Mission Report, Syria, November 2016

This one-page briefing slide, later declassified by U.S. Central Command, records what a U.S. Navy P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft saw over the eastern Mediterranean on 18 November 2016. It is filed among the UAP reports, but the slide itself describes the object as a possible missile.

What the crew recorded

The aircraft was watching the activity of a naval group the slide abbreviates as KCTG when its electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR) sensor picked up a low-flying object of unknown origin northwest of Latakia. The crew described it as apparently in “sea skim mode” — flying just above the waves, as anti-ship missiles do — at roughly 500 knots on a southeasterly heading away from the group. The P-8A was about 26 nautical miles south of the object when it was detected, and lost sight of it after about two minutes, around 40 nautical miles northwest of Latakia, after it passed between the Russian vessel Ingul and an unidentified ship. Visibility was logged as clear.

The task group’s comment is the key line: the mission commander called the encounter safe, and although this was the first possible missile activity a P-8 had seen in the area, it was judged “standard activity” consistent with what the group was expected to be doing. The slide also refers to video footage, linked separately.

Reading it

“EO/IR” means a turret combining a daylight camera and an infrared camera (see FLIR). The release’s caution applies: speed and behavior are the crew’s estimates. The slide itself frames the event as possible missile activity consistent with what the watched group was assessed to be doing; it does not identify the object further.