Department of War PURSUE File
ICA-UAP-D001, Analysis: Colorado Springs UAP Incident, 2022
Colorado Springs, Colorado, U.S.·2022
Editorial summary
This document records an analysis by an Intelligence Community partner of the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) of a February 2022 sighting near Colorado Springs, Colorado. Five U.S. Army service members at Fort Carson reported an airborne object over Cheyenne Mountain at about 9:35 a.m. local time on February 15, 2022. They described it as resembling an angular, non-symmetrical potato made of uneven panels, stationary and slowly changing shape, before it suddenly disappeared. The analysis assessed, with low confidence, that the object was possibly backscattering of sunlight reflecting off snow-covered ground onto low-level clouds. It found no sign of an adversarial capability.
Editorial summary written by govweird from the declassified document text. The official government description follows below.
Government description
This document contains analysis by an All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) Intelligence Community (IC) partner to account for a 2022 incident involving an airborne object near Colorado Springs, Colorado. U.S. military service members reported the incident to AARO in 2023. AARO’s IC partner assessed, with low confidence, that the reported phenomenon, which observers characterized as resembling an “angular, non-symmetrical potato,” was attributable to sunlight backscattering, where sunlight reflecting from mountain snow cover illuminated the underside of low-altitude clouds. This low-confidence assessment contributes to AARO’s consideration of the incident, which remains unresolved as of June 2026.
Caption issued by the U.S. Department of War on war.gov/ufo. Verbatim, unedited.
Originating agency
Intelligence Community Agency
Record type
Incident date
2022
Incident location
Colorado Springs, Colorado, U.S.
Release tranche
Release 03 (May 8, 2026)
Distribution
Cleared for public release