PURSUE Release 01: DOW-UAP-D61, Mission Report, Persian Gulf, August 2020

The Department of War released this redacted PDF in PURSUE Release 01 on May 8, 2026, identifying it as "DOW-UAP-D61, Mission Report, Persian Gulf, August 2020," with an incident date of August 27, 2020.¹ The release metadata provides the mission-report PDF and a thumbnail image, but no paired PR media is identified for this record.²

The PDF is a seven-page MISREP labeled Misrep 4685903 and marked as USCENTCOM MDR 26-0019; it says the material was declassified by Major General Richard A. Hamson, USCENTCOM chief of staff, on January 22, 2026.² Its administrative fields identify the report type as MISREP, the originator as 482 ATKS, the domain as air, the operations center as the 609th, the major command as ACC, and the combatant command as USCENTCOM, with personal contact fields redacted.²

  Persian Gulf ISR Tasking

The narrative places the aircraft's takeoff from OKAS at 2307Z on August 26, handover at 2320Z, collection from 0003Z to 1917Z, and landing back at OKAS at 2012Z on August 27.² The mission supported NAVCENT and an operation name redacted under 1.4a, with activity in the Arabian Gulf, Strait of Hormuz, and Gulf of Oman.²

The ISR section says the crew coordinated with NAVCENT 24 hours before takeoff and was tasked to characterize Iranian navy and IRGCN vessels, UAS activity, activity outside ports, and pattern-of-life activity.² It also records a 0532Z guard call from Iranian Air Defense, described as professional and having no mission impact after the crew gave a standard response.²

  Two-Minute Coastal Formation

At 1527Z on August 27, the report says the aircrew observed a formation of unknown flying objects at a partially redacted location and used a sensor as the method of observation.² The general-text observation says the formation traveled northeast to northwest along the coast for approximately two minutes before positive identification was lost in cloud cover, and the crew could not reacquire it.²

The weather entry repeats that light cloud coverage prevented continuous tracking of the formation.² That limitation is central to the evidentiary value of the record: it preserves a precise operational sighting, time window, platform context, and sensor method, but it does not resolve the identity, performance, or physical characteristics of the objects.²

  MISREP With Operational Context

D61 matters because it embeds a UAP observation inside an operational MISREP rather than presenting it as a standalone narrative, preserving surrounding mission activity, tasking, guard-call context, and redaction boundaries.² The Department of War summary also cautions that descriptive and estimative language reflects the reporter's subjective interpretation and should not be treated as conclusive evidence of intrinsic object features or performance.¹

  References

  References

1. war.gov ↩ ↩²

2. DOW-UAP-D61 mission report PDF; DOW-UAP-D61 thumbnail image ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹²