UNCLASSIFIED // PUBLIC RELEASERELEASE 05 · AUGUST 7, 2026
PENTAGON UFO FILE · DOCUMENT · CIA-UAP-D022Unidentified Flying Object Reported near Puerto Rico, 1965
This file holds two Top Secret memoranda from early 1965, handled under the CIA’s BYEMAN control system for the OXCART spy-plane program. They trace how two CIA offices – Special Activities, which ran the U-2 and OXCART, and Scientific Intelligence – handled a UFO reported near Puerto Rico between 18 and 24 November 1964.
What the memos say
In the first, dated 1 February 1965, the head of Special Activities writes that a Navy message had passed on the claim, from the commander at Ramey Air Force Base, that the object was a YF-12A. His office says it had finally convinced Naval Intelligence that it was not a YF-12A or any similar Lockheed aircraft. The Navy had supplied its original radar film and prints, and he asks the scientific office to analyze them for anything more about a high-speed, high-altitude object.
The reply, dated 11 February, reports that the radar photography from the destroyer USS Gyatt showed a good track for the object at about 3,800 knots. The Navy pilot had seen a delta shape about the size of a jet fighter and estimated Mach 3. The scientific office concluded the object was probably a delta-wing aircraft of unusually high performance. Noting that missile tests were scheduled on the Atlantic Fleet Weapons Range that week, it called a foreign reconnaissance flight conceivable, while noting no evidence of such Soviet activity from Cuba.
Related file
The short briefing version is CIA-UAP-D023.
The official description
From war.gov/UFO, released August 7, 2026, quoted in full
This file contains Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) memoranda exchanged between the Assistant Director for Special Activities (AD/SA) and the Assistant Director for Scientific Intelligence (AD/SI) regarding an incident allegedly involving unidentified aircraft in the vicinity of Puerto Rico. The AD/SI was then-responsible for analyzing foreign scientific advancements and technological threats, such as Soviet nuclear, chemical, and ballistic missile capabilities. The AD/SA managed the CIA’s classified overhead reconnaissance operations, including the deployment of advanced aircraft like the U-2 and A-12 OXCART. Together, these offices ensured the United States could both gather critical intelligence over contested territories and accurately evaluate the technical capabilities of foreign adversaries during the Cold War.
The memoranda refer to an incident on November 19, 1964, in which a U.S. Naval aviator described observing an unidentified object as “delta-shaped, about the size of a jet fighter.” The pilot visually estimated the object’s velocity as Mach 3 (approximately 2,200 mph). A corresponding track from an AN/SPS-49 radar system aboard a U.S. Navy guided missile destroyer in the area, USS Gyatt, measured the object’s speed at 3,800 knots (approximately 4,373 mph). The memoranda indicate that, in the opinion of the AD/SI, the object was conceivably associated with foreign intelligence gathering activities, citing active missile testing within the AFWR, or Atlantic Fleet Weapons Range, as being an attractive reconnaissance target. The AD/SA and AD/SI also ruled out domestic experimental aircraft, such as the YF-12A OXCART, as a potential attribution.