A single service member on a 19‑hour sortie over Iraq in December 2022 observed what the government now labels a “possible UAP.” The observation was recorded on a one‑page Mission Report (MISREP) that was declassified and made public in 2026. The document provides only a timestamp—1620Z—and a direction of travel, west to east, with no description of shape, colour, size, speed, altitude, or any sensor return. The report was generated under the standard procedure used by the armed forces to log Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena for the All‑domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO).
AARO stood up in 2022 to gather military and intelligence sightings of unexplained objects in the air, space, or maritime domains. This particular entry is one of thousands likely filed since the office’s inception; most remain classified, but this one entered the public domain through the PURSUE archive, a repository of declassified UAP material.
Release authority came from Major General Richard A. Harrison, chief of staff for U.S. Central Command, on 8 October 2025. The document appeared on the open internet on 8 May 2026. The flight itself was routine: the aircraft departed from the unidentified base coded OKAS at 1206Z on 1 December 2022, returned to the same location at 0723Z the following day, logging a total airborne time of 19 hours 17 minutes.
During the mission the crew gathered signals intelligence via the AIRHANDLER system and supported TILTI operations over Baghdad. The platform was equipped with full‑motion video (FMV) sensors capable of recording everything beneath the aircraft, and the collected data was processed by the DGS‑AR intelligence ground station.
At 1620Z, while the crew was halfway through the shift, one operator looked up and saw an object moving from west to east. That is the entirety of the reported observation. The MISREP contains no indication whether the object appeared on radar or the FMV feed, offers no altitude or speed estimate, and notes that the observer did not attempt to track or pursue the sighting.
The mission continued unchanged after the brief glance. The sortie was part of Operation INHERENT RESOLVE, the U.S.–led campaign against ISIS in Iraq and Syria.
The aircrew belonged to the 482nd Attack Squadron, assigned to the 20th Fighter Wing—combat‑trained personnel whose duties include identifying threats. As the article notes, such crews do not file reports for ordinary phenomena like clouds. What distinguishes this document is not the sighting itself but the paperwork trail that brought it to light.
A decade ago a similar observation would likely have been filed, stamped, and forgotten within military channels. Today, after a cultural shift driven by congressional hearings, legislative mandates for pilot reporting, and proactive disclosure by AARO—which has released hundreds of pages of analysis and testimony—the report was declassified by a senior officer and posted online for public scrutiny.
The Department of War, as cited in the source, has been steadily pushing UAP observations into the open. Despite this increased transparency, the evidentiary record remains sparse. This particular report is a single paragraph confirming that something was seen, without identifying what it was.
The government’s designation of “possible UAP” reflects an admission of ignorance rather than a conclusion. The released material bears FOIA exemptions (b)(6) and (b)(3), which safeguard personal information and statutorily protected data.
Consequently, the observer’s name is redacted, the precise location of the OKAS base is undisclosed, and the full sensor recordings are not available.
