U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM)
| CENTCOM | |
| Country | United States |
|---|---|
| Parent department | Department of War |
| Established | January 1, 1983 |
| Headquarters | MacDill Air Force Base, Tampa, Florida |
| Area | Middle East, Central Asia, parts of South Asia |
| UAP role | Submits military UAP reports to AARO |
| Status | Active |
| Active | |
United States Central Command (CENTCOM) is one of the U.S. military’s unified combatant commands, responsible for operations across the Middle East, Central Asia and parts of South Asia. It is headquartered at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida.[1]
Role in UAP reporting
Because U.S. aircraft and drones with advanced infrared and electro-optical sensors fly constantly over its region, CENTCOM is a major source of modern military UAP reports, which crews usually file through mission reports (MISREPs) to AARO. In April 2023 AARO director Sean Kirkpatrick showed senators an MQ-9 video of a small “orb” filmed over the Middle East in 2022.[2]
PURSUE Release 06 (September 2026) included four unresolved CENTCOM cases:
- Iraq, 2022 — small objects “flying sporadically” at 80–180 mph
- Middle East, 2022 — object tracked in visible and infrared modes
- Middle East, 2025 — “white round orb”
- Middle East, 2025 — “six small spherical objects”
Assessment
AARO has said many orb-like objects from this region that it was able to resolve turned out to be balloons, birds or small drones, and that sensor limitations often make speed and size estimates unreliable. CENTCOM’s cases remain some of the best-documented unresolved military reports because they come with sensor video.[2]
See also
References
- ^ U.S. Central Command, official command history (centcom.mil).
- ^ U.S. Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities hearing, April 19, 2023; AARO Consolidated Annual Reports on UAP.