Remarkable Anomalies in the Fifth Tranche of UAP Data from the U.S. Government

A digital rendering of a reported UAP encounter. (Image credit: PURSUE/DOW)

A digital rendering of a giant triangular UAP blocking part the sky, based on military testimony. (Image credit: PURSUE/DOW)

An unresolved UAP in the Middle East in a video from 2023. (Image credit: PURSUE/DOW)

The fifth tranche of UAP data was released here today, August 7, 2026. In contrast to past releases, the most remarkable anomalies in it are delivered as verbal testimonies and not in video or imagery data. Below I review the most remarkable testimonies.

I. First Remarkable Testimony: DOW-UAP-D101_IIR (Click here):

Reported anomaly: On 8 September 2021, a USSOF AC-130 Gunship observed approximately 25 instances of UAPs while conducting a live fire exercise in the Gulf of Oman. The UAPs were observed as cold orbs that appeared to react to the aircraft firing its main cannon. After dropping a flare into the water as a target, the weapons officer reports that two orbs popped up right next to it and hover for about 15 seconds. He decided to open fire and reported that the moment he pulled the trigger, the orbs took off. Then the crew starts seeing as many as 25 orbs flying in formation, zipping around at supersonic speeds of up to 1,300 miles per hour, 1.7 times the speed of sound, and interacting with each other like dolphins.

Why anomalous? The objects were reported to have flown in formation, maneuvered aggressively, and appeared to react after the aircraft fired its cannon. This implies a sensing capability on the objects’ part and a response system fast enough to redirect motion within the observation window. Describing the objects as “cold” rules out jet exhaust plumes, aerodynamic-heating signature at up to Mach 1.7, as well as combustion-based propulsion.

Nevertheless, coordinated drone swarms are real, fielded technology by 2021. Formation flying, reaction to a threat, interacting with each other is the behavioral signature one would expect from an autonomously coordinated drone swarm.

II. Second Remarkable Testimony: FBI-UAP-D037_FD-302 (Click here)

Reported anomaly: An analog clock went faster by 20 minutes relative to two digital clocks after a UAP encounter, displaying 1:00AM instead of 12:40AM. This time difference persisted after the event.

Why anomalous? Time dilation of this magnitude cannot be produced by spacetime curvature because the gravitational tide of such an encounter would have dramatic consequences. Based on known physics, the only way to explain this time difference is by an electromagnetic effect on the digital clocks which was ineffective on the analog clock.

III. Third Remarkable Testimony: FBI-UAP-D024_FD-302 (Click here)

Reported anomaly: Two American pilots flying over Bagram in Afghanistan witnessed a craft which measured 500 feet (150 meters) moving at 77 meters per second (150 knots). They saw a huge, silent, unlit, equilateral-triangle-shaped object pass overhead from west to east at a steady speed.

Why anomalous? No existing operational aircraft matches this size and speed. The largest aircraft ever built is the Stratolaunch Roc (described here), which spans 385 feet (117 meters).

Additional reported anomaly: Earlier in the document, the pilot reported repeated sightings beginning in October 2023 of white lights observed from commercial aircraft at high altitude, often between midnight and 3AM. The lights would start dim, brighten, and fade over periods of roughly 10 seconds to a minute; some appeared stationary while others moved in straight lines and sometimes changed direction. He saw the phenomenon about ten times in different parts of the United States and North Atlantic region, sometimes for 45 minutes to two hours, and recorded one event in February 2024 in which ten or more lights were visible at once.

Why anomalous? Sightings running 45 minutes to 2 hours are far too long for almost every standard explanation.

A satellite pass, including the International Space Station — the brightest human-made satellite, lasts at most 5–7 minutes before the object crosses below the horizon or enters Earth’s shadow. A Starlink “train” of recently launched satellites is visible for a similarly brief window of 10–15 minutes, as the group crosses overhead. Meteors last seconds.

No orbital mechanics produces a two-hour continuous visual event from the ground or from an aircraft.

Moreover, the post-midnight timing works against most satellite-based explanations. Satellites are typically illuminated by sunlight and thus visible against a dark sky during twilight windows, when the observer is in darkness but the satellite at higher altitude is still in sunlight. Deep night, especially 1–3AM at higher latitudes, is when the fewest Low Earth Orbit satellites are typically sunlit and visible. Moreover, the slow brightening/fading over 10 seconds to a minute is a genuinely distinctive signature. This timescale does not match scintillation from atmospheric twinkling which happens on sub-second timescales.

A single satellite glint is typically a brief flash of a few seconds as a flat reflective surface reflects sunlight at a specific angle, not a slow multi-second-to-minute ramp. The reported direction changes are the hardest single detail to explain conventionally. Nothing in orbit changes direction, as orbital mechanics constrains satellites to smooth great-circle arcs across the sky at a constant angular rate for a given pass. The recurrence pattern itself is unusual. Ten sightings by the same observer, across different geographic regions in the continental US and the North Atlantic over several months, all sharing a specific late-night time window and specific phenomenological signature (slow brighten/fade, mix of stationary and moving lights) constitutes a stronger dataset than a single one-of report.

These reports cannot be resolved without additional quantitative data, recorded by well-calibrated sensors. They make a strong case for follow-up scientific research. Skeptics who deny the significance of these anomalies are not curious enough to be genuine scientists.

Either we are dealing with unknown natural phenomena, secretive black projects or these anomalies reflect manifestations of alien technologies. Resolving them is a win-win situation for either national security or fundamental science.

Here’s hoping that the UAP Science Advisory Council (https://uapsac.com/) under my leadership, will be able to resolve the nature of these remarkable anomalies with future data.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

(Image Credit: Lotem Loeb, May 22, 2026)

Avi Loeb is chair of the UAP Science Advisory Council to the White House, Pentagon, FBI and intelligence agencies, director of the Galileo Project, founding director of Harvard University’s — Black Hole Initiative, former director of the Institute for Theory and Computation at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, and the former chair of the astronomy department at Harvard University (2011–2020). He is a former member of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology and a former chair of the Board on Physics and Astronomy of the National Academies. He is the bestselling author of “*Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth” and a co-author of the textbook “[Life in the Cosmos](https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674987579)”, both published in 2021. The paperback edition of his new book, titled “[Interstellar](https://www.harpercollins.com/products/interstellar-avi-loeb-1?variant=40982888415266)*”, was published in August 2024.

Professional website:

https://lweb.cfa.harvard.edu/~loeb/

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*https://avi-loeb.medium.com/ [https://www.youtube.com/@ProfessorAviLoeb](https://www.youtube.com/@ProfessorAviLoeb)*

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