DOW-UAP-D108

Unresolved

Six spheres over the Middle East (2025)

At night, a special operations sensor operator films in infrared “six small spherical objects grouped together” that seem agile, at an estimated 480 mph. The video confirms six warm dots flying together; their changes of direction are the whole group's and, without sensor data, cannot be separated from the camera's motion.

Date: Jul 29, 2025
Location: Middle East, in Operation Inherent Resolve (Iraq and Syria); the exact location is redactedThe report redacts bases and coordinates: only the catalogue's region and the operation are known.See the area on the globe →
Platform: Aircraft of the Air Force's 65th Special Operations Squadron (type redacted), which operates the MQ-9 Reaper drone; a surveillance mission of about 20 hours, at 120 knots indicated, heading northwest [1 · p. 1, 2, 4, 6][3]
Sensor: Full-motion infrared video · released at 1920 × 1080, with the on-screen data covered; the range to the objects was not measured [1 · p. 1, 6][2]
Official status: Unresolved · PURSUE publishes it among unresolved cases and there is no AARO analysis. The report marks “Advanced Capabilities: NO” and leaves “Under Intelligent Control” as unknown [4][1 · p. 7]

01 Sensor readout

Official video · verified linkWatch the DOW-UAP-D108 video DVIDS · PURSUE · 60 s · 1920×1080 · 26.3 MBReleased Sep 18, 2026 · checked Oct 7, 2026 · SHA-256 6dcac637286b…Opens on the official site. The frames below are taken from this very file; the built-in player arrives in V2.

Greyscale infrared: a dark lattice tower on an islet, with a bright white spot to its left and, top right, a group of bright dots with trails. — The sensor is pointed at the surface, at an islet with a tower, when the group crosses the frame from top to bottom. The dots are seen in front of the scene's background and there is no horizon: they were between the aircraft and the surface, lower than it.
Frame · Video 6.8 s · U.S. Central Command (USCENTCOM) / DVIDS · PURSUE · Public domain
Image record
Author
U.S. Central Command (USCENTCOM)
Origin
DVIDS · PURSUE
Original file
1023397 ↗
License
U.S. Government work: no U.S. copyright (17 U.S.C. § 105)
Retrieved
2026-10-07
Video SHA-256
6dcac637286b0a39d932b37d3c7dfe1667aa1d11267b35b2fa92f9b56a9daf81
The appearance of U.S. Department of War (DoW) visual information does not imply or constitute DoW endorsement.

Uniform grey background with five white dots in a row in the center and the sensor crosshair bottom right. — Nine seconds later, five dots in a row (the sixth overlaps). The group sits far from the crosshair: the sensor chases it across the screen, and all the dots change direction together, as happens when the camera moves.
Frame · Video 15.9 s · U.S. Central Command (USCENTCOM) / DVIDS · PURSUE · Public domain
Image record
Author
U.S. Central Command (USCENTCOM)
Origin
DVIDS · PURSUE
Original file
1023397 ↗
License
U.S. Government work: no U.S. copyright (17 U.S.C. § 105)
Retrieved
2026-10-07
Video SHA-256
6dcac637286b0a39d932b37d3c7dfe1667aa1d11267b35b2fa92f9b56a9daf81
The appearance of U.S. Department of War (DoW) visual information does not imply or constitute DoW endorsement.

Grey background, darker on the left, with six white dots in an oval at bottom left and black blocks along the edges. — All six at once, in an oval. Over the video they shift gradually from a row to two groups of three to this shape: they move relative to one another, but without abrupt jumps.
Frame · Video 45.9 s · U.S. Central Command (USCENTCOM) / DVIDS · PURSUE · Public domain
Image record
Author
U.S. Central Command (USCENTCOM)
Origin
DVIDS · PURSUE
Original file
1023397 ↗
License
U.S. Government work: no U.S. copyright (17 U.S.C. § 105)
Retrieved
2026-10-07
Video SHA-256
6dcac637286b0a39d932b37d3c7dfe1667aa1d11267b35b2fa92f9b56a9daf81
The appearance of U.S. Department of War (DoW) visual information does not imply or constitute DoW endorsement.

02 Timeline

Jul 29, 2025
At 17:34 UTC an aircraft of the 65th Special Operations Squadron takes off on a surveillance mission in Operation Inherent Resolve. [1 · p. 1, 4]
Jul 29, 2025
20:22 UTC (23:22 in Iraq and Syria). On the way to its target, while scanning the ground, the sensor operator sees “6X small spherical objects grouped together”. Estimates 480 mph, 22,000 feet and a southeast heading; the aircraft is heading northwest. Clear skies. [1 · p. 1, 5–7]
Jul 30, 2025
The aircraft lands at 14:11 UTC, after about 20 hours on mission; the report is filed afterwards (“REPORTED AFTERWARDS”). [1 · p. 4, 7]
Jul 10, 2026
Central Command's Chief of Staff declassifies the report. [1 · p. 1]
Sep 18, 2026
PURSUE releases, in its sixth tranche, the report and the video. [4][2]

03 Hypotheses

Status as stated by the official sources cited. The archive takes no side.

Not assessed
Sensor artifact or reflection
No source assesses it. In the video, the dots move relative to the sensor's fixed noise and to one another, and cross in front of the scene: they are real objects in the field of view. [2]
Not assessed
The “agility” is the camera's motion
No source assesses it. The report's “simultaneous” changes of direction are the whole group's on screen, which is what is seen when the operator moves the sensor. Without angles, zoom or range it cannot be separated from the objects' own motion. [1 · p. 6–7][2]
Not assessed
Flock of birds
No source assesses it. Six warm bodies flying together and gradually changing formation fit. Against it, only the report's estimates (22,000 feet and 480 mph), made without measuring the range. [1 · p. 6–7][2]
Not assessed
Small drones or another common object
No source assesses it and the video lacks the resolution to tell shapes apart: each object is a dot a few pixels across. [2]

04 Testimony

“6X small spherical objects grouped together … able to change directions quickly and simultaneously.”

Sensor operator (staff sergeant) · Mission report (MISREP prod-dod-11604218), UAP section [1 · p. 7]

05 Editor's reading

The editor's opinion, not an official finding. It rests on the records cited and changes if they do.

Conventional explanation likely
Open
Anomalous

What the video allows to be measured is not extraordinary: six warm dots flying as a group and changing formation gradually, without jumps. [2]
The agility does not hold up with what was released: the changes of direction are the whole group's, as when the camera moves, and the speed and altitude are estimates with no range measured (“Observation Interrogation: NO”). [1 · p. 6–7][2]
At the start the dots pass in front of the scene the sensor was watching: they were below the aircraft, not necessarily at 22,000 feet. [2]
The report itself answers “NO” to advanced capabilities, to effects on people or equipment and to any reaction to the aircraft. It remains unidentified, but nothing released calls for an unusual explanation. [1 · p. 6–7][4]

— Isaac Chaves, editor · Reading of Oct 7, 2026

06 Discrepancies between sources

The date: DVIDS gives January 1, 2025, as the video's date taken (a placeholder for the year); the report places the event on July 29. [2][1 · p. 6]
The quote: the catalogue writes “seem[ingle] agile” and “seem[ingly] agile”; the report says “SEEMED TO BE AGILE”. [1 · p. 6][2]
The video: the official description says the sensor keeps the objects “generally within the center of the frame”; for much of the minute the group is far from the crosshair. [2]
Within the report: it describes “6X” objects but leaves the number of UAP sighted blank; and one narrative line (15:54 UTC) predates takeoff (17:34 UTC). [1 · p. 1, 4, 6–7]

07 The case in PURSUE

How PURSUE publishes this case: its official description and every record, with links to the files. Reproduced as is, catalogue errors included.

Official description

This document is a Mission Report (MISREP), a standardized reporting form the U.S. military uses to record the circumstances surrounding its operations. U.S. military services often use MISREPs to report unidentiﬁed anomalous phenomena (UAP) to the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO). The GENTEXT, or “general text” section of these reports often contains important qualitative, contextual information, distinguishing it from the more quantitative, or numerical, data found elsewhere in the report. This mission report accompanies video footage derived from an infrared system aboard a U.S. military platform in 2025 (DOW-UAP-PR135).

A U.S. military operator reported observing UAP, describing it as consisting of “six small spherical objects grouped together, and characterized their behavior as “seem[ingle] agile,” and “frequently changing direction.” The reporter estimated the speed of the UAP to have been 480 miles per hour.

All descriptive and estimative language contained in this report reﬂects the reporter’s subjective interpretation at the time of the event. Such characterizations should not be interpreted as a conclusive indication of the presence or absence of any intrinsic object features or performance characteristics.

Catalogue records · 2

DOW-UAP-D108 · Document · Department of War · Sep 18, 2026 · Main record
Mission Report, Middle East, 2025
2025 · Middle East
File on war.gov ↗
DOW-UAP-PR135 · Video · Department of War · Sep 18, 2026
Unresolved UAP Report, Middle East, 2025
2025 · Middle East
View on DVIDS ↗
Official description
The United States Central Command submitted a report of an unidentified anomalous phenomenon to the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) consisting of 1 minute of video footage from an infrared sensor aboard a U.S. military platform in 2025. An accompanying mission report, DOW-UAP-D108, described the UAP as “six small spherical objects grouped together, and characterized their behavior as “seem[ingly] agile,” and “frequently changing direction.” The reporter estimated the speed of the UAP to have been 480 miles per hour.
Video Description:
00:00-00:04: No content.
00:05-00:10: Several areas of contrast transit the sensor field-of-view, entering from the top of the frame and exiting from the bottom.
00:11-00:47: The sensor pans to track the areas of contrast, keeping them generally within the center of the frame.
00:48-1:00: The sensor changes its level of magnification. No content.
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.

08 Sources

[1]
Record · U.S. Department of War · PURSUE (AFSOC / USCENTCOM) · Sep 18, 2026
DOW-UAP-D108 · Mission Report, Middle East, 2025
Mission report (MISREP, 8 pp.) by the 65th Special Operations Squadron in Operation Inherent Resolve: “6X small spherical objects grouped together” on 2025-07-29 at 20:22 UTC, with estimated speed and altitude. Declassified by Central Command on 2026-07-10.
Checked on Oct 7, 2026 · Open the original ↗
[2]
Record · U.S. Department of War · PURSUE (DVIDS) · Sep 18, 2026
DOW-UAP-PR135 · Unresolved UAP Report, Middle East, 2025 (infrared video, 1:00)
One minute of infrared video submitted by Central Command, with the on-screen data covered. The DVIDS page describes it in segments and gives January 1, 2025, as the date taken.
Checked on Oct 7, 2026 · Open the original ↗
[3]
Press release · U.S. Air Force · 1st Special Operations Wing Public Affairs (DVIDS) · Dec 19, 2018
Hurlburt's first active duty MQ-9 squadron activated
The Air Force activates the 65th Special Operations Squadron on 2018-12-18 at Hurlburt Field: it operates the remotely piloted MQ-9 Reaper.
Checked on Oct 7, 2026 · Open the original ↗
[4]
Record · U.S. Department of War
Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters (PURSUE)
Department of War program, supported by ODNI, that releases declassified records of unresolved UAP cases from several agencies in tranches. None of the three Navy videos is in it.
Checked on Oct 4, 2026 · Open the original ↗

May contain errors by the AI and the editor · always check the official source. · Privacy