Congress held its first hearing in 50 years on unidentified flying objects following reports of unexplained aerial phenomena by the U.S. military.

Former Air Force intelligence officer David Grusch testified before a House Oversight subcommittee in July that the U.S. is concealing a longstanding program that retrieves and reverse-engineers unidentified flying objects. The Pentagon denied it was concealing any such program.

A Pentagon study conducted by the Defense Department's All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office analyzed U.S. government investigations of reported sightings of unidentified anomalous phenomena dating back to 1945. The study found no evidence that any of those claims were signs of alien life or that the U.S. government and private companies had reverse-engineered extraterrestrial technology and were hiding it.

The Pentagon had established the All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office, known as AARO, to track reports of unidentified objects in the sky, under water, and in space.

U.S. Representative Anna Paulina Luna requested in a letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that the government release about four dozen videos related to unidentified anomalous phenomena sightings to an oversight committee task force. "The presence of UAPs in and around the sensitive airspaces of U.S. military installations poses a threat to the security of the armed forces and their readiness," Luna wrote in the letter.

President Trump directed the Pentagon and other government agencies to identify and release files related to extraterrestrials and UFOs, citing tremendous interest in the subject.

NASA announced that it was launching a study of UFOs as part of a new push toward high-risk, high-impact science. The agency said it was setting up an independent team to assess how much information on UFOs is publicly available and how much more is needed.

NASA released its findings in 2023, stating that the study of UFOs will require new scientific techniques, including advanced satellites, and a shift in how unidentified flying objects are perceived.