Department of War PURSUE File
DOW-UAP-D74, Mission Report, Syria, November 2023
Syria·11/9/23
Editorial summary
On November 9, 2023, during a return-to-base flight over Syria, a U.S. Air Force pilot operating an intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance mission observed an unidentified aerial phenomenon that the pilot could not identify. According to the file, the observation occurred at 21:53 Zulu time as the aircraft was transiting at near the same altitude as the object. The pilot described the UAP as spherical in shape, resembling a bouncy ball, and assessed it as benign and posing no threat to the aircraft or public safety.
The pilot reported that the object approached from the south and maintained a consistent velocity of approximately 424 knots, or 483 miles per hour, for at least seven minutes while in view. During this time, the UAP descended in altitude and passed safely below the observer's aircraft before eventually moving out of sensor range. The pilot noted that the object emitted no electromagnetic signals and did not respond to the aircraft's presence or any interrogation attempts. According to the report, the UAP exhibited no maneuverability beyond its steady transit and caused no effects on the aircrew or aircraft systems.
The report, classified at the secret level, provides positional and kinetic data for the observation, with the UAP first detected at an estimated altitude of 170 feet and tracked across multiple coordinates over the observation period. The file indicates that full motion video from the aircraft's sensors was collected during the incident and subsequently exploited for analysis. This mission report was recommended for release by the U.S. Central Command Chief of Staff on June 2, 2025, and has now been declassified and released to the public.
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 “shaped as a bouncy ball.” The observer described the UAP as traveling “~424kn (483 mph) consistently for at least 7mins.” The reporter described the UAP approaching from the south. The operator assessed the object as “benign.” 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
11/9/23
Incident location
Syria
Release tranche
Release 01 (May 8, 2026)
Distribution
Cleared for public release