DOW-UAP-PR056, "Spherical UAP pulsing over water [CALLSIGN]"

Investigation reading

This Release 02 item is an official Department of War/DVIDS video record from WAR.GOV/PURSUE release row 115. The source label is DOW-UAP-PR056, with the uploader-defined title “Spherical UAP pulsing over water [CALLSIGN].” Open Sky treats that wording as a source title, not as an analytical finding that the visible feature is spherical, anomalous, or physically identified.

The official Release 02 description says eight members of the U.S. House of Representatives requested access on March 6, 2026 to 51 potentially UAP-related records allegedly held by the Department of War and the Intelligence Community. AARO identified responsive materials on a classified network, and the release states that many of these materials lack a substantiated chain of custody. For this item specifically, AARO assesses that the video is likely derived from an infrared sensor aboard a U.S. military platform, and says a user uploaded it to a classified network in June 2024.

The release description also states that this media was digitally altered before upload to the classified network and is “presented as received.” That matters: the public MP4 is not confirmed raw sensor footage. The page below records what is visible in the downloaded official media file and keeps source labels separate from investigative conclusions.

What the released item appears to contain

The downloaded MP4 is a 3:32.1, 1280×720 video with a grayscale/infrared-looking sensor view over a textured surface that appears consistent with open water. The released file includes blue display/telemetry-style overlays, including crosshair or bracket-like marks and a blue N direction indicator. A small high-contrast feature is visible near the center of the view in many sampled frames.

The official description divides the video into three broad segments:

• 00:01–00:47 — an area of contrast remains generally within the center of the frame.
• 00:48–00:52 — the sensor briefly switches contrast modes while the area of contrast remains generally centered.
• 00:53–03:32 — the sensor returns to its original contrast mode, with the area of contrast still generally centered.

The sampled frames are consistent with that source description. Around the 49–52 second samples, the scene tone and the central feature’s appearance change noticeably; the feature looks darker or ring-like in some samples, then brighter again later. That may reflect sensor mode, display polarity, gain, or video processing. It should not be read as proof that the feature physically changed shape or behavior.

The contact sheets support only cautious language: a small central or near-central contrast feature is visible in many samples over water-like texture, with appearance varying by mode, contrast, crop, and compression. The samples do not establish identity, range, altitude, size, speed, propulsion, or anomalous origin.

Derived contact sheet from the downloaded official MP4, sampled from 1 second through 210 seconds. Black gutters and timestamp labels are contact-sheet presentation elements; the blue sensor/display overlays are visible within the released video frames.

Center crops from the same sampled frames. The small high-contrast feature remains near the central viewing area in many samples, but the still-frame sheet is not a motion analysis.

Tight center crops show why the page uses cautious language: the feature’s brightness and clarity vary, and background texture, overlays, compression, and the 00:48–00:52 mode change all affect the appearance.

Source asset review

The DVIDS page resolved to https://www.dvidshub.net/video/1007718/dow-uap-pr056-spherical-uap-pulsing-over-water-callsign and exposed a direct official CloudFront MP4 URL for DOD_111719741.mp4. That individual media file was downloaded and inspected; the full Release 02 video ZIP was not downloaded as a substitute.

DVIDS page metadata observed during this pass: title DOW-UAP-PR056, "Spherical UAP pulsing over water [CALLSIGN]"; date taken 06.01.2024; date posted 05.22.2026 07:30; category Briefings; video ID 1007718; VIRIN 240601-D-D0360-9533; filename DOD_111719741; length 00:03:32; location field (UNDISCLOSED LOCATION).

The source media duration and DVIDS length agree at approximately 3 minutes 32 seconds. The audio track exists in the container but contains no measurable signal in this decode.

Source custody and provenance

Primary provenance for this page is the official WAR.GOV/PURSUE Release 02 manifest, the official DVIDS page, and the direct DVIDS/CloudFront MP4 exposed by that page.

The Release 02 video bundle inventory also contains a central-directory entry for this item: video_2605_DOD_111719741_DOD_111719741.mp4, size 154,390,913 bytes, CRC32 ed43f2ab. The directly downloaded DVIDS MP4 is 154,396,345 bytes, which is 5,432 bytes larger than the ZIP-entry inventory size. That mismatch should be treated as a source-custody reconciliation lead, not as evidence that either copy is wrong.

Several other provenance fields should remain separated. The manifest incident date and location are both Not stated. The DVIDS date-taken field is 06.01.2024, matching the VIRIN prefix 240601, while the official description says a user uploaded the video to a classified network in June 2024. Those catalog/upload fields should not be converted into a precise incident time without additional source records. DVIDS lists the location as (UNDISCLOSED LOCATION), while the release title includes a redacted [CALLSIGN] placeholder and does not give a geographic location.

The official description’s warning that the media was digitally altered before classified-network upload is a hard custody limit. It means apparent brightness, contrast, apparent pulsing, and apparent shape must be interpreted through the released derivative file, not treated as raw sensor measurements.

Graph context

The current Open Sky graph context did not return exact Release 02 graph nodes for this DVIDS ID, title, or selected slug. That absence is not a contradiction of the official release; it means this page is currently anchored to the official manifest and source media while Release 02 graph ingest catches up.

Any title-related or dataset-wide records should be treated as leads only. This page does not create a finding, hypothesis, or object classification from graph context.

Leads to check

• Reconcile the direct DVIDS MP4 with the Release 02 video ZIP entry, including whether the 5,432-byte difference reflects container metadata, transfer/versioning, or a genuinely distinct copy.
• Locate any unaltered or less-processed source clip, if one exists, because the released description says the media was digitally altered before upload to the classified network.
• Confirm event context beyond the June 2024 upload/catalog fields: exact UTC time, location, platform, sensor, altitude, look angle, range, and operating environment are needed for serious prosaic checks.
• Review the full motion sequence across the 00:48–00:52 contrast-mode switch before using terms like “pulsing”; the still samples show changing appearance but do not establish the physical cause of that change.
• Test prosaic possibilities before escalation: surface vessel or buoy, bird or debris over water, sea-surface glint/wake/whitecap contrast, sensor/display artifact, compression artifact, and apparent motion induced by platform or sensor tracking.

Limits

This is a source-review draft, not a conclusion. The official source itself warns that many Release 02 materials lack substantiated chain of custody and that this media was digitally altered before classified-network upload. The released MP4 does not provide raw sensor data, geolocation, platform/sensor metadata, range, altitude, weather/sea-state context, or independent corroborating observations.

The contact sheets are derived from sampled frames and are included only to make the source review auditable. They show a small high-contrast feature near the center of the released sensor-display view across multiple samples and an apparent mode/contrast change around 49–52 seconds. They do not prove identity, anomalous performance, physical size, distance, or source-event validity.

Graph coverage for this exact Release 02 asset is currently absent in the read-only context used for this page. Until graph ingest, source normalization, and cross-case links are added, graph-based aggregation should not be used as evidence for this item.

Sources

• WAR.GOV/PURSUE landing page: https://www.war.gov/UFO/
• Release 02 manifest row 115, DOW-UAP-PR056, release date 5/22/26, agency Department of War, kind VID, redaction TRUE.
• DVIDS video page: https://www.dvidshub.net/video/1007718
• DVIDS canonical page observed during source review: https://www.dvidshub.net/video/1007718/dow-uap-pr056-spherical-uap-pulsing-over-water-callsign
• Direct official MP4 exposed by DVIDS: https://d34w7g4gy10iej.cloudfront.net/video/2605/DOD_111719741/DOD_111719741.mp4
• Release 02 video ZIP bundle: https://d34w7g4gy10iej.cloudfront.net/uap052226.zip; bundle SHA-256 8200c60f179767f50f5e6d0bf8373dfef7220326728610241394bcb8de22272d; central-directory entry video_2605_DOD_111719741_DOD_111719741.mp4, CRC32 ed43f2ab.