PURSUE Release 01: FBI Photo B9

FBI Photo B9 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 a late 2025 incident in the Western United States and describes the record as a still image derived from a U.S. military system.¹²

The FBI submitted the material to the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office as a UAP report. According to the release metadata, the original imagery was altered with redactions before AARO received it, no accompanying mission report was provided, and the operator reported being unable to positively identify the UAP.²

  Photo B9 Reticle Still

The PDF contains a single monochrome, grainy frame with a central crosshair reticle, horizontal and vertical scale markings, and multiple black redaction bars.³ A small dark circular mark appears just below and left of the reticle center. The background includes a darker, indistinct band that the release description characterizes as possibly resembling a mountain range, but the public material does not identify the sensor platform, terrain, range, or viewing angle.²³

The lower-left timestamp reads 12/31/99 18:10:26. The release metadata says the date shown in the image is incorrect because the system date and time were not set, so the visible timestamp should not be treated as the incident date or collection time.²³

  What B9 Cannot Show

The strongest supportable reading is narrow: the public record preserves an FBI-submitted AARO UAP image in which a small dark mark appears in a redacted military-system still, and the operator could not identify it. The release does not establish the mark's size, distance, altitude, speed, material, motion, origin, exact location, or whether it represents a physical object rather than an imaging artifact or background feature.²³

The release's own narrative description is informational and should not be treated as an analytical judgment or investigative conclusion about the event's validity, nature, or significance.² That caveat matters because B9 is evidence of a reporting and disclosure record, not enough public evidence by itself to identify what was seen.

  FBI-to-AARO Provenance

Photo B9 matters as a compact example of the FBI-to-AARO material in PURSUE Release 01. It shows that a recent UAP report reached the public release with provenance, redactions, and operator uncertainty intact, while the missing mission report and technical context sharply limit independent assessment.¹²³

  Released B9 PDF

FBI Photo B9 remote release asset

  References

  References

1. war.gov ↩ ↩²

2. war.gov ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷

3. war.gov ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵