PURSUE Release 01: FBI Photo B16

The Department of War's PURSUE Release 01 identifies FBI Photo B16 as an FBI-submitted UAP report connected to a still image derived from a U.S. military system in 2025.¹ The release metadata places the incident in the Western United States in late 2025, but it does not provide a mission report, platform identity, sensor details, or a narrative operational timeline.¹

The source context is narrow. The release says the original imagery was altered with redactions before submission to AARO, the operator reported being unable to positively identify the UAP, and the date visible in the image is incorrect because the system date and time were not set.¹

  Redacted Still Frame

The released PDF contains a single monochrome image with a central crosshair over a grainy background.² Large black redaction blocks cover the top band and several smaller areas at left and right, leaving no readable system labels apart from a timestamp rendered as 12/31/99 18:20:41.²

Two dark, irregular marks appear just right of the vertical crosshair and above the horizontal line.² The larger mark is an oblong dark shape; the smaller mark sits nearby as a separate dark spot. The visible image alone does not establish whether those marks represent physical objects, sensor artifacts, image-processing effects, or different parts of one phenomenon.

  What the PDF Cannot Establish

Photo B16 supports a limited factual statement: the FBI submitted a redacted still image to AARO after an operator could not identify what was seen in imagery derived from a U.S. military system.¹ It does not support claims about size, altitude, distance, speed, heading, duration, origin, or intent. Those questions require context the public PDF does not release.

The incorrect displayed date is especially important because it prevents the visible timestamp from being treated as the incident date.¹² For this record, the release metadata's late-2025 incident date is the controlling public date context, while the image's 1999 timestamp should be read only as an unset-system artifact.

  Recent FBI-to-AARO Reporting

FBI Photo B16 matters because it is a recent interagency UAP record rather than an archival flying-disc file. It shows AARO receiving modern image-based reporting from the FBI, while also showing how little can be concluded from a redacted still frame without the mission report or sensor context that would normally anchor interpretation.¹²

  References

  References

1. war.gov ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

2. war.gov ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵