UNCLASSIFIED // PUBLIC RELEASERELEASE 01 · MAY 8, 2026
PENTAGON UFO FILE · DOCUMENT · DOW-UAP-D057Range Fouler Reporting Form, Gulf of Aden, September 2020
This Range Fouler form records a night contact over the Gulf of Aden on September 4, 2020, from 21:09Z to 21:17Z. It was filed by an O-3 from the 172nd Attack Squadron flying an intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) mission. The official copy’s file name calls it a mission report, but the document is a Range Fouler form, the short sheet crews use to report an unknown contact.
What the crew recorded
From 23,819 feet above the terrain, the crew tracked a round object that appeared cold in infrared. With the sensor in “black hot” mode, where warmer things look darker, the object showed bright white. They put its heading at 168 degrees, roughly south-southeast, and its speed at 277 mph, and noted a few abrupt changes of direction over the eight-minute contact. The sensor was aimed 39 degrees below the aircraft, and the ground range is given as 8.81 kilometers. The position is an estimated grid, partly redacted.
Compared with D044
Six weeks later, a crew from the same squadron used almost the same wording for a one-minute contact moving at about 20 mph (DOW-UAP-D044). Both describe round, cold objects with a few direction changes; what differs is the duration, the speed and the viewing geometry. The speed and heading are the crew’s estimates from the sensor, and neither form offers an identification. A similar white-on-black-hot object over water appears in DOW-UAP-D038.
The official description
From war.gov/UFO, released May 8, 2026, quoted in full
This document is a Range Fouler Reporting Form, a standardized reporting form the U.S. Navy uses to record the circumstances surrounding an unauthorized intrusion into controlled airspace during active military operations or training. These reports contain a narrative description of the observer’s experiences. A U.S. military operator reported tracking a “round, cold object” over the Gulf of Aden for eight minutes via “black hot” IR sensor, making the UAP appear “bright white.” The report states that the UAP was “traveling 168 degrees at 277 mph” and “made a few abrupt directional changes” during the encounter. 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.