DOW-UAP-D044, Range Fouler Reporting Form, Gulf of Aden, October 2020

Official Description

This document is a Range Fouler Reporting Form, a standardized reporting form the U.S. Navy uses to record the circumstances surrounding an unauthorized intrusion into controlled airspace during active military operations or training. These reports contain a narrative description of the observer’s experiences. A U.S. military operator reported observing a “round, cold object” via infrared sensor, traveling at 319 degrees (northwest) at approximately 20 mph. The report describes the UAP making “abrupt directional changes” during the event. 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.

Key Findings

• →A round, cold object was tracked via IR sensor from 14:18:39Z to 14:19:52Z on 15 OCT 2020, lasting approximately 1 minute 13 seconds.
• →The object appeared as a bright white return when the IR sensor was set to 'black hot,' indicating it was thermally cold relative to its environment.
• →The object was traveling at 319 degrees (northwest) at approximately 20 mph and made 'a few abrupt directional changes' during the contact.
• →The sensor was aimed approximately 50 degrees below aircraft altitude with a slant range of 4.06NM and ground range of 4.78KM.
• →The aircrew checked 'Round' as the shape and confirmed the contact was moving; no radar trackfile, AIM-9x self-track, ATFLIR autotrack, or tally is noted as confirmed.

Extracted Entities