Outrun over the Gulf of Aden

The object was faster than the aircraft. At 0517Z on 14 July 2024 the crew was developing targets for US Naval Forces Central Command in the Gulf of Aden when it picked up a single UAP. The report logs a "straight flight path at same alti[tude]", low, heading north-west. The crew stayed with it on full-motion video. The entry for what happened next reads: "Followed the UAP till the distance became too far to follow." Another reads: "UAP's speed was faster than the [redacted] flying speed." The speed itself is withheld.

The first and last coordinates survive to the kilometre. They put the object about 35 km off the Somaliland coast when first seen and some 45 km further north-west when the crew lost it.

What is on the record

The document is a US Central Command mission report, DOW-UAP-D75, filed by the 124th Attack Squadron of the 132nd Wing. It was cleared for release to AARO in June 2025 and published in the Department of War's first PURSUE release on 8 May 2026. The reporting observer was a technical sergeant. Every name is withheld, and so are the aircraft type, the callsign and the operation. The description of the object breaks off after the words "UAP HAD", and the event narrative is a single redacted box. Wikipedia lists the squadron, an Iowa Air National Guard unit, as flying MQ-9 Reapers. That would make this a remote crew, though the report does not say so.

Propulsion, intelligent control and advanced capabilities are all marked unknown. The observer assessed the object as benign and the weather as "not a factor". The report says its full-motion video was exploited, but no video is released and no explanation is offered.

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 outran the crew is not resolved here.