PURSUE Release 01: FBI Photo B17

  Photo B17 FBI Referral

FBI Photo B17 is a one-page PDF in the Department of War's May 8, 2026 PURSUE Release 01. The release catalogs it as FBI material from an incident in the Western United States in late 2025, submitted to the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office as a still image derived from a U.S. military system.¹²

The release metadata says the original imagery was altered with redactions before AARO received it, that no accompanying mission report was provided, and that the operator could not positively identify the UAP. It also warns that the date visible inside the image is incorrect because the system date and time had not been set.²

  Photo B17 Sensor Still

The PDF shows a monochrome, grainy sensor-style frame with a central crosshair, horizontal range marks, and multiple black redaction blocks.³ Two small dark circular marks appear near the reticle, slightly below the horizontal line and just left and right of the vertical line. A timestamp reading 12/31/99 18:20:48 is visible at lower left, but the release metadata says the embedded date should not be treated as the incident date.²³

The release narrative describes the same image as a grainy monochrome frame with a simplified central crosshair and two small dark circular objects near the center. It states that the description is informational only and should not be read as an analytical judgment, investigative conclusion, or factual determination about the event's validity, nature, or significance.²

  What One Frame Cannot Show

The public record supports only a narrow conclusion: an FBI-submitted UAP report included a redacted still image from a U.S. military system, and the operator reported being unable to identify what was shown.²³ It does not establish the objects' size, distance, altitude, speed, origin, platform, sensor mode, weather, chain of custody, or motion over time, because the release provides a single still image without the mission report that would normally place it in operational context.²

Photo B17 matters because it preserves a modern FBI-to-AARO UAP referral while also showing the limits of image-only disclosure. The two central dark marks make the record more specific than a catalog entry, but the redactions, unreliable embedded timestamp, and absent mission report keep it from supporting stronger claims about what the marks were or how they behaved.¹²³

  References

  References

1. war.gov ↩ ↩²

2. war.gov ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷

3. war.gov ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴