Department of War PURSUE File
DOW-UAP-D18, Mission Report, Iraq, December 2022
Iraq·12/1/22
Editorial summary
On December 1, 2022, a U.S. Air Force aircraft conducting an intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance mission over Iraq observed what the pilot described as one possible unidentified anomalous phenomenon, according to a declassified Department of War mission report. The observation occurred at 1620 UTC near coordinates in the vicinity of Baghdad. The aircraft was operating at flight level 180 during a planned tasking mission that had begun with a takeoff from Okas at 1206 UTC that same day.
The pilot reported observing the object traveling from west to east across the operational area. The report notes that the observer did not pursue the phenomenon and instead continued with the assigned mission without further incident. No additional events or observations were recorded for the remainder of the approximately 19-hour sortie. The aircraft remained on station for 18 hours and 35 minutes conducting designated intelligence collection activities before returning to base and landing at 0723 UTC on December 2, 2022.
The full motion video collected during the mission was exploited by the Defense General Supply Ammunition-Air Station, according to the report. However, the declassified document contains significant redactions across multiple technical fields, including detailed descriptions of the observed object, specific sensor data, aircraft and mission identifiers, and other operational information. The report contains no indication of radar correlation, electromagnetic effects, or other sensor corroboration of the sighting.
This mission report represents one of several declassified records from the Department of War PURSUE Release 01 made public in May 2026, documenting instances in which military personnel observed phenomena they could not identify during routine operations.
Editorial summary written by govweird from the declassified document text. The official government description follows below.
Government description
This document is a Mission Report (MISREP), a standardized reporting form the U.S. Military uses to record the circumstances surrounding its operations. U.S. military services often use MISREPs to report Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) to AARO. The GENTEXT, or “general text” section of these reports often contains important qualitative, contextual information, distinguishing it from the more quantitative, or numerical, data found elsewhere in the report. A U.S. military operator reported observing one “possible UAP” flying from west to east. The observer did not pursue the UAP. 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.
Caption issued by the U.S. Department of War on war.gov/ufo. Verbatim, unedited.
Originating agency
Department of War
Record type
Incident date
12/1/22
Incident location
Iraq
Release tranche
Release 01 (May 8, 2026)
Distribution
Cleared for public release