News / Jun 15, 2026

"Orbs Launching Orbs": The unresolved AARO case from PURSUE Release 03

By Jan for UAP Logbook / Published

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UAP Logbook
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Jan
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AARO's Western U.S. Event file has one of the strongest hooks in PURSUE Release 03: six federal law enforcement agents, orange "mother orbs," smaller red orbs, and a case still unresolved.

"Orbs Launching Orbs."

The All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office uses that label for the Western U.S. Event in PURSUE Release 03: a 2023 case near a sensitive national security site, reported by federal law enforcement special agents, and still unresolved in the June 2026 release.

The public package is unusually complete for a case with no original public footage. It includes an AARO case-analysis update, a notional map, five witness narratives, ten FBI digital renderings, and two FBI digital recreations posted through DVIDS.

Official FBI digital rendering for the Western United States Event showing two figures watching red and yellow lights above a ridgeline.
FBI-UAP-D019, an official digital rendering from PURSUE Release 03. The FBI prepared the rendering at the Department of War's request; it is based on a witness narrative, not a photograph of the event.

The location is still masked. The site is described only as being in the western United States and sensitive to national security.

The details around the masked location are where the file gets interesting.

What the six agents reported in October 2023

AARO says six federal law enforcement special agents observed UAP activity over two days in October 2023.

The headline event happened around dusk. Three teams of two agents, viewing from different positions, described orange "mother orbs" that appeared briefly and produced smaller red orbs. The red lights then moved away in groups, usually two to four at a time.

One witness described a bright orb-like light that grew larger and expelled three or four red lights. Those red lights then moved into a horizontal formation.

Another account says the larger light appeared for only seconds, released smaller lights, and then disappeared.

The released map puts that scene under Incident 1: "Orbs Launching Orbs."

DOW-UAP-D078 notional map of four Western United States Event incidents in PURSUE Release 03.
DOW-UAP-D078, the official notional map for the Western United States Event. The source image says the locations are notional, distances are not to scale, and the phenomena were enlarged for illustrative purposes.

The case has four parts.

  • Incident 1: Orbs Launching Orbs. Orange "mother orbs" appeared briefly and released smaller red orbs. The smaller lights moved away in groups, often in horizontal formation.
  • Incident 2: Fiery Orb. A large glowing object appeared near a ridgeline, estimated by the map text at roughly 1,000 yards. One witness compared the size to a small helicopter cockpit. AARO's later measurement put it farther away and larger than the witness first guessed.
  • Incident 3: Dark Kite. Agents first read it as a vehicle on a road inside a restricted zone. The object had one red light and one white light, then moved laterally off the road over desert terrain without changing orientation.
  • Incident 4: Translucent Kite. Agents reported a kite-shaped object close to the ground, with a lighting pattern similar to the earlier dark object. One witness said stars appeared faintly visible through it.

The file is not a single light in the sky. It is a two-day sequence with several different reported shapes and behaviors.

The 40 percent gap

AARO split the case instead of treating it as one mystery.

The June 5 case update says historical flight logs showed U.S. military aircraft in the area were equipped with and deploying infrared countermeasure flares during a standard exercise.

AARO says the position, timing, direction of travel, radar data, and ADS-B data make about 60 percent of the reported activity plausibly attributable to military aircraft.

The agents were familiar with military flares and told AARO the phenomena did not look like standard illumination flares. AARO adds a useful wrinkle: the specific infrared flares carried by the aircraft in the area can differ from standard illumination flares.

Part of the file bends toward a conventional explanation.

For the remaining 40 percent of observations, AARO says radar and ADS-B data did not show known aircraft in the observers' estimated line of sight. The memo also says one report of a red orb remaining stationary for several hours does not fit the burn time and descent rate of any known military flare.

AARO's preliminary exclusion-based hypothesis is that "unrecognized technology" may account for up to 40 percent of the phenomena. The same sentence keeps the brake on: that assessment is provisional and is not supported by technical data or physical evidence.

Why the case stayed open

The witnesses did not collect original video, photographs, or other technical data during the event.

The strongest public material here is official paperwork and official recreations, not raw footage from the night itself.

The office says the agents' accounts were consistent across multiple viewing angles, that the agents understood the operational environment, and that the reported features aligned with other incidents in the western U.S. region.

AARO also says it reviewed U.S. programs and activities across the Department of War and the Intelligence Community. The result was plausible but inconclusive. Some reported characteristics aligned with U.S. military technologies, but historical records did not settle whether those technologies matched the time and place of the event.

The unresolved piece sits between trained observers, partial aircraft explanations, possible U.S. capability overlap, and records that still do not settle the time and place.

The official videos are recreations

The two DVIDS videos tied to this case are FBI-UAP-PR005 and FBI-UAP-PR006.

They are not original event footage.

DVIDS identifies them as digital recreations based on a first-hand description from Witness 3 in DOW-UAP-D081. The Federal Bureau of Investigation prepared the recreations at the request of the Department of War in 2026.

Official FBI digital rendering for the Western United States Event showing red lights above a mountain line and two figures near a vehicle.
FBI-UAP-D023, another official digital rendering from the Western United States Event package. The image is a rendering based on witness material, not a source photograph.
DVIDS embed: FBI-UAP-PR005, a digital recreation tied to Narrative Statement 3 in the Western United States Event. It is an artistic interpretation, not original footage.
DVIDS embed: FBI-UAP-PR006, a second digital recreation tied to Narrative Statement 3. DVIDS describes it as an artistic interpretation prepared by the FBI at the Department of War's request.

The videos show how the government chose to visualize the witness account. They do not show the object itself.

Still, the fact that the FBI produced ten still renderings and two video recreations for one case says something about how seriously the case package was handled.

What would move it

The next useful material would be boring in the best way: aircraft exercise records, flare types, ADS-B and radar overlays, security logs from the site, patrol notes, incident reports, sensor tasking, and any additional witness statements that explain the two-day sequence.

The released file says AARO wants more.

The next version of this story needs the logs behind the line: where the aircraft were, what flares were used, what the site recorded, and why the remaining observations did not close.

Related UAP Logbook notes

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