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8On 26 January 2023, a U.S. military pilot near Eglin Air Force Base detected four radar targets between about 16,000 and 18,000 feet, then visually observed only one and captured one electro-optical and one infrared still image. The video recorder was already inoperable, so no event video exists. AARO concluded with moderate confidence that the imaged object was very likely a lighter-than-air craft, based on its reported behavior, viewing geometry, wind and sun conditions, and comparison testing with a commercial lighting balloon. The other three radar targets lacked imagery and could not be analyzed. A radar circuit-breaker trip during the approach had occurred repeatedly on the same aircraft before the event, so the public record does not support attributing that fault to the object.
United States / 2023 / Grade AIn January 2015, a U.S. Navy F/A-18F recorded a small round object with a forward-looking infrared sensor over the Atlantic east of Florida. The authentic 34-second GoFast clip appears to show a target racing just above the ocean. NASA calculated in 2023 that it was about 13,000 feet high and moving near 40 mph; AARO's broader 2025 model produced a wind-compensated range of 5-92 mph and found with high confidence that no anomalous performance occurred. Motion parallax explains much of the apparent speed. The public video does not identify the object, and AARO lacked the original file, aircraft position and heading, and aircrew accounts. GoFast is therefore best described as a resolved performance claim attached to an unidentified object, not proof of extraordinary technology.
United States / 2015 / Grade AA U.S. Customs and Border Protection aircraft recorded 3 minutes 54 seconds of infrared video near Rafael Hernandez Airport in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, during the night spanning 25-26 April 2013. An early independent study interpreted one target as fast, splitting and entering the ocean. AARO's 2025 reconstruction instead found two small objects drifting over land at about 8 mph: motion parallax created the apparent speed, changing view angle revealed their separation, and loss of thermal contrast made them seem to vanish at the waterline. AARO has high confidence that no anomalous or transmedium behavior occurred and moderate confidence that the objects were sky lanterns. The exact identity is not categorical, and the public sources disagree by one day on the local event date.
Puerto Rico / 2013 / Grade BAt about 02:45, recorded in the contemporary file as Eastern Standard Time, on 24 July 1948, Eastern Air Lines Trip 576 was flying at 5,000 feet roughly 20-25 miles southwest of Montgomery, Alabama. Captain Clarence S. Chiles and co-pilot John B. Whitted reported a wingless, cigar-like form with bright openings, a blue glow below and a long red-orange exhaust-like flame; their signed accounts and drawings differ on distance, duration and details. Passenger McKelvie saw only a momentary straight streak of red and yellow light and no physical shape. Project Sign checked military traffic and 225 commercial or government schedules without finding a fit, and the archival case was retained as an unknown. Project Grudge's later astronomical review considered a brilliant meteor a fair or low-probability explanation, not a demonstrated solution. No photograph, radar return, physical trace or measured size survives. The alleged 1948 Estimate of the Situation is known through later recollection, but AARO reported that it could not locate or verify the document. The visual report therefore remains unresolved; that does not establish an extraterrestrial craft.
United States / 1948 / Grade BFrom 10 to 12 February 2023, U.S. fighters shot down three small objects over Alaska, Yukon and Lake Huron after heightened radar scrutiny following the separate Chinese surveillance balloon. The first two were reported near 40,000 feet and the third near 20,000 feet. Officials cited aviation hazards and unresolved surveillance concerns. Initial searches ended without attributable debris. Canadian March emails later described shore material and a weather-equipment module, but expressly left the link to the Lake Huron target uncertain. A Yukon image became public in 2024 and official Lake Huron infrared footage in May 2026. These disclosures expand the evidence without confirming every model or owner. Biden’s February 2023 assessment favored private, recreational or research balloons rather than a link to China’s surveillance program. The archive retains its conventional explanation while distinguishing verified military operations from incomplete individual identification.
United States / 2023 / Grade BThe Mosul Orb is the name given to a brief military video reportedly recorded over Mosul, Iraq, on 16 April 2016. A still was first published in January 2023. A federal court record now confirms that the National Air and Space Intelligence Center located a video of a metallic-looking spherical object owned by U.S. Special Operations Command, and that it was released after metadata redaction on 25 June 2025. The public clip shows a bright round form crossing the frame, but it provides no public range, dimensions, sensor geometry or complete metadata. The date, location and MC-12 platform remain attributed to the initial publishers rather than independently confirmed by the court record.
Iraq / 2016 / Grade BThe Malmstrom case combines two different records. A contemporary 341st Strategic Missile Wing history documents all ten Echo Flight launch facilities losing strategic alert at 08:45 MST on 16 March 1967. Engineers investigated, reproduced the relevant No-Go indications with injected electrical pulses, and later specified pulse protection, but the released history never identifies the initiating disturbance. The same history says rumors of UFOs near Echo at the time were disproven by a mobile security team and that local radar reported no unusual activity. A separate Project Blue Book file records unidentified-object reports around Belt and Great Falls on 24-25 March, yet its July follow-up says the wing knew of no equipment malfunctions during those sightings. Robert Salas's public account emerged decades later, changed from November Flight on 16 March to Oscar Flight on 24 March, and alleges guard sightings followed by another ten-missile shutdown. No public contemporary Oscar operations log, signed guard statement, radar record, photograph, or technical report has been located. The Echo failure is well documented; a UFO causing Echo or Oscar is not. The case remains B-grade and disputed.
United States / 1967 / Grade BAt 23:30 local time on 5 August 1952, Lloyd West and Walter Gutowski noticed a brilliant light northeast of Haneda Air Force Base. With Walter Jackson and George LaGasse, they watched it through 7×50 binoculars for about 50-60 minutes. Shiroi's CPS-1 radar later reported weak moving returns, and an F-94 crew reported a weak airborne-radar contact for about 90 seconds without seeing anything. Far East Air Forces report IR-35-52 and the Project Blue Book record card retained the case as unknown. The public file contains reports and a witness drawing, but no raw radar plots, scope film, photograph, or complete meteorological profile. A later University of Colorado analysis proposed Capella plus unusual optical effects for the light and anomalous radar propagation for the returns; that is a reasoned interpretation, not a demonstrated reconstruction.
Japan / 1952 / Grade BExplainers
12AARO is the U.S. Department of Defense office that coordinates official UAP review, case resolution and public reporting across multiple domains.
Official programs / 3 min / agency explainerSeparate an unexplained observation from a claim of extraterrestrial origin, and check what NASA, AARO and SETI guidance actually address.
Basics / 3 min / aliensRead a government assessment by separating its reporting window, case status and evidentiary limits. The 2024 annual report is a worked example, not a live total.
Official records / 3 min / government reportsA contemporary contract briefing and a later government review describe different layers of the same contested history.
Government / 2 min / AATIP vs AAWSAP: Names, Contracts and UFO ClaimsFind the official war.gov UFO files, read the catalogue fields and preserve a usable citation. Release dates, incident dates and witness descriptions answer different questions.
Government / 4 min / PURSUE UAP files / war.gov UFO records search and release datesSeparate a short Cold War review, its publicity recommendations and the evidence behind any individual sighting.
Government / 2 min / Robertson Panel: The 1953 UFO Review and Its RecommendationsA guide to the documentary claims and their limits, separate from episode schedules and television storytelling.
Government / 2 min / Skinwalker Ranch UFO Claims: Reading the Official RecordsOpen the Navy’s FLIR and GIMBAL recordings, separate filming from release and upload dates, and check what the images can actually establish.
Evidence / 4 min / video analysisFind original records through NARA, the UAP Records Collection and official Navy video releases. Separate what a document records from what an investigation establishes.
Documents / 3 min / disclosure filesRecord time, location, direction, duration, weather, witnesses and original files, then check aircraft, satellites, planets, balloons and drones before reporting.
Reporting / 4 min / how-toThermal video maps infrared contrast, not ordinary color or a direct physical outline. Palette, gain, range, atmosphere and tracking mode all affect the image.
Evidence / 3 min / infrared FLIR UAP video interpretationUAP is a neutral official label for observations or detections that available data cannot yet identify; it does not mean alien spacecraft.
Basics / 2 min / definitionNews
13AARO's fiscal 2025 report describes an active maritime case involving Navy assets, about 100 airborne objects and two likely uncrewed surface systems, while stressing that no extraordinary origin has been established.
Government / AARO / DefenseScoopAARO plans to buy subscription access to the National UFO Historical Records Center's pre-1990 holdings as part of its congressionally mandated historical review, according to a federal procurement notice reported by DefenseScoop.
Government / DefenseScoop / SAM.govDocuments released through a September 25 FOIA report describe an AARO workshop, its participants and planned engagement with Uruguay. The material records planning and outreach, not proof of any extraordinary claim.
Government / The Black VaultThe October 23 release adds an AARO witness memorandum and historical files to the official archive. The department says further releases are being prepared; unresolved reports are not confirmed extraordinary craft.
Government / U.S. Department of War / PURSUE and AAROThe Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies will hold its annual conference July 24-26 in Toronto and online, with sessions on government transparency, sensor systems, data standards and international research programs.
Research / Scientific Coalition for UAP StudiesThe White House has directed agencies to remove contractual NDA barriers for people speaking through authorized UAP programs, while officials say the action is not a general declassification order.
Government / Fox News / White HouseThe council chair told Space.com that members met at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence on August 31 and are focused on scientific data collection.
Research / Space.comDaryl Johnson told NewsNation that the U.S. commercial reactor fleet recorded nearly 300 drone or UAP flyovers from 2014 through 2025, while public records show persistent limits in detection and attribution.
Government / NewsNation / NRC recordsA TIME cover report traced the convergence of government releases, congressional interest, scientific debate and public pressure while preserving sharp disagreement over what the evidence proves.
Media / TIMEThe UAP Science Advisory Council has added NASA Goddard researcher Ravi Kopparapu and Blue Marble Space astrobiologist Jacob Haqq Misra as it develops an evidence and instrumentation agenda.
Research / Inside Outer Space / UAP Science Advisory CouncilAvi Loeb wrote that a new preprint by chemist John Birks proposes that some orb-like UAP reports may involve ionized dust clouds associated with meteor activity. The idea remains a hypothesis, not a confirmed explanation.
Research / Avi Loeb / MediumScientific American reported that a UAP Science Advisory Council led by Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb hopes to advise U.S. officials and publish findings in peer-reviewed journals, while outside skeptics urged caution about extraordinary interpretations.
Research / Scientific AmericanThe Department of Energy and NNSA resource page collects UAP/UFO-related materials in a federal setting, adding a searchable institutional reference point for researchers following government records.
Government / U.S. Department of Energy / NNSASightings
25An AARO-linked 2023 Middle East infrared report shows a thermal contrast source in footage from a U.S. platform.
2023 / Undisclosed Middle East location, Middle EastDOW-UAP-PR101 is a DVIDS/AARO video posted July 10, 2026, showing a 2024 South China Sea infrared sensor report with an elongated contrast source that later appears as several points.
2024-01-01 / South China Sea operating area, International watersDOW-UAP-PR112 is a DVIDS/AARO video posted July 10, 2026, showing a 2019 Eastern United States infrared range-fouler report from a civilian aircraft sensor.
2019-01-01 / Eastern United States operating area, United StatesDOW-UAP-PR116 is an official DVIDS/AARO release posted July 10, 2026, containing 32 seconds of infrared footage submitted by U.S. Northern Command from an Atlantic Ocean event in 2020.
2020-01-01 / Atlantic Ocean operating area, International watersA DVIDS-published AARO reference video labeled DOW-UAP-PR059 shows infrared footage from a U.S. military platform in the CENTCOM area of responsibility in 2020.
2020-06-01 / Undisclosed CENTCOM-area location, IraqA DVIDS-published AARO reference video labeled DOW-UAP-PR060 shows a target moving across infrared footage from a U.S. military platform in the CENTCOM area of responsibility in 2021.
2021-04-12 / Undisclosed CENTCOM-area location, IraqA 14-second 2025 Middle East infrared file contains only a roughly three-second passage of a small contrast source across the frame.
2025-01-01 / Undisclosed location, Middle EastA 2023 Middle East infrared clip follows a small contrast source while part of the military platform repeatedly obscures the sensor view.
2023-01-01 / Undisclosed location, Middle EastA 99-second 2025 Middle East clip shows an electro-optical and infrared sensor following an unresolved area of contrast.
2025-01-01 / Undisclosed location, Middle EastA 2019 handheld military recording shows several apparent lights entering and leaving frame during a 152-second Pacific Ocean sequence.
2019-01-01 / Undisclosed maritime location, International watersA 51-second 2023 Middle East infrared clip shows a contrast source crossing the lower frame before the sensor pans to keep it near center.
2023-01-01 / Undisclosed location, Middle EastDOW-UAP-PR058 is an Indo-Pacific mission video released as an unresolved UAP report.
2024-06 / Undisclosed Indo-Pacific operating area, International watersA Department of War video released through DVIDS shows sensor footage tied to the February 12, 2023 Lake Huron UAP shootdown.
2023-02-12 / Lake Huron airspace, United StatesDOW-UAP-PR067 is a 2022 report involving multiple spherical objects or USO-like targets near water.
2022-03-25 / Near-water sensor view, International watersDOW-UAP-PR057a is a January 2023 Yellow Sea report showing a spherical object or contrast source among clouds.
2023-01 / Yellow Sea operating area, International watersDOW-UAP-PR056 shows a spherical UAP report in which an object appears to pulse over water in an infrared sensor view.
2024-06 / Over-water sensor view, International watersDOW-UAP-PR054 is an August 2022 EUCOM-area report involving a spherical object described with erratic movement.
2022-08 / Undisclosed European operating area, EuropeDOW-UAP-PR052 is a mission video described as showing a UAP/USO formation in sensor footage.
2024 / Sensor mission area, International watersDOW-UAP-PR043 is a short USAFRICOM infrared UAP report from Africa in 2025.
2025 / Undisclosed Africa location, AfricaDOW-UAP-PR049 is an unresolved Department of the Army UAP report released with infrared sensor footage in 2026.
2026 / Undisclosed location, United StatesDOW-UAP-PR035 is an October 2023 Greece report involving a small circular infrared contrast near the ocean surface.
2023-10 / Undisclosed Greece operating area, GreeceDOW-UAP-PR028 is a January 2024 Greece report in which a diamond-shaped target was recorded across sensor modes.
2024-01 / Undisclosed Greece operating area, GreeceDOW-UAP-PR032 is a 2024 Syria report involving a bright, irregular light captured in full-motion video.
2024-10 / Undisclosed Syria operating area, SyriaDOW-UAP-PR029 is a 2024 infrared report associated with the United Arab Emirates and a vertical-pole or inverted-teardrop visual description.
2024-06 / Undisclosed UAE operating area, United Arab EmiratesBBC News reported on four UFO videos released by the U.S. government, including bright orb-like lights from an undisclosed northeastern U.S. location.
2025-07-01 / Undisclosed location, United States