Multi-country (Middle East).Middle East · two drone crews spot spherical objects

On July 29, 2025, an aircraft from the 65th Special Operations Squadron of the U.S. Air Force, a unit that flies MQ-9 drones (the report blacks out the aircraft type), took off at 17:34 Zulu time (Z, universal time) for a Central Command (CENTCOM) mission under Operation Inherent Resolve, the campaign against violent extremist organizations. At 20:22 Z, while the aircraft was heading for its target and the crew scanned the ground along the way, the crew saw something the report classes as a UAP, the Pentagon's term for unidentified anomalous phenomena. The report describes it as "six small spherical objects grouped together." It notes that they "seemed to be agile, frequently changing direction" and were "able to change directions quickly and simultaneously." It puts the altitude at 22,000 feet, the speed at 480 miles per hour and the heading southeast, all marked "estimated." The drone itself was flying at 120 knots toward the northwest in clear weather. The report answers "no" to whether the object was examined with any sensor, and gives the object's reaction as none: it went on its own until it was lost. It adds that the sighting was reported afterwards.

The video that goes with this report runs 60 seconds and comes from an infrared sensor. Several areas of contrast (spots that stand out from the background in the infrared image) cross the frame together, and the sensor pans to follow them, keeping them roughly centered. No shape can be made out: "area of contrast" is all the official description of the clip asserts. Even so, the video shows several spots moving at once, so the fact that several things moved together does not rest on the crew's word alone.

Three months later, on October 29, 2025 at 01:41 Z, another crew, from the 11th Attack Squadron (432nd Air Expeditionary Wing), saw an object on the video feed from its sensor while watching a target. The mission was against smuggling, ISIS and the Iranian threat network. The report tells the episode twice, in two fields and in almost the same words: "from 290141:00ZOCT2025 to 290150:00ZOCT25, [redacted] observed a UAP on feed while on TGT, [redacted] stated it looked like a white round orbit, tracked for [redacted], observed UAP moving as fast as 500MPH, and [redacted] lost UAP IVO [redacted]. There is no additional information to be provided at this time." The observation lasted nine minutes, until the object was lost. The aircraft was at about 22,500 feet. The object's altitude, speed and heading fields are marked "estimated" and are blank.

The video for this report runs 4 minutes 58 seconds. Between 2:29 and 2:36, the sensor switched on automatic tracking, the system that keeps the sight on an object without anyone steering it, and the system failed to lock onto the area of contrast. The rest of the clip is a pan with changes of magnification, with the area entering and leaving the frame at different edges. The failure has two possible readings: the object did not show the contrast or consistency the system expects, or the signal was too weak or too irregular for any interpretation.

Both reports use the Central Command mission form. In 2025 it has a section of its own for UAPs, with boxes for means of propulsion, radio frequency, intelligent control, advanced capabilities and recovered material; in the May 2022 Iraq report (↗) the equivalent observation went in the generic section. The July report fills in most of those boxes: physical state "solid"; propulsion, intelligent control and radio frequency "unknown"; advanced capabilities or materials, effects on persons and recovered material "no"; effects on equipment "none." The October report marks the physical state ("solid"), that there were no effects on persons and the top speed, and leaves the rest blank. Neither records a measured distance to the object.

Both reports were classified SECRET//NOFORN (no release to foreign nationals), with automatic declassification set for 2050. Maj. Gen. Richard A. Harrison, Central Command's chief of staff, declassified the July report on July 10, 2026 and the October one on June 8, 2026, and they were released with their video on September 18, 2026. The redactions hide callsigns, aircraft types and tail numbers, bases, coordinates, supported units and names.

Two crews from different squadrons entered into an official mission report an object they could not identify, and the video of both sightings has been released. The two cases do not weigh the same. The October one describes a white, round dot that a balloon, a bird, a distant aircraft or a sensor artifact could explain, and its speed depends on a distance nobody measured.

The July one is harder to dismiss. Six spherical objects grouped together that change direction "quickly and simultaneously" describe a formation, and the video confirms that several areas of contrast moved together. The ordinary readings are a flock of birds, which also changes direction all at once, or a drone swarm. Neither the report nor the video offers anything to choose between them: all the kinematics are marked "estimated" and the video resolves no shape.

The limit is the same in both reports: neither records a measured distance to the object, and without one there is no true size, altitude or real speed, only how far the dot moves in the image, multiplied by an assumed distance. That is why the 480 and 500 miles per hour are estimates, not measurements, and why whoever wrote "propulsion: unknown" could not have known otherwise about six dots at a distance nobody measured.

The 2025 form already asks about the object's propulsion, radio frequency and intelligent control, but the reports do not record how far away it was. Many of those fields are left "unknown" or blank.