Record Group 615: The National Archives' New UAP Records Collection

In a development that UAP researchers have compared to the creation of the JFK Assassination Records Collection, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) established Record Group 615 in 2024, creating for the first time a dedicated, permanent archival home for records related to unidentified anomalous phenomena held by the United States government. The creation of this record group was mandated by the Fiscal Year 2024 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which included sweeping provisions for UAP transparency modeled explicitly on the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992. The establishment of Record Group 615 represents the most significant institutional step toward UAP disclosure in American history, transforming the question of what the government knows about unidentified aerial phenomena from a matter of speculation and leaked documents into a matter of public record subject to legal oversight.

What Is a Record Group?

To appreciate the significance of Record Group 615, it helps to understand what a record group is in the context of the National Archives. NARA organizes the permanent records of the federal government into numbered record groups, each typically corresponding to a specific agency, bureau, or program. Record Group 107, for example, contains the records of the Office of the Secretary of War. Record Group 263 holds CIA records. Record Group 341 contains records of the Air Force Staff. The creation of a new record group is not a routine administrative action—it signals that the government has identified a body of records significant enough to warrant its own archival identity.

Record Group 615 was designated specifically for “Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Records,” making it one of the few record groups defined by subject matter rather than by the originating agency. This is a crucial distinction, because UAP-related records are scattered across numerous agencies—the Department of Defense, the intelligence community, NASA, the Department of Energy, the Federal Aviation Administration, and potentially others. A subject-matter record group provides an archival framework for consolidating these dispersed records into a single, searchable collection.

The Legislative Framework

The UAP disclosure provisions of the FY2024 NDAA were championed primarily by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senator Mike Rounds, with bipartisan support from members of both chambers. The legislation was explicitly modeled on the JFK Records Act, which created an independent review board with the authority to compel the release of assassination-related records and which established a presumption of disclosure—meaning that records must be released unless specific, articulable harm to national security can be demonstrated.

The UAP provisions of the NDAA included several key elements. Government agencies were directed to identify and transmit all UAP-related records to the National Archives. A review process was established to determine which records could be released to the public and which required continued classification, with the burden of proof placed on the agencies seeking to withhold records rather than on the public seeking access. Timelines were established for the review and release of records, though the specifics of implementation have been subject to ongoing negotiation between Congress, the executive branch, and the agencies involved.

The legislation also addressed the question of records held by private contractors. Recognizing that significant UAP-related work may have been conducted by defense contractors operating under classified government contracts, the law included provisions requiring the identification and, where possible, the transmission of contractor-held records to the National Archives.

What Record Group 615 Contains

As of early 2026, the precise contents of Record Group 615 are still being assembled as agencies comply with the NDAA’s directives. However, the categories of records expected to be included encompass a broad range of materials:

Military encounter reports: Official reports filed by military pilots, sensor operators, and other personnel describing encounters with unidentified objects. These include reports from all service branches—Navy, Air Force, Army, Marine Corps, and Space Force—spanning decades of operations.

Intelligence assessments: Analyses produced by the intelligence community regarding the nature, origin, and potential threat posed by UAP. These may include assessments from the CIA, the Defense Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency, and other agencies.

AARO case files: The All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, established in 2022, has investigated over 2,000 UAP cases reported since its inception. These case files, along with AARO’s analytical products, are expected to be among the core contents of Record Group 615.

Historical program records: Documents related to past government UAP investigation programs, including Project Blue Book, the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP), and any other programs that may be identified through the disclosure process.

Scientific and technical analyses: Laboratory reports, materials analyses, sensor data, and other technical documents related to the study of UAP encounters or recovered materials.

Policy and oversight documents: Internal government communications, policy memoranda, and oversight documents related to the management of UAP information and programs.

Comparison to the JFK Records Act

The parallels between Record Group 615 and the JFK Assassination Records Collection (Record Group 541) are deliberate and instructive. The JFK Records Act, passed in 1992 in the wake of Oliver Stone’s film “JFK” and renewed public interest in the assassination, established the Assassination Records Review Board (ARRB), an independent body with the authority to compel agencies to release records. The ARRB operated for six years and succeeded in making millions of pages of previously classified documents publicly available, fundamentally changing the evidentiary landscape for assassination researchers.

The UAP disclosure provisions follow the same structural logic: create an institutional framework for disclosure, establish a presumption of openness, place the burden of proof on agencies seeking to withhold records, and provide for independent review. The hope among advocates is that the UAP disclosure process will be as transformative for the study of unidentified aerial phenomena as the JFK Records Act was for assassination research.

There are also important differences. The JFK Records Act dealt with a specific historical event—the assassination of a president—and the universe of relevant records, while vast, was at least definable. UAP records span multiple decades, involve ongoing programs and operations, and touch on technologies and capabilities that may have current national security implications. The tension between transparency and security is potentially more acute in the UAP context, and the agencies involved may be more resistant to disclosure of records that relate to active programs rather than historical events.

How to Access the Records

Records in Record Group 615 that have been cleared for public release are accessible through NARA’s standard research channels. The National Archives facility in College Park, Maryland, serves as the primary repository for modern federal records, and researchers can access declassified materials in person or, increasingly, through NARA’s online catalog and digital archives.

NARA has established a dedicated page for UAP-related records on its website, providing guidance for researchers seeking to access the collection. As records are processed, reviewed, and cleared for release, they are added to the publicly accessible portion of the collection. The pace of this process has been a source of frustration for some researchers and members of Congress, who have argued that agencies are not complying with disclosure timelines as quickly as the law requires.

Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests remain another avenue for accessing UAP-related records, though FOIA has historically been a slow and often frustrating process for records involving classified programs. The existence of Record Group 615 may streamline some FOIA requests by providing a centralized collection rather than requiring requesters to identify and petition individual agencies.

Significance for UAP Research

The creation of Record Group 615 represents a fundamental shift in the relationship between the government and the public regarding UAP information. For decades, the official position of the United States government was that UFOs had been investigated, found to be uninteresting, and that the files were closed. Project Blue Book’s termination in 1969 was presented as the final word on the subject. The creation of a permanent archival collection dedicated to UAP records is an implicit acknowledgment that the story is far from over and that the government possesses a significant body of information that the public has a right to examine.

The record group also provides a legal and institutional framework that makes it much more difficult for agencies to deny the existence of UAP-related records or to withhold them without justification. Before Record Group 615, a researcher seeking government UFO records had to know which agency to ask, what program to reference, and how to navigate the bureaucratic obstacles that agencies could deploy to delay or deny access. Now, there is a single, designated collection with a legal mandate for disclosure. Agencies must affirmatively identify and transmit their records, and withholding requires specific justification subject to review.

For historians, the long-term significance of Record Group 615 may extend well beyond the UAP question itself. The collection will provide a uniquely detailed record of how the United States government has managed a sensitive and controversial topic across multiple administrations, agencies, and decades. It will document the interplay between classification, oversight, public pressure, and institutional culture that has shaped the government’s approach to a phenomenon that millions of citizens have reported and that the government itself has acknowledged it cannot explain.

The Road Ahead

The establishment of Record Group 615 is a beginning, not an end. The process of identifying, collecting, reviewing, and releasing records will take years, and the outcome will depend on the willingness of agencies to comply in good faith with the law’s requirements. Congressional oversight, public pressure, and the work of researchers and journalists will all play roles in determining how complete and how timely the disclosure process ultimately proves to be.

What is already clear is that the creation of a permanent, dedicated archival home for UAP records at the National Archives marks a threshold that cannot easily be uncrossed. The records exist. The legal framework for their release exists. And the public expectation that the government will be transparent about what it knows—or does not know—about unidentified aerial phenomena has never been stronger. Record Group 615 is the institutional expression of that expectation, and its contents may ultimately reshape our understanding of one of the most persistent and consequential mysteries of the modern era.

Sources

• Wikipedia search: “Record Group 615: The National Archives”
• CIA UFO/UAP Reading Room — Declassified CIA documents on UAP
• AARO (All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office) — Current US DoD UAP office