Official · Video · Department of War
Military Sensor Tracks an Unidentified Area for Three Minutes
It kept the area near the center of the frame until tracking stopped.
Released to the public May 8, 20262 min readALIENS editorial
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It kept the area near the center of the frame until tracking stopped.
A military sensor tracked an area that looked different from the background for about three minutes. When tracking stopped, the area left the frame. The video does not explain what it was.
Five-minute, eleven-second declassified infrared video released by the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) as case DOW-UAP-PR44, an unresolved UAP report submitted by U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) and recorded by an IR sensor aboard a U.S. military platform somewhere in the Middle East in 2020. The reporter provided no oral or written description of the observation. The footage shows the sensor panning down and right onto a stable area of contrast (appearing as a dark, roughly circular feature against a lighter, mottled background), tracking it for roughly three minutes while cycling contrast and zoom (visible as bright white flashes), then cycling reticles and zooming out before the area of contrast leaves the field of view. Heavy black rectangular redactions obscure the on-screen HUD banner that normally shows platform, sensor, classification, and timecode metadata; only standard sensor symbology (north indicator, crosshair, ranging reticle) is left visible.
CENTCOM-submitted UAP report (case ID DOW-UAP-PR44) consisting of 5 minutes 11 seconds of infrared video from a U.S. military platform. Sensor pans down/right at ~00:31 and acquires an area of contrast in the center of the frame, tracking it through ~03:24 while cycling contrast and zoom (manifesting as brief bright white flashes). From 03:25-04:23 the sensor cycles through reticles of varying sizes; between 04:20 and 04:23 the contrast area briefly leaves frame center. From 04:24-04:50 the sensor zooms out while still tracking. At 04:50-04:54 tracking stops and the object exits the frame from the upper-left quadrant. Remaining seconds (04:55-05:11) show no content. AARO classifies the case as unresolved.
Middle East (CENTCOM AOR), Unspecified
Unspecified U.S. military platform with infrared sensor
sensor
Top-center of frame: large black rectangle covering the HUD banner where platform / sensor type / classification marking / time-of-day code would normally appear. Two smaller black rectangles at upper-left and upper-right corners cover additional HUD readouts (likely altitude, heading, range, or aircraft callsign).
Likely reason: Protect platform identity, sensor type, exact location/time, and classification markings of the source feed.
This is the AARO 'DOW-UAP-PR44' case file as released through DVIDS. The slug pattern '100-dvids-#######' likely groups the full DOW-UAP-PR series; aggregator should cluster all DOW-UAP-PR## records together and treat this as one of the AARO 'unresolved' cases. The visual content is consistent with — and adds nothing beyond — the verbatim DVIDS narrative description: an IR sensor tracking a stable dark contrast feature for ~3 minutes with reticle/zoom cycling. All platform/timecode metadata is hard-redacted in the released video, so no independent geolocation or platform-ID is possible from the imagery alone. The 'incidentally recorded audio' noted by DVIDS is not analyzable from keyframes.
A military sensor tracks an area that looks different from the background. It eventually stops tracking, and the area leaves the frame.
No. The person who submitted the report provided no description, and the record does not explain what was in view.
Over the Arabian Gulf, a sensor aboard a U.S. military aircraft pointed at an area that looked different from the background. It began tracking the area, keeping it near the center of the frame.
The sensor tracked it for about three minutes, then the area left the frame. White flashes appeared during that time, too. But the video does not reveal what was in view, and the person who submitted the report included no description of the sighting.
The video was recorded in 2020 by a sensor that displays heat patterns. U.S. Central Command submitted it for review. The video is about five minutes long, but no image appears at the beginning or end.
When the footage begins, the sensor is pointed at an area that looks different from the background. It shifts the image to keep the area near the center. This is not a conventional view of what is in front of the aircraft; it shows differences in heat.
As it tracks the area, the sensor changes the contrast and magnification several times. These adjustments briefly appear as white flashes across the image. The flashes occur when the display changes and do not explain what the area is.
The sensor continues tracking, then widens the view. For a moment, the area is no longer centered. It reappears, and the tracking continues.
Near the end of the clip, the sensor stops tracking. At that moment, the area leaves the frame through the upper-left corner. The video ends shortly afterward, without showing what happened next.
It is not known what was in the area or what caused it to appear that way. The person who submitted the report provided no written or recorded description, and the record offers no conventional explanation.
The sensor tracked the area, but the video does not tell us what it was. The footage simply ends before an answer emerges.