NRO: FOIA Documents on UAPTF Involvement Released
The Black Vault published classified National Reconnaissance Office records obtained through Freedom of Information Act litigation. These files revealed top-secret communications detailing the agency's contributions to the congressional UAP report. The disclosure confirmed extensive intelligence community coordination involving satellite reconnaissance and signals intelligence.
Background
On April 8, 2022, investigative platform The Black Vault released a tranche of National Reconnaissance Office documents originally classified at the TOP SECRET level. These records were obtained through a FOIA request (Case F-2021-00164) submitted on July 22, 2021, targeting communications of Director Christopher Scolese. The release included a pivotal June 9, 2021 email from NRO Point of Contact Thomas Bowman that detailed the agency's input to the UAP Task Force's classified congressional report. The documents revealed that the NRO provided four paragraphs of intelligence for the seventeen-page assessment, and confirmed participation by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and National Security Agency through GEOINT and SIGINT contributions. Additionally, the files disclosed an ongoing Department of Defense Inspector General evaluation examining how the NRO handled UAP incidents, including interviews with the Mission Integration Directorate conducted in May 2021.