Incident · 12 July 2022 · Middle East (undisclosed); geolocated by Bellingcat near Deir ez-Zor, Syria
MQ-9 “Middle East Object”
Also known as Middle East orb, MQ-9 orb 2022, Middle East Object
On 12 July 2022 a U.S. MQ-9 Reaper drone filmed a small, apparently spherical object passing through its camera's field of view over the Middle East. The Pentagon released the redacted clip, titled "Middle East Object", on 19 April 2023, the day AARO director Sean Kirkpatrick played it at a Senate Armed Services subcommittee hearing as an example of the round objects that make up most of AARO's reports.
Kirkpatrick was candid about its limits: the short video was essentially all the data on the event, and it would be virtually impossible to identify the object from it. The case stayed unresolved for lack of data, with no claim of anomalous performance.
In October 2023 the open-source investigators at Bellingcat matched the terrain to an area northeast of Deir ez-Zor in Syria and, using buildings in the frame for scale, put the object at no more than about 43 centimetres across — consistent with a balloon. The apparent speed, they argued, is a parallax effect of the moving drone.
Sources: DVIDS · Senate Armed Services hearing (19 April 2023) · Bellingcat
Facts and claims
- documented The Department of Defense published the MQ-9 video "Middle East Object" on DVIDS on 19 April 2023, listing it as taken on 12 July 2022 at an undisclosed location. Source: dvidshub.net (archived)
- documented Presenting it to the Senate Armed Services subcommittee, AARO director Sean Kirkpatrick described an MQ-9 in the Middle East observing "an apparent spherical object", said this was essentially all the data associated with the event and that it would be "virtually impossible" to identify from the video alone, and that AARO keeps such cases to compare trends. — Sean Kirkpatrick Source: Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) Public Hearing - In Full - April 19, 2023 at 18:52
- claimed Bellingcat geolocated the footage to an area northeast of Deir ez-Zor, Syria, and, measuring against buildings on the ground, estimated the object's diameter at no more than about 0.43 metres, smaller than AARO's typical UAP size; it concluded the object may be a balloon. Source: bellingcat.com (archived)
Connected files
Documents
- AARO briefing slides to the Senate Armed Services subcommittee (19 April 2023) (documented in) — AARO's slide: unresolved, in the active archive, with no demonstration of enigmatic capabilities
Programs
- All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (investigated by)
People
- Sean Kirkpatrick (presented by)
Hearings & briefings
- Senate Armed Services Subcommittee hearing on AARO (presented at) — AARO director Sean Kirkpatrick showed the MQ-9 video to the Senate Armed Services subcommittee
Videos
Mentioned in this file
- Department of War (Department of Defense) (Organization)
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- Karaganda Airport video
- U.S. military UAP reports over East Asian seas (2021–2025)