AARO "Western United States" UAP Case Resolution Report

AARO’s case resolution report for the “Western United States” case, dated 8 May 2023. In 2021, military personnel reported five equidistant infrared lights at 20,000–40,000 feet as a potential incursion into restricted military airspace. AARO assesses the lights almost certainly were commercial aircraft on established air corridors as far as 300 nautical miles from the sensor.

The full English text below is machine-extracted from the linked PDF for reference; the original document is authoritative. This archive links the official source and an archive snapshot, and does not reproduce the DoD or AARO visual identity.

<!-- p.1 --> UNCLASSIFIED 1 UNCLASSIFIED All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office U.S. Department of Defense (U) Case: “Western United States” Case Resolution | 8 May 2023 (U) Case Essentials (U) Military personnel reported this case due to the observed UAP presenting a potential incursion into restricted airspace. The UAP were described as equidistant lights that flew at a relatively constant pace (U) Location: Western United States military airspace (U) Date(s): 2021 (U) Altitude: Between 20,000 to 40,000 feet (U) Shape: Oblong dots/lights (U) Reporter: Military personnel (U) Sensor: Infrared (IR) (U) Behavior: Equidistant lights that flew at a relatively constant pace (U) Case Status: Resolved; the lights were aircraft up to 300NM away from the sensor (U) Case Overview (U) AARO assesses that the UAP in this case were almost certainly commercial aircraft travelling on well-established air corridors as far as 300 nautical miles from the platform, based on a thorough review of the data by multiple analytical and scientific entities.  (U) Military personnel reported seeing five equidistant lights that they believed represented a potential incursion into restricted military airspace.  (U) AARO’s Intelligence and Science and Technology (S&T) partners independently came to the same conclusion in accordance with AARO’s analytic framework.  (U) The objects strongly correlated with specific commercial aircraft travelling on different air routes up to 300 nautical miles from the sensor. (U) Intelligence Assessment (U) Analysis of the objects’ positions and acquisition of additional data led AARO to the conclusion that the objects were significantly farther from the platform than originally estimated by the observers.  (U) Apparent changes in the UAP shapes were the result of sensor vibration and autofocus.  (U) Analysis of air-traffic control data suggested the objects were likely commercial aircraft transiting known flight corridors between major airports in the region. <!-- p.2 --> UNCLASSIFIED 2 UNCLASSIFIED (U) Science & Technology Assessment (U) AARO’s S&T partners independently came to the same conclusion. (U) AARO’s S&T partners used boresight analysis to determine that the UAP were commercial aircraft at an altitude of between 20,000 to 40,000 feet at a similar distance. (U) Figure 1: Western U.S. UAP shape distortion due to sensor vibration