With a small triumph in the effort to get transparency on a hot topic issue, The Black Vault has secured the partial release of the classified report on Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAPs) given to Congress in June of 2021.
This effort by The Black Vault is the result of a Mandatory Declassification Review (MDR) case filed under 32 CFR § 1704 (not the usual Freedom of Information Act [FOIA] cases generally filed under 5 U.S.C. § 552) less than 24 hours after the public version of the same was released.
The case mandated that the the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), in conjunction with ALL agencies and military branches that contributed to the report, review their respective contributions, and in the end, release the unclassified/declassified/non-exempt portions.
The below is the result of that case. Today, the ODNI released the portions of the report that are no longer able to be withheld from the public. You can download that release below.
NOTE: This is an article that likely will be updated/expanded, along with the addition of a video at a later date. This entire case was very public when first filed, as The Black Vault posted numerous updates along the way in order to best keep the public informed on the process. Thankfully, that initial process is now complete.
Document Archive
June 2021 Classified UAP / UFO Report Given to Congress Partially Released [23 Pages, 7.5MB]
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Open in new tab Update March 19, 2023
In June of 2021, The Black Vault filed a Mandatory Declassification Review (MDR) request to declassify the 21 reports referenced in the report in this section:
“In 18 incidents, described in 21 reports, observers reported unusual UAP movement patterns or flight characteristics. Some UAP appeared to remain stationary in winds aloft, move against the wind, maneuver abruptly, or move at considerable speed, without discernable means of propulsion. In a small number of cases, military aircraft systems processed radio frequency (RF) energy associated with UAP sightings.
On February 17, 2023, The Department of the Navy responded and stated they all of the 21 reports were already released in their reading room online, though it was not clear which documents they were referring to, at first.
After some additional email dialogue, it was determined that they were the Range Fouler reports released. The Navy’s response to this verbatim, was:
Follow The Black Vault on Social Media:“We apologize for any confusion this may have caused. If you head to the DON FOIA Reading Room: https://www.secnav.navy.mil/foia/readingroom/SitePages/Home.aspx and search for the following folders
- ‘2019 Range Fouler Debrief’ was released April 2022
- ‘2020 RF Forms’ was released Aug 2022
- ‘RF Reports Redacted (202301)’ was released Jan 2023
These folders contain the information you requested in your MDR “21 reports: 18 Observed incidents on UAP movement patterns or flight characteristics.”
Thank you.
Best,
DON MDR Team”
