" in the official record means exactly that — the operator made no positive identification. It is not an analytical conclusion about what the objects are or are not, and AARO has not issued a determination on this case in the materials made public.

How it fits PURSUE Release 01

FBI Photo B17 sits within the FBI-sourced tier of PURSUE Release 01, a subset that spans from mid-twentieth-century investigative files to current-era AARO submissions like this one. Across the release's 162 documents — 28 videos, 14 images, and 120 PDFs — contemporary FBI submissions such as this represent the Bureau's ongoing reporting obligations under the post-2022 UAP disclosure framework. Readers who want to compare it against the full scope of cases, including resolved examples involving balloons and sensor artifacts, can browse the complete PURSUE Release 01 index or follow additional case breakdowns in the SkyLens PURSUE coverage series.

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.