UNCLASSIFIED // PUBLIC RELEASERELEASE 01 · MAY 8, 2026
PENTAGON UFO FILE · DOCUMENT · DOW-UAP-D023Mission Report, United Arab Emirates, October 2023
This MISREP records an intelligence sortie that took off from Al Dhafra Air Base in the United Arab Emirates under Operation Spartan Shield, the U.S. mission in the Gulf region. The originating unit is the 50th Attack Squadron. The release dates it to 31 October 2023, while the report’s own time stamps put both UAP entries on 24 October.
Two entries
The report logs two UAP, at 0241Z and 0322Z, from an aircraft flying at about 24,300 feet and 162 knots on a heading of 280 degrees. The first, estimated at 320 mph, is noted as appearing cold on thermal imaging. The second is estimated at 440 mph. For both, the crew marked the object as solid, not maneuvering, not under intelligent control and benign, with no effects on people. Shape, size and color are listed as unknown.
Earlier in the flight, the report notes, the crew received a professional radio warning from Iranian air defense to keep a safe distance from the border, and replied that it was a coalition aircraft in international airspace.
The videos
Two infrared clips are tied to this report: DOW-UAP-PR026, 43 seconds long, and DOW-UAP-PR027, nearly five minutes. The report draws no conclusion about what the objects were, and the speeds are the crew’s estimates.
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 one UAP. 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.