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According to Department of War records released under the PURSUE archive, a U.S. military aircraft crew operating over Syria in July 2022 reported an encounter with an unidentified anomalous phenomenon (UAP). The record, titled “DOW-UAP-PR22, Unresolved UAP Report, Syria, July 2022,” was declassified on October 8, 2025, and published by the Department of War on May 8, 2026. The official description from the Department of War states that the United States Central Command (USCENTCOM) submitted the report to the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), consisting of 14 seconds of video footage from an infrared and electro-optical sensor aboard a U.S. military platform. The accompanying mission report described the UAP as “moving from north to south.”
Document Details and Mission Context
The declassified document, a mission report (MISREP) from the 89th Attack Squadron (89 ATKS) of the 432nd Air Expeditionary Wing, provides a timeline of the flight. The aircraft, identified by the callsign “1.4a,” departed Muwaffaq Salti Air Base (OJMS) at 18:22Z on July 30, 2022. The mission was conducted under Operation INHERENT RESOLVE, with the aircraft performing an armed reconnaissance (ARMED RECCE) mission. The crew reported observing the UAP at 02:39Z on July 31, 2022, at a location identified by grid coordinates partially redacted in the released document. The mission log notes the crew “observed an unidentified aerial phenomenon” at that time. The aircraft returned to base at 15:19Z on July 31, 2022, after a 20.9-hour mission. The full motion video from the flight was exploited by the Distributed Ground System-Intelligence (DGSI).
The Department of War also provided a description of the video footage, noting that at the five-second mark, the video depicts an object moving from right to left across the top right quarter of the sensor field-of-view. The Department explicitly stated that this description is for informational purposes only and should not be interpreted as an analytical judgment or factual determination regarding the event’s validity, nature, or significance. The document itself is heavily redacted, with personal identifying information, specific aircraft tail numbers, and certain operational details withheld under exemptions to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), including exemptions (b)(3), (b)(6), and others. The mission was tasked by the 609th Air Operations Center under the Air Forces Central Command (AFCENT) and USCENTCOM.
Agency Context and Broader Implications
The report was submitted to the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO). Per a Wikipedia summary of the office, AARO is an office within the United States Office of the Secretary of Defense that investigates unidentified flying objects (UFOs) and other phenomena in the air, sea, and/or space and/or on land. Wikipedia notes that its first director was physicist Sean Kirkpatrick, who reported to then deputy defense secretary Kathleen Hicks, and its current director is Jon T. Kosloski. The Department of War’s PURSUE archive, which released this document, is a centralized repository for declassified UAP-related records from across the U.S. government.
The document’s release is part of a broader effort by the Department of War to increase transparency regarding UAP encounters reported by military personnel. The record is one of several released under the PURSUE archive, which aims to provide the public with access to previously classified information on unresolved aerial phenomena. The official description from the Department of War offers limited detail beyond the basic facts of the encounter, noting only the direction of the object’s movement and the duration of the video footage. The mission report itself, while providing a detailed timeline of the flight, does not offer any analysis or conclusion about the nature of the UAP.
What remains unanswered from this document is the specific nature of the object observed, its physical characteristics, or any analytical conclusions reached by the intelligence community. The Department of War’s description explicitly cautions against drawing any definitive conclusions from the provided video description. Readers should watch for future PURSUE archive releases, which may include additional video footage, sensor data, or analytical reports that could provide further context on this and other unresolved UAP incidents. The document’s heavy redactions also leave open questions about the specific platform involved, the exact location of the encounter, and the identities of the crew members, all of which could be clarified in future declassifications.
