PURSUE Record — DOW-UAP-PR27, Unresolved UAP Report, United Arab Emirates, October 2023: United Arab Emirates

Record DOW-UAP-PR27 is a military sensor video released by the U.S. Department of War on May 8, 2026, as part of PURSUE Release 01 — the first large-scale declassified UAP disclosure coordinated through the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO). The record covers an incident in the United Arab Emirates in October 2023 and carries an "Unresolved" classification, meaning the case has not been explained to AARO's analytical satisfaction. It has not been confirmed as anything anomalous either. This is a document of an open question, not an answer.

What this record contains

DOW-UAP-PR27 consists of a single file: four minutes and fifty-seven seconds of infrared (IR) sensor footage captured aboard a U.S. military platform operating in the United Arab Emirates in 2023. The record was submitted to AARO by United States Central Command (CENTCOM), the combatant command with area of responsibility over the Middle East. An accompanying mission report — catalogued separately as DoW-UAP-D23 — notes that a UAP was observed during the mission, establishing that the footage was flagged in the field, not identified as anomalous only in post-processing review.

The Department of War's video description is precise about what the footage shows and candid about its limitations. The first one minute and fifty-five seconds contain no relevant content. At 01:56, an area of contrast becomes distinguishable against the background on the right side of the display. The sensor then pans to center on it (02:04) and narrows its field of view to zoom in (02:14). From 02:15 to 03:26, the area of contrast holds generally centered in the frame. In the final stretch — 03:27 through 04:57 — sensor motion causes the target to move erratically across the display, and the system repeatedly loses and reacquires it. The release metadata does not include the platform type, altitude, or distance to the object.

Sensor & operational context

Infrared sensors detect thermal radiation rather than visible light, imaging temperature differentials against a background. An "area of contrast" in IR footage indicates a thermal signature — something warmer or cooler than its surroundings. IR sensors are standard equipment on reconnaissance and ISR (intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance) platforms precisely because they can detect objects in low-light or visually obscured conditions. The behavior described in the final ninety seconds of this footage — erratic apparent movement across the display driven by sensor platform motion — is a well-documented challenge in aerial IR targeting: when a sensor platform maneuvers, a stabilized object can appear to move dramatically if sensor stabilization lags or if the operator is manually tracking. AARO's description carefully attributes that movement to "sensor motion," not to independent movement of the object itself, which is a meaningful analytical distinction the release makes explicit.

CENTCOM's area of responsibility encompasses the Arabian Peninsula, and U.S. military ISR operations in the UAE region are routine. The October 2023 timeframe places this incident during a period of elevated regional operational tempo. The submission pathway — CENTCOM to AARO — reflects the standardized UAP reporting pipeline that the National Defense Authorization Act of 2022 formalized, requiring military personnel to report UAP observations through official channels without stigma.

What this does and does not prove

What the public record establishes: a U.S. military IR sensor platform operating over or near the UAE in October 2023 captured a thermal contrast feature that was flagged as a UAP, CENTCOM submitted the footage to AARO through official channels, and AARO has not been able to identify the object or assign it a conventional explanation. What the record does not establish: the shape, size, altitude, speed, or behavior of the object independent of sensor artifact. The description explicitly stops short of any analytical judgment — the official language ends mid-sentence, noting the description is "for informational purposes only" and that readers "should not interpret any part of this description as reflecting an analytical judgment, investigative conclusion, or factual det[ermination]." The public release does not include the full mission report DoW-UAP-D23, sensor platform specifications, or any AARO analytical assessment for this case.

How it fits PURSUE Release 01

DOW-UAP-PR27 is one of 28 videos in the 162-document PURSUE Release 01 package, and one of several contemporary Department of War mission-report submissions in the set — cases from active U.S. military operations submitted to AARO under the post-2022 mandatory reporting framework. Taken alongside the broader release, which spans FBI archive files dating to 1947, NASA imagery, and historic Pentagon reports, this record represents the current end of the timeline: what the formal UAP reporting pipeline looks like when it functions as designed, producing footage that reaches AARO, gets reviewed, and remains unresolved. You can find every case in the release, including the resolved ones included to demonstrate analytical discipline, catalogued on the SkyLens UAP files page. For additional context on how the Department of War video cases compare to the FBI and NASA materials in the same release, see our broader PURSUE Release 01 coverage.

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.