DOW-UAP-D109: "Prob UAPs" Traveling Southwest at 80-180 MPH, Middle East, 5 May 2022 -- Mission Report with a Mismatched Official Blurb

Source file: DOW-UAP-D109_Mission-Report-Middle-East-2022.pdf Originating agency: U.S. Air Force, 20 ATKS (attack squadron), AFCENT, Operation INHERENT RESOLVE, USCENTCOM; submitted to AARO Document type: Mission Report (MISREP) 7467030 Date: Sortie 4-5 May 2022; UAP observation 0524Z-0704Z on 5 May 2022 Classification: SECRET//REL TO USA, FVEY (markings struck through, "UNCLASSIFIED"); declassified by MG Richard A. Harrison, USCENTCOM Chief of Staff, on 10 July 2026; released 2026 Page count: 6 VIRIN: 260918-D-D0360-1098 PURSUE Release: 6

Summary

This report must be read against its official description. The war.gov blurb for D109 says the operator saw "six small spherical objects grouped together", "seem[ingle] agile" and "frequently changing direction", at 480 miles per hour. None of those words, numbers or descriptions appears anywhere in the six pages. The blurb is almost identical to the one published for DOW-UAP-D108, the July 2025 report in which those details do appear.

What D109 actually records is a 2022 observation of small, erratic objects: "PROB UAPS TRAVELING SW AT ROUGHLY 80-180 MPH", about 1-2 meters in size, altitude unknown, seen periodically for 100 minutes during dust storms. The blurbs for the paired videos PR140 and PR141 quote the report correctly, as "traveling at various speeds between 80-180 miles per hour."

Research Article

The sortie

The report uses the same older form as DOW-UAP-D106: a narrative, Admin, MSGID/MSNID, the POC, QC and APPROVER blocks, ACEQUIP, a timeline, an ISR block and a generic OBSERVATION block, with no dedicated UAP section. Its number, 7467030, is close to D106's 7468013.

The narrative (page 1) records takeoff at 2149Z on 4 May 2022 and a hand-over at 2158Z "WITH FULLY MISSION CAPABLE SENSORS". From 0057Z to 1552Z on 5 May the aircraft "CONDUCTED TARGET DEVELOPMENT". It landed at 1924Z with a last engine shutdown at 1934Z. The total-mission-time field is redacted; the printed times give 21 hours 35 minutes.

The ISR GENTEXT (page 5) states the purpose: "TO CONDUCT POL, IDENTIFY PID OF WEAPONS AND WEAPONS/AMMO STORAGE AREAS, AS WELL AS IDENTIFY PERSONNEL WITHIN THE COMPOUND", that is, pattern-of-life observation and positive identification of weapons and people at a compound. The crew "OBSERVED NO SIGNIFICANT/NEFARIOUS ACTIVITY UNTIL RTB." "Intel Gap Filled?" is nonetheless "Yes".

What the report says about the UAPs

There are three passages. In the narrative: "AT 0524Z, [redacted] OBSERVED [redacted] PROB UAPS TRAVELING SW AT ROUGHLY 80-180 MPH." A short redaction before "PROB UAPS" sits where a number would normally go, so the count was probably withheld rather than never recorded. "PROB" is the usual military abbreviation for "probable".

In the WEATHER field (page 5): "DUE TO DUST STORMS SOME COLLECTION ON UAPS WAS AFFECTED BETWEEN 0524Z AND 0704Z."

In the GENTEXT/OBSERVATION (page 6): from 0524Z to 0704Z the crew "WAS SCANNING VARIOUS POIs" and "PERIODICALLY OBSERVED [redacted] UAPS FLYING SPORATICALLY WITHIN THE TARGET AREA AND IN THE NE PORTION OF [redacted]". According to a redacted source, "THE UAPs WERE TRAVELLING AT VARIOUS SPEEDS BETWEEN 80-180 MPH. WE WERE UNABLE TO DETERMINE ALTITUDE. THE SIZE OF THE UAPs WERE APPROXIMATELY 1-2 METERS." The aircraft (callsign redacted) "WOULD REACQUIRE THE UAPs AFTER RETURNING THE SENSOR BACK TO THE ORIGIONAL POI LOCATIONS", and "THE UAPs DID NOT HINDER THE MISSION." The entry ends "WSV IS ATTACHED BELOW" (WSV is not expanded; in Air Force usage it commonly means weapon system video), but nothing follows on the page.

The structured OBSERVATION fields add little: time 050524:00ZMAY22 and method "FMV" (full-motion video); heading, altitude, airspeed, range and killbox are dashes; the location and the "Observed Activity Description" are redacted. Unlike D106, this report does not give the aircraft's altitude or speed.

Blurb versus document

Apart from the standard boilerplate, only the year and the paired video IDs in the D109 blurb fit this report. The remaining sentences repeat the D108 blurb, with the same "seem[ingle]" typo. The document itself is unambiguous. Also, the release title says "Middle East" while the official release data give "Iraq"; the report names no country, and every location field is redacted.

A near-twin of D106

D109's observation paragraph and D106's are close to verbatim: "PERIODICALLY OBSERVED ... UAPS FLYING SPORATICALLY WITHIN THE TARGET AREA", "TRAVELLING AT VARIOUS SPEEDS BETWEEN 80-180 MPH", "UNABLE TO DETERMINE ALTITUDE", "APPROXIMATELY 1-2 METERS", "DID NOT HINDER THE MISSION", down to the misspelling "SPORATICALLY". Yet they come from different squadrons (20 ATKS and 196 ATKS) and different times on 5 May 2022 (0524Z-0704Z here, 2026Z in D106). D106's aircraft took off late at 0614Z "DUE TO WEATHER", inside D109's dust-storm window. The documents do not say whether the two crews watched the same area, shared text, or used a common template.

The paired videos

The official descriptions of PR140 (1:47) and PR141 (2:36) describe an electro-optical and infrared sensor switching modes, including a split infrared/electro-optical view in PR141, while panning to follow "an area of contrast". In PR141 "a second area of contrast briefly enters" at 00:52-00:57, and in the last minute the sensor tracks the object while "intermittently losing contact with it". Neither description mentions six objects or spheres.

Redactions

Withheld text uses (b)(1)(B), the Freedom of Information Act exemption for classified information, and (b)(6) for personal details; the ACEQUIP callsign is withheld under (b)(6). The page banners misspell "DECLASSIFED". The report's original declassification date field reads 20470504.

Significance

On its own, D109 is a modest report, but it matters for two reasons. It is a second, independent-looking account from 5 May 2022 of small objects at 80-180 mph, and with D106 it forms the only pair in this group describing the same day. And it shows that the official summaries cannot be relied on in place of the documents: the D109 blurb describes a different event, three years later, filed by a different unit. The pairing of D109 with PR140 and PR141 rests on the official release.

Key People

Locations

Incidents

Notable Quotes

"AT 0524Z, [redacted] OBSERVED [redacted] PROB UAPS TRAVELING SW AT ROUGHLY 80-180 MPH. (SEE OBSERVATION 1)" -- page 1

"DUE TO DUST STORMS SOME COLLECTION ON UAPS WAS AFFECTED BETWEEN 0524Z AND 0704Z." -- page 5

"PERIODICALLY OBSERVED [redacted] UAPS FLYING SPORATICALLY WITHIN THE TARGET AREA AND IN THE NE PORTION OF [redacted]" -- page 6

"THE UAPs WERE TRAVELLING AT VARIOUS SPEEDS BETWEEN 80-180 MPH. WE WERE UNABLE TO DETERMINE ALTITUDE. THE SIZE OF THE UAPs WERE APPROXIMATELY 1-2 METERS." -- page 6

"DURING THE OBSERVATION PERIOD, [redacted] WOULD REACQUIRE THE UAPs AFTER RETURNING THE SENSOR BACK TO THE ORIGIONAL POI LOCATIONS. THE UAPs DID NOT HINDER THE MISSION. WSV IS ATTACHED BELOW" -- page 6