PURSUE Record — PURSUE Case PR-098: declassified UAP analysis: U.S. Department of War / AARO · · 2019 · CENTCOM · Infrared · 17 min 36 sec | UFOs in formation o

PURSUE Case PR-098 is a declassified military sensor video released on May 8, 2026, as part of the U.S. Department of War's first structured public disclosure of UAP investigative material. The record spans 17 minutes and 36 seconds of infrared footage captured within the CENTCOM area of operations over the Persian Gulf in 2019. It was coordinated through the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) and is presented as investigative record, not a resolved finding. Its release reflects the government's stated commitment to systematic, documented disclosure.

What this record contains

PR-098 is a single-part video file, designated type VID, originating from a U.S. military sensor platform operating under CENTCOM jurisdiction. The documented metadata identifies the year of the incident as 2019, the sensor modality as infrared, and the operational theater as the Persian Gulf. The official description, as catalogued on the SkyLens UAP files page, characterizes the footage as depicting UFOs in formation over the Persian Gulf. The record runs 17 minutes and 36 seconds — notably long by comparison with many other video entries in the PURSUE Release 01 set, which often run under five minutes. The releasing authority is listed as the U.S. Department of War, acting in coordination with AARO.

Beyond those data points, the public release does not include detailed metadata for this record — no specific platform designation, no altitude or speed figures, no crew identification, and no resolution classification. What exists is the footage itself and the agency-supplied descriptor.

Sensor & operational context

Infrared sensors — specifically forward-looking infrared (FLIR) systems — detect thermal radiation rather than visible light, rendering objects by their heat signature against background temperature. At altitude over open water, the Persian Gulf's thermal environment creates a high-contrast field: warm surface emissivity, cool upper atmosphere, and platforms or objects at intermediate temperatures registering as distinct signatures. This physics makes infrared footage valuable for tracking objects regardless of ambient light conditions, but it also means that interpretation is non-trivial. Heat blooms, atmospheric lensing, sensor gimbal lag, and glint artifacts are all documented phenomena that can produce compelling imagery that does not correspond to a physical object behaving anomalously.

CENTCOM's area of responsibility includes the Persian Gulf, a persistently active operational theater. U.S. military platforms routinely operate sensor packages there for reconnaissance, maritime patrol, and force protection purposes. A 17-minute sustained infrared recording suggests either a tracked contact that held sensor attention across a meaningful engagement window, or a continuous patrol segment in which phenomena were observed across multiple minutes — though without the underlying operational logs, neither characterization can be confirmed from the released record alone.

What this does and does not prove

What is documented: a military infrared sensor, operating under CENTCOM in 2019 over the Persian Gulf, recorded footage that AARO has catalogued under the UAP investigative framework and released publicly as PR-098. The agency description references objects in formation, which is the language used in the official blurb — but the term "formation" describes relative positioning as observed on sensor, not intent, origin, or nature. The record does not, on its face, establish the presence of non-human technology, foreign adversary platforms, or any other specific explanation. It is unresolved investigative material. "Unresolved" in PURSUE Release 01 terminology means the case has not been explained to AARO's documented standard — it does not constitute confirmation of anything anomalous.

How it fits PURSUE Release 01

PR-098 sits within the Department of War / AARO contemporary mission-report tier of PURSUE Release 01 — the portion of the 162-document release drawn from active-era military sensor records rather than the FBI archive series dating to 1947 or the NASA imagery holdings. Among the 28 videos in the release, PR-098's 17-minute runtime makes it one of the longer continuous sensor records disclosed. Readers interested in comparable cases from the same release can browse the full video index on the UAP files page, or follow additional PURSUE editorial coverage at the SkyLens blog, where each record in the set is examined on its documented merits.

Editorial note: This analysis is independent commentary on a publicly released document. The original record, source links, and full release metadata are catalogued on the SkyLens UAP files page alongside every other case in the PURSUE Release 01 set.