An encounter reported by the crew of a U.S. Special Operations Forces AC-130 gunship over the Gulf of Oman on 8 September 2021, documented in PURSUE Release 05 record DOW-UAP-D101, an intelligence information report originated by Air Force Special Operations Command and published on 27 April 2022. Six video records, DOW-UAP-PR117 through PR122, are released with it.
During live-fire training the crew dropped a water-activated flare as a mock target and orbited it. Slewing the electro-optical and infrared sensor back to the flare in infrared mode, the Combat Systems Officer saw two objects of approximately four feet in diameter, described as Cold Orbs, between zero and twenty feet above the water, stationary over the flare for about fifteen seconds. After those fifteen seconds he pulled the trigger on the aircraft’s 105 mm cannon; the report records that during the slight delay between trigger pull and the cannon’s recoil the pair flew rapidly away from the flare and out of the sensor feed without changing altitude.
Approximately twenty-five instances were observed across the sortie, all as cold orbs in both white-hot and black-hot polarity, at manoeuvring speeds between 250 and 1,300 mph with no means of propulsion observed. One pair flew in a loose but coordinated formation the report likens to dolphins swimming in a pod. The crew’s attempt to save the full sensor footage failed when the aircraft’s digital video recorder failed and the data was corrupted; the six released clips are secondary phone captures of the sensor display. The report makes no identification, and records coordination only with the U.S. Defense Attaché Office in Muscat and SOCCENT J2X, both without comment.
Connections
PURSUE · Air Force Special Operations Command · USCENTCOM · Cold Orbs · AARO · 2020 CENTCOM Wave