UAP — Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena — is the U.S. government's preferred term for what the public has long called UFOs. Adopted in 2022 to replace the narrower "Unidentified Aerial Phenomena," the broader formulation lets the category include unexplained signatures across air, space, sea, and transmedium domains, not just aircraft-shaped objects in the sky.
The change is more than terminological. "UFO" carries cultural baggage — flying saucers, alien visitors, conspiracy theories. "UAP" reframes the category as an epistemic state: a UAP is something currently unidentified. A weather balloon mistaken for a craft is a UAP until it is identified, then it is a balloon. Most cases resolve. Some don't.
This framing is honest and unglamorous. It is also why the official documents in PURSUE Release 01 use "UAP" almost exclusively, even when the headline media coverage continues to use "UFO" because that is what audiences search for.