DOW-UAP-PR061, "Spherical UAP [CALLSIGN] 2021/04/12 vid 0"

Investigation reading

This Release 02 item is official Department of War/PURSUE manifest row 121. The manifest title is DOW-UAP-PR061, "Spherical UAP [CALLSIGN] 2021/04/12 vid 0". Open Sky treats Spherical UAP, [CALLSIGN], and vid 0 as source/catalog wording, not as a conclusion about object identity, shape, origin, or anomalous performance.

The selected row points to DVIDS video ID 1007735. The DVIDS page currently resolves to https://www.dvidshub.net/video/1007735/dow-uap-pr061-spherical-uap-callsign-2021-04-12-vid-0, carries the same title as the manifest, and exposes a direct official MP4 for DOD_111719828.mp4.

The official release text 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 many of those materials lack a substantiated chain of custody. For this video, the source says AARO assesses the clip is likely derived from a full-motion video camera and an infrared sensor aboard a U.S. military platform operating within the United States Central Command area of responsibility in 2021, and says a user uploaded it to a classified network in June 2024. Those are source statements, not independent Open Sky findings.

What the released item appears to contain

The downloaded MP4 is a 4 minute, 46.4 second, 1280×720 H.264 video. The visible presentation is consistent with a redacted sensor/display recording: black masks obscure interface regions, a small cyan/blue reticle appears near the center, small cyan/blue display marks appear in multiple samples, and the underlying scene shows rugged terrain, ridges, slopes, and dark smooth regions that may be terrain shadow, water, or another scene/background contrast. The public MP4 does not include readable platform identity, calibrated sensor data, range, altitude, exact geolocation, or raw telemetry.

The official source description divides the source-described action this way:

• 03:02–04:00 — an area of contrast enters the sensor field of view from the upper-right corner, exits in the bottom-right corner, and the sensor pans to track and center it.
• 04:01–04:46 — the sensor changes modes as the area of contrast becomes indistinct against the background.

Sampled-frame review supports cautious language only. The full-frame contact sheet shows changing redacted sensor views over rugged terrain and dark/light scene boundaries. In the source-described 03:02–04:46 window, the strongest visible contrast in the sampled stills is a dark-versus-light terrain or water/terrain boundary that becomes more prominent from about 04:00 onward and after the apparent grayscale/palette shift around 04:20. The center-crop sheet shows the reticle and overlay marks over that changing background, but a separate, continuously resolved physical object cannot be confidently isolated from these still samples. These samples do not establish object identity, distance, physical size, independent motion, speed, altitude, or anomalous behavior.

Derived full-frame contact sheet from the downloaded official MP4, sampled from 00:00 through 04:46. It shows the redacted sensor/display presentation, black masks, cyan reticle/display marks, rugged terrain, dark scene regions, and the later grayscale-looking mode/palette shift. It is visual documentation of the released file, not a motion or object-identification analysis.

Derived center-crop samples from the same MP4. The crop emphasizes the reticle/overlay region and central scene texture, but it does not provide range, scale, platform motion, or object identity.

Derived samples from the official 03:02–04:46 contrast window. The sheet shows the redacted display panning over rugged terrain and a dark/light contrast boundary; small high-contrast details near the later boundary remain ambiguous in still frames.

Derived center-crop samples from the same source-described window. The crop makes the reticle and display marks easier to audit and shows the contrast area becoming less internally detailed after the later grayscale-looking shift, but it does not identify the feature or prove unusual behavior.

Source asset review

The selected manifest row uses DVIDS ID 1007735. The DVIDS request returned a redirect to https://www.dvidshub.net/video/1007735/dow-uap-pr061-spherical-uap-callsign-2021-04-12-vid-0, then returned 200 and exposed the direct official MP4 source shown below. The individual MP4 was downloaded and inspected directly; the full Release 02 video ZIP was not downloaded as a substitute.

DVIDS page metadata observed during source review: title DOW-UAP-PR061, "Spherical UAP [CALLSIGN] 2021/04/12 vid 0"; date taken 04.12.2021; date posted 05.22.2026 07:30; category B-Roll; video ID 1007735; VIRIN 210413-D-D0360-9523; filename DOD_111719828; length 00:04:46; location field (UNDISCLOSED LOCATION); courtesy source All Domain Anomaly Resolution Office.

The DVIDS length, MP4 stream duration, and official manifest duration align at approximately 4 minutes 46 seconds. The MP4 contains an AAC stereo audio stream, but the decoded stream measured as silent in this pass.

Source custody and provenance

Primary provenance for this page is the official WAR.GOV/PURSUE Release 02 manifest, the official DVIDS video page, and the direct DVIDS/CloudFront MP4 exposed by that page. The Release 02 video ZIP central-directory inventory lists video_2605_DOD_111719828_DOD_111719828.mp4, size 155,089,788 bytes, CRC32 9930b6b2, stored without ZIP compression. The directly downloaded DVIDS MP4 is slightly larger at 155,095,103 bytes with CRC32 97c43e92; that direct-MP4-versus-ZIP mismatch should be preserved as a source-custody/versioning lead until the exact ZIP entry is compared byte-for-byte.

The timing/location fields need careful separation. The manifest incident date is 2021, the manifest incident location is CENTCOM, the DVIDS page lists date taken 04.12.2021 and location (UNDISCLOSED LOCATION), the VIRIN begins 210413, and the source description says a user uploaded the video to a classified network in June 2024. Those fields should not be collapsed into an exact event time or geolocation without additional chain-of-custody documentation.

The official description is expressly informational and says readers should not interpret any part of it as an analytical judgment, investigative conclusion, or factual determination regarding the described event's validity, nature, or significance. Open Sky preserves that caution here.

Graph context

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

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

Leads to check

• Reconcile the direct DVIDS MP4 against the Release 02 video ZIP entry because their byte sizes and CRC32 values do not match in the current source review.
• Preserve and reconcile the timing fields before timeline use: manifest incident date 2021, DVIDS date taken 04.12.2021, VIRIN prefix 210413, DVIDS posting time 05.22.2026 07:30, and the source statement that a user uploaded the video in June 2024.
• Reconcile geography before map use: manifest location CENTCOM, DVIDS location (UNDISCLOSED LOCATION), and source wording about a U.S. military platform within the United States Central Command area of responsibility.
• Compare this item cautiously with adjacent manifest rows in the same uploader-title/date family, including DOW-UAP-PR060, DOW-UAP-PR062, and DOW-UAP-PR063, after their individual source files and custody fields are reviewed.
• If a raw or less-compressed source export becomes available, review the official 03:02–04:46 contrast window with platform motion, sensor mode, line of sight, range, altitude, stabilization, and surrounding terrain or maritime context.
• Test prosaic and presentation possibilities before escalation: terrain/water/shadow contrast, platform/sensor pan, zoom and focus changes, mode or palette switching, stabilization or tracking behavior, display overlays, masking/redaction, compression artifacts, sensor gain/contrast changes, glare/glint, birds/debris/balloons/drones/aircraft at unknown range, and apparent motion induced by platform or sensor movement.

Limits

This is a source-review draft, not a conclusion. The official release itself warns that many Release 02 materials lack substantiated chain of custody. The public MP4 does not include raw sensor data, calibrated telemetry, platform identification, exact geolocation, range, altitude, weather, traffic data, or independent corroborating observations.

The contact sheets are derived from sampled frames and are included only to make the source review auditable. They show redacted sensor/display overlays, black masks, changing terrain and dark/light scene boundaries, the source-described contrast window, and a later grayscale-looking mode/palette shift, but they do not prove identity, anomalous performance, physical size, distance, speed, 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 121, DOW-UAP-PR061, release date 5/22/26, agency Department of War, kind VID, redaction TRUE, incident date 2021, incident location CENTCOM.
• DVIDS video page: https://www.dvidshub.net/video/1007735
• DVIDS canonical page observed during source review: https://www.dvidshub.net/video/1007735/dow-uap-pr061-spherical-uap-callsign-2021-04-12-vid-0
• Direct official MP4 exposed by DVIDS: https://d34w7g4gy10iej.cloudfront.net/video/2605/DOD_111719828/DOD_111719828.mp4
• Release 02 video ZIP bundle: https://d34w7g4gy10iej.cloudfront.net/uap052226.zip; bundle SHA-256 8200c60f179767f50f5e6d0bf8373dfef7220326728610241394bcb8de22272d; central-directory entry video_2605_DOD_111719828_DOD_111719828.mp4, size 155,089,788 bytes, CRC32 9930b6b2.