Intelligence Information Report, USSR, 1973
- Date
- Aug 1973
- Place
- Sary Shagan test range, Kazakh SSR, USSR, Kazakhstan
- Record
- Pentagon file
- Assessment
- Not assessed
- Evidence strength
What was reported
A CIA intelligence information report primarily on the Sary Shagan weapons-testing range (facilities, System-75/SA-2 and System-300/Aldan/ABM-1 GALOSH warheads, rumored laser weapons research), whose source separately recounts, in one evening in late summer 1973 at Site 7, observing a sharp bright-green circular object or mass in the sky to the west at roughly 70 degrees elevation; within 10-15 seconds it widened and several green concentric circles formed around it before the coloring disappeared within minutes, with no accompanying sound. The source offered no opinion on its nature and no further details were available.
What officials concluded
No conclusion stated
The file gives no official explanation.
- Agency
- CIA
- Released in
- 123456
Evidence profile
- Yes: Visual
- No: Infrared
- No: Radar
- No: Video
- No: Photo
- No: Film
- No: Audio
- No: Night vision
- No: Other sensor
- No: Civilian
- No: Military aircrew
- No: Military ground
- No: Airline crew
- No: Sensor operator
- No: Law enforcement
- No: Scientist
- No: Astronaut
- No: Intelligence official
- Yes: Other
- No: Light only
- Yes: Orb or sphere
- No: Disc
- No: Triangle
- No: Cylinder
- No: Cube
- No: Other shape
- No: Physiological
- No: Physical trace
- No: Electromagnetic
- No: Sound
- No: Silent
Why this rating A single, uncorroborated visual account (no instrumentation) of a phenomenon whose described behavior -- an expanding luminous circle forming concentric rings -- is consistent with known atmospheric-optical or aurora-like effects; the source himself offered no interpretation and no rumor followed the sighting.
As described in the file
- Witnesses
- 1 (unnamed former Soviet citizen, source of the HUMINT report)
- Sensors
- Visual
- Shape
- Circular
- Size
- Indeterminable ('Source could not estimate the diameter')
- Lights and colour
- Sharp/bright green, forming concentric green rings
- Motion
- Widened over 10-15 seconds, then formed concentric rings, faded within minutes
- Duration
- A few minutes total
- Altitude or range
- Indeterminable, believed higher than cloud level
- Effects
- None; no sound accompanied the phenomenon
Pentagon files
CIA-UAP-D001, Intelligence Information Report, USSR, 1973
Open the original on war.gov
What the file claims
- Unverified
The source observed a bright green circular phenomenon that widened and formed concentric green rings over several minutes with no accompanying sound, and offered no opinion on its cause.
On the map
46.04° N, 73.68° E, plotted at the site
Show on the map