UNCLASSIFIED // PUBLIC RELEASERELEASE 06 · SEPTEMBER 18, 2026
PENTAGON UFO FILE · DOCUMENT · DOW-UAP-D128AAWSAP DIRD, Anomalous Acute and Subacute Field Effects on Human Biological Tissues, March 2010
Of the reference papers produced for the AAWSAP program, this one sits closest to the UFO literature. Dated March 2010, the DIRD looks at burns, neurological complaints and sensory disturbances that witnesses have reported after alleged close encounters, and sets them beside what medicine knows about intense radiofrequency and microwave exposure.
The comparison it draws
The author reviews the biophysics of how strong electromagnetic fields heat tissue, cause burns and affect nerves and the senses, and suggests that some reported injury patterns resemble those effects. From there the paper goes a step further, proposing that the symptoms and the circumstances described by witnesses might, in principle, allow narrow inferences about the kind of emitter or propulsion system involved.
It stops short of showing that any reported injury was caused by any particular source. The release points to the weaknesses: the cases mostly lack medical examinations, the exposure conditions cannot be tested, and the sources mix established research with more contested literature.
Reading it with care
The injuries discussed are claims, not findings, and the paper’s jump from known radiation effects to unknown craft is a hypothesis without independent validation in the report. The released copy is redacted. For case histories that involve reported physical effects on witnesses, see the case files, and for the encounter categories used in this field, close encounter.
The official description
From war.gov/UFO, released September 18, 2026, quoted in full
This document is a Defense Intelligence Reference Document (DIRD), a technical reference format used by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) to capture baseline knowledge on a specific topic for later analytic use. DIRDs are best understood as reference and synthesis products rather than as original research. It is one of 38 DIRDs produced under the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program (AAWSAP) between 2009 and 2011. Because AAWSAP’s scope permitted a broad range of supporting topics, not every DIRD in the series directly concerns aerospace systems or future threat assessment. The following summary reflects the DIRD’s scope and framing at the time of writing and should not be read as implying current validation of the concepts discussed. This DIRD surveys reported acute and subacute injuries allegedly associated with close exposure to anomalous field effects, attempting to draw tentative parallels between these claimed symptoms and the known physiological effects of intense radiofrequency .and microwave exposure on human tissue. By reviewing medical and biophysical literature on heating, burns, neurological effects, and sensory disturbances, the report speculates on theoretical mechanisms by which intense electromagnetic fields might account for some of the reported injury patterns, though it does not establish a direct causal link between the reported injuries and any specific source. It hypothesizes that clinical symptoms and reported exposure circumstances might allow for highly constrained, limited inferences regarding the characteristics of an unknown emitter or propulsion system. Notably, the document’s findings rely heavily on case comparisons lacking physical examinations, untestable exposure conditions, and a mix of established science and more controversial literature. These comparisons are then extended to anomalous-craft scenarios, attempting to map known electromagnetic injury mechanisms onto anomalous encounter claims that lack independent scientific validation in the report.