What was that? “Three objects seen in formation” – tracking down the viral military infrared image

6 min read

A black-and-white image is spreading on social media: three bright objects above mountains, among them a circled, triangle-shaped “saucer.” According to the caption, it is 2023 military infrared UAP footage. We looked into it: only one official video matches the description, and according to the investigation it shows three distant airliners. The circulating image also does not match the official description on several points. Our verdict: misleading.

The image

The image is spreading on Facebook and other social media sites. It is a grayish frame that looks like infrared camera footage: a mountain ridge and clouds at the bottom, and above them, in the dark sky, three bright objects in a triangle. The middle one is highlighted by a red circle and an arrow, and it is clearly visible, shaped like a triangle or a saucer. The two lower ones look like flat, oval disks.

Below it is a caption in capital letters: “Three objects seen in formation – 2023 military UAP infrared sensor footage”. The image does not say where and when the footage was recorded, who published it, or what the outcome of the investigation was.

Which footage could it be?

We reviewed the military UAP footage released by the U.S. government, as well as the footage most debated on specialist forums. We found only one recording that matches every element: official military infrared footage, it shows three objects, and it was made public in 2023.

This is the video titled “Western U.S. Objects”. Sean Kirkpatrick, then head of the U.S. government's UFO investigation office (AARO), presented it at the first public meeting of NASA's independent UAP study team on May 31, 2023. The Pentagon published it the same day on its official video site (DVIDS). However, the footage was not recorded in 2023 but in 2021, over a military training range in the western United States, with an infrared camera.

Other candidates have also come up, but they do not match the image:

Three spheres in a triangle formation, Persian Gulf. Infrared footage from an MQ-9 Reaper drone, released by Jeremy Corbell and George Knapp on the podcast Weaponized in early 2026. This footage was recorded in 2012, over the sea.
“The opening triangle,” East China Sea (DOW-UAP-PR103). One of the videos from the Pentagon's 2026 document release. Some say it is one object, others say three birds. It is from 2024 and was also recorded over the sea.
The Pentagon's 2026 PURSUE packages. These include only one video recorded in 2023: of an object shot down over Lake Huron, but only one object is visible in it.

The path of the “Western U.S. Objects” footage from recording through the official presentation to social media. Sky Glitch chart

What does the official investigation say?

According to the Pentagon's description, AARO analyzed the full video and compared it with civilian air traffic data for the area. The radar tracks of airliners flying in the area coincided with the three objects. The conclusion: the footage shows three separate airliners, at a great distance from the camera. According to the official description, because of the great distance the objects were visible only as small dots.

What doesn't add up in the circulating image

If the circulating image refers to this footage, then it differs on several points from what the official source says:

The year. The footage was recorded in 2021. 2023 is only the year of the public presentation.
The “formation.” The caption suggests that the three objects flew together, in a formation. According to AARO, however, these are three separate aircraft that only came close to each other as seen from the camera's angle of view.
The shape. According to the official description, the objects were only tiny dots. The circulating image, however, shows a sharp, triangle-shaped “saucer” and two flat disks. A small dot recorded from a great distance does not turn into a sharp shape on its own.
The source. We did not find the circulating frame in any official release. The image carries only the watermark of a social media page and does not cite an original source.
The withheld result. The caption calls the objects “UAP,” meaning unidentified phenomena. Yet the only matching official footage was already identified by AARO in 2023.

The claims in the circulating image's caption compared with the Pentagon's official description. Sky Glitch chart

The sober take

The image mixes up two things: news of a real, official military recording and an image that does not match the official description of that recording.

Why an airliner? An airliner with a wingspan of about 35 meters, seen from 50 kilometers, appears at an angle of about 0.04 degrees, which is roughly one-thirteenth of the diameter of the full Moon. The infrared camera detects the hot engines and the exhaust gas most strongly, so from a great distance the aircraft appears as a single bright, blurry spot. No wings, fuselage or tail are visible, and such a spot can easily look “alien.”
Where could the sharp shape come from? A tiny, blurry spot can only be turned into a sharp, triangle-shaped object through after-the-fact “enhancement”: enlarging, sharpening, or image-enhancing programs that use artificial intelligence. These programs do not bring out details; they make them up. It is also possible that the image comes from an entirely different source, or was artificially created in the first place. This cannot be decided without the image's original source.
The red circle. The circling and the arrow suggest that the middle object is special. This is a common device in circulating UFO images: viewers see what they are shown.
What is real. Military infrared cameras do record objects that pilots or operators cannot immediately identify. The Pentagon's 2026 documents include many such unresolved cases. This image, however, is not one of them: the only official footage that matches it is a resolved case.

The apparent size of an airliner with a 35-meter wingspan from 10, 20, 50 and 100 kilometers, at the same scale as the disk of the full Moon. Sky Glitch chart

Our verdict: misleading. The image builds on news of a real official recording, but it gives the wrong year, withholds the outcome of the investigation, and shows sharp shapes that, according to the official description, were not visible in the footage. If the image does refer to the “Western U.S. Objects” video, then what that video shows is three distant airliners.

How to check it yourself

Look for the date and the place. If the image doesn't say where and when it was recorded, be suspicious.
Look for the original source. Official military footage is available on the Pentagon's video site (DVIDS) or on AARO's website, together with the investigation results.
Compare. Does the circulating image match the official footage? Sharp details are often added to an image afterward.
See how it ended. Many “UFO videos” were identified years ago, but the circulating images don't mention this.

Have you seen a strange image or video and want us to look into it? Send it to us!