During military activity in the Middle East in 2025, a U.S. military crew member reported seeing a white, round shape moving at high speed. The account appears in an activity report released by the U.S. Department of War.
The crew member estimated that the shape was moving at up to about 800 kilometers per hour. The report was accompanied by video from a heat-sensing system. But even with the footage, the record doesn’t explain what the shape was.
Who Reported It, and What Did He See?
The report documents military activity and an account from a crew member operating systems. He reported an unidentified phenomenon and described it as something that looked like a white, round sphere. The record offers no further description of the shape.
The speed estimate appears alongside the description. In other words, it was the crew member’s estimate at the time of the incident, not a figure the record presents as the result of a measurement. Still, it gives a sense of how fast he said the shape was moving.
What the Footage Shows
The report was accompanied by video recorded with an infrared system, a camera that detects heat. The system was mounted on a U.S. military vehicle. The record was released to the public in September 2026, with some portions redacted.
The footage is part of the material attached to the report, but the text doesn’t describe what it shows. So the record doesn’t establish whether the shape is visible in the video or whether the footage helped estimate its speed. The report recounts what the crew member said, but offers no explanation for the phenomenon.
What We Still Don’t Know
The record doesn’t say what the shape was, exactly what appears in the video, or how its speed was estimated. It makes clear that the description and speed estimate reflect the crew member’s impression at the time of the incident; they don’t establish the properties of any object.
What remains is a white, round shape and a video the record doesn’t interpret. What exactly passed in front of the camera?
