Defence Force has no record of UFO correspondence since 2010

The Defence Force has found no record of any correspondence in the last 16 years about unidentified flying objects.

It says it searched all correspondence from January 2010 to June 2026 in response to an Official Information Act request.

This was "undertaken using the terms 'UFO', 'UAP', 'Unidentified Flying Object, 'Unidentified Aerial Phenomena' to identify if any had been sent to relevant authorities", it said.

"This produced nil results."

The OIA request covered any military sightings, radar observations, photos or videos and communications with Five Eyes intelligence group partners.

NZDF released 15 volumes of all its accumulated UFO correspondence between 1952 and 2009 to public libraries in 2010. Copies went to the Dunedin, Hamilton and Marlborough libraries, Alexander Turnbull Library and RNZ's library service Infofind.

In the US the Department of Defence has released seven batches of UFO files on the orders of President Donald Trump since February. It has its own website at

Trump has texted his directive was based on "tremendous interest" in "these highly complex, but extremely interesting and important, matters. GOD BLESS AMERICA!"