CENTCOM area: Fighter crew tracks two metallic balloon-shaped contacts with strobes
On 27 October 2020 at 01:12 UTC, at night, a U.S. military fighter crew on a defensive counter-air mission was directed to identify an unknown contact at 26,000 feet and tracked two infrared-significant, metallic, balloon-shaped objects, one circling the other, showing two red blinking strobes and noise jamming before they vanished.
Background
Range Fouler Debrief DOW-UAP-D58 (released under a USCENTCOM mandatory declassification review) records a night-time detection on 27 October 2020 at 01:12:21 UTC during a defensive counter-air (DCA) mission; the reporting crew member held rank O-3, the squadron is redacted (an expeditionary fighter squadron). The contact was at 26,000 feet, moving on a heading of 060 at 20 knots, with a stable radar track file and two contacts in the group. The checklist marks the objects as balloon-shaped, metallic, opaque and reflective, with 'other/ambiguous' electronic-attack indications. In the narrative, the controlling agency directed identification of an unknown contact; the crew obtained a radar lock and targeting-pod video but could not get closer than 16.9 nautical miles. The pod showed two infrared-significant contacts, one circling the other, which were gone within a fraction of a second; the visual tally was two red blinking strobes, and noise jamming indicated by two chevrons was received. First detection was at a bullseye reference that is partly redacted; location and names are redacted. The form records no identification. The details are taken from the records released by the U.S. Department of War (record code DOW-UAP-D58) and do not represent an independent determination by From Beyond Space.