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Case · C-088

Gulf of Oman: “cold spheres” around an AC-130J gunship

Gulf of Oman, off the coast of Oman · International waters · Sep 8, 2021

In flight Military witnesses Video

Unexplained

What happened
On September 8, 2021, during a night live-fire exercise in the Gulf of Oman, the crew of a U.S. special operations AC-130 gunship saw in infrared two “cold” spheres of about 1.2 meters hovering a few meters above a floating flare used as a target, which moved away rapidly without changing altitude when the aircraft opened fire. According to the Air Force information report of April 2022, the crew counted about 25 sightings of spheres in formation or maneuvering, at estimated speeds between 250 and 1,300 miles per hour, with no visible means of propulsion. The report and six short videos shot with a cell phone from the sensor screen were published on August 7, 2026, in the fifth series of the PURSUE system; the location given in the document is partly redacted.
Proposed explanation
No explanation is proposed in the documents, which the Department of War publishes as an unresolved case. The report is an unevaluated intelligence information report, and the available videos are cell-phone recordings of the sensor screen, because according to the report the onboard recorder malfunctioned and the data were lost. In the release entry AARO warns that the footage is not original sensor data and that filming a screen can introduce artifacts such as blurring or flickering. Commenting on the “cold spheres” video, the skeptic Steven Novella (NeuroLogica blog, August 11, 2026) pointed to an insect or dust near the sensor as the most likely hypothesis, noting that estimated speeds and sizes depend on an unmeasured distance and that the trails left by the dot are a common screen effect; this is a comment on the published video, not an analysis of the original data.
Official investigation
U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC); U.S. Central Command (USCENTCOM); AARO / PURSUE
Words of the document
UAPs also appeared to react to the aircraft firing its main cannon.

Official documents

  1. Multiple Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon Observed Maneuvering Erratically and In Formation Over Gulf of Oman During AC-130 Gunship Live Fire Training on 8 September 2021 (DOW-UAP-D101) · Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC); declassified by USCENTCOM and published by PURSUE (The Black Vault copy) · Apr 27, 2022
  2. DOW-UAP-PR117, Unresolved UAP Report, Gulf of Oman, 2021 · Department of War (DVIDS) / AARO · Aug 7, 2026

Sources

  1. Scientific American, the Pentagon's new series of UFO files includes the “cold spheres” (August 2026) (press)
  2. EarthSky, the Pentagon's fifth series of UAP files (August 2026) (press)
  3. Steven Novella, NeuroLogica Blog, “Another Pentagon UAP Release – More Dots” (August 11, 2026) (analysis, skeptical)

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