DOW-UAP-D103 is a Navy aviation safety debrief covering a close-proximity encounter between naval strike fighter aircraft and an unidentified object in the Persian Gulf on November 4, 2021. The Department of War declassified and released the document for the first time as part of PURSUE Release 05 on August 7, 2026. 123
Provenance and Content
The Department of War classifies the object as a range fouler, an unidentified craft that intrudes into restricted or operational airspace. Naval strike fighter crews and radar operators tracked the object during the encounter and were debriefed afterward, producing this incident report. The debrief states that the object evaded radar tracking and held a stationary position despite local wind conditions. Filing a safety report is standard procedure for an uncoordinated airspace intrusion that poses a collision hazard, and that procedure accounts for this record's existence.3
What the Record Supports
The record documents a formal safety debrief following a close-proximity encounter between naval aircraft and an unidentified hovering object. It does not identify the object's origin or explain how it evaded radar or held position against the wind.3