Unresolved UAP Report, Middle East, 2023 — Department of War Video (DOW-UAP-PR136)
The United States Central Command submitted a report of an unidentified anomalous phenomenon to the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) consisting of 30 seconds of video footage from an infrared sensor aboard a U.S. military platform in 2023. Video description: 00:00-00:08: The sensor…
Incident Overview
In 2023, in the Middle East, the Department of War preserved a sensor video that was declassified and published on August 7, 2026 as part of the fifth tranche of the Department of War’s Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters (PURSUE).
What the government released
The United States Central Command submitted a report of an unidentified anomalous phenomenon to the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) consisting of 30 seconds of video footage from an infrared sensor aboard a U.S. military platform in 2023.
Video description:
00:00-00:08: The sensor pans to track an area of contrast, keeping it generally centered within the frame. The sensor is partially occluded by a component of the platform passing in front of it, obscuring the background.
00:09-00:33: The sensor zooms in on the area of contrast. A reticle briefly surrounds the area of contrast. The sensor is occluded by a component of the platform, obscuring the display.
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.
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.