UNCLASSIFIED // PUBLIC RELEASERELEASE 01 · MAY 8, 2026
PENTAGON UFO FILE · DOCUMENT · DOW-UAP-D004Mission Report, Arabian Gulf, 2020
This is a single surviving entry from a 2020 Mission Report, or MISREP, filed under the Arabian Gulf. Almost everything except the UAP paragraph is blacked out under security exemptions, including the reporting unit, the aircraft and the pilot’s name. What remains is three sentences of free text.
The entry
At 1258Z (Zulu, or UTC), the redacted reporting asset observed a “POSS UAP” — a possible UAP — at a location given only as a military grid reference. The sighting was short, and the report says that brevity ruled out any estimate of the object’s altitude. Its speed was estimated at 321 knots, and the object is then said to have accelerated and turned toward the east.
No shape, color, size or sensor is given, and nothing says how the speed was judged. The page is marked SECRET and releasable to the Five Eyes partners (the U.S., UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand).
What can and can’t be said
With no altitude, range or sensor data, a speed estimate alone cannot separate an aircraft, a drone or a misjudged balloon from anything stranger, and the release cautions that the figures are the reporter’s impressions. Other 2020 reports in this group: DOW-UAP-D005 and DOW-UAP-D007.
The official description
From war.gov/UFO, released May 8, 2026, quoted in full
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 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. A U.S. military operator reported observing a UAP traveling at an estimated speed of 321 knots (369 mph). The observer reported that the UAP “increased speed and changed direction towards the east.” 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.