WASHINGTON — The Pentagon on Friday released its fifth batch of UFO files this year — 41 documents, images, and videos — in what officials describe as an ongoing commitment to transparency that has now produced more than 375 files and exactly zero answers.

The latest release covers reported sightings over the Pacific Ocean and the Middle East, and includes FBI-created renderings based on firsthand witness accounts. Among the highlights is a military pilot’s recollection of a huge, strange triangle over Afghanistan in 2002 that, in the pilot’s own words, “blocked out the stars.” The renderings, experts agree, are extremely artistic, and the pilot, experts also agree, is extremely credible, and the object, everyone agrees, remains extremely unidentified.

"People think transparency means answers," said retired UAP task force analyst Col. Dwayne Ferris. "It does not. Transparency means documents. We have documents. We are the most transparent government on Earth, and, based on the files, quite possibly off it as well."

Some skeptics have asked why, after five releases and hundreds of files, the objects in question remain “unidentified.” The answer is obvious: if the objects were identified, they would not be files. They would be facts. And facts, as everyone who has ever requested one knows, are classified. What the public receives instead is the next best thing: an ever-growing archive of things that are definitely real, definitely not ours, and definitely being looked into, with the looking-into scheduled to continue indefinitely.

The Pentagon has emphasized that the release is part of an ongoing effort to be “as transparent as possible” with the American people — an effort that has produced 162 files in May, 64 in late May, 72 in June, 40 in July, and now 41 in August, a cadence that officials describe as “a steady drumbeat of disclosure,” and that skeptics describe as “a steady drumbeat of files.” Both are correct. That is the beauty of the program.

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  • Tranche 1 (May 8): 162 files. The big one. The one that was supposed to answer everything and answered nothing, beautifully.
  • Tranche 2 (May 22): 64 files. Redundancy, but make it government.
  • Tranche 3 (June 12): 72 files. The June surprise that was not a surprise.
  • Tranche 4 (July 10): 40 files. A quiet month. The sky was probably quiet too.
  • Tranche 5 (Aug 7): 41 files, including a triangle that blocked out the stars, which is a bold choice for a shape.
  • Files containing answers: To be released at a later date, in a batch of 41.

The timing of the releases has also drawn attention, with some noting that each tranche lands on a Friday, when the news cycle is slowest — a scheduling choice that officials describe as “strategic transparency,” ensuring the files receive the full attention of a public that has nothing better to do on a Friday than read about triangles.

At press time, the Pentagon had reportedly scheduled a sixth release, which will contain 41 more files, and a seventh, which will contain 41 more, and a press conference, which will contain no questions, because the questions, like the objects, remain unidentified.