PURSUE Record — FBI Photo B2: FBI · Western United States · Late 2025

FBI Photo B2 is a one-part PDF released on May 8, 2026, under PURSUE Release 01. It contains a single still image derived from a U.S. military system, capturing an unidentified object over the Western United States in late 2025. The Federal Bureau of Investigation submitted the record to the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office. The collecting operator reported being unable to positively identify what appears in the frame.

What this record contains

The document's core asset is a monochrome, grainy still image bearing a central crosshair reticle. A small, dark, circular object sits in the upper right quadrant; the background shows an indistinct mountain range or cloud formation. The official description notes it is provided for informational purposes only and carries no analytical judgment or investigative conclusion. Three significant caveats accompany the release: the original imagery was redacted before submission to AARO, meaning the full frame and any surrounding sensor data are not fully represented in the public file; no accompanying mission report was provided, leaving platform type, altitude, and sensor mode unspecified; and the timestamp embedded in the image is incorrect because the system's date and time had not been properly configured. The public record consists of these details and nothing more.

Historical & documentary context

Although the FBI's UAP documentation history stretches back to 1947, this is not a Cold War record. The incident occurred in late 2025, placing it within the post-UAP Disclosure Act reporting framework under which agencies formally channel anomalous observations to AARO. The image was produced by a U.S. military sensor platform — a government system, not a civilian witness, was the collecting instrument. The grainy monochrome texture and crosshair overlay described are consistent with electro-optical or infrared sensor imagery at range, characteristics common across airborne and ground-based military optics. The FBI's role here is as the submitting and forwarding agency; it is not necessarily the organization that operated the sensor.

What this does and does not prove

The record documents that a U.S. military sensor flagged a small, dark, circular object over the Western United States in late 2025; the collecting operator could not identify it; the FBI forwarded the image to AARO under the UAP reporting framework; and AARO published it unresolved. It does not establish the object's nature, origin, size, altitude, or behavior. Redactions to the original imagery, the absent mission report, and the corrupted timestamp each constrain what can be independently analyzed. "Unresolved" in AARO's framework means no explanation has been reached — it is not confirmation of any anomalous or non-human hypothesis.

How it fits PURSUE Release 01

FBI Photo B2 belongs to the FBI-submitted contemporary strand within the 162-document PURSUE Release 01 release, distinct from the historical FBI archive files dating to 1947 and from the Department of War mission reports and NASA archive imagery also present in the set. It illustrates the AARO intake pipeline working as designed: a military platform logs an unknown, the submitting agency packages and forwards the imagery, and the record enters the public domain without a resolution verdict. The full document set — including every case from the FBI series and beyond — is catalogued on the SkyLens UAP files page, and other PURSUE Release 01 coverage on this site examines cases from across the complete release.

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.