ODNI-UAP-D001, USPER Narrative, Senior USIC Official

In late 2025, a senior U.S. intelligence officer and two helicopter pilots set out from a military facility in the western United States to investigate loud noises and sightings of unidentified aerial phenomena reported over several nights in the surrounding mountains. The team flew at low altitude through remote terrain, searching for debris that might explain mysterious glowing orbs people had been seeing. They found only old rocket and weapons-testing wreckage until they spotted a large cave with no visible bottom.

As evening fell and the sun set, the helicopter crew switched to infrared cameras and night-vision goggles (which amplify faint light to show a green image) to continue searching. Radar detected moving objects several miles away in an area where UAP activity had been reported before. The team altered course to investigate. Ground crews watching on infrared reported seeing a very hot object moving fast and low to the ground, traveling east then south. The object then split into two pieces and changed direction. When the helicopter arrived, the pilots saw through their night-vision goggles what appeared to be a smaller object emerge from a larger one, split apart, and accelerate away faster than the helicopter could follow.

Within minutes, hovering at about 700 feet above ground, the crew spotted dozens of orange glowing orbs swirling against the distant mountainside. The display lasted several minutes before fading. When radar detected more activity nearby, the helicopter moved to a new position. This time, two large oval-shaped orbs with white or yellow centers flared up side by side, very close to the aircraft and nearly level with the helicopter's rotor blades. They emitted light in all directions. A few seconds later, three more orbs appeared below them in a formation. All five orbs remained still for 10 to 15 seconds, then dimmed in reverse order and disappeared. The intelligence officer did not photograph the objects, saying he was focused on assessing what they were and whether they posed a danger.

The helicopter remained in position, and the crew soon spotted fighter jets entering the airspace at higher altitude, marked by their blinking navigation lights. As the jets moved through the area, the same type of orange orbs appeared directly above them, brightening and dimming in a horizontal line that matched the jets' path and speed. This pattern repeated several times as the fighters transited the airspace and eventually landed. The intelligence officer noted to the pilots that the orbs seemed to be following the jets. Orange orbs also flared up and down around the helicopter itself, briefly forming a triangle before vanishing. Running low on fuel, the crew returned to base. The officer's only recorded remark after landing was that he and the pilots were "virtually speechless" about what they had observed.