PURSUE Record — FBI Photo B3: FBI · Western United States · Late 2025

FBI Photo B3 is a one-part PDF released by the Federal Bureau of Investigation on May 8, 2026 as part of PURSUE Release 01. It documents a still image captured by a U.S. military sensor system in late 2025 somewhere in the Western United States, then submitted by the FBI to the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO). The operator was unable to identify what the image shows. That is the full extent of what the public record confirms.

What this record contains

The document consists of a single image derived from an unspecified U.S. military system, submitted to AARO via the FBI reporting channel. The image itself is described in the official narrative as a monochrome, grainy frame featuring a central crosshair reticle — the kind of aiming or targeting overlay common to military optical and thermal systems. A small, dark, circular object appears just to the right of the reticle's center. The background shows what is described as an indistinct mountain range or cloud formation, consistent with a Western United States terrain or atmospheric context. The original imagery was redacted before submission, meaning portions have been deliberately obscured. No accompanying mission report was provided alongside the image.

One procedural detail worth noting: the timestamp embedded in the image is incorrect, attributed in the release notes to the system's date and time not having been properly set. This is a common issue with deployed military hardware in field conditions and does not, on its own, cast doubt on the image's authenticity — but it does mean the precise capture time cannot be independently verified from the image metadata alone. The official description explicitly states that "the operator reported that they were unable to positively identify the UAP."

Historical & documentary context

Unlike the historic FBI files elsewhere in PURSUE Release 01 that date back to 1947, FBI Photo B3 is a contemporary record — captured and submitted within the modern AARO reporting framework established under the National Defense Authorization Act. AARO was stood up precisely to create a centralized, multi-agency intake for anomalous observations across air, sea, space, and ground domains. The FBI's role here is as a conduit: the bureau collected the military-source image and forwarded it through formal channels, a workflow that reflects how seriously the post-2022 UAP reporting apparatus treats observations originating outside traditional military intelligence pipelines. The absence of an attached mission report is notable — it limits context around what the sensor platform was doing, what altitude or range the image was taken from, and what else was observed at the time.

Military sensor imagery of this type — monochrome, reticle-overlaid, taken against terrain or cloud backgrounds — carries inherent ambiguities. Circular or spherical objects are among the most commonly reported UAP signatures in military footage, and they are also among the hardest to characterize from a single static frame. Without stereo imagery, radar correlation, or altitude data, determining the object's actual size, distance, and speed from one still image is not possible.

What this does and does not prove

The documented facts are narrow: a U.S. military sensor captured an image of a small, dark, circular object in the Western United States in late 2025; the FBI submitted that image to AARO; the operator could not identify it; the release contains one file. What the record does not establish — and does not claim to establish — is that the object is anomalous in any extraordinary sense. It has not been ruled out as a conventional object (drone, balloon, bird, debris), nor has it been confirmed as one. Redactions limit what independent analysts can examine. The absent mission report removes the operational context that would ordinarily inform an investigation. The incorrect timestamp introduces a layer of metadata uncertainty. Taken together, the record represents a genuine unresolved observation, but "unresolved" means unexplained by available evidence — not proven to be anything beyond the ordinary.

How it fits PURSUE Release 01

FBI Photo B3 sits within the FBI-sourced portion of the 162-document PURSUE Release 01 set, which spans FBI materials from 1947 through contemporary submissions like this one. You can review the full release index and compare it against other FBI-origin records — including the historic Roswell-era files and mid-century correspondence — on the SkyLens UAP files page. Its inclusion alongside resolved cases (sensor artifacts, balloons, misidentified aircraft) reflects the analytical discipline that AARO says underpins the release: cases go in because they were reported and processed, not because they are extraordinary.

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.