Iraq MISREP Origin
The Department of War's May 8, 2026 PURSUE Release 01 identifies DOW-UAP-D18 as a Department of War mission report for a December 1, 2022 incident in Iraq.1 The six-page PDF is a Military Mission Report, or MISREP, declassified by USCENTCOM Chief of Staff MG Richard A. Harrison on October 8, 2025 and approved for release to AARO.2
The report places the sortie under Operation Inherent Resolve in the air domain, with USCENTCOM as the combatant command, the 609th listed in operations-center fields, and the 482 ATKS named as the originating unit. Much of the aircraft, personnel, tasking, and location detail remains redacted under national-security and privacy exemptions.2
ISR Timeline and UAP Entry
The mission timeline says the aircraft took off from OKAS at 1206Z on December 1, 2022, was on station from 1220Z until 0655Z, and landed back at OKAS at 0723Z on December 2. The report lists the mission type as ISR, the primary sensor as full-motion video, and the total mission time as 19 hours and 17 minutes.2
The UAP entry records initial contact at 1620Z on December 1. It lists one UAP sighted, no UAP signatures, and no reported effects on persons. In the UAP description field, the operator reported observing one "possible UAP/UAV" flying west to east near a redacted grid location; the report adds that the crew did not follow it, continued the mission as tasked, and observed no further events.2
Linked PR-23 Infrared Clip
The release metadata pairs DOW-UAP-D18 with PR-23, a DVIDS-hosted unresolved UAP report from Iraq in December 2022.3 DVIDS identifies that public clip as a Department of War video published on May 7, 2026, and the PURSUE metadata describes it as ten seconds of infrared-sensor footage from a U.S. military platform tied to the same D18 mission report.34
D18 Record Behind PR23
DOW-UAP-D18 matters because it anchors a short public video to a fuller operational record. The PDF does not identify the object or describe unusual performance beyond the west-to-east movement noted by the reporter, but it does preserve the reporting chain, timing, mission context, sensor context, and redaction boundaries for the event.23
The record is also useful because it shows how PURSUE Release 01 separates raw or near-raw source material from analysis. The mission report preserves the contemporaneous operational wording, while the paired PR-23 listing supplies the public media pointer and cautions readers not to treat the description as an investigative conclusion about the object's nature or significance.3