Mission Report, Iraq, September 2024
- Date
- 20 Sep 2024
- Place
- Iraq
- Record
- Pentagon file
- Assessment
- Not assessed
- Evidence strength
What was reported
MISREP describing a weapons-calibration test: after firing an AGM-176 Griffin missile, the weapons and combat systems officers observed an unidentified object 'fly' through the aircraft's MX-20/MX-25 sensors at high speed, creating an IR lens flare that the crew interpreted as indicating 'a significant heat source.' The aircrew maintained laser guidance until the munition impacted; the UAP was not reobserved.
What officials concluded
Unresolved
The file gives no official explanation.
- Agency
- Department of War
- Released in
- 123456
Evidence profile
- No: Visual
- Yes: Infrared
- No: Radar
- No: Video
- No: Photo
- No: Film
- No: Audio
- No: Night vision
- No: Other sensor
- No: Civilian
- No: Military aircrew
- No: Military ground
- No: Airline crew
- No: Sensor operator
- No: Law enforcement
- No: Scientist
- No: Astronaut
- No: Intelligence official
- Yes: Other
- No: Light only
- No: Orb or sphere
- No: Disc
- No: Triangle
- No: Cylinder
- No: Cube
- No: Other shape
- No: Physiological
- No: Physical trace
- No: Electromagnetic
- No: Sound
- No: Silent
Why this rating The report's own description -- an IR lens flare appearing on two sensors simultaneously, immediately after a missile launch and its own heat plume/exhaust -- matches a known sensor artifact (a bright heat source crossing the frame produces a lens flare on IR optics) at least as well as it matches a discrete flying object; treated by AARO's own case-analysis methodology elsewhere in this batch (see DOW-UAP-D077) as the kind of conventional explanation considered before 'unresolved' is assigned.
As described in the file
- Witnesses
- Weapons systems officer and combat systems officer (SOTU 016)
- Sensors
- MX-20 and MX-25 IR sensors
- Lights and colour
- IR lens flare / significant heat source
- Motion
- High rate of speed
- Duration
- Brief (single pass)
- Altitude or range
- FL130
- Effects
- None (NONE on Effects on Equipment)
Pentagon files
DOW-UAP-D028, Mission Report, Iraq, September 2024
Open the original on war.gov
What the file claims
- Unverified
Immediately after an AGM-176 Griffin missile was fired, the crew observed an unidentified object create an infrared lens flare across two sensors as it moved through the field of view at high speed.
On the map
33.00° N, 44.00° E, plotted at the centre of the country
Show on the map