PURSUE Release 01: DOW-UAP-D44, Range Fouler Reporting Form, Gulf of Aden, October 2020

  Gulf of Aden Form

DOW-UAP-D44 is a Department of War PDF released in PURSUE Release 01 on May 8, 2026. The release metadata identifies it as a redacted Range Fouler Reporting Form, a Navy form for recording unauthorized intrusions into controlled airspace during operations or training, and gives the incident date as October 15, 2020.¹

The release title places the record in the Gulf of Aden, while the release metadata lists the incident location as Arabian Sea. The PDF narrative itself says the crew was "over the Gulf of Aden," so this page preserves both the official metadata and the form's more specific narrative geography.²

  One-Minute IR Contact

The form records one contact detected during an ISR mission at 14:18:39Z. Its structured fields mark the contact as moving and round, with a single object in the group.²

In the narrative field, the operator reported a contact from 14:18:39Z to 14:19:52Z on October 15, 2020. The aircraft was at 19,073 HAT over the Gulf of Aden when the crew tracked a "round, cold object" in infrared. The report states that it traveled at 319 degrees at about 20 mph, made abrupt directional changes during the roughly one-minute observation, and appeared bright white because the IR sensor was set to black hot.²

The same narrative gives a slant range of 4.06 nautical miles and a ground range of 4.78 kilometers. Personal identifying information and some handling details are redacted under (b)(6), while the footer ties the page to USCENTCOM MOR 26-0038 through MOR 26-0046 and an approved-for-release date of March 27, 2026.²

  Thumbnail Only

The release metadata does not list a PR video or PDF pairing for DOW-UAP-D44. The only remote media link provided alongside the PDF is a thumbnail image of the released page, so the document remains the substantive public record for this incident in PURSUE Release 01.¹³

  Originating Crew Report

DOW-UAP-D44 matters because it is not just a catalog summary. It is an originating operational form that preserves the observing crew's sensor mode, timing, geometry, and short narrative in the same record. That combination makes it useful for comparing later summaries against the originating report, while the Department of War caveat in the release metadata warns that the object's description reflects the reporter's interpretation rather than a conclusive finding.¹²

  References

  References

1. war.gov ↩ ↩² ↩³

2. war.gov ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

3. war.gov ↩