Principal Cases

Likely infrared footage its uploader titled as an Air National Guard F-16C shooting down an object over Lake Huron, 12 February 2023. At 20 seconds the subject fragments in a pattern that, in AARO’s description, suggests a high-energy event.

Phone recording of an AC-130J gunship’s infrared display, Gulf of Oman, September 2021. The crew reported about 25 “cold orbs” roughly four feet across, at estimated speeds of 250–1,300 mph. Report: DOW-UAP-D101.

Likely infrared footage its uploader titled as spherical objects near a submarine moving in and out of the water, dated 2022/03/25 in the title. AARO’s description records several objects tracked in turn; it does not confirm the water transitions.

Chief Warrant Officer Delbert Newhouse’s 16mm film of 12 to 14 bright objects near Tremonton, Utah, July 1952. Later Air Force assessments leaned toward seabirds reflecting sunlight, but the film’s limited detail and lack of fixed reference points prevented a conclusive resolution.

Phone footage, July 2025. Two witnesses the FBI assesses as credible describe twin red spheres about one meter across, hovering 25 ft up at 90 ft, moving in tandem and appearing to merge.

Phone footage, October 2024. A “plasma-like sphere” hovers over a pond for about 45 minutes, changing shape and separating into smaller points; one point sits just above the water and does not match a reflection.

Nine seconds of infrared footage, Indo-Pacific, 2024: a football-shaped body with three radial projections. The reporter filed no description.

Infrared footage from a civilian aircraft, 2019. The observer, with 28 years of Air Force and Navy service, reported flight characteristics unlike anything they had seen: small, fast, in a straight line.

Likely infrared footage from Central Command, 2022: four objects cross the frame together. Its uploader titled it a four-object formation over water near Iran, 26 Aug 2022.

Apollo 17, December 1972: three dots in a triangle in the lunar sky. A case is open; preliminary analysis suggests the feature is potentially the result of a physical object, and the original film is under review.

Space Shuttle Columbia, STS-80, 1996: the first of three frames showing an unidentified object beside the Earth’s limb in low-Earth orbit.

The Apollo 12 landing site, 1969, with five areas of unidentified phenomena marked above the horizon. No conclusion is drawn.

Still image from a U.S. government system: a small, dark, slightly irregular object just below and right of the reticle. The operator could not identify it, and the date and location were not provided.

FBI rendering of a federal agent’s account from the October 2023 Western US Event. An interpretation, not a photograph.

FBI rendering of a former service member’s account of a triangle over Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan, June 2002. An interpretation, not a photograph.

Seven federal employees, two days, 2023: orbs launching other orbs, a close glowing orb, a pursuit near the ground, a “translucent kite.” AARO counts it among the most compelling cases it holds.

FBI composite over a site photo. Witnesses in September 2023 describe a bronze, metallic ellipsoid 130–195 ft long emerging from a bright light and vanishing instantly.

First-hand account by a serving senior intelligence official: glowing orbs at close range near a sensitive facility in late 2025, and a low, fast object that split in two.

Diplomatic cable, January 1994. From a 747 at 41,000 ft over Kazakhstan, an intensely bright object photographed making 90° turns and corkscrews.

CIA briefing on an incident near Puerto Rico, November 1964: the destroyer USS Gyatt’s radar tracked a contact above 3,800 knots, about 4,373 mph, for 21 minutes.