UNCLASSIFIED // PUBLIC RELEASERELEASE 06 · SEPTEMBER 18, 2026
PENTAGON UFO FILE · DOCUMENT · DOW-UAP-D133AAWSAP DIRD, The Space Communication Implications of Quantum Entanglement and Nonlocality, March 2010
Controlling spacecraft far from Earth is slowed by the speed of light: a radio command to Mars takes minutes to arrive. This March 2010 DIRD, written for the AAWSAP program, asks whether quantum entanglement — the linked behavior of particles separated by any distance — might get round that delay. The release’s summary of it mentions no sightings.
The proposal and the objections
The paper surveys experiments on entanglement and nonlocality and the theorems that say such correlations cannot carry a message. It then examines schemes that try anyway, mostly using photons entangled in momentum, including ideas for signaling faster than light and even backward in time.
It is candid about the obstacles. The author returns repeatedly to the trade-off between coherence and entanglement, along with other features of ordinary quantum mechanics that could block a usable signal even if the nonlocal correlations themselves are real. The central question, the release notes, was experimentally open at the time.
Entanglement in plain terms
Measuring one of a pair of entangled particles tells you about the other instantly, but the result on each side looks random, so no information is passed without a normal channel to compare notes. That “no-signaling” principle is why mainstream physics does not expect entanglement to allow faster-than-light communication. Another paper on unusual communication channels is High-Frequency Gravitational Wave Communications.
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 reviews quantum entanglement and nonlocality with a focus on whether those phenomena might be usable as a means of faster-than-light communication between observers, especially for real-time space operations over interplanetary distances. The report surveys the relevant quantum experiments and no-signal theorems, then examines proposed communication schemes based mainly on momentum-entangled photons, including scenarios involving superluminal and retro-causal signaling. However, it repeatedly acknowledges that the central question remains unresolved experimentally, and it gives substantial attention to the coherence-versus-entanglement tradeoff and other features of standard quantum mechanics that may prevent usable signaling even if non-local correlations are experimentally validated. Overall, the document is an exploratory analysis of whether quantum nonlocality could conceivably support a practical communications application rather than a demonstration of prospective utility.