Department of War PURSUE File
DOW-UAP-D60, Mission Report, Arabian Gulf, August 2020
Arabian Gulf·8/8/20
Editorial summary
On August 8, 2020, a U.S. Air Force reconnaissance aircraft operating in the Arabian Gulf observed an unidentified anomalous phenomenon during a planned intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance mission. According to the mission report, the aircraft detected the object at 0726 UTC while conducting authorized scans in support of naval operations. The phenomenon was described as "transitting" in the observed activity section of the standardized Department of War reporting form. The aircraft crew noted that the observation had "no impact to mission."
The observation was recorded via Full Motion Video (FMV), the aircraft's primary sensor system for the mission. However, weather conditions presented complications during the operation. The report notes that "dense cloud coverage intermittently impacted FMV collection" throughout the surveillance period, which lasted from 0513 UTC to 2256 UTC on August 8. The aircraft had coordinated its tasking with Naval Forces Central Command 24 hours before takeoff, and that coordination was assessed as satisfactory. After the object was observed, the aircraft completed its remaining assigned tasks and was cleared to return to base at 2256 UTC, landing at 0045 UTC on August 9 after a total mission duration of 21 hours and 8 minutes.
The report provides limited descriptive detail about the observed phenomenon beyond the notation that it was transitting. All characterizations in the document reflect the observer's subjective interpretation at the time of the event and should not be read as definitive regarding any intrinsic features or performance characteristics of the object. The mission report was filed by the 482nd Attack Squadron and subsequently exploited by the Directorate of General Support Intelligence. This document is part of the Department of War PURSUE Release 01, cleared for public disclosure on May 8, 2026.
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 UAP. The report describes the UAP as “transiting” and notes it had “no impact to mission.” The report also states that “dense cloud coverage intermittently impacted FMV collection.” 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
8/8/20
Incident location
Arabian Gulf
Release tranche
Release 01 (May 8, 2026)
Distribution
Cleared for public release