Greece.Aegean Sea · two missions record round objects skimming the sea

The first sighting occurred on October 27, 2023. The aircraft had taken off from Larissa Air Base (Greece) at 23:39 UTC the previous day, on an intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance mission of the U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command that also called for flying to Muwaffaq Salti (Jordan) to relieve another aircraft. The sky was clear. At 00:35 UTC, while en route to its target, the crew spotted an object flying just above the surface of the water. According to the mission report, over the following three minutes the object made several ninety-degree turns at about 80 mph (130 km/h), a speed estimated by the sensor. At 00:38 UTC it dropped out of the sensor image.

The mission report (MISREP) is the standard form for the mission and includes a section for unidentified objects. The operator described the object as "seemingly circular, too small to make out details." In the report's form the operator recorded "sharp ninety-degree turns," marked the physical state as solid, the means of propulsion as unknown, the signatures as "none," and checked "no" in the box asking whether the object appeared to be under intelligent control. The field for the object's response to the observer's actions reads "none," and the operator assessed it as "benign."

The corresponding video, numbered PR34 in the files released by the Pentagon, comes from an infrared sensor and runs 2 minutes 57 seconds. According to the description by the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), the Pentagon office that studies these cases, the sensor tracks the area of contrast, locks it with a reticle and applies a contrast filter, until at 2:22 the object blended into the background and the camera stopped tracking it.

The second sighting occurred two days later, on October 29, on a different mission that also took off from Larissa, at 15:04 UTC on the 28th. At 08:11 UTC, with the aircraft already returning to base, the crew spotted another object likewise flying just above the ocean surface. This one moved skimming the water toward land, at an estimated 30 mph (50 km/h), and dropped out of the image in the same minute it was seen. The aircraft landed at Larissa at 11:05 UTC. The PR35 video runs 24 seconds, and AARO notes that the area of contrast blended into the background just as the background shifted from water to land.

The operator on the second mission used exactly the same words to describe the object ("seemingly circular, too small to make out details") and gave the same answers: intelligent control "no," signatures "none," physical state solid, maneuverability "none" and assessment "benign." In neither report was the anomalous-characteristics box filled in, and advanced capabilities are marked unknown. Both reports were declassified on January 22, 2026 by the chief of staff of U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) and approved for release to AARO on January 26.

Two military crews, on routine surveillance missions, logged small objects skimming the water within two days and filed them as unidentified aerial phenomena, though they assessed them as benign. It is the kind of record that numerically dominates military archives: small objects, nothing on any sensor except video, observed for seconds or a few minutes, which the operator rates as benign and which nobody pursues.

The descriptions fit ordinary causes. Small circular objects, at 30 and 80 mph (50 and 130 km/h), skimming the sea surface and in one case heading toward land, describe seabirds fairly well and also small commercial or military drones, abundant in a theater where Greek, Turkish and allied forces operate. The ninety-degree turns would be anomalous for a large bird in cruise flight, but they are trivial for a quadcopter (a four-rotor drone). In its 2024 report, AARO stated that it had resolved 174 cases, all as prosaic objects (balloons, birds, drones, satellites and aircraft), and added that many other cases remain unresolved. That both operators checked "no" in the intelligent-control box suggests neither perceived directed behavior.

What the pair contributes is a weak cross-corroboration. Two different crews, on missions two days apart, described with the same words objects with the same flight profile (small, skimming the water, no signature), although the coordinates in the two forms differ. But both reports come from the same unit, the 33rd Special Operations Squadron (33 SOS), so the same words may be a habitual form formula. The matching wording proves nothing about what the objects were. If they are birds or drones, the fact that a surveillance system designed to detect threats formally logs them as unidentified says something about how little it takes for a sensor to record an object as unidentified.