Unresolved UAP Report, Iraq, May 2022

This file stands out because the person who reported it more or less offered an identification. The video is ten seconds of infrared footage that Central Command passed to AARO from a U.S. military platform, recorded in 2022 and filed under Iraq, May 2022. In the linked mission report, DoW-UAP-D14, the operator called the object a “probable SU-27/35.” AARO adds that both names refer to Russian military aircraft; the two are closely related fighter jets.

What the clip shows

Very little: for the whole ten seconds, two patches move together close to the middle of the frame. AARO’s description adds nothing about speed, range or shape, and does not say whether the two patches are one aircraft, two aircraft, or an aircraft and something else.

Why it is still on the list

“Probable” is not a confirmed identification, and AARO’s release keeps the case among the unresolved without explaining why. The paperwork is also slightly tangled. On its own page, DOW-UAP-D014 is summarized in the same words as another report, DOW-UAP-D012, describing an object heading north to northeast that could not be positively identified, and its location field says Syria rather than Iraq. Readers should treat the details as provisional. “Area of contrast” is AARO’s deliberately neutral phrase for anything that stands out from the background in a sensor image; on an infrared camera that usually means something warmer or cooler than its surroundings.