UNCLASSIFIED // PUBLIC RELEASERELEASE 05 · AUGUST 7, 2026
PENTAGON UFO FILE · VIDEO · DOW-UAP-PR117Unresolved UAP Report, Gulf of Oman, 2021
This 16-second clip opens a set of six, DOW-UAP-PR117 to PR122, recorded on the night of September 8, 2021, on a U.S. special operations AC-130J, a heavily armed variant of the C-130 transport. It is not the gunship’s own recording: someone filmed the infrared display with a cell phone, so it carries the blur, flicker and loss of detail that come with filming a screen.
The crew’s account
The companion intelligence report, DOW-UAP-D101, says the aircrew was flying a nighttime live-fire training mission over the Gulf of Oman. After they dropped a water-activated flare, they first noticed two stationary objects hovering just above the water, which they put at about four feet across. Over the sortie they reported roughly two dozen similar sightings on infrared, calling them “cold orbs,” and described them maneuvering aggressively, flying in formations and seeming to react when the aircraft fired its weapons. The report adds that the aircraft’s digital video recorder was not working at the time.
This clip
For its entire length a single patch sits near the center of the display. Nothing else happens. The report is an unevaluated intelligence information report, not a finished assessment, and its descriptions are the crew’s impressions. AARO lists the event as unresolved.
The official description
From war.gov/UFO, released August 7, 2026, quoted in full
The United States Central Command submitted a report of an unidentified anomalous phenomenon to the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) consisting of 16 seconds of video footage. This footage is a secondary capture, recorded via a cellular device, of an infrared sensor display aboard a U.S. Special Operations Forces AC-130J Gunship. This footage does not represent native primary sensor data, and the secondary recording method introduces limitations in fidelity, resolution, and overall visual quality. Artifacts inherent to filming a screen, such as blurring or flickering, may be present. The footage contained within DOW-UAP-PR117 through DOW-UAP-PR122 was captured contemporaneously. An accompanying Intelligence Information Report, DOW-UAP-D101, describes the phenomena as “cold orbs” approximately four feet in diameter.
Video description:
00:00-00:16: An area of contrast remains generally within the center of the sensor field-of-view.
This video description is provided for informational purposes only. Readers should not interpret any part of this description as reflecting an analytical judgment, investigative conclusion, or factual determination regarding the described event’s validity, nature, or significance.