Watch the Official Jellyfish UFO Video
DVIDS, the U.S. military media archive, hosts the recording as “Al Taqaddum Object”. Its listing gives a running time of 17 minutes 27 seconds and a posting date of 29 April 2025. The footage comes from an infrared sensor on a force-protection aerostat, a tethered surveillance balloon.
Open the official video and its archive record
The archive metadata lists 1 October 2017, while AARO’s later case report specifies 23 October 2017. It also describes 17 minutes 30 seconds of recording. These discrepancies are retained here rather than treating the archive fields as identical.
Jellyfish UFO Timeline
- 23 October 2017
AARO dates the infrared recording to this day at Al Taqaddum Air Base in Iraq.
- January 2024
Jeremy Corbell and George Knapp bring the footage to public attention. Their initial WEAPONIZED announcement is dated 8 January; the follow-up episode describes alleged water entry and a rapid departure.
- 29 April 2025
DVIDS posts the longer official video. Its accompanying description identifies a balloon cluster and reports no anomalous performance.
- 8 September 2025
AARO issues its written case resolution, setting out its assessment and methods.
Read the original WEAPONIZED announcement
What AARO Found
The report estimates a speed of 4 to 14 mph and an altitude of 850 to 2,200 feet, both with moderate confidence. It finds east-to-west movement consistent with the wind. The analysis combines video, metadata, viewing geometry, reconstructions and weather information.
AARO attributes the shifting dark and light appearance to the sensor adjusting its greyscale display. Its analysts describe rounded balloon shapes and dangling strings. They also considered a camouflaged quadrotor, but rejected that explanation because of the drifting motion and lack of visible motor heat.
Read AARO’s case resolution and annotated stills
Claims Compared With the Public Record
Corbell and Knapp’s episode description alleges that the object entered a lake, emerged 17 minutes later and accelerated into the sky. Their account is a source for those claims, not independent confirmation that they occurred.
| Claim | What Can Be Checked |
|---|---|
| The recording is military footage. | AARO has released it through an official military archive, with a named location and sensor platform. |
| An unusual outline proves an exotic craft. | The current official imagery catalogue attributes the outline to inflated and partially inflated balloons. |
| The object entered water and accelerated away. | The official releases reviewed here do not corroborate this sequence. A claim about other footage is not a substitute for that footage. |
| The Pentagon has said nothing. | That is outdated. Both the official video description and the written case resolution now state an assessment. |
Read the WEAPONIZED episode account
What Remains Unverified
The public AARO summary does not identify who released the balloons or document a physical recovery. Its conclusion is an assessment from imagery and associated data. Those limits do not establish an alternative origin.
A separate recording showing water entry or extraordinary acceleration would need its own provenance, continuous sequence and supporting measurements. No such corroborating official release was found in the case materials checked for this update.
Check AARO’s current official imagery catalogue
Classification Does Not Identify the Object
AARO’s September 2025 declassification paper uses the jellyfish video as an example. It explains that ordinary objects can appear in classified imagery because the recording exposes sensitive sensors, locations or methods. Classification alone does not establish that the object has unusual capabilities.
Read AARO’s explanation of declassification
For other incidents with accessible records, compare the evidence in our documented UFO cases.
