Canonical: https://aliennews.co.il/en/articles/aaro-seeks-access-worlds-largest-private-ufo
Language: en
datePublished: 2026-09-03
dateModified: 2026-09-10

DOCUMENTS AND ARCHIVES

September 3, 2026

Updated: September 10, 2026

**Documented**

**Work type:**  Source analysis and news update

# The Pentagon seeks access to a private UFO archive in New Mexico

A federal contracting notice seeks digital access to a private UFO archive in New Mexico for AARO. The collection is described as holding hundreds of thousands of files, recordings and photographs gathered over more than 75 years. The notice states the access sought; it does not establish that the purchase was completed.

By Avi Moas and [Orion](https://aliennews.co.il/en/about#orion)

Orion is an AI writing and research partner. Avi Moas is the responsible editor.

## At a glance

**What is known:**

A federal procurement notice seeks digital access to a private New Mexico UFO archive for AARO.

**The claim or interpretation:**

The collection is described as holding hundreds of thousands of files, recordings and photographs gathered over more than 75 years.

**What remains open:**

No final price, contract award or account of what material will become public has been released.

![Rows of metal shelves filled with records boxes inside a United States National Archives facility](https://aliennews.co.il/nara-building.jpg)

Archival photograph. Official photograph of a National Archives storage facility · GSA · Context image, not a photograph of the NUFOHRC collection

## The government turns to an archive built outside government

DefenseScoop's September 2, 2026 report on a government procurement notice says AARO seeks a subscription to the National UFO Historical Records Center's digital archive. NUFOHRC is a private collection built from researchers', families' and civilian organizations' records. No contract award was confirmed at publication.

## What AARO is actually seeking

According to the notice and details provided to DefenseScoop by a Defense Department official, AARO is not hiring the centre to write its conclusions. It wants access to an existing subscription containing proprietary data, metadata and analytical products. The proposed arrangement consists of a one year base period followed by four optional one year periods. Its emphasis is material predating 1990, when reports were often stored on paper, microfilm, audio tape or photographic film and never entered into a single searchable government system.

## Hundreds of thousands of records found nowhere else

The official described NUFOHRC as the world's largest private collection of historical UAP records, including hundreds of thousands of unique case files unavailable in any other repository. The New Mexico centre collects books, journals, newspaper files, correspondence, photographs, audio, video and physical artefacts spanning more than 75 years. Much of it arrived from veteran researchers or their families after retirement or death. In some cases, a private cabinet or family storage room may hold the last surviving copy of an interview, photograph or investigative file that disappeared from an institutional collection.

## David Marler and the collections he preserved

The centre is founded and led by historian David Marler, who has investigated the subject for more than three decades. Its holdings include material from the Center for UFO Studies, the personal files of astronomer J. Allen Hynek, who served as scientific consultant to the Air Force's Project Blue Book, and records associated with long running civilian organisations including NICAP and APRO. Their value does not depend on every report being accurate. It comes from the ability to compare early accounts, dates, letters, photographs and witness identities before decades of retelling compressed them into familiar legends.

## Why the pre 1990 record matters

Congress directed AARO to produce a comprehensive historical account of United States government involvement with UAP dating to 1945. The early decades are the hardest to reconstruct. Records were scattered across military branches, intelligence bodies and civilian offices. Some were destroyed, transferred or stored without a modern index. A civilian archive can preserve copies of government correspondence, exchanges with military bases, interviews made close to an event and local reporting. Cross referencing those sources may reveal gaps in a timeline, recover forgotten records and connect an official memorandum to the witnesses and locations it describes.

## How this differs from the National Archives collection

NARA has separately established Record Group 615 for federal UAP records that agencies were ordered to identify and transfer. The two efforts are complementary but not interchangeable. NARA manages government records and public access to them. AARO's proposed subscription would give analysts access to private material and metadata that may never have entered federal custody. Buying access does not automatically place those records in the public domain, open the entire private collection or confer official status on every claim it contains.

## What the procurement does not prove

The notice describes access to historical material for research. It identifies no new finding from the collection and does not authenticate the witness reports within it. The eventual extent of access has not yet been published.

## The next question is who will see the results

The linked procurement notice can be checked for a later award. Which records will AARO receive, and which will also be available to readers outside government?

## Sources and context

The notice appeared on SAM.gov and was reported on September 2, 2026. A Defense Department official said the purchase concerns an existing data subscription, not advisory work. The proposal includes a one year base period and four one year options, with emphasis on records created before 1990.

No contract value, final award, complete list of accessible collections or publication terms has been released. It also remains unclear which discoveries could be made public and which would remain available only to AARO analysts.

[Federal procurement notice on SAM.gov](https://sam.gov/workspace/contract/opp/a1b98934796e4bb3bb7215780ce82131/view)[DefenseScoop's report and the Defense Department response](https://defensescoop.com/2026/09/02/pentagon-seeks-access-to-vast-private-ufo-records-collection/)[Official NUFOHRC website](https://nufohrc.org/)[NARA's official UAP records collection](https://www.archives.gov/research/topics/uaps)[NARA's consolidated UAP bulk downloads](https://www.archives.gov/research/catalog/catalog-bulk-downloads/uap-bulk-download)[Back to all reports](https://aliennews.co.il/en#latest)[עברית](https://aliennews.co.il/articles/aaro-seeks-access-worlds-largest-private-ufo)

## Source references

* [https://sam.gov/workspace/contract/opp/a1b98934796e4bb3bb7215780ce82131/view](https://sam.gov/workspace/contract/opp/a1b98934796e4bb3bb7215780ce82131/view)
* [https://defensescoop.com/2026/09/02/pentagon-seeks-access-to-vast-private-ufo-records-collection/](https://defensescoop.com/2026/09/02/pentagon-seeks-access-to-vast-private-ufo-records-collection/)
* [https://nufohrc.org/](https://nufohrc.org/)
* [https://www.archives.gov/research/topics/uaps](https://www.archives.gov/research/topics/uaps)
* [https://www.archives.gov/research/catalog/catalog-bulk-downloads/uap-bulk-download](https://www.archives.gov/research/catalog/catalog-bulk-downloads/uap-bulk-download)