PURSUE Release 01: DOW-UAP-D19, Mission Report, Syria, February 21, 2023

This PURSUE Release 01 document is a Department of War PDF titled DOW-UAP-D19, Mission Report, Syria, February 21, 2023.¹ The release metadata identifies the incident location as Syria and the incident date as February 21, 2023, while the PDF itself is a ten-page mission report declassified by USCENTCOM Chief of Staff Maj. Gen. Richard A. Harrison on October 8, 2025.²

The record is a MISREP, the military mission-report format the release describes as a standardized operational report often used to send UAP-related information to AARO.¹ In the PDF fields, the report type is MISREP, the originator is the 389th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron, the operation is Inherent Resolve, the domain is air, and the combatant command is USCENTCOM.²

  F-15E patrol near ESSA

The narrative says a two-ship F-15E flight took off from Muwaffaq Salti Air Base, identified by the ICAO code OJMS, to conduct defensive counter-air activity near ESSA under Operation Inherent Resolve.² The mission was not flown exactly as originally fragged because of mission amendments, but the report still records takeoff, station time, tanker refueling, electronic interference, air sightings, and landing details.²

The aircraft checked on station with KINGPIN at 0003Z and checked off station at 0340Z. The report lists a total mission time of four hours and fifty-five minutes, with refueling from MOM and GANDER tanker tracks and a landing back at OJMS at 0425Z.²

  Shaddadi jamming and air sightings

At 0021Z to 0024Z, the report says the flight received MFT radar jamming near Shaddadi at flight level 270. The EMI entry lists the affected system as APG-82, the affected frequency range as 8.8 to 9.9 GHz, the impact as partial, and the mission impact as none.² A following note gives the working theory that the interference was an effect from a Turkish X-band jammer near or across the Syria-Turkey border.²

At 0025Z, the AIRSIGHT entry records three possible UAP near Shaddadi at flight level 240. The free-text note says no radar returns were received from the UAP, no health effects were experienced by the aircrew, and two white objects were infrared significant.² The report also says a WSV was produced and no further reportable information was recorded.²

At 0135Z, a second AIRSIGHT entry records one possible balloon near Shaddadi at flight level 210. Like the earlier AIRSIGHT entry, it says a WSV was produced and no further reportable information was recorded. Both AIRSIGHT sections list the weather as cloudy.²

  How DOW-UAP-D19 preserves the encounter

DOW-UAP-D19 matters because it preserves UAP-related observations inside the ordinary structure of an operational air mission report rather than as a stand-alone narrative. The possible UAP entry appears minutes after a documented radar-jamming event in the same operating area, giving researchers a compact record of timing, altitude, sensor context, crew effects, and the report writer's immediate qualifiers.²

The release's own description cautions that descriptive and estimative language reflects the reporter's subjective interpretation at the time of the event and should not be treated as a conclusive determination about object nature, features, or performance.¹ That caveat is central here: the report records what the crew and mission system reported, while leaving the underlying identity of the objects unresolved.

  References

  References

1. war.gov ↩ ↩² ↩³

2. war.gov ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹