DOW-UAP-PR071 is a Department of War video record released in PURSUE Release 02 on May 22, 2026. The record's uploader-defined title is "USAF ANG F-16C (callsign [CALLSIGN]) Shoots Down UAP over Lake Huron with [Weapon System], 12 Feb 2023," and the incident location is listed as NORTHCOM.12
House Request Provenance
The record entered the public catalog through a March 6, 2026 request in which eight members of the U.S. House of Representatives sought access to 51 potentially UAP-related records allegedly held by the Department of War and the Intelligence Community. AARO identified responsive materials on a classified network and cautions that many of these materials lack a substantiated chain-of-custody.
The AARO Assessment
AARO assesses that this clip is likely derived from an infrared sensor aboard a U.S. military platform operating within the United States Northern Command area of responsibility in 2023. A user uploaded the video to a classified network in February 2023. In the forty-six-second file, at the eleven-second mark the sensor focuses on an area of contrast in the center of its field of view; at the twenty-second mark the footage appears to depict a kinetic interaction between two distinct areas of contrast, with the initial subject of the footage fragmenting in a radial displacement pattern that AARO notes suggests a high-energy event. DVIDS hosts the matching public video entry and a direct MP4 rendition of the clip.34
Significance Within the DOW Video Set
Among the DOW video records in PURSUE R02, PR071 stands apart because the imagery itself appears to capture an intercept rather than a passive sensor track: two areas of contrast converge, and the original subject fragments outward. That visible kinetic event, paired with the uploader's shootdown title, makes this the most consequential clip in the group. Even so, AARO's wording is deliberately hedged -- it describes only what the footage "appears to depict" and what the pattern "suggests," and attaches no confirmation of the callsign, weapon system, target identity, or outcome named in the uploader title.
What The Record Supports
PR071 preserves a brief infrared sequence appearing to show a kinetic interaction over Lake Huron, along with its upload path -- not a resolved or officially adjudicated case. AARO presents the description for informational purposes only, with no judgment about the event's validity, nature, or significance, and flags the missing chain-of-custody. The record documents footage consistent with an engagement against an unresolved object; it does not, by itself, identify what was struck or independently confirm the shootdown described in the uploader title.