A Formation off Bushehr

The crew had been on station for almost fifteen hours. At 1527Z on 27 August 2020, the mission report says, they "observed a formation of flying objects traveling NE-NW along the coast". They followed it on a sensor for about two minutes "before PID was lost in cloud cover" and never regained a positive identification. The weather line is blunt: "light cloud coverage prevented continuous tracking of UAP event." The report records no count, size, shape or altitude for the objects.

It was a 21-hour sortie. The aircraft took off from Ali Al Salem air base in Kuwait late on 26 August to support US Naval Forces Central Command over the Arabian Gulf, the Strait of Hormuz and the Gulf of Oman. Its task was to characterise Iranian navy and IRGC navy vessels, drone activity and activity outside ports. The same report logs a routine hail from Iranian air defence at 0532Z and a small vessel docked at the naval port on Greater Tunb.

What is on the record

The document is Mission Report 4685903, DOW-UAP-D61, originated by the 482nd Attack Squadron under the 432nd Air Expeditionary Wing. US Central Command declassified it on 22 January 2026 and the Department of War published it in its first PURSUE release on 8 May 2026 under the title Arabian Gulf. Names, callsigns, the aircraft type and the tail number are withheld. The report says a ground station exploited its full-motion video. None has been released.

The report never names the place. Its grid references are cut off after the first few digits. On the archive's own conversion what remains of the observation grid resolves to the coast at Bushehr, an Iranian port city. The page is pinned there at city precision. The aircraft's grid puts it over the water about 55 kilometres to the southwest. The same conversion lands the report's other grids on Greater Tunb and Abu Musa, the islands it names, which is a check on the method. The report offers no explanation and the release adds none.

Why it sits where it does

L4 · OFFICIAL RECORD — a released government record names who saw it. The observers are an aircrew identified by squadron, with every name withheld. No independent testimony sits beside the report in the archive, and the tier measures sourcing rather than truth. What moved along the Bushehr shore is not resolved here.