A round, cold object tracked in infrared making abrupt turns over the Gulf of Aden (4 September 2020)
This is a one-page Range Fouler reporting form from the 172nd Attack Squadron, filed by an O-3 during a night ISR mission. From 2109Z to 2117Z on 4 September 2020, while at 23,819 ft above terrain over the Gulf of Aden, the crew tracked a round, cold object in infrared. It travelled on a heading of 168 degrees at 277 mph and made a few abrupt changes of direction during the 8-minute contact. The sensor was black-hot, so a cold object should appear dark, yet the object showed bright white. The crew gave slant range, ground range and depression angle. No explanation is given. A Release 02 video, DOW-UAP-PR087, is titled "05 September 2020 ... UAP". The release does not tie it to this report. *Method note: war.gov blocks this server. The form was read from the original PDF served by the ufotransparency.com mirror. It is a one-page scanned 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. Redactions are shown as [redacted].*
How plausible · Moderate
An official form records an eight-minute IR track of a fast object with 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
- "Contact at 21:09z to 21:17z 04SEP2020. MGRS location 38P LT [redacted]" (DOW-UAP-D57, p. 1; read from the page image)
- "While at 23,819 HAT over the Gulf of Aden we tracked a round, cold object in IR traveling 168 degrees at 277 mph. It made a few abrupt directional changes during the 8 minute contact." (DOW-UAP-D57, p. 1; read from the page image)Range Fouler: a round, cold object with abrupt turns off Mirbat, Oman (15 October 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 -39 degrees below our altitude with a slant range of 6.17NM and ground range of 8.81KM. The IR sensor was set to black hot and the object in question was a bright white." (DOW-UAP-D57, p. 1; read from the page image)Range Fouler: a round, cold object with abrupt turns off Mirbat, Oman (15 October 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)
- Form fields: squadron 172 ATKS; reporter O-3, aircrew position "Other"; date 09/04/20; time 21:09:00; "Night"; mission ISR; altitude 23819; direction/speed 168/277; shape "Round". Release stamp "USCENTCOM MDR 26-0028 ... 03/16/26". (DOW-UAP-D57, p. 1, read from the page image)