Mission Report, Arabian Gulf, 2020
A U.S. military operator flying over the Arabian Gulf in 2020 filed this standardized mission report after spotting an object at roughly 31,000 feet that appeared to move with the winds and looked, to the observer, like a balloon. The crew tracked it using onboard infrared sensors, making this one of the cleaner observational records in the index — a named sensor, a specific altitude, and a firsthand description logged in real time. Whether it was an ordinary balloon or something worth a second look, the raw report is here to read.
This document is a Mission Report (MISREP), a standardized reporting form the U.S. Military uses to record the circumstances surrounding its operations. U.S. military services often use MISREPs to report Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) to AARO. The GENTEXT, or “general text” section of these reports often contains important qualitative, contextual information, distinguishing it from the more quantitative, or numerical, data found elsewhere in the report. A U.S. military operator reported observing a UAP, describing it as “look[ing] like a balloon.” The report describes the UAP as “traveling with the winds at approximately 31,000 ft.” The visually tracked the UAP via onboard infrared sensor. All descriptive and estimative language contained in this report reflects the reporter’s subjective interpretation at the time of the event. Such characterizations should not be interpreted as a conclusive indication of the presence or absence of any intrinsic object features or performance characteristics.