"USAF ANG F-16C (callsign [CALLSIGN]) Shoots Down UAP over Lake Huron with [Weapon System], 12 Feb 2023"
- Date
- 2023
- Place
- NORTHCOM
- Record
- Pentagon file
- Assessment
- Not assessed
- Evidence strength
What was reported
Video released by AARO under the PURSUE program (release 2), uploader-titled "USAF ANG F-16C (callsign [CALLSIGN]) Shoots Down UAP over Lake Huron with [Weapon System], 12 Feb 2023". AARO attributes the footage to an infrared sensor aboard a U.S. military platform operating within the United States Northern Command area of responsibility in 2023. The blurb's shot-by-shot description records an unresolved sensor track of an "area of contrast" over 00:00:46 of footage, with panning, zooming and mode changes but no resolved shape, size or performance data. A user first uploaded the file to a classified network in February 2023; the PURSUE release is its first appearance found in the open record.
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
- Yes: Military aircrew
- No: Military ground
- No: Airline crew
- Yes: Sensor operator
- No: Law enforcement
- No: Scientist
- No: Astronaut
- No: Intelligence official
- No: 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 Single-sensor IR video of a target that is engaged and destroyed by a US fighter's weapon; the described "radial displacement pattern" on impact is consistent with a physical object breaking apart under kinetic force, which argues against exotic performance rather than for it. No wreckage recovery or composition data is in the blurb.
As described in the file
- Witnesses
- Sensor operator/aircrew (unnamed; callsign, platform and/or weapon system redacted in blurb)
- Sensors
- FLIR/infrared
- Motion
- Sensor pans/zooms to track a moving area of contrast; no speed data given
- Duration
- 00:00:46
- Effects
- Apparent kinetic fragmentation of the tracked object on being engaged by a fighter's weapon system
Pentagon files
DOW-UAP-PR071, "USAF ANG F-16C (callsign [CALLSIGN]) Shoots Down UAP over Lake Huron with [Weapon System], 12 Feb 2023"
Open the original on dvidshub.net
What the file claims
- Unverified
AARO assesses the file's likely technical origin as: an infrared sensor aboard a U.S. military platform operating within the United States Northern Command area of responsibility in 2023.
On the map
45.00° N, 100.00° W, plotted at the theatre of operations named in the file
Show on the map