WASHINGTON, D.C. — Representative Eric Burlison, R-Mo., sent a 10-page letter dated May 22 requesting The MITRE Corporation to produce records and assets related to unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) dating back to 1930. MITRE confirmed that insiders are reviewing its archives to comply with the production request.
Burlison’s letter asks whether MITRE, any MITRE-operated federally funded research and development center (FFRDC), or any MITRE subcontractor has created, received, maintained, analyzed, transferred, destroyed, withheld, or otherwise controlled records related to UAP, unidentified aerospace or undersea phenomena, transmedium events, technologies of unknown origin, anomalous recovered materials, foreign material acquisition or exploitation activities, or legacy crash-retrieval or reverse-engineering efforts. The letter includes more than 40 specific requests concerning MITRE’s records collections, contracts, classified access, analysis activities, AI models, secure facilities, and other elements tied to UAP projects. "The purpose of this request is straightforward: to determine whether MITRE, any MITRE-operated federally funded research and development center (FFRDC), or any MITRE subcontractor has created, received, maintained, analyzed, transferred, destroyed, withheld, or otherwise controlled records, data, materials, contract deliverables, or program information relating to [UAP], unidentified aerospace or undersea phenomena, transmedium events, technologies of unknown origin, anomalous recovered materials, foreign material acquisition or exploitation activities, or any program known, alleged, or described as a legacy crash-retrieval or reverse-engineering effort," Burlison wrote in the letter to executives.
Burlison instructed MITRE to designate a senior official to coordinate responses, issue a preservation hold, provide a records-location index, produce unclassified responsive records in native electronic format with complete metadata within 45 days, identify classified or sponsor-controlled materials, and coordinate a classified briefing for cleared committee staff. "This inquiry does not require MITRE to accept any particular conclusion about the origin or nature of UAP. It requires MITRE to tell Congress what it knows, what it holds, what it has held, what it has transferred, what it has destroyed or was directed to destroy, and which federal sponsors or classification authorities control any responsive records," Burlison wrote. "If no responsive records exist, provide a certification describing the search methodology, repositories searched, custodians contacted, search terms used, date ranges, and the responsible MITRE official who supervised the search," Burlison wrote.
"If any relevant material is found, we will coordinate with the federal agencies responsible for the work to determine how to best provide any assets," a MITRE spokesperson told DefenseScoop. Burlison also requested that MITRE identify all work involving the detection, tracking, or analysis of UAP-related signatures across air, space, maritime, undersea, cyber, and other intelligence domains, as well as any UAP-related work involving major defense and aerospace contractors.