Case Resolution: "The Al Taqaddum Object"
- Date
- 2025-09-08
- Location
- Al Taqaddum Air Base, Iraq
- Agency
- AARO
- Release
- AARO (aaro.mil)
- Type
- document
Summary
On October 23, 2017, an infrared sensor aboard a force-protection aerostat at Al Taqaddum Air Base, Iraq, recorded 17 minutes and 30 seconds of footage of an unidentified floating object. AARO assessed "with high confidence that the Al Taqaddum object did not exhibit anomalous behavior or capabilities" and that it "was consistent with a cluster of fully and partially inflated balloons." AARO says it and its partners discarded an alternative hypothesis of a camouflage-draped quadrotor drone.
Note
AARO case resolution dated 8 September 2025 (25-P-1190). This is the footage popularly called the "jellyfish" video; the official filename spells it "Taqaddam."