CENTCOM UAP Videos, Middle East (2023–2025) – PURSUE Files

Six short infrared and electro-optical videos from U.S. platforms in the Middle East, released in PURSUE Releases 04 and 05

⚠ Note on validity: All are listed as unresolved. They were released without mission reports or operator descriptions, so there is no reported size, speed or behavior to assess.

Middle East videos, 2023–2025
Dates	2023 – 2025
Region	Middle East (exact locations withheld)
Reported by	U.S. Central Command
Released	Release 04 (July 10, 2026); Release 05 (Aug. 7, 2026)
Files	6 (Video (DVIDS))
Official releaseUnresolved

These six clips were submitted by U.S. Central Command. Two were released in PURSUE Release 04 and four in Release 05. Each shows a sensor following a single small area of contrast; in one (PR136) part of the aircraft passes in front of the sensor.^[1]

The records

DOW-UAP-PR024, Unresolved UAP Report, Middle East, 2023

DOW-UAP-PR024, Unresolved UAP Report, Middle East, 2023 — official upload on DVIDS (public domain).

The United States Central Command submitted a report of an unidentified anomalous phenomenon to the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) consisting of 18 seconds of video footage from an infrared sensor aboard a U.S. military platform in 2023.
Video Description:
00:01: The sensor focuses on a dark area of contrast, narrowing the field of view to zoom in.
00:02: Two bright areas of contrast transit the frame from left to right.
00:03: The sensor zooms out, keeping the bright areas of contrast within the frame.
00:05: The bright areas of contrast exit the right side of the frame.
00:07: The sensor refocuses on the dark area of contrast, keeping it generally within the center of the frame.
00:10: A reticle surrounds the dark area of contrast, which continues to remain generally within the center of the frame.
00:17: The sensor changes contrast and zoom settings, causing the frame to flash white.
This video description is provided for informational purposes only. Readers should not interpret any part of this description as reflecting an analytical judgment, investigative conclusion, or factual determination regarding the described event’s validity, nature, or significance.
— Official PURSUE description

DOW-UAP-PR030, Unresolved UAP Report, Middle East, 2023

DOW-UAP-PR030, Unresolved UAP Report, Middle East, 2023 — official upload on DVIDS (public domain).

The United States Central Command submitted a report of an unidentified anomalous phenomenon to the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) consisting of 10 seconds of video footage from an infrared sensor aboard a U.S. military platform in 2023.
Video Description:
00:01-00:05: No content.
00:06-00:07: Two areas of contrast transit the sensor field-of-view. The first enters the field-of-view from the bottom right and exits from the top edge of the frame. The second, relatively smaller area of contrast enters from the top and exits the bottom of the frame.
00:08-00:10: No content.
This video description is provided for informational purposes only. Readers should not interpret any part of this description as reflecting an analytical judgment, investigative conclusion, or factual determination regarding the described event’s validity, nature, or significance.
— Official PURSUE description

DOW-UAP-PR136, Unresolved UAP Report, Middle East, 2023

DOW-UAP-PR136, Unresolved UAP Report, Middle East, 2023 — official upload on DVIDS (public domain).

The United States Central Command submitted a report of an unidentified anomalous phenomenon to the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) consisting of 30 seconds of video footage from an infrared sensor aboard a U.S. military platform in 2023.
Video description:
00:00-00:08: The sensor pans to track an area of contrast, keeping it generally centered within the frame. The sensor is partially occluded by a component of the platform passing in front of it, obscuring the background.
00:09-00:33: The sensor zooms in on the area of contrast. A reticle briefly surrounds the area of contrast. The sensor is occluded by a component of the platform, obscuring the display.
This video description is provided for informational purposes only. Readers should not interpret any part of this description as reflecting an analytical judgment, investigative conclusion, or factual determination regarding the described event’s validity, nature, or significance.
— Official PURSUE description

DOW-UAP-PR149, Unresolved UAP Report, Middle East, 2023

DOW-UAP-PR149, Unresolved UAP Report, Middle East, 2023 — official upload on DVIDS (public domain).

The United States Central Command submitted a report of an unidentified anomalous phenomenon to the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) consisting of 51 seconds of video footage from an infrared sensor aboard a U.S. military platform in 2023.
Video description:
00:00-00:04: An area of contrast transits the frame from the bottom right edge to the lower left edge of the sensor field-of-view.
00:05-00:51: The sensor pans to track the area of contrast, keeping it generally within the center of the frame.
This video description is provided for informational purposes only. Readers should not interpret any part of this description as reflecting an analytical judgment, investigative conclusion, or factual determination regarding the described event’s validity, nature, or significance.
— Official PURSUE description

DOW-UAP-PR134, Unresolved UAP Report, Middle East, 2025

DOW-UAP-PR134, Unresolved UAP Report, Middle East, 2025 — official upload on DVIDS (public domain).

The United States Central Command submitted a report of an unidentified anomalous phenomenon to the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) consisting of 1 minute and 39 seconds of video footage from an electro-optical and infrared sensor aboard a U.S. military platform in 2025.
Video description:
00:00-01:39: The sensor pans to track an area of contrast from left to right across the background, keeping it generally centered within the frame. The sensor adjusts collection mode and level of magnification several times.
This video description is provided for informational purposes only. Readers should not interpret any part of this description as reflecting an analytical judgment, investigative conclusion, or factual determination regarding the described event’s validity, nature, or significance.
— Official PURSUE description

DOW-UAP-PR142, Unresolved UAP Report, Middle East, 2025

DOW-UAP-PR142, Unresolved UAP Report, Middle East, 2025 — official upload on DVIDS (public domain).

The United States Central Command submitted a report of an unidentified anomalous phenomenon to the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) consisting of 14 seconds of video footage from an infrared sensor aboard a U.S. military platform in 2025.
Video description:
00:00-00:04: No content.
00:05-00:08: An area of contrast enters the sensor field-of-view from the left edge, transits from left to right, and exits the right edge of the frame.
00:09-00:14: No content.
This video description is provided for informational purposes only. Readers should not interpret any part of this description as reflecting an analytical judgment, investigative conclusion, or factual determination regarding the described event’s validity, nature, or significance.
— Official PURSUE description

Analysis

Context. From late 2023 the Middle East saw a surge in drone activity, including Houthi and Iranian-backed one-way attack drones, and U.S. crews were reporting small airborne objects at a high rate. Without accompanying reports, these videos are the hardest PURSUE material to evaluate. They are most useful alongside the better-documented CENTCOM cases in Release 06.

Reading these reports. Speeds, sizes and altitudes in military UAP reports are usually operator estimates. A single infrared camera cannot measure distance, so an object’s speed is inferred from how fast it crosses the screen plus an assumed range; if the object is closer and smaller than assumed, it is also much slower (parallax). “Cold” objects in infrared are cooler than the background, which fits unpowered things like balloons. AARO’s public reports say most cases it has resolved turned out to be balloons, birds, drones, or sensor and display effects.^[2]

New or previously released? New. We found no earlier public release of these reports or videos.

Released files

PURSUE ID	Title	Type
DOW-UAP-PR024	Unresolved UAP Report, Middle East, 2023	Video (DVIDS)
DOW-UAP-PR030	Unresolved UAP Report, Middle East, 2023	Video (DVIDS)
DOW-UAP-PR136	Unresolved UAP Report, Middle East, 2023	Video (DVIDS)
DOW-UAP-PR149	Unresolved UAP Report, Middle East, 2023	Video (DVIDS)
DOW-UAP-PR134	Unresolved UAP Report, Middle East, 2025	Video (DVIDS)
DOW-UAP-PR142	Unresolved UAP Report, Middle East, 2025	Video (DVIDS)

References

^ U.S. Department of War (2026). PURSUE Release 04 (July 10, 2026), Release 05 (Aug. 7, 2026): DOW-UAP-PR024, DOW-UAP-PR030, DOW-UAP-PR136, DOW-UAP-PR149, DOW-UAP-PR134, DOW-UAP-PR142, with official descriptions. war.gov/ufo.
^ All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, Consolidated Annual Reports on UAP (2023–2025): most resolved cases were balloons, birds, unmanned aircraft or sensor artifacts.

Source: U.S. Department of War, PURSUE (Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters), war.gov/ufo. Official records are U.S. government works in the public domain; summaries and analysis on this page are by UFO UAP Wiki.