PURSUE Release 01: DOW-UAP-D57, Range Fouler Reporting Form, Gulf of Aden, September 2020

DOW-UAP-D57 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 for a September 4, 2020 incident in the Gulf of Aden, with no populated public video or PDF pairing fields for this item.¹

  Navy Range-Fouler Source

The released page is an originating operational form rather than a later narrative summary. The release catalog describes Range Fouler Reporting Forms as U.S. Navy records used to document unauthorized intrusions into controlled airspace during military operations or training, and it cautions that descriptive and estimated language reflects the reporter's interpretation at the time of the event.¹

The form's visible administrative fields identify the reporter as an O-3 associated with 172 ATKS, list the crew position as Other, and describe the mission as ISR. The template says SPEAR sanitizes identifying information before analysis, and the released copy contains redactions in contact, identity, and location fields. The footer ties the page to USCENTCOM 26-0028 and an approval for release to AARO dated March 16, 2026.²

  Eight-Minute Infrared Track

The structured fields record a night detection at 21:09:00Z on September 4, 2020. They list one contact in the group, mark the contact as moving, give direction and speed as 168/277, and check Round as the only apparent shape feature. The contact-location fields include redacted coordinates, while the form lists 23,819 in the contact-altitude field and repeats 23,819 HAT in the narrative.²

In the narrative field, the operator reported contact from 21:09Z to 21:17Z. The platform was over the Gulf of Aden when the crew tracked a "round, cold object" in infrared, traveling 168 degrees at 277 mph, with a few abrupt directional changes during the eight-minute observation. The same narrative states that the sensor was aimed 39 degrees below the platform's altitude line, with a slant range of 6.17 nautical miles and a ground range of 8.81 kilometers.²

The form explains the apparent brightness through the sensor setting. It says the infrared sensor was set to black hot, making the object appear "bright white" in the display. That matters because the page records an operator's sensor observation and geometry, not an independent determination of the object's physical temperature, material, or identity.¹²

  No D57 Video Pairing

The release metadata does not list a PR video pairing or a paired PR document for DOW-UAP-D57. The form itself instructs personnel to preserve display tapes for the full interaction and save them as a .wmv, but PURSUE Release 01 does not publish a matching public video for this record. The only companion media link in the release metadata is a thumbnail image of the PDF page.¹²³

  Observation Versus Identification

DOW-UAP-D57 matters because it preserves the source of the report: a contemporaneous range-fouler form from an ISR mission, with time, sensor mode, range, direction, speed, object-shape checkbox, and a short operator narrative in the same record. It also shows the boundary between observation and interpretation. The public catalog repeats the operator's reported description while warning that such wording should not be treated as a conclusive finding about intrinsic object features or performance.¹²

  References

  References

1. war.gov ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

2. war.gov ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

3. war.gov ↩