CIA: Sary Shagan UFO documents declassified via MDR request
The CIA released previously redacted sections of a 1978 Intelligence Information Report detailing the 1973 Sary Shagan incident. The disclosure resulted from a Mandatory Declassification Review request by The Black Vault, revealing facility diagrams and weapons details alongside the UFO report.
Background
In December 2019, the Central Intelligence Agency declassified additional portions of a 1978 Intelligence Information Report that had remained heavily redacted since its initial release. The newly available material, obtained through a Mandatory Declassification Review request submitted by The Black Vault, provided extensive details about a 1973 UFO encounter at the Soviet Sary Shagan Weapons Testing Range. The unredacted pages included technical information about experimental weapons systems, precise storage locations for military assets, architectural diagrams of buildings, and housing units at the facility. This release reinforced the documented history of unidentified aerial phenomena monitoring sensitive military installations during the Cold War era.