The footage was captured on August 23, 2012, by an MQ-9 Reaper drone operated by the United States Air Force. The infrared sensors on the military aircraft recorded the objects just after 6pm local time as they moved through airspace between Saudi Arabia and Iran. The region has since become recognized as a significant hotspot for unexplained aerial phenomena, with personnel on US Navy vessels reporting multiple encounters with bright objects in the sky.
What makes this particular sighting stand apart from countless other UFO videos is its origin. This is not smartphone footage shot by an excited amateur but military-grade sensor data officially designated as UAP, which stands for Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena. Investigative journalist Jeremy Corbell, who obtained and released the footage along with colleague George Knapp on their WEAPONIZED podcast, noted that the Department of War, formerly the Department of Defence, reportedly placed this recording in a separate archive specifically reserved for evidence considered non-human.
Three Lights That Move Like Nothing We’ve Built
The footage shows three distinct points of light moving across the drone’s field of view in what observers immediately recognized as a coordinated triangular formation. For most of the recording, the objects maintain equal distances from one another, holding their positions with a precision that suggested either intelligent control or an unknown physical connection. The visual presentation initially created the impression of a single triangular craft with lights at each corner.
George Knapp addressed this directly during the podcast analysis, explaining that what looks like one large triangular vehicle with three dots on the ends is clearly not what the footage actually shows. Watching the full sequence makes it evident that three separate objects are moving together rather than one unified structure. The military’s own classification described them as orbs flying in formation, according to Unilad, confirming the interpretation that multiple objects were involved.
Persian Gulf UFO Sighting – © Mapcreator / DailyMail
Throughout the entire sequence, none of the objects displayed any visible wings, tails, fins, or engine exhaust. These are features that would be unavoidable on any conventional aircraft, yet the infrared sensors detected nothing of the sort. The objects simply existed as three points of light moving through the air with apparent disregard for how things normally fly.
A Playful Maneuver That Broke the Formation
The most intriguing moment arrives about halfway through the minute-long recording. One of the three lights suddenly drops back, breaking the perfect triangle it had maintained with the other two objects. It hangs behind for a brief moment before surging forward again, rejoining the formation and resuming its original position as if nothing unusual had happened.
Jeremy Corbell emphasized during the WEAPONIZED episode that this movement appeared almost playful in nature. He suggested the objects seemed aware of one another and were coordinating intelligently, maintaining equal distances throughout most of the flight. The way the orb dropped back and then came forward again seemed deliberate, almost as if demonstrating awareness and control rather than simply following a predetermined path.
The video of the orbs was taken by a US Air Force Reaper drone between Saudi Arabia and Iran – © United States Air Force
According to the Daily Mail, Corbell pointed out that this particular behavior matches one of the five observables often associated with UFO encounters, unusual flight movements that appear to violate basic physical laws. The orb showed clear signs of instant acceleration without any visible thrust, something no known aircraft can accomplish. There were no exhaust plumes, no engine glow, no heat signatures that would typically accompany such rapid movement in the atmosphere.
Why Military Footage Carries More Weight
The credibility of this observation rests heavily on the equipment that captured it. Military sensors, particularly those mounted on Reaper drones, accumulate far more data than standard cameras or commercial recording devices. They detect heat, track movement across multiple spectral bands, and maintain precise timing information that allows analysts to calculate speed and acceleration with high accuracy.
George Knapp argued during the podcast that this technological advantage makes military recordings inherently more reliable than civilian footage when evaluating claims of extraordinary performance. A military recorded sensor-generated image carries weight that someone’s shaky phone video simply cannot match. The objects were captured by equipment designed to track and identify potential threats, not by accident or through someone hoping to see something strange.
Congressman Eric Burlison of Missouri revealed video of a US military drone striking an orb-shaped UFO with a missile, which bounced off and did not stop the craft – © GOP Oversight / YouTube
Corbell made a point of telling listeners that their government designated this footage as depicting unidentified phenomena and that the public was never supposed to see it at all. The classification suggests ongoing official acknowledgment that some encounters remain genuinely unexplained, even if public statements continue to maintain otherwise.
Archived Separately as Potentially Non-Human
Perhaps the most significant detail to emerge involves how the military reportedly categorized the recording after its initial analysis. According to information obtained by Corbell and Knapp, this video was not filed alongside routine sightings of weather balloons, aircraft, or wildlife. Instead, it was placed in a separate archive specifically designated for evidence of non-human craft or objects.
This distinction matters because it indicates that whoever reviewed the original footage concluded that conventional explanations did not apply. The objects were not birds, not balloons, not atmospheric phenomena, and not known aircraft. They were something else entirely, something that merited special handling and restricted access. The existence of such an archive, if confirmed, would suggest the military encounters enough truly unexplained objects to require dedicated storage.
The Persian Gulf region has produced multiple such encounters over the years. One particularly dramatic incident occurred not far from where the 2012 drone footage was captured, off the coast of Yemen approximately one thousand miles away. During a congressional UAP hearing last year, Missouri Congressman Eric Burlison released never-before-seen footage from October 30, 2024, showing a military drone strike on an orb-shaped object similar to those seen in the Persian Gulf.
That black-and-white video captured a Hellfire missile, a hundred-pound class air-to-ground precision weapon, striking what appeared to be a similar object. The missile did not destroy the target. It bounced off. The orb continued traveling at extreme speed as if nothing had happened. Former Air Force military police officer Jeffrey Nuccetelli, who served for sixteen years, described that outcome as exceptional evidence supporting the reality of UFO existence.