What happened
PURSUE Release 06, published on 18 September 2026, paired a 2022 military mission report from the Middle East, DOW-UAP-D109, with two infrared videos, DOW-UAP-PR140 and DOW-UAP-PR141. According to coverage of the file, the crew tracked objects moving erratically through their target area at roughly 80 to 180 mph and estimated them at only one to two metres across. Geo News placed the incident in May 2022; the location is redacted beyond the region. The report joins a long run of Central Command material in the archive showing small contrasts crossing infrared fields of view over Iraq, Syria and the Gulf, including 2022 Iraq mission reports published in earlier tranches. As with all PURSUE material, it was released as unresolved and without analysis. The file is listed on trackers simply as a Middle East mission report; reports that it came from Iraq could not be confirmed.
The official explanation
No explanation has been released. Objects one to two metres across moving at 80 to 180 mph fall within the range of small drones, and infrared sensors can make birds, balloons or debris look odd, especially when the platform itself is moving. Without independent range data, size and speed estimates from a single sensor are uncertain. The Pentagon says unresolved usually means insufficient data, not evidence of anything exotic.
The anomalous case
The crew were operating in an active theatre where identifying objects is their job, and they still logged these as unknown and wrote them up formally, with video. Small objects moving erratically at up to 180 mph do not behave like balloons, which drift with the wind. The report fits a recurring pattern in the PURSUE files: small, fast, maneuvering objects caught again and again by CENTCOM sensors, from the 2021 Gulf of Oman encounter in which an AC-130J crew reported objects maneuvering erratically and in formation, to the 2024 Syria orb and the 2025 six spheres. If these are foreign drones, they are moving unidentified through closely watched airspace; if not, they remain a persistent unknown.
The strongest argument that this was something genuinely unknown or classified, with each claim attributed to the person who made it.
Documents
- PURSUE Release 06 (18 September 2026), WAR.GOV/UFO official, war.gov
- DOW-UAP-D109: Mission Report, Middle East, 2022 (PURSUE Release 06) official, war.gov
- DOW-UAP-PR140: infrared video accompanying D109 (PURSUE Release 06) video, war.gov
- DOW-UAP-PR141: infrared video accompanying D109 (PURSUE Release 06) video, war.gov
Sources
- Pentagon releases more UFO files, including documents on secretive military program News 9 Oklahoma City
- Pentagon's latest UFO files reveal details on secretive military research programme Geo News
- UFO files tracker (file IDs and titles) probed.space
- Latest Pentagon UFO files release includes video of mysterious 'cold orbs' Scientific American
- New UFO files release NewsNation
Witness reports elsewhere
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