Range Fouler: a round, cold object with abrupt turns off Mirbat, Oman (15 October 2020)
A 172nd Attack Squadron crew member (O-2, crew position "Other") on a daytime ISR mission, at 19,073 ft height above terrain over the Gulf of Aden, tracked a round object that was "cold" in infrared yet showed bright white with the sensor set to black hot. Over a contact of about one minute it made a few abrupt changes of direction. The narrative gives 319 degrees at 20 mph, while the form's direction/speed box says "261/30". The sensor was aimed 50 degrees below the aircraft with a slant range of 4.06 nm. Its wording is nearly identical to DOW-UAP-D57, a 172 ATKS report from the Gulf of Aden on 4 September 2020. No explanation is offered. *Method note: war.gov blocks this server. The form was read from the original PDF served by the ufotransparency.com mirror. It is a scanned Range Fouler form with a poor OCR text layer, so the quotations were read from the page image. Checkbox values are given as ticked on the scan.*
How plausible · Moderate
An official Range Fouler form records a round, IR-cold object making abrupt turns.
- ●●Access The ISR crew tracked it on their own sensor.
- ●●No gain sought An official reporting form.
- ●●Checkable details check out Released in PURSUE.
- ●○Restraint Describes motion and signature, no explanation.
- ●○Character record An official report; crew names withheld.
- ●○Fits the documented skeleton Part of the documented Range Fouler and PURSUE record.
Plausibility weighs how well an account fits where secrecy hides the documents by design, so missing records never count against it. Strength measures what is documented. Assessed 2026-10-23.
On the record
- Header fields: rank "O-2"; squadron "172 ATKS"; crew position "Other"; date "10/15/20"; time "14:18:39"; "Day"; "ISR"; contact moving "Yes"; direction/speed "261/30"; contacts in group "1"; "Round" ticked. (DOW-UAP-D44, p. 1; read from the page image)
- "Contact at 14:18:39Z to 14:19:52Z on 15OCT2020. MGRS location 40Q BD 6[redacted] 19[redacted] (estimated lat/long [redacted]). While at 19,073 HAT over the Gulf of Aden we tracked a round, cold object in IR traveling 319 degrees at 20 mph. It made a few abrupt directional changes during the 1 minute contact." (DOW-UAP-D44, p. 1; read from the page image)A round, cold object tracked in infrared making abrupt turns over the Gulf of Aden (4 September 2020)Range Fouler: a solid white object makes "erratic moments" over the northern Gulf (14 May 2020)A low UAP outpaces the ISR aircraft following it over the Gulf of Aden (14 July 2024)
- "Our sensor was aimed -50 degrees below our altitude with a slant range of 4.06NM and ground range of 4.78KM. The IR sensor was set to black hot and the object in question was a bright white." (DOW-UAP-D44, p. 1; read from the page image)A round, cold object tracked in infrared making abrupt turns over the Gulf of Aden (4 September 2020)Range Fouler: a solid white object makes "erratic moments" over the northern Gulf (14 May 2020)Cold orbsTwo UAP, one "thermal showed cold", logged by an ISR aircraft from Al Dhafra (24 October 2023)Hearing, 2025A low UAP outpaces the ISR aircraft following it over the Gulf of Aden (14 July 2024)
- Release stamp: "USCENTCOM MDR 26-0038 to MDR 26-0046 Approved for Release to AARO 03/27/26". (DOW-UAP-D44, p. 1; read from the page image)