DOE-UAP-D005 is a Department of Energy (DOE) incident report documenting the circumstances surrounding an unidentified object intrusion into the airspace above the Pantex Plant near Amarillo, Texas, on September 1, 2015. The document was released as part of PURSUE Release 04 on July 10, 2026. 123
Provenance and Context
Pantex Plant, near Amarillo, Texas, is the primary U.S. facility for the assembly, disassembly, maintenance, and life-extension of nuclear weapons, and airspace intrusions there trigger an immediate security response. Pages 5 and 6 of this report were first released in a more heavily redacted form during PURSUE Release 02 in May 2026, as DOE-UAP-D001, Enhanced Pantex Imagery. This file is the fuller incident report those pages came from.123
Detailed Content
According to the report, on the morning of September 1, 2015, the Pantex Ground Surveillance Radar detected an unknown object flying in a northerly trajectory west of plant facilities at approximately 10 to 15 miles per hour. The Protective Force responded by securing gates and dispatching personnel to track the object. Ground personnel described the object as making no sound and having no visible propulsion system. Some described it as diamond-shaped or resembling a large balloon, approximately four feet tall and two feet wide at the bottom. The report includes radar track maps and enhanced imagery from Sandia National Laboratories.3
What the Record Supports
The report confirms that the Pantex Protective Force treated the intrusion as a security event, securing gates and calling in the FBI while ground personnel tracked the object visually and by radar. It does not identify the object. Witness descriptions of a silent, slow-moving, diamond-shaped or balloon-like form leave open whether it was an unmanned aerial system, a weather balloon, or something else, and the report reaches no conclusion on that point.3