The May 8, 2026 PURSUE release identifies DOW-UAP-D38 as a Department of War PDF tied to a May 14, 2020 incident in the Persian Gulf.1 The record is a one-page Range Fouler Debrief Form: a controlled-airspace intrusion report used by Navy units to collect a narrative, contact details, sensor circumstances, and follow-up handling information.12
Night ISR Track Details
The form was declassified by USCENTCOM Chief of Staff Maj. Gen. Richard A. Harrison and stamped approved for release to AARO on January 26, 2026.2 It records a night ISR mission, a 20:40Z detection time, one contact in the group, a 20,000-foot contact altitude, intermittent stable trackfile, and a moving contact. Some fields are redacted or visually degraded, including portions of names, communications, and distribution instructions.2
In the narrative section, the reporting crew described a solid white object entering the sensor field of view during an ISR tasking using black-hot imagery. The crew temporarily lost it, reacquired it, followed apparent erratic movement above water, zoomed to 4x, and then lost the object because of poor track placement while the sensor operator kept manipulating the sensor to maintain visual contact.2
Operator Report Limits
The release metadata frames this as a subjective operator report, not an analytic conclusion about the object's identity or performance. Its description warns that descriptive and estimative language reflects the reporter's interpretation at the time and should not be read as a conclusive determination.1
DOW-UAP-D38 is paired in the release with PR-36, a DVIDS-hosted video record titled "DOW-UAP-PR36, Unresolved UAP Report, Middle East, May 2020." The PR-36 metadata says USCENTCOM submitted two minutes and 17 seconds of infrared sensor footage to AARO, and links that footage to this range fouler report's description of a solid white object making erratic movements above water.3
Paper Trail Meets Video
This record matters because it connects a written range-fouler form to its associated motion imagery. The debrief supplies operational context that the video alone cannot: date, time, mission type, one-contact count, operator narrative, and tracking notes. The paired PR-36 media supplies the visual timeline that the paper form references, including repeated sensor zoom changes and the final loss of the area of contrast when the sensor switched modality.34
Together, the PDF and video metadata show how AARO-era releases preserve both raw observation material and cautious contextual warnings. The strongest documented claim is narrow: a U.S. military crew reported an unresolved object during an ISR tasking over the Persian Gulf, with the released record preserving the contemporaneous account, not a final identification.123