The FBI Infrared Photo Series

The FBI infrared series comprises 32 still images in the May 2026 PURSUE Release 01: an A-series of 8 infrared stills and a B-series of 24, all captured in late 2025, the B-series over the western United States. They are the newest imagery in the release and among the least contextualized records the government has ever published on the subject.

The images originate with the FBI, entered the AARO records system, and were published on war.gov/UFO with the release's standard caveat that descriptions imply no analytical judgment. The platforms and precise locations are withheld. Several PURSUE records note that original reporters sometimes annotated imagery before submission; the series' published forms are presented as received.

Per the release descriptions, the stills depict unidentified thermal signatures: areas of contrast whose nature the documentation does not resolve. The pairing of an FBI collection platform with UAP imagery over the continental U.S. is itself the information: domestic federal law enforcement collecting such imagery at scale in late 2025 was previously undocumented publicly.

Authentic government records; unresolved content by the release's own definition.

The series marks the record's geographic turn: PURSUE's modern operational files cluster overseas until the mid-2020s, when CONUS reporting (these stills, the Western US Event, the 2026 Army video) becomes prominent, matching AARO's testimony that domestic reporting rose sharply. It also confirms the FBI as an active UAP imagery source, relevant to every argument about which agencies hold what, and it overlaps the timeline of the late-2025 domestic drone concerns.

Skeptics note that uncalibrated infrared stills of thermal contrasts are the least probative imagery class there is: without range, size, or kinematic data, a bird, drone, aircraft, or artifact can produce identical frames, and the late-2025 timing invites a drone-flap reading. The withheld context cuts both ways, as ever. Analysts across camps agree on the actionable point: the underlying sensor data, not stills, would decide, and it has not been released.