Documents / Official release
This case resolution from the Department of Defense's All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) is dated 14 October 2023. It covers a report from a military pilot on 26 January 2023 in the Eglin Air Force Base training range off Florida. The pilot tracked four objects on radar and photographed one of them, which appeared as a rounded cone at 16,000 feet. With moderate confidence, AARO concluded the object was very likely a lighter-than-air object such as a commercial lighting balloon. It found the aircraft's radar failure was coincidental.
UNCLASSIFIED 2 UNCLASSIFIED “Apollo spacecraft” (see Figure 2). The pilot visually perceived a heat signature emanating from the rounded bottom portion, which they described as “blurry air.” • (U) During AARO’s discussion with the pilot, the pilot stated that they thought they saw a vertically oriented engine affixed to the side of the object that was nearly the height of the object. This feature is not visible in the two still images taken by the EO/IR sensor, and the pilot did not include this description in the initial report. AARO has no additional data to corroborate whether the object may have had an engine. • (U) The pilot reported that upon closing to within 4,000 feet of the object, the radar on the aircraft malfunctioned and remained disabled for the remainder of the training exercise. Post-mission review determined that a circuit breaker had tripped; technicians reported that the same circuit breaker on this particular aircraft had tripped three times in the prior months, but technicians could not conclusively diagnose the cause of the fault for this incident. Based on the previous tripping of this circuit, AARO assesses the malfunction likely was not caused by or associated with the object. • (U) During the discussion with the pilot, they recounted that after the radar malfunctioned, the object descended into the cloud deck. • (U) There was no EO/IR data for the other three reported objects initially observed on radar; therefore, AARO could not analyze those reported objects. (U) Key Findings (U) AARO assesses the reported UAP very likely was an ordinary object and was not exhibiting anomalous or exceptional characteristics or flight behaviors. AARO has moderate confidence in this assessment due to the limited data provided. • (U) AARO assesses the object was a lighter-than-air (LTA) object, such as a large form- factor balloon; a meteorological balloon; a large Mylar balloon; or a large, commercial, outdoor, helium-filled, lighting balloon. AARO has moderate confidence in its identification of the object. AARO bases this assessment on a thorough review of the data collected, official pilot accounts of the object’s description and behavior, laboratory testing of a commercial lighting balloon determined to have similar physical characteristics to the object described in the pilot’s report, a reconstruction of the flight geometry, and the sun angle at the time of the observation. • (U) No anomalous flight characteristics, behaviors, or capabilities were confirmed. AARO assesses the circuit breaker trip that caused the radar to fail was coincidental and likely due to a pre-existing, undiagnosed technical problem with the system. • (U) The physical description of the UAP was generally consistent with an LTA object held aloft and carried by the wind; its direction and reported slow speed are consistent with the wind direction and speed at the time and the altitude of the observation.018Page determined to be Unclassified Review by Chief of Staff, AARO IAW FY24 NDAA, Section 1841 (a)(1)(C) Date: 02/06/2025
Not linked to a story yet.
Official release, from the nara collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 7 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.