Rendlesham Forest files—why is nothing new being released?

I've been looking at the Rendlesham Forest incident again (1980, for anyone unfamiliar), and I'm absolutely baffled why there's still so little official documentation available. The MoD has released some files, but the whole thing still stinks of cover-up.

The incident happened over three nights. Multiple credible witnesses. An American Air Force base was involved. And yet, decades later, we have less information than we do about UFO sightings from the 1950s. The MoD's excuse that "it's not in the public interest" is frankly insulting.

Has anyone compiled a proper timeline of what we actually know versus what's been redacted? I'm trying to work out if there's a pattern to what the government's willing to release and what they're actively hiding. And is there any possibility of Freedom of Information requests getting anything new, or are we permanently stuck with what we've got?

The MoD released stuff in 2009 and 2013, but if you read between the lines, it's clear they're still withholding something. The fact that American servicemen were involved means there's probably NATO-level classification on some of it. That's not getting declassified in our lifetime.

I did some FOIA requests about this a few years back. Complete nightmare. You get responses saying "information was destroyed in routine document disposal" which is obviously nonsense. All government departments claim this when they don't want to release something. It's the bureaucratic equivalent of "my dog ate my homework."

why is nothing new being released?

Because it would absolutely demolish the "nothing to see here" narrative if we actually found out what happened. The moment the government confirms something genuinely anomalous occurred, they're admitting they either can't protect our airspace or they're knowingly concealing something from the public. Either option is politically catastrophic.

The 2009 release was basically strategic - they let out just enough to seem transparent without actually revealing anything useful. Classic misdirection. And the press barely covered it because by that point everyone was distracted by other stuff. It was perfectly timed obfuscation.

I think at this point you need to assume that any documentation proving extraterrestrial contact is permanently classified at the highest levels. Rendlesham's one of the few cases where we have eyewitness testimony from people with absolutely nothing to gain by lying. That's exactly why the government won't release anything.