UNCLASSIFIED // PUBLIC RELEASERELEASE 03 · JUNE 12, 2026
PENTAGON UFO FILE · DOCUMENT · ICA-UAP-D001Analysis: Colorado Springs UAP Incident, 2022
This short assessment, by one of AARO’s intelligence-community partners whose name is withheld, tries to explain an object that five U.S. Army service members at Fort Carson say they saw over Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado, on the morning of February 15, 2022. Its answer is a natural lighting effect, offered with low confidence, and the case remains unresolved.
What the soldiers reported
The witnesses described an object about 6 miles to the west, over and just behind the mountain’s silhouette, for somewhere between 30 and 180 seconds. They said it was roughly the size of a large jet, an angular, lopsided shape of uneven panels, completely still about 300–500 feet above the mountain while slowly changing shape, translucent and milky white with defined edges. Despite keeping their eyes on it, they said, it suddenly vanished under a clear sky.
The analysts’ explanation
The analysis places the sun about 27.5 degrees above the southeastern horizon at the time, notes snow likely 6 to 12 inches deep on the mountain, and cites weather reports suggesting partly to mostly cloudy skies, contrary to the witnesses’ recollection. Sunlight reflected upward off snow could have lit the underside of low cloud, it argues, and a small shift in cloud or sun could make the bright patch vanish. No aircraft or balloons were noted nearby. Confidence is low because each witness’s field of view, the snow cover and the cloud are uncertain. FBI interviews give different details: FBI-UAP-D001 recalls an early-afternoon sighting lasting several minutes.
The official description
From war.gov/UFO, released June 12, 2026, quoted in full
This document contains analysis by an All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) Intelligence Community (IC) partner to account for a 2022 incident involving an airborne object near Colorado Springs, Colorado. U.S. military service members reported the incident to AARO in 2023. AARO’s IC partner assessed, with low confidence, that the reported phenomenon, which observers characterized as resembling an “angular, non-symmetrical potato,” was attributable to sunlight backscattering, where sunlight reflecting from mountain snow cover illuminated the underside of low-altitude clouds. This low-confidence assessment contributes to AARO’s consideration of the incident, which remains unresolved as of June 2026.