DOW-UAP-D28, Mission Report, Iraq, September 2024

Evidence media

• Official PDF: Open Sky release-file copy — six-page Department of War MISREP PDF, verified against SHA-256 e12c00b3e2d64e35eef5623499e6eb23b1bc21d304523c75d28d3f474d91d77e.

Page 1 is a derived render from the official PDF. It shows the mission narrative and administrative fields: Operation Inherent Resolve, OKAS departure/landing references, weapons-calibration language, and the report's statement that the crew observed unidentified aerial phenomena during a PGM shot. This is source-document text, not object imagery.

Page 5 is a derived render from the official PDF. It contains the UAP form fields, including initial contact 202027:59ZSEP24, partial redacted 38SKC coordinate fields, friendly-aircraft altitude FL130, observer assessment Benign, Observation Interrogation of UAP: NO, and IR SIGNATURE DETECTABLE BY MX-20 & MX-25.

Page 6 is a derived render from the official PDF. The GENTEXT/UAP continuation says the reported feature created an IR lens flare on MX-20/MX-25 sensors, moved at high speed through the sensor field of view, and was not reobserved after the munition impact; it also preserves the unresolved question of whether an object detached before leaving the sensor field of view.

Investigation reading

This six-page MISREP is a text/form report, not an imagery exhibit. The release row identifies the file as DOW-UAP-D28, Mission Report, Iraq, September 2024, with incident date 20 September 2024 and location Iraq. The official file URL and PDF metadata, however, use “East China Sea, 2024” wording. The body of the report points back to Iraq: it names Operation Inherent Resolve, OKAS, and Ayn al Asad Airbase's Restricted Operating Zone Raindrop.

The core event is narrow. During an armed-overwatch mission and weapons-calibration sequence, after a call for fire to employ an AGM-176, the report says the weapons-systems officer and combat-systems officer observed an unidentified object “fly” through the aircraft sensors at high speed. The form says the event created an IR lens flare on MX-20 and MX-25 sensors, interpreted in the report as indicating a significant heat source. The form also says the crew maintained laser energy until the munition impacted the desired target, and the object was not reobserved.

The page should be read as a released source packet preserving the report language and the graph context. It does not resolve whether the reported feature was an object, a sensor/optical artifact, munition-related phenomenon, aircraft/sensor issue, or something else.

What the file appears to contain

The PDF is a short MISREP form with no embedded photographs, object stills, maps, radar plots, video frames, or sensor screenshots. The selectable text layer, stored OCR, and rendered-page checks all show a text-only packet with classification/release markings and redactions.

A few fields need careful human checking against the rendered page rather than relying only on stored OCR. The stored OCR reads page 5’s initial contact as 202027.192SEP24 and friendly aircraft altitude as FL30; the rendered page and selectable text read 202027:59ZSEP24 and FL130. The stored OCR also uses some rough caveat/text readings such as FYEY where the rendered page shows FVEY.

Source custody and provenance

• Official/source URL: https://www.war.gov/medialink/ufo/release_1/dow-uap-d28-mission-report-east-china-sea-2024.pdf
• Open Sky release-file route: /api/explore/war-gov/release-file/war-gov-dow-uap-d28-mission-report-iraq-september-2024-9151e150
• SHA-256: e12c00b3e2d64e35eef5623499e6eb23b1bc21d304523c75d28d3f474d91d77e
• File size: 633,172 bytes
• PDF pages: 6
• Release row: 45
• Agency: Department of War
• Manifest incident date/location: 9/20/24, Iraq
• OCR status: Frontier OCR complete for all six pages, but several high-signal form fields require rendered-page verification.

The PDF’s title/subject metadata and URL say East China Sea, 2024, while the Release 01 row title and the report body say Iraq / Ayn al Asad / Operation Inherent Resolve. That mismatch should remain visible as a provenance issue until checked against the official manifest history and any corrected file naming.

Graph context

Open Sky has two exact graph records for this item: the Release 01 row record and the PDF asset record. The asset record is modeled as a Department of War Release 01 PDF with official-primary provenance and the SHA-256 above.

The semantic graph currently has 96 extracted claims, 77 entity mentions, 13 sensor-event records, and 0 table rows for this asset. Those records are useful as navigation, but they should not be treated as resolved conclusions. Several sensor-event records are triggered by aircraft equipment fields on page 3 or generic aircraft/platform wording. The source-backed observation lines to prioritize are narrower: the MISREP says the reported feature was seen through aircraft sensors after weapons release, produced an IR lens flare on MX-20/MX-25, and was not reobserved.

There are no candidate crosslinks recorded for this item in the available graph context. Related records in the graph include neighboring Release 01 MISREP items, but those are release/corpus relationships, not evidence that this event is connected to another case.

Leads to check

• Reconcile the title and custody mismatch: official URL/PDF metadata says East China Sea, while the release row and report body say Iraq / Ayn al Asad.
• Verify the high-signal page 5 fields from the rendered source image: initial contact 202027:59ZSEP24, FL130, 38SKC coordinate fragments, and event serial 202027ZSEP2024-CENTCOM.
• Separate equipment inventory from observation evidence. Page 3 lists radar/RWR/countermeasure systems, but the UAP field itself says Observation Interrogation of UAP: NO while also listing an IR signature detectable by MX-20/MX-25.
• Review whether the reported “IR lens flare” language is a direct sensor description, an operator interpretation, an optical/sensor artifact lead, or a post-event form phrasing.
• If associated MX-20/MX-25 video, stills, telemetry, weapon-impact timing, or airspace logs exist outside this six-page PDF, they are needed before any analytic conclusion.
• Check the rendered timeline field Last Engine Shutdown Time: 200101:00ZSEP24 against any source image or upstream form export, because its date/time position is easy to misread in this form layout.

Lead check notes

• Checked — custody/title mismatch: the release row and this page identify the item as Iraq / September 2024, while the official URL and PDF metadata use East China Sea wording. The rendered PDF body supports the Iraq lane through Operation Inherent Resolve, OKAS, and Ayn al Asad ROZ Raindrop language; resolving the filename/title conflict still needs an official manifest-history or corrected-file source.
• Partial — page 5 form fields: the PDF text layer and rendered page support 202027:59ZSEP24, FL130, partial 38SKC coordinate prefixes, Observation Interrogation of UAP: NO, and event serial 202027ZSEP2024-CENTCOM. Full coordinates, platform identity, and some mission fields remain redacted, so location/sightline work is blocked without an unredacted source.
• Checked — equipment versus observation evidence: page 3 is an aircraft equipment inventory and should not be treated as raw radar/RWR evidence. The UAP-specific lines are narrower: page 5 lists an IR signature detectable by MX-20/MX-25 and page 6 describes an IR lens flare, while the form also says observation interrogation was NO and no engagement, recovered material, equipment effects, or third-party aircraft report is present in the released PDF.
• Partial — linked-corpus overlap: searches of the current linked Release 01 text corpus found the key anchors AGM-176, IR LENS FLARE, MX-20 & MX-25, AYN AL ASAD, ROZ RAINDROP, and 202027SEP2024-CENTCOM only in this D28 text record. No separate companion release page for MX-20/MX-25 video, stills, telemetry, weapon-impact timing, or airspace logs surfaced in that corpus check.
• Checked — timeline field: the rendered page and selectable text both show Last Engine Shutdown Time as 200101:00ZSEP24. Because the same timeline lists landing as 210046:00ZSEP24, that field remains a form/timeline review lead rather than a corrected chronology.
• Needs external source — IR lens flare interpretation: the six-page PDF preserves report language about an IR lens flare and significant heat source, but it does not include source video, frames, pod settings, weapon-timing data, weather/astronomy context, or airspace logs needed to distinguish object, sensor/optical artifact, munition-related phenomenon, or other explanations.

Limits

This release file does not include the sensor video, still frame, radar plot, map, or raw telemetry needed to independently inspect the reported object or lens flare. The report is redacted in mission, platform, coordinate, and personnel fields. The wording includes both unresolved-object language and a prosaic/sensor-artifact lead: IR lens flare. The page therefore preserves the source report and review leads only; it is not an identification, debunk, anomaly finding, or resolution.

Deep investigation — graph + web reconnaissance

Source reread and media check

The deepest source reread still lands on pages 5–6 of the six-page PDF, not on any released video frame. The PDF text layer and the page-5/page-6 renders agree on the high-signal fields after correcting stored-OCR drift: initial contact is 202027:59ZSEP24; the friendly aircraft location begins 38SKC55... with redacted MGRS digits; first and last coordinates begin 38SKC59... with redacted remainder; friendly altitude is FL130; trajectory is 096 STRAIGHT AND LEVEL; speed is 170 KIAS; the operational range is Ayn al Asad ROZ Raindrop; and the event serial is 202027ZSEP2024-CENTCOM. The UAP form says Observation Interrogation of UAP: NO, while separately listing IR SIGNATURE DETECTABLE BY MX-20 & MX-25. It also says no third party reported an additional aircraft in the airspace with the redacted platform, no effects on persons, no recovered material, no equipment effects, no observer engagement, and no advanced capabilities/materials observed.

Page 6 preserves the core witness/operator phrasing. It says the path of movement appeared predetermined and not in response to the platform's detection; it also says it was unknown whether an object detached from the primary UAP before leaving the sensor field of view. The GENTEXT says the crew entered the Ayn al Asad ROZ at about 1930Z, received a call for fire at about 2025Z to employ an AGM-176, and after weapons release the WSO/CSO observed an unidentified object “fly” through the aircraft sensors at high speed. The report language then frames the effect as an IR lens flare on MX-20/MX-25 indicating a significant heat signature, with no re-observation after the munition impact. The packet remains a text/form MISREP: no raw MX-20/MX-25 video, still frame, radar plot, map, or telemetry is present in this release file.

Graph connections and custody signals

Read-only graph checks found two exact official-primary records for this item: the Release 01 row record for row 45 and the linked PDF asset record for the WAR.GOV media URL. The asset record matches the public hash e12c00b3e2d64e35eef5623499e6eb23b1bc21d304523c75d28d3f474d91d77e, content length 633,172 bytes, six frontier-OCR pages, and ten attached text chunks. Same-URL/same-hash checks found only this PDF asset, so there is no separate duplicate official asset with the same bytes in the current graph.

The semantic layer is useful for navigation but remains machine-extracted and non-conclusive: 96 extracted claims and 13 sensor-event records are attached, all with machine_extracted_needs_human_review / not_a_finding posture. Several sensor-event records come from page-3 aircraft equipment inventory or generic aircraft/platform language; the source-backed observation record to prioritize is narrower: the MISREP's MX-20/MX-25 IR lens-flare language after an AGM-176 release. Graph relationship checks also show release-adjacent links to DOW-UAP-D27 and DOW-UAP-D3, plus a secondary GitHub markdown conversion derived from the official PDF; those are provenance/navigation links, not evidence that the events are connected.

The graph also exposes a custody-cleanup lead. The row record is correctly titled D28 / Iraq / 20 September 2024 and points to the D28 PDF image URL, but some retained row-record fields still carry a previous/final URL for DOW-UAP-D27, United Arab Emirates, October 2023. The PDF asset itself points to the D28 WAR.GOV URL, while the PDF metadata/title still say East China Sea, 2024. Treat the D27 URL residue and East-China-Sea filename/title mismatch as manifest-history/provenance issues, not as separate incidents or analytical evidence.

External provenance and web reconnaissance

Official-source reconnaissance prioritized WAR.GOV/PURSUE, the Release 01 CSV, the WAR.GOV release press page, and AARO/Defense.gov context. Direct official fetches of the WAR.GOV PDF, Release 01 landing page, CSV, and press-release URL returned 403 during this check, so the verified Open Sky release-file copy, the source-pack CSV row, and the graph's official source-spine records remain the working provenance. The official CSV row preserved in the source pack matches the public page: Department of War, Release 01, row 45, incident date 9/20/24, location Iraq, no DVIDS video ID, no video pairing, and the same D28 media URL with East-China-Sea filename wording. No DVIDS companion video, NARA/FBI/CIA counterpart, or other official archive record surfaced in the local graph/source recon for this modern Department of War MISREP.

Prosaic checks and unresolved requirements

The highest-priority prosaic lanes are sensor/optical and munition-sequence checks, not astronomy escalation. The event is explicitly during a weapons calibration/call-for-fire sequence between munition release and impact, and the source itself uses IR lens flare language. Before treating the observation as an independent object track, the archive would need the raw MX-20/MX-25 video, pod mode/FOV/range, platform attitude and geometry, laser/designator timing, AGM-176 release and impact timing, weapon plume/debris/exhaust context, and airspace deconfliction logs. Weather, astronomy, satellite, and launch checks are blocked by the redacted coordinates, redacted platform identity, and absence of a line-of-sight or elevation/azimuth; they should be run only if unredacted geometry or associated sensor media becomes available.

Audit note

This section does not add a finding or resolution. It tightens the page around verified form fields, separates machine-extracted graph material from source text, records the D27/East-China-Sea custody mismatch as a cleanup lead, and keeps the open question focused on missing source media and mission geometry.

Sources

• Department of War, PURSUE Release 01, DOW-UAP-D28, Mission Report, Iraq, September 2024, official PDF: https://www.war.gov/medialink/ufo/release_1/dow-uap-d28-mission-report-east-china-sea-2024.pdf
• Release 01 manifest row 45, Department of War, incident date 9/20/24, location Iraq.
• Open Sky verified release-file hash: e12c00b3e2d64e35eef5623499e6eb23b1bc21d304523c75d28d3f474d91d77e.