Ministry of Defence Archives
The Ministry of Defence hold a number of UFO-related files dating from 1992 to the present day. Since 2005, under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) they have continued to release information to requestors and added material to their FOI publication scheme. In 2008 MoD announced their intention to transfer all their remaining records on UFOs to The National Archives. This transfer began with 27 UFO files dating from 1979 to 1991 opened to the public via The National Archives UFO website during 2008. Further files have been added in 2009 and 2010.
One of the first UFO files to be released by the Ministry of Defence under the Code of Practice for Access to Government Information, the predecessor of the FOIA, in 2001 was that containing papers on the famous Rendlesham Forest incident, often called ‘Britain’s Roswell’. The sightings took place over two nights late in December 1980 at RAF Woodbridge, Suffolk, an airbase loaned to the USAF. Mysterious lights were seen to land in the forest beyond the perimeter of the base and a group of airmen went to investigate. They reported seeing lights they were unable to identify moving through the trees. The next day marks were allegedly found on the ground and on trees in the forest where the men claimed the UFO had landed. Two nights later UFOs were again sighted from the base and the deputy base commander, Lt Col Charles Halt, took a team of handpicked men into the woods to investigate. During the expedition Halt saw several unidentified lights and made a live tape recording of the incident.
Early in January 1981 Halt produced an official report on the incidents, titled ‘Unexplained Lights’ that was sent to Defence Secretariat 8 (DS8) at Whitehall. Halt’s original typewritten report and the follow-up inquiries made by MoD can be seen at reference DEFE 24/1512.
A file dedicated to the Rendlesham incident was opened by the MoD several years after these events. This file was opened at The National Archives in August 2009 (DEFE 24/1948/1) and contains Halt’s memo and briefings prepared for a Parliamentary question tabled by Major Patrick Wall MP in 1983 when the News of the World published the story. The remainder of the file covers internal discussion of the case and correspondence from the public between 1983 and 1995.
Another file transferred to The National Archives in August 2010 contains details of the 2002 judgement by the Parliamentary Ombudsman that led to the release of further MoD papers on the incident which were not part of the original 2001 release (DEFE 24/2042). Another file opened to the public in August 2010 (DEFE 24/1995) contains the transcripts of interviews with two of the key US Air Force witnesses, Jim Penniston and Charles Halt, while DEFE 24/1983 contains the MoD’s position statement on the incident.
Further information on UFOs released by the MoD can be accessed online via their FOI Publication Scheme at:
http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/FreedomOfInformation/PublicationScheme
This includes a recent policy statement on UFOs, a copy of the Flying Saucer Working Party report of 1951 and responses to a number of FOI requests received by the MoD from members of the public since 2005.
A comprehensive tabulated list of UFO sightings reported to MoD’s Directorate of Air Staff (DAS), between 1997 and 2007, is available via the Publication Scheme here:
The MoD website also contains a PDF copy of the Defence Intelligence Staff (DIS) study ‘UAPs in the UK Air Defence Region’, completed in 2000 and released as a result of an FOI request in May 2006:
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