PURSUE Record — FBI Photo B20: FBI · Western United States · Late 2025

FBI Photo B20 is a declassified PDF released on May 8, 2026 as part of PURSUE Release 01, the U.S. Department of War's coordinated disclosure of unresolved UAP records. The document, submitted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation to the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), contains a single still image captured by a U.S. military system in late 2025 over the western United States. It represents one data point within a release spanning nearly eight decades of accumulated government records.

What this record contains

The file is a single-part PDF. According to the official description, the FBI submitted a report to AARO consisting of a still image derived from a U.S. military system in 2025. The source imagery was altered with redactions prior to submission, and no accompanying mission report was provided. The operator on record reported being unable to positively identify the observed phenomenon. One administrative anomaly is explicitly flagged: the timestamp embedded in the image is incorrect, attributed to the system's date and time not having been properly configured at the time of capture.

The image itself, as described in the official narrative, is monochrome and grainy in texture. A central crosshair reticle is prominently visible — characteristic of military optical or targeting systems. One to two small, dark objects appear just above and to the right of the reticle's center. The public release does not include detailed metadata beyond this description: no altitude, no platform type, no operational context, and no sensor specifications are disclosed.

Historical & documentary context

The FBI's involvement in UAP reporting is not new, but its contemporary form looks quite different from its mid-twentieth-century origins. During the late 1940s and into the 1950s, the Bureau maintained active correspondence with the Air Force on "flying disc" reports, producing a paper trail that spans decades in the national archives and is well represented elsewhere in the PURSUE Release 01 catalogue. The FBI's current role, as demonstrated by this record, has shifted toward a reporting and coordination function — channeling observations from military personnel and systems into AARO's all-domain tracking framework rather than conducting independent field investigation.

Monochrome imagery captured through military optical systems — particularly those using reticle overlays — presents inherent interpretive challenges. The crosshair format is consistent with targeting systems, surveillance optics, or airborne sensors where the reticle serves as a positional reference rather than a weapon designation. Graininess in such imagery typically reflects sensor sensitivity settings, compression artifacts, atmospheric interference, or capture distance. Without knowing the focal length, sensor type, altitude, or range to target, determining the physical size or distance of objects in the frame is not possible from the image alone.

What this does and does not prove

What is documented: a U.S. military sensor captured one to two small, dark objects in the western United States in late 2025; the FBI transmitted the still image to AARO; the operator could not make a positive identification; and the source record was redacted before submission. What is not documented — and what this record does not establish — is the nature, origin, size, speed, altitude, or behavior of the objects. The absent mission report is a meaningful gap: without it, there is no surrounding operational context, no sensor parameters, and no corroborating data stream. The incorrect timestamp adds a further layer of administrative uncertainty. Treating these objects as extraordinary, mundane, or anything in between goes beyond what the released document supports.

How it fits PURSUE Release 01

Within the 162-document PURSUE Release 01 set, FBI Photo B20 sits in the FBI submission category alongside both historic Bureau files dating to 1947 and a smaller set of contemporary reports like this one. Its value to the broader release is less about the image content — which is sparse — and more about what it illustrates procedurally: that the FBI continues to serve as a conduit between military observers and AARO, that redaction practices shape what reaches the public record, and that the absence of a mission report is itself a documented fact. Readers wanting to compare this record against the full set of FBI submissions and Department of War sensor cases can browse the complete PURSUE Release 01 index.

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.