USPER Narrative, Senior USIC Official

In late 2025, during early evening daylight hours, I – a senior U.S. intelligence officer – along
with a colleague and two pilots, departed our Joint Operations Center (JOC) in a helicopter.
Our mission was to investigate loud thuds heard in the mountains on the test range, which
coincided with Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) sightings reported over the previous
several nights. We aimed to search remote mountain areas for possible debris or objects
that might explain the orb-like sightings.
After leaving the JOC, we flew a low-altitude “nap-of-the-earth1” route through the
mountain range for several hours. Multiple times, we spotted debris on the ground and
descended for closer inspection. Each time, we determined it was remnants from rockets
and other projectiles that had crashed during years of weapons testing on the range. As we
continued searching near areas of reported orb activity, we discovered a large cave
entrance with no visible end in sight. The terrain around the entrance offered no safe
landing spot, so I instructed the pilot to orbit it several times for observation. We noted the
location and then pressed on.
Running low on fuel, we headed to a prearranged rendezvous point to meet a ground team
and let my colleague disembark. The two pilots and I then proceeded to a prepositioned
tanker on the range for refueling. Our plan was to return to base afterward, but the JOC
radioed with a request to search a nearby mountain for debris spotted by one of the ground
teams. By this time, the sun had set, and the pilots switched to Forward Looking Infrared
(FLIR) and Night Vision Goggles (NVG), while I continued using the unaided naked eye.
After a brief search of the mountain yielded no findings, the pilots began navigating back to
the JOC to end the mission. I then received a message from the JOC: radar had detected
hits several miles up range from our position – the same area where UAP activity had been
observed on prior nights. I relayed this to the pilots, and we altered course to intercept.
What followed was a series of close UAP encounters lasting over an hour.
En route, ground teams reported spotting a UAP on FLIR, describing it as “super-hot,” low to
the ground, and moving east then south at high speed. The object then split into two and
changed direction. Upon arrival, we scanned the area using NVG, FLIR, and the naked eye.
The ground team suddenly radioed that the object had risen from the ground, approached
within ten feet of the helicopter, dropped below us, and then sped away. The pilots
observed it through NVGs and saw it split into two as a smaller object emerged before it
1 May 26, 2026, correction: The document originally posted to the PURSUE collection of UAP-related records
on May 22, 2026, under the name “ODNI-UAP-D001, USPER Narrative, Senior USIC Official,” contained a
typographic error in the second paragraph, describing a helicopter flight profile as “map-of-the-earth.” The
correct military aviation term for this profile is “nap-of-the-earth.” This document has been updated to reflect
this correction.