Case File · CIA · Modern Wave (1970-1989) Declassified June 12, 2026 · PURSUE Release 03

Australian Dept of Defense Scientific and Intel Aspects of the UFO Problem, 1971 — CIA File

UFO Visual Sighting

Dated to 1971, an Australian review of the USAF Project Blue Book. This document was released by the National Archives of Australia.

1971
Australia
A "FILE CLOSED" cover page from the Department of Defence.
A "FILE CLOSED" cover page from the Department of Defence. · Source: declassified document

Incident Overview

In 1971, in Australia, CIA preserved a documentary record that was declassified and published on June 12, 2026 as part of the third tranche of the Department of War’s Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters (PURSUE).

What the government released

Dated to 1971, an Australian review of the USAF Project Blue Book. This document was released by the National Archives of Australia.

Status of the case

Records released under the PURSUE program are designated unresolved by the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, which means the federal government has not concluded the events were anomalous, has not concluded they were conventional, and has not ruled out either possibility. Where AARO has offered a likely source for an item — an infrared sensor aboard a military aircraft, a commercial camera, or a known optical effect — that attribution is the agency’s working assessment rather than a final determination. Conventional candidates such as drones, balloons, flares, satellites, parallax and forced-perspective artifacts, and ordinary aircraft remain on the table for any unresolved case absent better data than a single sensor pass or a witness recollection.

Sources