DOW-UAP-PR089, "31 AUG [CALLSIGN] [CALLSIGN] Observes UAP part2"

Investigation reading

This Release 02 item is an official Department of War / AARO video record from manifest row 149, published in the 5/22/26 WAR.GOV/PURSUE release and mirrored through DVIDS video ID 1007712. The public title is preserved as source/catalog language: "31 AUG [CALLSIGN] [CALLSIGN] Observes UAP part2". The redacted callsign fields, the part2 title language, and the word UAP are not treated here as independent Open Sky findings about platform identity, crew, target identity, event significance, or the nature of the visible contrast features.

The official release description says eight U.S. House members requested access to 51 potentially UAP-related records allegedly held by the Department of War and the Intelligence Community. AARO identified responsive materials held on a classified network and warns that many of these materials lack a substantiated chain of custody. For this row, AARO assesses that the public video is likely derived from an infrared sensor aboard a U.S. military platform operating within the United States Central Command area of responsibility in 2020, and says a user uploaded the video to a classified network in August 2020.

The source-provided video description lists a duration of 00:04:58. It breaks the public clip into these windows: 00:00 to 00:45, the sensor tracks an area of contrast near the center of the screen; 00:46 to 01:09, another area of contrast enters the field of view from the lower-right side while the sensor pans to track both areas before the second area exits; 01:10 to 01:22, the sensor cycles contrast modes and the area of contrast momentarily loses distinctiveness against the background; 01:23 to 02:35, several areas of contrast enter and exit the frame; 02:36 to 02:41, the areas of contrast become indistinct against the background; 02:42 to 03:22, the areas of contrast become distinguishable again; 03:23 to 03:43, several areas of contrast enter and exit the screen; 03:44 to 03:48, the sensor pans to track the area of contrast; 03:49 to 04:01, the area of contrast exits the sensor field of view from the right side; and 04:02 to 04:58, No content. The same source text is explicitly informational only and should not be interpreted as an analytical judgment, investigative conclusion, or factual determination about the described event's validity, nature, or significance.

The DVIDS page resolves to a canonical page for video 1007712 and lists date taken 08.31.2020, date posted 05.22.2026 07:30, category B-Roll, video ID 1007712, VIRIN 200831-D-D0360-2504, filename DOD_111719730, length 00:04:58, and location (UNDISCLOSED LOCATION). The DVIDS length and manifest/source description align with the downloaded MP4 duration of about 298.5 seconds.

What the released item appears to contain

The downloaded direct MP4 is a 1280×720 grayscale / infrared-style sensor-display clip with fixed black masking or redaction blocks near the frame edges and top, a central blue reticle/crosshair, peripheral blue markers, and occasional blue rectangular selection/tracking boxes. The usable image area is a broad low-contrast textured field with changing light/dark patches, vertical banding, mottling, and intermittent small bright or dark specks. These are described here only as visible source-media features; this page does not identify them as objects, aircraft, targets, terrain, vessels, sensor artifacts, or anything else.

In the 00:00 to 01:22 source-described initial-track, lower-right-entry, and contrast-mode windows, sampled frames show the stable overlay, changing gray/yellow tonal fields, small intermittent bright specks near the central area, and a blue rectangular overlay around the central region in at least one early sampled frame. The still samples are broadly consistent with a sensor display tracking or highlighting a central region, but they are not sufficient to isolate a discrete subject or reconstruct motion. The source language about the second area entering from the lower right and the contrast-mode cycle should remain attributed to the official description unless continuous full-resolution playback and original sensor metadata are reviewed.

In the 01:23 to 03:43 source-described multiple-area windows, the contact sheets show stronger vertical banding, diffuse central darkening in some frames, mottled gray texture, and intermittent small bright/dark points near or around the reticle. Autocontrast and center-crop review aids make several low-contrast center-adjacent features easier to see around roughly 01:50, 03:23, 03:50, and 04:01, but those features remain diffuse, contrast-dependent, and not confidently trackable from the still sheets alone. Autocontrast also amplifies background texture, sensor noise, compression, and display-processing effects.

In the 03:49 to 04:01 exit window and the source-described 04:02 to 04:58 No content interval, sampled frames do not appear visually blank. They continue to show the sensor display, background-like grayscale imagery, overlay symbology, black masks, and tonal gradients. Within the sampled No content interval, however, no clear independently identifiable subject or event is apparent from the contact sheet alone. The safest wording is that the source uses No content for that interval while the public MP4 still contains sensor-display/background frames.

The MP4 includes an AAC stereo audio stream, but a full decoded audio check returned zero signal in this source review (RMS 0.0, mean absolute sample 0.0, max absolute sample 0.0). No transcript or audible content is quoted here. The contact sheets below are derived review aids from the downloaded official MP4; they are not independent evidence and should not be used to infer cause, identity, speed, range, altitude, or event significance.

Source asset review

The individual official DVIDS/CloudFront MP4 was downloaded and inspected directly; the full Release 02 video ZIP was not used as a substitute. The direct media response returned 200, content-type: binary/octet-stream, accept-ranges: bytes, content-length: 59020123, last-modified: Fri, 22 May 2026 11:30:53 GMT, and ETag "ca3074acda461db438dc7487c06abefb-8". A byte-range probe returned 206 with content-range: bytes 0-15/59020123; the first 16 bytes were MP4/M4V header bytes 0000001c667479704d34562000000001.

The Release 02 remote video-ZIP central directory lists video_2605_DOD_111719730_DOD_111719730.mp4 as 59,014,273 bytes with CRC32 ef602da8, stored uncompressed. That does not match the downloaded direct DVIDS MP4 size or CRC32; the direct object is 5,850 bytes larger than the ZIP central-directory entry. Until the ZIP entry is byte-compared against the direct DVIDS object, this should be treated as a source-custody/versioning lead, not as a substantive finding about the imagery.

Source custody and provenance

Primary public provenance for this page is the official WAR.GOV/PURSUE Release 02 landing page, the Release 02 manifest row, and the DVIDS page for video 1007712. The public DVIDS page resolves to https://www.dvidshub.net/video/1007712/dow-uap-pr089-31-aug-callsign-callsign-observes-uap-part2 and exposes the direct media asset at https://d34w7g4gy10iej.cloudfront.net/video/2605/DOD_111719730/DOD_111719730.mp4.

The custody posture is intentionally bounded. The public release says many responsive materials lack a substantiated chain of custody. This row says the video was uploaded to a classified network in August 2020 and is likely derived from an infrared sensor aboard a U.S. military platform operating within the CENTCOM area of responsibility in 2020. DVIDS adds a 08.31.2020 date taken, (UNDISCLOSED LOCATION) location, VIRIN 200831-D-D0360-2504, and filename DOD_111719730. Those fields are useful public catalog facts, but they do not provide original sensor metadata, platform identity, coordinates, range, altitude, or continuous chain-of-custody documentation. This page preserves the official manifest/DVIDS provenance and downloaded-source inspection facts without converting the title, visible contrast, or AARO summary into an Open Sky finding.

The part2 title is a provenance lead. It suggests that this source row may need to be read alongside the adjacent 31 August 2020 callsign video record in Release 02, but the public title alone does not establish whether the two public MP4s are the same incident, sequential segments, edited derivatives of a longer source file, or separate cataloged excerpts.

Graph context

No exact Release 02 graph record was returned for this slug, title, or DVIDS ID during this run's read-only graph context check. That is not a source-access problem; it means this page is currently anchored to official manifest/DVIDS provenance while graph ingest for Release 02 catches up. Future title-related or dataset-wide graph hits should be treated as leads until their provenance links resolve back to this exact official asset.

Leads to check

• Byte-compare the direct DVIDS MP4 against the Release 02 video-ZIP entry because the direct-file size/CRC32 and ZIP central-directory size/CRC32 do not match.
• Review the event windows in continuous full-resolution motion, especially 00:00 to 01:22, 01:23 to 03:43, 03:49 to 04:01, and the source-described 04:02 to 04:58 No content interval; still contact sheets are triage aids, not sufficient event reconstruction.
• Compare this part2 title and video metadata against the adjacent Release 02 PR088 31 AUG [CALLSIGN] [CALLSIGN] Observes UAP record without assuming continuity beyond what the public source records support.
• Reconcile the source title's Observes UAP language with the body description's more cautious area(s) of contrast wording; the title alone should not be used as an identity, performance, or significance finding.
• Identify the original sensor type, display mode/polarity, contrast cycling behavior, reticle/overlay meaning, masking/redaction behavior, platform position, line of sight, range, precise time, and any companion mission or operator notes.
• Run prosaic context checks before escalation: ordinary aircraft, drones, birds, balloons, debris, maritime/ground traffic, clouds/haze, terrain or surface texture, glint/reflection, atmospheric effects, sensor gain or contrast processing, platform parallax, compression/display artifacts, redaction artifacts, CENTCOM activity on 31 August 2020, weather, satellite/launch/reentry context, and any available military or civilian incident logs.

Limits

This is a compressed public MP4 derived from a classified-network upload, and the release-level source warning says many responsive materials lack a substantiated chain of custody. The public record does not provide the original file hash, original sensor metadata, platform identity, precise time of day, line of sight, range, altitude, coordinates, independent radar or optical tracks, air/ground/maritime traffic correlation, weather correlation, or original witness/operator notes on this page. The source-described areas of contrast remain unresolved from this asset alone. This page is a source-review draft and not a finding.

Sources

• WAR.GOV/PURSUE Release 02 landing page: https://www.war.gov/UFO/
• DVIDS video page: https://www.dvidshub.net/video/1007712
• DVIDS canonical video page: https://www.dvidshub.net/video/1007712/dow-uap-pr089-31-aug-callsign-callsign-observes-uap-part2
• DVIDS direct media asset: https://d34w7g4gy10iej.cloudfront.net/video/2605/DOD_111719730/DOD_111719730.mp4
• Release 02 document bundle: https://www.war.gov/medialink/ufo/052226/release_02/release_02_document_bundle.zip
• Release 02 video bundle: https://d34w7g4gy10iej.cloudfront.net/uap052226.zip
• Official Release 02 manifest row 149, DOW-UAP-PR089, "31 AUG [CALLSIGN] [CALLSIGN] Observes UAP part2", release date 5/22/26, agency Department of War, kind VID.