DISCLOSURE / FILEInfrared UAP East China Sea June 9 2021
DOW-UAP-PR075, "09JUN2021 [Platform] observed UAP in the ECS"
A 23-second declassified infrared video of an unidentified object over the East China Sea, uploaded to a classified network in June 2021 and released following a congressional records request.
Brief
Eight members of the U.S. House of Representatives submitted a request on March 6, 2026 for access to 51 potentially UAP-related records held by the Department of War and the Intelligence Community. AARO identified this video among responsive materials on a classified network, noting that many of the materials in this collection lack a substantiated chain-of-custody. AARO assesses the footage is likely derived from an infrared sensor aboard a U.S. military platform operating above the East China Sea, with a user having uploaded it to the classified network in June 2021. The 23-second clip shows the sensor panning to track an area of contrast before losing the object at the 18-second mark, with the final four seconds containing no content.
Metadata
- Agency
- Department of War
- Release
- 5/22/26
- Incident
- 2021
- Location
- East China Sea
- Type
- VIDEO • .mp4
- Length
- 0:24
- Programs
- AARO
- Tags
- UAP, infrared sensor, East China Sea, 2021, AARO, classified network upload, congressional request
Key points
- Eight House members formally requested access on March 6, 2026 to 51 potentially UAP-related records held by the Department of War and the Intelligence Community.
- AARO identified responsive materials on a classified network; many of these materials lack a substantiated chain-of-custody.
- AARO assesses the video is likely derived from an infrared sensor aboard a U.S. military platform operating above the East China Sea in 2021.
- The video was uploaded to a classified network by an unidentified user in June 2021; its title was defined by the uploader, not by an official record system.
- The sensor tracks an area of contrast from the 1-second mark through the 18-second mark, at which point it loses sight of the object; seconds 19 through 23 contain no content.
- AARO's published description explicitly disclaims any analytical judgment, investigative conclusion, or factual determination regarding the event's validity, nature, or significance.
Most interesting
- The video's title — '09JUN2021 [Platform] observed UAP in the ECS' — was defined by the uploader, not assigned through formal documentation, which means the platform identity is redacted in the bracket field rather than established by record.
- AARO's acknowledgment that many materials in this collection lack a 'substantiated chain-of-custody' introduces a formal provenance gap that applies to this footage before any analytical question is even reached.
- The object is visible for at most 17 seconds before the sensor loses track — a clip short enough that no flight-path reconstruction is possible from the footage alone.
- The congressional request that surfaced this video involved 51 records, indicating a broader pool of classified UAP-adjacent materials exists on DoW and IC networks beyond what has been publicly released.
- AARO's disclaimer language is notably precise: it forecloses interpretation of the video description itself as evidence, not just interpretation of the footage — an unusual epistemic caveat for a government release document.