A U.S. Air Force intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance aircraft operating over Baghdad, Iraq, in December 2022 logged an observation of a possible unidentified aerial phenomenon during a multi-hour mission under Operation Inherent Resolve, according to a mission report declassified by U.S. Central Command in October 2025 and approved for release to the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office.
The document — designated DOW-UAP-D18 and formally typed as a MISREP, or mission report — was declassified by Major General Richard A. Harrison, USCENTCOM Chief of Staff, on October 8, 2025, under mandatory declassification review numbers MDR 25-0094 through MDR 25-0099. It was approved for public release on October 17, 2025.
What the Record Shows
According to the declassified document, the aircraft took off from a location redacted under FOIA Exemption 1.4a at 1206Z and was handed over from the Launch and Recovery Element at 1220Z. The crew collected signals intelligence via airhandler from 1323Z to 0626Z and provided support to an unspecified objective in the vicinity of Baghdad, Iraq, for a separate period ending at 0426Z. The aircraft was cleared to return to base at 0426Z, handed back to the Launch and Recovery Element at 0655Z, and landed at its originating location at 0723Z — a total flight window of more than 18 hours.
The UAP observation is noted with precision in the narrative timeline: "AT 1620Z, [redacted] OBSERVED POSSIBLE UAP. SEE UAP LINE 1." The referenced UAP line — which would contain descriptive detail about the observation — is not reproduced in the declassified text as released. The document notes that full-motion video was exploited by a Defense Ground Station designated DGS-AR.
The originating unit is listed as the 482nd Attack Squadron (482ATKS), assigned under the 20th Fighter Wing and operating under Air Combat Command within USCENTCOM's area of responsibility. The mission was classified as an ISR tasking, with the operations center listed as the 609th Air Operations Center and coordination flowing through the 603rd Air Operations Center. Personnel names, phone numbers, email addresses, and the aircraft callsign remain redacted under FOIA exemptions (b)(3), (b)(6), and 1.4a.
Operational and Bureaucratic Context
The 482nd Attack Squadron operates MQ-9 Reaper remotely piloted aircraft, a platform routinely employed for long-duration ISR missions in USCENTCOM's theater. The mission profile described in the report — extended SIGINT collection, support to a named objective in the Baghdad area, full-motion video exploitation by a ground station — is consistent with standard Reaper operations, though the specific aircraft type is not confirmed in the released text.
The report's administrative section documents a classification level that remains partially redacted, associated caveats that are similarly withheld, and a declassification date set for December 2, 2047 — nearly 25 years after the mission. The mandatory declassification review process, initiated as MDR 25-0094, resulted in partial release in October 2025, substantially ahead of that schedule.
The document's release to AARO is consistent with the office's mandate, established under the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act, to serve as the central repository for UAP-related military reporting. AARO has previously noted that legacy UAP records scattered across military commands represent a significant data-recovery challenge; this document appears to represent one response to that problem, with USCENTCOM reviewing and releasing older operational records on request.
Limitations of the Available Record
The released document carries meaningful evidentiary constraints. The actual UAP line — the structured field within the MISREP that would contain the crew's description of the observed phenomenon, including shape, altitude, speed, duration, and behavior — is not present in the released pages. What is confirmed is the bureaucratic fact of the observation: a crew member aboard an ISR aircraft formally reported a possible UAP at 1620Z on the date of the mission, and that report was processed through the standard MISREP administrative chain.
The source document was assessed at a trust level reflecting its partially redacted and fragmentary state. The institutional provenance is solid — the USCENTCOM declassification authority is named, the MDR tracking numbers are present, and the release date is documented — but the absence of the descriptive UAP data limits any analytical conclusion about the nature of what was observed.
No independent corroboration of the observation's content is available from the single source released. The report does not indicate whether the FMV exploitation by DGS-AR produced imagery related to the UAP, nor whether any follow-on investigation was conducted. AARO has not publicly commented on this specific record as of the time of publication.