Bulk downloader for all declassified UAP (Unidentified Aerial Phenomena) records published at war.gov/UFO. Downloads all 161 records — PDFs, images, and DVIDS videos — with their original filenames as listed in the official catalog.

1. Fetches the official CSV catalog from war.gov on every run (always up to date)
2. Builds a manifest of all records before downloading — shows every file, its URL, and whether it already exists on disk
3. Downloads PDFs and images using a real browser session to bypass CDN bot protection
4. Downloads videos by navigating the war.gov UI and capturing each video through the official download button
5. Skips files already on disk — safe to re-run to pick up new releases

Files are saved with their original asset filenames from the catalog (e.g. 65_HS1-834228961_62-HQ-83894_Section_10.pdf, DOW-UAP-PR19, Unresolved UAP Report, Middle East, May 2022.mp4).

Install dependencies (one time):

cd /home/user/Projects/ufo
python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip install playwright
playwright install chromium

Activate the environment:

source .venv/bin/activate

Run the downloader:

python3 download_ufo.py

The browser window will open visibly — this is required to pass Akamai bot protection on the CDN.

Just re-run the script. It always fetches a fresh catalog from war.gov and only downloads files not already on disk:

source .venv/bin/activate
python3 download_ufo.py

New records will appear as [NEW] in the manifest output; already-downloaded files show as [EXISTS] and are skipped.