Unresolved UAP Report, Atlantic Ocean, 2020 — Department of War Video
The United States Northern Command submitted a report of an unidentified anomalous phenomenon to the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) consisting of 32 seconds of video footage from an infrared sensor aboard a U.S. military platform in 2020. An accompanying Range Fouler Debrief,…
Incident Overview
In 2020, in the Atlantic Ocean, the Department of War preserved a sensor video that was declassified and published on July 10, 2026 as part of the fourth tranche of the Department of War’s Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters (PURSUE).
What the government released
The United States Northern Command submitted a report of an unidentified anomalous phenomenon to the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) consisting of 32 seconds of video footage from an infrared sensor aboard a U.S. military platform in 2020. An accompanying Range Fouler Debrief, DOW-UAP-D091, describes the phenomenon as “darker, maroonish color, approximately 12-15 feet in height.” The report describes the phenomenon “travel[ing] with the wind” and noted that it did not “maneuver or change direction.” It also describes the phenomenon as appearing similar to a “large, somewhat deformed balloon.”
Video Description: 00:01-00:32: The sensor zooms and pans to keep an area of contrast generally within the center of the frame.
This video description is provided for informational purposes only. Readers should not interpret any part of this description as reflecting an analytical judgment, investigative conclusion, or factual determination regarding the described event’s validity, nature, or significance.
Related records
This footage does not stand alone. The Department of War released it with a written Navy debrief, Range Fouler Debrief, Atlantic Ocean, in which the operator describes what they saw — the rare case in this archive where a narrative account and the corresponding sensor record are both on the table.
Status of the case
Records released under the PURSUE program are designated unresolved by the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, which means the federal government has not concluded the events were anomalous, has not concluded they were conventional, and has not ruled out either possibility. Where AARO has offered a likely source for an item — an infrared sensor aboard a military aircraft, a commercial camera, or a known optical effect — that attribution is the agency’s working assessment rather than a final determination. Conventional candidates such as drones, balloons, flares, satellites, parallax and forced-perspective artifacts, and ordinary aircraft remain on the table for any unresolved case absent better data than a single sensor pass or a witness recollection.