ufo middle east drone capture
© Department of DefenseThe video was previously marked classified by the government, but has now been released and it shows a fast-moving "metallic orb" travelling over buildings.
A Senate hearing on the Pentagon's 'Anomaly Resolution Office' that tracks UFOs featured testimony that most of the hundreds of cases being reviewed are based on 'readily explainable' phenomena - while revealing footage of a mysterious flying orb that is still 'unresolved.'

Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick of DOD's All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office told the Senate Armed Services Committee that hundreds of sightings of spherical or oddly shaped objects spotted by military pilots remain under review.

'I should also state clearly for the record that in our research AARO has found no credible evidence thus far of extraterrestrial activity, off-world technology or objects that defy the known laws of physics,' Kirkpatrick told the panel.

The rare hearing, the first since last year's pathbreaking public event and the first since the Chinese spy balloon that crossed the country early this year, included an accounting of the cases the new office is analyzing.


Kirkpatrick said his office is currently tracking 650 cases. But he pointed to the difficulty of sorting through the information that comes in, with priority put on what U.S. pilots or drones sometimes spot at high altitude.

He showed senators video of one such incident, identified by an MQ9 'Reaper' drone in the Middle East. It was of what looked like a metallic orb.

But he cautioned that 'It is going to be virtually impossible to fully identify that just based off of that video,' as his agency coordinates with other civilian agencies and academic resources.
drone orb middle east ufo 2022
Kirkpatrick showed video of an 'unresolved' case in the Middle East, where a drone picked up a 'metallic orb'
'That is an unresolved case we are still studying,' he said. Then he showed another video, this one from South Asia, also from an MQ9.
This sighting turned out to be of another aircraft. What appeared at first to be anomalous was in fact 'a shadow image' picked up by sensors.

'This one we can resolve,' he said.

The first slide, of the still unresolved 'spherical UAP,' had 'characteristics and behavior consistent with other "metallic orb" observations in the region', and that the case is in AARO's 'active archive... pending discovery of additional data'.

The video, shot from an MQ-9 Reaper drone in the Middle East in 2022, pans across desert scrub, over buildings, vehicles and people, struggling to keep up with a spherical object zooming over their heads.

It is very similar to Reaper drone videos currently held on classified servers, described by an intelligence official to DailyMail.com last October, of 'orbs' flying around then 'suddenly bolting off the screen'.

It is also similar to a drone camera image dubbed the 'Mosul Orb', leaked to documentarian Jeremy Corbell and first reported by DailyMail.com earlier this year, of a metallic-looking spherical object over an Iraqi city.

Kirkpatrick revealed statistics gleaned from AARO's UFO cases from 1996 to the present day, describing 'typically-reported UAP characteristics' including 'round, atypical orientation'; 1-4 meter size; white, silver and translucent color; altitudes of 10,000 to 30,000 ft; and speeds ranging from stationary to Mach 2 (1,534 mph).

Typically there was 'no thermal exhaust detected' from the objects and they were caught only intermittently on 8-12 GHz radar and 1-3 GHz or 8-12 GHz radio.

Kirkpatrick presented a map of 'reported-UAP hotspots' showing concentrations on the US East and West coasts, the Middle East around Iraq, and the Sea of Japan between Japan, South Korea and North Korea.

However, he cautioned that this could be a 'collection bias' - as these are locations where the US military has the most assets to catch UFOs on camera and radar.
dod pentagon analysis ufo orbs
More than half of UAP reported are spherical, according to a DOD analysis
32.2% of AARO's cases flew at 20,000 ft, and 23.5% at 25,000 ft. Only 4.3% were spotted above 30,000 ft.

52% were described as 'orbs', 'round' or 'sphere', and 23% they were unable to determine the shape due to 'ambiguous sensor contact'.

Despite some of the most famous recent cases involving sightings by Navy pilots of the East and West coasts of the US, only 1% of cases were described as having a 'TicTac' shape, and 2% 'cylinder'.

2% had a 'disk' shape and 2% triangular.

The veteran intelligence officer and physicist told senators his office 'will follow scientific evidence wherever it leads.'

'This is a hunt mission for: what might somebody be doing in our backyard that we don't know about,' Fitzpatrick said of his office's mission. He has dozens of scientists at work on case files.

He spoke before the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities about the 'mission, activities, oversight and budget' of the office.
Senate Armed Services Committee Chair Kirsten Gillibrand
Senate Armed Services Committee Chair Kirsten Gillibrand ran the hearing
Panel Chair Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), spoke of the first tranche of government data revealed after pressure by the late Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.).

'We don't know where they come from, who made them or how they operate,' she said of some aerial events that were revealed, as she raced through an opening statement.

She lamented that 'because of the UFO stigma the response has been irresponsibly anemic and slow.'

Gillibrand complained that the office wasn't getting the resources it needs, and that 'it seemed that Pentagon leadership did not turn to AARO office to play a leading role' in the Chinese spy balloon incident.

She indicated that there had been a closed hearing before the public one, which started more than half an hour late, and which was attended by just two senators, Gillibrand and Iowa GOP Sen. Joni Ernst.

'Adversaries like China and Russia are working to hold U.S. interests including our homeland at risk,' Ernst warned.

Kirkpatrick acknowledged the 'historical record' his agency is seeking to analyze, including events from the 'distant past through today.' He said it needed to give priority to those based on defense information in areas of 'national security importance.'

'We cannot answer decades of questions about UAP all at once. But we must begin somewhere,' he said.

'The majority of unidentified objects reported to ARO demonstrate mundane characteristics of balloons, unmanned aerial systems, clutter, natural phenomena or other readily explainable sources,' he testified.

Despite the frequency of sightings coming in, 'Humans are subject to deception and illusions, sensors to unexpected responses and malfunctions, and in some cases, intentional interference,' he said.

Asked about advanced technologies that China and Russia might be employing, he said there are 'emerging capabilities out there.'

Kirkpatrick pointed in particular to China, without expressing certainty that its technology accounted for unexplained sightings.

'The adversary is not waiting. They are advancing and they are advancing quickly. They are less risk averse at technical advancement than we are. They are just willing to try things and see if it works,' he said.

The Pentagon and the U.S. intelligence community are reviewing hundreds of incidents involving UAPs. The president ordered the review after the U.S. military shot down the spy balloon that crossed the country in early February.

New Pentagon leaks that came to light last week revealed U.S. officials had knowledge of at least four other Chinese spy balloons.

A report by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence from early January revealed the number of UFO reports was increasing, with agencies aware of 510 Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena.

The special Pentagon office examined 366 of them, finding about half were unremarkable, 26 were most likely drones, 163 were balloons and six were clutter, according to ABC News.