DISCLOSURE / FILE
A U.S. Navy Range Fouler Debrief documenting an October 27, 2020 nighttime encounter with two balloon-shaped, metallic, reflective objects, one circling the other before vanishing in about 1/30th of a second.
DOW-UAP-D58, Range Fouler Debrief, NA, October 2020
A U.S. Navy Range Fouler Debrief documenting an October 27, 2020 nighttime encounter with two balloon-shaped, metallic, reflective objects, one circling the other before vanishing in about 1/30th of a second.
On 10/27/20 at 01:12:21Z, an O-3 F/A-18 aircrew flying a DCA mission was directed by KINGPIN to identify an unknown contact at 26,000 feet in warning area W-72/1A. The operator obtained a radar lock and targeting pod video on two IR-significant contacts described as balloon-shaped, metallic, reflective, and opaque, with one range fouler circling the other before both disappeared in 1/30th of a second. Tally achieved was two red blinking strobes, and noise jamming was received and indicated by two chevrons. The debrief was approved for release to AARO on 03/27/26 under USCENTCOM MOR 26-0038 to MOR 26-0046.
KINGPIN DIRECTED ID OF UNKNOWN CONTACT.p.1
OBTAINED RADAR LOCK AND TARGET POD VIDEO BUT UNABLE TO GET CLOSER THAN 16.9NM TID GETA BETTER ID.p.1
THE TARGET POD SHOWED 2 IR SIGNIFICANT CONTACTS. ONE RANGE FOUL~ ER WAS CIRCLING AROUND THE OTHER IN 1130TH OF A SECOND, THEY WERE GONE.p.1
TALLr ACHIEVED WAS 2X RED BLINKING STROBES AND NOISE JAMMING WAS RECIEVED. NOISE JAMMING WAS INDICATED BY TWO CHEVRONS.p.1
FIRST DETECTION OF THE RANGE FOULERS WERE AT B/E ZIM 248/17p.1
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Declassified by MG Richard A. Harrison usctf.le~~~.fil~ Aie-l~~raftUrple II!!! I Rl!!T 111 Ii IF 11 Oecla~M~ffif~R~li~Bffi',y~(?iS'e and Range Fouler Debrie Form email the complete file manually (see below). • Please complete this form to the best of your ability. If you do L , have the requested information, please leave the field blank. If there was more than one "groupi," please report each on a separate form for data collection purposes. You should receive a respons within 5 business days. Last Name. First Name Rank Squadron S/PR £mail Address Crew Position 0-3 . ._l11_E_F_S_ __, This information is for contact only. SPEAR sanitizes all r . ports of identifying information. Absolutely no identifying information for aircrew or squadT< 1 n will be recorded for analysis. 10/27/20 01:12:21 Night DCA No Date (mmldd,yy) Time of detection Day I Night Side No. Bimo Mission Description (CAS. B FM, etc) LFE? (hh:mm:ss Z) 26000 No Contact Wonting Area Contact Latitute N/S Contact Longitude E,W • ontact Altitude Altitude Wind Dir at Wind (Ex: W-72 1A) (DD:MM:SS) (DD:MM:SS) ( Please attempt to determine a LafI Long for the contact at initial detection. We recommend using JMPS to reference the sensor-derived bearing and range relative to the bullseye you had in use. If that method is not available, any reasonable derivation of location will work, but please be as specific as possible and make a note in the comments section. These l ocations may be us. ed to cue other means of tracking. Radar Equipped: Other AIM-9x Self-Track: □ Stable Trackfile?: Yes A TFL/R Autotrack: □ # of Contacts in "Group": 2 Tally Achieved: llJ EA Indications (Check all that apply): □ □ □ llJ Letter False Other/ ECM Jdentmer Trackfi/es Ambiguous Arc Please use the field below to describe the contact and any inte x: 22000) Constant? Contact Alt Speed (From) Was the contact moving? Yes Direction/Speed 060/20 (fa. 090115) Please check all that apply: Round: D Moving Parts: D Square: D Metallic: [Z] Balloon-shaped: [Z] Markings: D Wings/Airframe: D Translucent: D Other Shape:[£ ]. Opaque: [{] Apparent Propulsion:□ Reflective: [Z] action in your own words with as much 1 detail as possible. Please be sure to include any detail not included in questions above. I KINGPIN DIRECTED ID OF UNKNOWN CONTACT.! 1.4a IOBTAINED RADAR LOCK AND TARGET POD VIDEO BUT UNABLE TO GET CLOSER THAN 16.9NM TID GETA BETTER ID. THE TARGET POD SHOWED 2 IR SIGNIFICANT CONTACTS. ONE RANGE FOUL~ ER WAS CIRCLING AROUND THE OTHER IN 1130TH OF A SECOND, THEY WERE GONE. TALLr ACHIEVED WAS 2X RED BLINKING STROBES AND NOISE JAMMING WAS RECIEVED. NOISE JAMMING WAS INDICATED BY TWO CHEVRONS. FIRST DETECTION OF THE RANGE FOULERS WERE AT B/E ZIM 248/17 t.__ _ ...;.;1•..;.;;;4a'---_ __,!. Don't use the purple "submit" button! Save this form with filenam "Date_Squadron_RF.pdf' and email it tol (b)(s) I (Also in the global) For troubleshooting, call! (b)(6) Thank you for your time. Please ensure all display tapes are rip • ed for the entire time of interaction and saved as a .wmv (Example: 4 May VFA-106 HUD. wmv). Squadron intel personnel shall upload those files to the repository located at this link. liliiSI 959 I (b)(6) I USCENTCOM MOR 26-0038 to MOR 26-0046 Approved for Release to AARO I 03/27/26 000001Concatenated page-by-page transcript. Born-digital pages came through pdf.js; scanned pages were transcribed by Claude vision OCR. Pages marked unreadable failed multiple OCR retries (heavy redaction, microfilm artifacts, or blank separators) and are kept in place for audit.
Declassified by MG Richard A. Harrison usctf.le~~~.fil~ Aie-l~~raftUrple II!!! I Rl!!T 111 Ii IF 11 Oecla~M~ffif~R~li~Bffi',y~(?iS'e and Range Fouler Debrie Form email the complete file manually (see below). • Please complete this form to the best of your ability. If you do L , have the requested information, please leave the field blank. If there was more than one "groupi," please report each on a separate form for data collection purposes. You should receive a respons within 5 business days. Last Name. First Name Rank Squadron S/PR £mail Address Crew Position 0-3 . ._l11_E_F_S_ __, This information is for contact only. SPEAR sanitizes all r . ports of identifying information. Absolutely no identifying information for aircrew or squadT< 1 n will be recorded for analysis. 10/27/20 01:12:21 Night DCA No Date (mmldd,yy) Time of detection Day I Night Side No. Bimo Mission Description (CAS. B FM, etc) LFE? (hh:mm:ss Z) 26000 No Contact Wonting Area Contact Latitute N/S Contact Longitude E,W • ontact Altitude Altitude Wind Dir at Wind (Ex: W-72 1A) (DD:MM:SS) (DD:MM:SS) ( Please attempt to determine a LafI Long for the contact at initial detection. We recommend using JMPS to reference the sensor-derived bearing and range relative to the bullseye you had in use. If that method is not available, any reasonable derivation of location will work, but please be as specific as possible and make a note in the comments section. These l ocations may be us. ed to cue other means of tracking. Radar Equipped: Other AIM-9x Self-Track: □ Stable Trackfile?: Yes A TFL/R Autotrack: □ # of Contacts in "Group": 2 Tally Achieved: llJ EA Indications (Check all that apply): □ □ □ llJ Letter False Other/ ECM Jdentmer Trackfi/es Ambiguous Arc Please use the field below to describe the contact and any inte x: 22000) Constant? Contact Alt Speed (From) Was the contact moving? Yes Direction/Speed 060/20 (fa. 090115) Please check all that apply: Round: D Moving Parts: D Square: D Metallic: [Z] Balloon-shaped: [Z] Markings: D Wings/Airframe: D Translucent: D Other Shape:[£ ]. Opaque: [{] Apparent Propulsion:□ Reflective: [Z] action in your own words with as much 1 detail as possible. Please be sure to include any detail not included in questions above. I KINGPIN DIRECTED ID OF UNKNOWN CONTACT.! 1.4a IOBTAINED RADAR LOCK AND TARGET POD VIDEO BUT UNABLE TO GET CLOSER THAN 16.9NM TID GETA BETTER ID. THE TARGET POD SHOWED 2 IR SIGNIFICANT CONTACTS. ONE RANGE FOUL~ ER WAS CIRCLING AROUND THE OTHER IN 1130TH OF A SECOND, THEY WERE GONE. TALLr ACHIEVED WAS 2X RED BLINKING STROBES AND NOISE JAMMING WAS RECIEVED. NOISE JAMMING WAS INDICATED BY TWO CHEVRONS. FIRST DETECTION OF THE RANGE FOULERS WERE AT B/E ZIM 248/17 t.__ _ ...;.;1•..;.;;;4a'---_ __,!. Don't use the purple "submit" button! Save this form with filenam "Date_Squadron_RF.pdf' and email it tol (b)(s) I (Also in the global) For troubleshooting, call! (b)(6) Thank you for your time. Please ensure all display tapes are rip • ed for the entire time of interaction and saved as a .wmv (Example: 4 May VFA-106 HUD. wmv). Squadron intel personnel shall upload those files to the repository located at this link. liliiSI 959 I (b)(6) I USCENTCOM MOR 26-0038 to MOR 26-0046 Approved for Release to AARO I 03/27/26 000001