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A newly released U.S. Department of War document from the PURSUE archive reports that a military operator encountered three separate Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) in the Persian Gulf on July 16, 2020.
According to Department of War records released under PURSUE, the document, titled “DOW-UAP-D65, Mission Report, Persian Gulf, July 2020,” is a standardized Mission Report (MISREP) form used by the U.S. military to record operational circumstances. The report, published by the Department of War on May 8, 2026, details an incident occurring in the Persian Gulf on July 16, 2020, with the operator reporting encounters at three separate times: 1830Z, 1920Z, and 2345Z.
The official description of the document notes that U.S. military services often use MISREPs to report UAP to the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO). The report’s “GENTEXT,” or general text section, is described as containing important qualitative and contextual information, distinguishing it from the more quantitative data found elsewhere in the form. However, the official summary cautions that all descriptive and estimative language in the report reflects the reporter’s subjective interpretation at the time of the event. The Department of War states such characterizations “should not be interpreted as a conclusive indication of the presence or absence of any intrinsic object features or performance characteristics.”
Document Context and the AARO Office
The mission report is a product of the U.S. Department of War, which released it through its PURSUE archive. The document’s stated purpose is to record the circumstances of the operator’s encounter with three separate UAP. The record’s official summary offers limited detail beyond the date, location, and times of the encounters, noting that the operator’s subjective account is contained within the full report.
Per a Wikipedia summary of the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, AARO is an office within the United States Office of the Secretary of Defense that investigates UFOs and other phenomena in the air, sea, space, and/or on land. The Wikipedia entry notes that AARO’s first director was physicist Sean Kirkpatrick, who reported to then deputy defense secretary Kathleen Hicks, and its current director is Jon T. Kosloski. The mission report from the Persian Gulf incident was filed using the MISREP format, which the Department of War confirms is a standard channel for reporting such phenomena to this office.
What Remains Unanswered
The released document, while providing a verified record of an official UAP report from July 2020, leaves many questions unanswered. The official summary does not disclose the specific descriptions, behaviors, or characteristics of the three UAP encountered by the operator. The Department of War’s own caveat emphasizes that the operator’s subjective interpretation cannot be taken as conclusive evidence of any particular object features or performance capabilities.
Readers should watch for future PURSUE releases from the Department of War, which may provide additional mission reports or contextual documents that could shed light on the nature of these encounters. The full PDF of the report, available at the Department of War’s website, may contain the detailed GENTEXT narrative that could offer more specific information about what the operator observed in the Persian Gulf on July 16, 2020.
