A U.S. Air Force MQ-series drone operating over Syria under Operation Inherent Resolve logged an observation of an unidentified aerial phenomenon on July 31, 2022, according to a mission report declassified by USCENTCOM in October 2025. The document, designated DOW-UAP-D16 and released to the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) under mandatory declassification review case MDR 25-0094 through MDR 25-0099, represents one of the few formally processed UAP records to emerge from an active combat theater.
Mission Timeline and UAP Observation
According to the declassified report, the aircraft departed Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan (ICAO: OJMS) at approximately 1822Z on July 30, 2022, and handed over from the launch and recovery element shortly thereafter. SIGINT collection began at 1925Z, and the asset arrived on station and checked in with Task Force Chosin to conduct imagery intelligence (IMINT) operations in a grid area partially redacted under exemption 1.4(a), which covers information that could reveal intelligence sources and methods or military planning.
The UAP observation occurred at 0239Z on July 31, 2022 — roughly six hours into the on-station period — at a location rendered in the document as grid reference 37SFU271[redacted]. The report does not describe the phenomenon's appearance, behavior, or duration, and those details remain withheld. Full motion video from the mission was exploited by a Defense Ground Station, identified in the document as DGS-1, though no analytical conclusions from that exploitation are included in the released portion of the record.
The aircraft returned to base at 1343Z on July 31 and landed at OJMS at 1519Z, completing a total of 20.9 mission hours, of which 17.2 were logged as IMINT hours and 18.7 as SIGINT hours. The mission prosecuted two total taskings — one IMINT and one SIGINT — consistent with the armed reconnaissance mission type indicated in the report header.
Organizational and Administrative Context
The originating unit is listed as the 89th Attack Squadron, assigned to the 432nd Air Expeditionary Wing and operating under the 609th Air Operations Center, which falls within Air Forces Central (AFCENT) and U.S. Central Command (USCENTCOM). The tasking order type is listed as "DI" and the mission type as "ARMED RECCE." Specific ATO mission numbers and aircraft callsigns are withheld under exemptions 1.4(a) and 1.4(g).
The document was declassified by Major General Richard A. Harrison, USCENTCOM Chief of Staff, on October 8, 2025, and bears a prior declassification date of July 31, 2047 — indicating it was originally classified with a 25-year window before the mandatory review process accelerated its release. Associated caveats redacted in the original carried markings consistent with special handling designations, portions of which remain visible in corrupted or garbled form in the source document, suggesting the release copy was processed from a legacy classified system.
Reliability and What Remains Unknown
The source document carries significant limitations that constrain what can be reported with confidence. Heavy redactions under exemptions 1.4(a), 1.4(g), 3.5(c), and FOIA exemption (b)(6) remove the aircraft's callsign, the specific grid coordinates of the UAP, and all personnel identifiers. No named sources are available for comment; contact information for the point of contact, quality control officer, and approver are uniformly redacted.
Crucially, the document confirms only that a UAP was observed and logged — it does not characterize the object, provide sensor data, or indicate whether a formal AARO report was subsequently filed. The exploitation of full motion video by DGS-1 raises the possibility that additional analytical products exist, but none were included in this release. UFOPress has submitted a follow-up records request seeking any DGS-1 exploitation reports and AARO intake documentation associated with this event.
The report's release comes as AARO has been directed by Congress to compile a historical record of UAP encounters by U.S. military assets. Whether this record was submitted to AARO through that process or surfaced independently through mandatory declassification review is not clear from the document itself. What the record does establish — without ambiguity — is that a formal military mission report from an active theater of operations contains an official UAP entry, logged at a specific time and coordinates, by an asset conducting intelligence collection for a named combatant command.