'Six small spherical objects': four CENTCOM Mission Reports and the infrared imagery behind them, 2022–2025

A Mission Report, or MISREP, is the standardised form U.S. military units use to record the circumstances of their operations, and — per the Department of War — one the services often use to report unidentified anomalous phenomena to the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office. Its GENTEXT, or 'general text,' section carries the qualitative, contextual account that the numerical fields do not. PURSUE Release 06 publishes four CENTCOM MISREPs (DOW-UAP-D106 to D109) together with the imagery each accompanies.

D106 (Iraq, 2022) accompanies two still images derived from an infrared system aboard a U.S. military platform, released as PDFs (DOW-UAP-PR130 and PR131). The operator reported UAP 'flying sporadically within the target area… at various speeds between 80 and 180 miles per hour,' estimated the size at one to two metres (roughly three to six feet), and could not determine altitude. Each still shows two areas of contrast — one under the reticle, one elongated with a visible trail suggesting motion from the top right to the bottom left of the field of view. The Department notes that the trail 'is consistent with known image-compression and processing effects and does not necessarily represent a physical feature.'

D107 (Middle East, 2025) accompanies PR133, four minutes and 58 seconds of infrared video in which the operator described the UAP as 'look[ing] like a white round orbit… moving as fast as 500 miles per hour.' The sensor loses and reacquires the area of contrast repeatedly, cycles magnification, displays a 'focus box' overlay the Department is careful to identify as a graphical element rather than a change in the scene, and at one point engages an auto-tracking reticle that fails to lock. The video description dates the footage to 2024; the title and the MISREP say 2025. D108 (Middle East, 2025) accompanies PR135, one minute of infrared video: the operator reported 'six small spherical objects grouped together,' characterised their behaviour as 'seem[ingly] agile' and 'frequently changing direction,' and estimated their speed at 480 miles per hour. Several areas of contrast enter from the top of the frame at the five-second mark and are tracked for about 40 seconds.

D109 (2022; the portal's title says Middle East, its location field says Iraq) accompanies PR140 and PR141 — one minute 47 seconds and two minutes 36 seconds of electro-optical and infrared video, the sensor switching modes repeatedly and, in PR141, running a split infrared/electro-optical display. Both video descriptions quote the MISREP as describing the UAP 'traveling at various speeds between 80-180 miles per hour.' The Department's published summary of D109 itself, however, repeats the six-spheres text of D108 verbatim — an apparent copy error on the portal, and a reason to read the PDF rather than the blurb. Every report carries the same caveat: all descriptive and estimative language 'reflects the reporter's subjective interpretation at the time of the event' and 'should not be interpreted as a conclusive indication of the presence or absence of any intrinsic object features or performance characteristics.'