Four-Foot Orbs Played Dolphin in Front of a U.S. Gunship

An AC-130J gunship was running a training exercise over the Gulf of Oman in September 2021 when things got strange in a very specific way. A crew member pointed the gunship's infrared cameras at a water-activated flare that had just been dropped as a mock target. Two orbs, each about 4 feet (1.2 meters) in diameter, were hovering roughly 20 feet above it. The plane fired its cannon. The orbs flew off rapidly, without changing altitude. The incident report describes their exit pattern as "similar to how dolphins playfully swim in a pod."

The military's word. Not an editorialization.

Personnel aboard observed approximately 25 UAPs during the live-fire exercise. The objects flew in formation and maneuvered aggressively, clocking between 250 and 1,300 mph (400-2,100 kph). They were logged as "cold orbs," meaning infrared cameras read them as cooler than the surrounding air. No exhaust signature. No heat plume. AARO has flagged "small metallic orbs" as the most commonly reported UAP type among military personnel for several years running, a finding confirmed again in its 2025 annual report.

This footage is part of the Pentagon's fifth material drop since May, a 41-file release spanning more than seven decades of unexplained aerial encounters. The earliest document dates to 1953 and describes footage from the prior year of blue-white objects built from materials the report couldn't identify. Nothing in the release explains any of it.

The orbs are still out there. The dolphins are still playing.

Read the full story at Scientific American, August 7, 2026

Hot Take: A U.S. gunship fires its cannon at a flare and four-foot orbs with no propulsion signatures scatter like they're annoyed about it, and the most honest word in the official report is dolphins. Whatever these things are, they've been doing this long enough to have habits.