The U.S. Department of War has published a mission report from its PURSUE archive that describes an encounter with two unidentified anomalous phenomena over the Mediterranean Sea. The document, labeled “DOW‑UAP‑D8, Mission Report, Djibouti, 2025,” was made public on May 8, 2026. It follows the standard Mission Report (MISREP) format used by the armed forces to record operational events, including sightings of UAP.
According to the report’s general text section, an operator observed two “white hot UAPs” moving south at approximately 240 nautical miles per hour at 1653Z. That speed is equivalent to about 276 statute miles per hour. The excerpt does not state the exact date of the incident, only that the report was filed in 2025, and it does not identify the observer, the specific vessel or aircraft involved, or the altitude at which the objects were seen.
The location is noted broadly as the Mediterranean Sea, with a military grid reference of “35SQT3423692957” provided, but no precise geographic point is given. The document carries the classification marking “SECRET//REL TO USA, FIN, SWE, FVEY, NATO,” indicating distribution limits to the United States, Finland, Sweden, the Five Eyes alliance, and NATO.
Context of the All‑domain Anomaly Resolution Office
The Department of War’s description explains that MISREPs are a routine channel for forwarding UAP information to the All‑domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO). AARO resides within the Office of the Secretary of Defense and is tasked with investigating unidentified flying objects and related phenomena across air, sea, space, and land environments. The office’s first director was physicist Sean Kirkpatrick, who reported to then‑Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks; the current director is Jon T. Kosloski.
By linking the Djibouti mission report to AARO, the Department of War underscores its broader effort to collect and analyze UAP encounters across the services. The release through the PURSUE archive, hosted at war.gov, is portrayed as a deliberate step to make certain UAP‑related records publicly accessible, although the archive’s title and specific selection criteria are not elaborated in the source material.
Limitations and Open Questions
The report’s accompanying note cautions that all descriptive and estimative language reflects the reporter’s subjective interpretation at the time of the event. Terms such as “white hot” and the speed estimate should not be taken as conclusive proof of any intrinsic object features or performance characteristics.
The release offers a concrete example of a UAP encounter logged by U.S. military personnel, but it does not resolve the larger mystery surrounding such phenomena. The Department of War indicates that future PURSUE publications—potentially including additional mission reports, sensor data, or analytical assessments—could supply further context for this and similar cases. Until more comprehensive information becomes available, the subjective nature of the reports and their limited detail mean that many questions will persist.
