PURSUE Record — DOW-UAP-PR21, Unresolved UAP Report, Iraq, May 2022: Iraq

Record DOW-UAP-PR21 is a ten-second infrared sensor video captured by a U.S. military platform operating over Iraq in 2022 and submitted to the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) as an unidentified anomalous phenomenon report. It was declassified and published on May 8, 2026, as part of PURSUE Release 01. The record carries an "unresolved" designation — meaning the case has not been formally closed, not that anything extraordinary has been established.

What this record contains

The record was submitted by U.S. Central Command and consists of a single video file. The accompanying mission report, DoW-UAP-D14, described the object as a "probable SU-27/35" — a designation the official release documents without treating as a definitive conclusion. AARO's own comment clarifies the nomenclature: the SU-27 and SU-35 are fighter aircraft operated by the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. The public release does not include a specific incident date beyond the year 2022, and the incident location is listed broadly as Iraq.

The video itself, per the official description, depicts two areas of contrast moving together near the center of the field-of-view throughout its ten-second runtime. That description is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute an analytical judgment or factual determination about the event's nature. Beyond the visual description and the mission report's tentative aircraft identification, the public release does not include additional metadata such as altitude, speed, or sensor platform type.

Sensor & operational context

Infrared sensors detect thermal radiation rather than reflected light, rendering objects as areas of contrast against a background based on their heat signature. Military infrared systems, particularly forward-looking infrared (FLIR) imagers carried aboard fixed-wing aircraft and surveillance platforms, are designed to track heat-emitting objects — jet engines, exhaust plumes, and airframes warmed by friction. Two objects moving in close formation and appearing as paired contrast areas is consistent with what such a sensor would capture from a twin-engine fighter at distance, or from two aircraft flying in proximity. The sensor physics alone do not resolve the identification question, but they establish the interpretive baseline for what "two areas of contrast" means in this context.

In 2022, U.S. military forces maintained an advisory and counter-terrorism presence in Iraq under Operation Inherent Resolve. Airspace over and near Iraq involves multiple nations' military aircraft, including Russian-made platforms operated by regional air forces. The presence of SU-27 or SU-35 airframes in the broader theater is operationally plausible, which is the evident basis for the mission report's tentative identification.

What this does and does not prove

What the record documents is this: a U.S. military infrared sensor captured two moving contrast signatures over Iraq in 2022, and the crew or analysts who filed the accompanying mission report assessed the objects as probably Russian-designed fighter aircraft. AARO received the report and has not formally resolved it — hence the "unresolved" status. What the record does not establish is whether the objects were definitively identified, whether they posed any threat, or whether any anomalous performance was observed. The "unresolved" label reflects an administrative classification status, not a finding that the objects behaved in ways outside known physics. The sparse metadata in the public release means independent analysis is limited to the video description and the mission report's tentative call.

How it fits PURSUE Release 01

DOW-UAP-PR21 sits within the contemporary Department of War mission report strand of PURSUE Release 01 — records generated by active U.S. military operations and routed through AARO's reporting pipeline. Unlike the FBI archival files in the release that date to the 1947–1968 era, or the NASA imagery records drawn from agency archives, these DoW submissions represent the current institutional process: crews file reports, AARO catalogues them, and cases that remain administratively open are included in public releases to demonstrate transparency and analytical rigor. Cases like this one, where a conventional explanation is tentatively on the table but not formally confirmed, illustrate exactly the kind of ambiguity the release is designed to surface rather than conceal. For further context on the full 162-document release, see the broader PURSUE coverage on this blog.

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.