THE DOCUMENT
DOE-UAP-D005, “Pantex Unidentified Object Incident Report, 2015”, a Department of Energy record from the U.S. Department of War’s PURSUE Release 04, published at war.gov/ufo, cleared 10 July 2026. It is the Pantex Plant’s own report, with imagery, of a September 2015 incident involving an unidentified object in the airspace above the plant near Amarillo, Texas. Two of its pages were first released under PURSUE on 22 May 2026, in more redacted form, as DOE-UAP-D001.
Why this one is worth your time
Pantex is the facility where United States nuclear weapons are assembled, disassembled and maintained. In September 2015 its ground surveillance radar picked up something its security force could not identify, and the plant wrote it up. Release 02 published two processed images from that event; Release 04 now publishes the report they came from. And because two of its pages have now been released twice, seven weeks apart, in two states of redaction, the file also lets a reader set the May version beside the July version and see exactly what was withheld the first time. This briefing covers what the report records and what changed between the releases.
What the document says
DOE-UAP-D005 is a small, born-digital file: a transmittal letter sent within the National Nuclear Security Administration in the same week as the event, a cover page, and the plant’s six-page incident report, which carries a radar-track map, a photograph from a radar tower and two enhanced images. Every page is marked Unclassified Controlled Nuclear Information (UCNI), not classified, and the UCNI banners are struck through on the released copy.
The detection. The report opens: on 1 September 2015 at approximately 0710 hours, the Pantex Ground Surveillance Radar detection system identified an unknown object flying, in the report’s words, “in a non-threatening manner” west of Pantex facilities in a northerly trajectory, initially identified just north of Highway 60 and travelling at approximately 10 to 15 miles per hour. The detailed account adds that the first radar hit came at approximately 0708 hours, about 1.75 miles southwest of a plant location the report calls Z-12 South, with further hits as the object moved north-northwest; the passages identifying who or what made each detection are blanked in the released copy.
The response. The Protective Force responded under the plant’s approved Security Incident Response to Unmanned Aerial Systems plan. All pedestrian and vehicle gates leading into and out of the security areas were immediately secured, and patrols repositioned to protect assets. A Protective Force lieutenant and a security police officer spotted the object and followed it by vehicle as it travelled north, attempting to intercept it as it crossed Pantex Drive so as to view it directly from below. The report records that they could not catch up to it, stopped their vehicle and got out; once outside, they noted that the object made no sound, and stated that they could not identify any type of propulsion system while assessing it through binoculars. After one to two minutes it continued north offsite; they followed for several miles until roadway access ran out, last seeing it near County Road G and F.M. 1342. The Carson County sheriff’s office was asked to assist; a deputy met the two officers, said he had not seen the object, and said he would search the area for anything unusual. The report notes that the object seemed to increase in speed and change direction as it was followed, and that its last known heading was east-northeast.
The descriptions. The two officers’ perspective, the report records, was that the object was a “diamond” type shape, more rounded at the top. Security police officers in a Bearcat vehicle tracked it by remote camera for three to five minutes as it crossed the plant, putting it 100 to 200 feet above the ground at a distance of 75 to 100 metres. Another officer watching through binoculars described it as approximately four feet tall and two feet wide at the bottom, thinner at the top. On colour the accounts differ, and the report says so: some personnel stated it was black, while others noted it appeared to be silver, red and blue.
Where the evidence went. Video from the radar tower closest to the object was sent to Sandia National Labs for further study; the report states the video does not provide much detail because of the distance. It also states that at no time did the object appear to be threatening in nature, that it did not come into close proximity to any sensitive assets, and that it remained over open, unpopulated areas of the plant before proceeding offsite. All evidence of the incident, statements and video, was turned over to an FBI agent whose name is blacked out in the released copy.
A date wrinkle. The report body opens on 1 September 2015 at 0710 hours, the date the release database uses; the report’s cover page and the transmittal letter both refer to 2 September 2015. The file does not explain the discrepancy.
The two releases, compared. The pages released twice are the report’s pages 5 and 6. On page 5, “Image from Ground Surveillance Radar Tower”, the Release 02 version (DOE-UAP-D001) masks the photograph behind a grey block marked (b)(3) (UCNI), leaving visible only the circled object in the sky; the Release 04 version releases the photograph in full, power poles, buildings and horizon included. Page 6, “Sandia National Labs Enhanced Images of the Object”, is substantively unchanged between the two releases. A side-by-side sheet is published with this briefing.
What the document does not say
It does not say what the object was. No identification appears anywhere in the report; it closes with the evidence handover, and the file contains no analysis result from Sandia and no FBI follow-up.
Apart from the sheriff’s deputy, who did not see the object, every observation in the report comes from plant systems and plant personnel. The file records no off-site witness and no other sensor.
The released copy is redacted in specific places: the transmittal letter’s addressee and phone contacts, the identifiers of those who made and relayed the radar detections, and the name of the FBI agent who received the evidence. The release database flags the file as carrying redactions, and its note records that pages 5 and 6 previously appeared in more redacted form as DOE-UAP-D001.
It does not explain its own dates: 1 September in the report body, 2 September on the cover and transmittal letter.
From the record
identified an unknown object flying in a non-threatening manner west DOE-UAP-D005, the report’s opening description of the radar detection; the sentence continues: of Pantex facilities in a northerly trajectory
they noted that the object did not make any sound. DOE-UAP-D005, on the lieutenant and security police officer who left their vehicle as the object passed
Their perspective of the object was that it was a “diamond” type shape with it being more round at the top. DOE-UAP-D005, the report recording the two officers’ description
others noted that it appeared to be silver, red and blue. DOE-UAP-D005, on the disagreement over colour; the sentence begins: Some personnel stated that it was black in color while
Where the case connects
The file pairs directly with Release 02 Briefing 5, which covered the first Department of Energy block in PURSUE, including DOE-UAP-D001, the earlier and more redacted release of this report’s imagery pages. The nuclear-estate thread runs further back: Release 02 Briefing 3 covers the 1949 green-fireball reports over Los Alamos and Sandia, and Release 04 Briefing 3 covers the 1949 Los Alamos conference convened about them. The documents record where things were seen; they draw no link between the cases, and this report likewise cites no other incident.
The file leaves its own loose ends. The Sandia study of the video has no recorded result here; the FBI’s file on the evidence it received is not part of this release; and the radar-tower video itself is described but not published. The re-released pages are also, so far, a rarity: the same pages in two redaction states, May and July 2026. Any later tranche that releases the Sandia analysis, the FBI records, or the video lands in this series when it does.
Read it yourself
DOE-UAP-D005, “Pantex Unidentified Object Incident Report, 2015”, is hosted at war.gov in PURSUE Release 04.
Read the file. Decide for yourself.
Related wiki entries
The wiki entries below give background on the programme and publisher behind this briefing, and on the subjects it touches.
References and further reading
- DOE-UAP-D005, “Pantex Unidentified Object Incident Report, 2015”, PURSUE Release 04, U.S. Department of War, hosted at war.gov/ufo
- DOE-UAP-D001, “Enhanced PANTEX Imagery”, PURSUE Release 02, U.S. Department of War, hosted at war.gov/ufo
- Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters (PURSUE), U.S. Department of War, war.gov/ufo
- AARO UAP Records, All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, aaro.mil/UAP-Records
- Signals from the Periphery, Release 02 Briefing 5, on the Department of Energy files
- Signals from the Periphery, Release 02 Briefing 3, on the green fireballs of New Mexico
- Signals from the Periphery, Release 04 Briefing 3, on the 1949 Los Alamos conference