Claim : The Baghdad Phantom UAP

[Ann K]

When I say "straight line", I mean in 3 dimensions. You have to balance gravity and lift (or up-vectoring) in order to keep that third dimension constant. Aerodynamics tends to be notoriously unstable, once you start pointing in the wrong direction, you tend to make yourself point more in that wrong direction, positive feedback ensues; sometimes your arse overtakes your head (c.f. rocket launch failures), sometimes you stall (c.f. a home-made Barnaby glider - make one and give it too much lift), it depends on the exact situation.

You're right, of course. I was just referring to the 2-D brief span covered by the limited information we received from these stills, and thinking of it more in terms of a bullet, something propelled but no longer guided once launched.

 

[Duke]

The oval "trails" behind the dark dashes are suspiciously distinct. If these were hard-copy photos I would say that someone used a straight-edge and drew a series of dashes across a photo with an ink marker, and then tried to erase some of them. The erasure not being completely successful, with the edges of the erased dashes remaining. The boundaries of the "trails" are too distinct. Compare their narrowness to the degree of "fuzziness" of the dark dashes and of features on the ground. The level of detail in the trails is simply uncharacteristic of the level of detail of the rest of the image. I would say this is a fake.

Since these are not hard copy photos, how and in what part of the process would you fake this to get the images released?

 

[Mick West]

In addition to analyzing the data in this video, it would be great to find more examples of the things shown (or claimed to be shown)

Specifically:

1. Powered craft that look cold against the ground. We've got one 1990s video of two jets which is pretty good, but more is better. There's another video that claims to be a formation of cruise missiles heading to Bagdad, but that is unclear if it's real (maybe birds)
2. Reaper drone footage, especially in IR, showing the on-screen display (text and the angle indicators). I''ve only seen old ones that looks similar, but the layout is different, analog-looing. The new images are cropped from a digital video with the indicators smaller and to the edges.
3. The "ghosting" effect where a noisy silhouette of the object appear behind it for a few frames. This resembles the trails seen behind things on webcams, but seems unexpected here - especially for a cold object.

 

[RTM]

Is the framing of this as from an active war zone an attempt to link it to recent reports from Ukraine or maybe even the re-surfaced older reports of sightings near nuclear bases?

 

[jarlrmai]

Is the framing of this as from an active war zone an attempt to link it to recent reports from Ukraine or maybe even the re-surfaced older reports of sightings near nuclear bases?

Who's framing are you talking about?

 

[RTM]

Maybe framing is over doing it, I mean this bit from the initial release description. "This is US military filmed UFO footage from an active conflict zone;"

Of course, he might just be giving as much details as possible but it stood out and made me think of the cases I mentioned. Then again, as someone mentioned earlier a cylindrical object in a war zone isn't the most unusual thing.

 

[Mick West]

Here's another plane (and some parachutes) showing black cold against the ground.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dP6KMPrB7c


The bright white is a hot missile or rocket. (EDIT: RPG - Rocket Propelled Grenade)

 

[jarlrmai]

Maybe framing is over doing it, I mean this bit from the initial release description. "This is US military filmed UFO footage from an active conflict zone;"

Of course, he might just be giving as much details as possible but it stood out and made me think of the cases I mentioned. Then again, as someone mentioned earlier a cylindrical object in a war zone isn't the most unusual thing.

Ah Corbell's wording, yeah it's probably a mix between "This is serious shit" and "I am very important" however it does have the other effect of making it more apparent that that a mundane missile shaped object would be present.

 

[Charon]

Forgive my ignorance, but in what way/ how you confirm the objects distance from the camera?

Cause to me this looks like something really tiny passing close to the camera, thats why it looks like its going that fast.

 

[MapperGuy]

Since these are not hard copy photos, how and in what part of the process would you fake this to get the images released?

I don't believe editing of a video would leave markings like these ovals.

But we are not seeing a video, we are seeing individual still frames captured from a video. In the past people have been known to "improve" photos of ghosts, retouching them to help people see what they are supposed to see. Until we see an actual video version of this, and can see how the the ovals appear and behave in real-time, it's hard to be sure what they are. But someone "improving" the still frames can't be ruled out.

Are the ovals "tied" to the black object, moving along behind it at a constant distance as it crosses the field of view? Or do they remain in place where they are first seen, with new ovals being created periodically? Video would be most helpful.

 

[deirdre]

I don't believe editing of a video would leave markings like these ovals.

are the ovals why they labeled this "Baghdad Phantom"? did you watch the OP video? (i didn't, so i'm curious).

or does Phantom refer to maybe one camera picked up the black spot but no other radars picked it up? (ie. like a radar glitch/phantom)

or is Phantom like the name of a plane or a military operation?

(if the Gimbal alleged ufo was called Gimbal because it was caused by the Gimbal, then does Phantom have a significance? Did the Corbell guy say?)


add: yea "phantom" is a word used for fake objects (at least the FAA uses it)

Article:

Air-traffic controllers at an airport near Cincinnati, Ohio, are having problems with phantom objects appearing on their radar screens, the same disruption that some Triad air-safety officials fear will result from a planned water tank near Piedmont Triad International Airport.

A faulty beacon system at Greater Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky International Airport has delayed the start-up of a new multimillion-dollar radar there by displaying nonexistent planes, caused by reflections from a nearby airplane hangar.

Source: https://greensboro.com/phantom-images-air-officials-fear-radar-interference/article_9bcf0a29-6738-573b-91c2-059f802b2f0f.html

 

[Gaspa]

Jeremy Corbell has released a new video recorded by a Reaper UAS over Central Iraq...


Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhfXuSIUX-k



Location is confirmed as MGRS 38S MC 53949 96862 = 34°18'43.1"N 44°29'58.3"E

https://www.google.com/maps/place/34°18'43.1"N+44°29'58.3"E/@34.4352877,44.2778959,400503m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m4!3m3!8m2!3d34.3119722!4d44.4995278





What could the object be?

Are the six attached images screengrabs from the Youtube video or did you find them elsewhere?

 

[Z.W. Wolf]

This is US military filmed UFO footage from an active conflict zone...

DATE / TIME - 14 May 2022

One thing we've neglected to address. How was this an "active conflict zone" in May of 2022?

Who are the combatants? The last major military operations in Iraq wound up in 2017 with the defeat of ISIL. Since then there has been a low level insurgency in the northern part of Iraq.

Reports of combat in the country of Iraq during all of May, 2022:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_State_insurgency_in_Iraq_(2017–present)

May 1 – ISIL fighters attacked the village of Albu-Taraz, northeast of Baquba, killing one civilian and injuring two others.[288]

• May 2 – ISIL militants attack an Iraqi army outpost in the Kenaan subdistrict, southeast of Baquba, killing one Iraqi soldier.[288]
• May 16 – ISIL fighters killed two PMF soldiers in clashes in Salahaddin Province.[289]
• May 23- Six civilians were killed and an Iraqi soldier was injured after ISIL fighters attacked the village of Islah, north of the Jalawla subdistrict. On the same day, PMF forces were attacked by ISIL militants in the al-Hadhar district, south of Mosul, killing one PMF fighter.[290] Furthermore, ISIL attacked farms in Taza district of Kirkuk province, killing six farmers.[290]
• May 25 – Two PMF fighters were killed in clashes with ISIS militants in the village of Sheik Najm near the Mansouriyah subdistrict, northeast of Baquba. On the same day, an ISIL fighter was killed by PMF forces in the Wana subdistrict, north of Mosul.[290]

Technically Iraq is an internal conflict zone because of the low level insurgency. The point is that it's very easy to read conflict zone as combat zone and imagine there are major military operations going on.

-Very unlikely that there were heavy weapons of war or anti-aircraft missiles flying around just north of Baghdad on May 14, 2022.

-Another issue:

This is US military filmed UFO footage... imaged by the US Air Force using a Reaper drone [sic].

Were there USAF operations in Iraq in May 2022?
Possibly.
https://www.airforcetimes.com/news/...no-public-data-on-middle-east-air-operations/

Air Force to end ‘22 with no public data on Middle East air operations​

The Air Force will end 2022 without releasing any public data on the scope of air operations conducted in the Middle East this year.

The decision limits the transparency of American troops’ continued involvement in Iraq and Syria, amid dwindling public interest and shrinking military resources in the region.


“At this time, [Air Forces Central Command] is not releasing data specifying sortie type or weapons release,” spokesperson Capt. Kayshel Trudell said Tuesday.

Trudell declined to answer why AFCENT has again stopped publishing that information. She referred further questions to U.S. Central Command, which did not respond to a request for comment.

Since 2012, AFCENT — which provides Air Force aircraft and personnel to the broader combat effort in the Middle East — has published monthly tallies of airstrike and surveillance flights, munitions dropped, jet fuel used and other metrics to measure the U.S.-led wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria.

The updates went on hiatus from March 2020 to December 2021, when the Air Force belatedly posted nearly two years’ worth of missing air war statistics. The military had said it was withholding the monthly updates amid peace talks with the Taliban.

U.S. troops fully withdrew from Afghanistan in August 2021; around 2,500 American service members remain in Iraq and about 900 are in Syria.

It's possible an Iraqi UAV was flying in that area. This is the only type of UAV in the Iraqi arsenal that I can find so far.
https://drones.rusi.org/countries/iraq/#:~:text=Iraq imports armed drone technology,forces in operations against Daesh.

Since the invasion, Iraq has pursued a very flexible strategy towards combat aircraft – acquiring them from Russia, the US, Iran and China. This has resulted in an eclectic mix of aircraft types ranging from Soviet-era Su-25 ‘Frogfoot’ ground-attack aircraft to modern US F-16 Vipers, light and heavy pattern attack helicopters, and even the AC-208 Combat Caravan (converted Cessna 208 light aircraft fitted with a sensor ball and hardpoints for twin AGM-114 Hellfire missiles). All these capabilities were acquired at high speed in a desperate rush to increase Iraq’s capability to support its ground forces in the battle to drive out Daesh – and strikes with all types were as heavy and frequent as supplies of munitions would permit throughout much of 2014–2017.

During this period, the US and the UK deployed significant numbers of MQ-9 Reaper UAVs for ISR and strike missions to aid Iraqi forces, alongside large numbers of fast jets. However, Iraq was refused permission to buy either MQ-1 or MQ-9 UAVs from the US, and therefore, in 2015, purchased at least three CH-4B armed UAVs from China (manufactured by CASC) as a rapid way to improve the air force’s persistence and ability to provide fire support to ground forces. Iraq may have subsequently acquired one or two additional airframes, although this is unconfirmed.

 

[Duke]

One thing we've neglected to address. How was this an "active conflict zone" in May of 2022?

Who are the combatants? The last major military operations in Iraq wound up in 2017 with the defeat of ISIL. Since then there has been a low level insurgency in the northern part of Iraq.

Reports of combat in the country of Iraq during all of May, 2022:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_State_insurgency_in_Iraq_(2017–present)



-Very unlikely that there were heavy weapons of war or anti-aircraft missiles flying around just north of Baghdad on May 14, 2022.

-Another issue:


Were there USAF operations in Iraq in May 2022?
Possibly.
https://www.airforcetimes.com/news/...no-public-data-on-middle-east-air-operations/




It's possible an Iraqi UAV was flying in that area. This is the only type of UAV in the Iraqi arsenal that I can find so far.
https://drones.rusi.org/countries/iraq/#:~:text=Iraq imports armed drone technology,forces in operations against Daesh.

I wondered the samething yesterday immediately after seeing the conjecture of the object shown being a missile. Here's what I found:

During calendar year 2022, CENTCOM conducted 313 total operations against ISIS in Iraq and Syria as follows:


 In Syria:


 108 partnered operations
 14 US unilateral operations
 215 ISIS operatives detained
 466 ISIS operatives killed


 In Iraq:
 191 partnered operations
 159 ISIS operatives detained
 At least 220 ISIS operatives killed

Content from External Source

https://www.centcom.mil/MEDIA/PRESS...m-year-in-review-2022-the-fight-against-isis/

No details on what those "partnered operations" involved or if air support was involved, but 191 in 2022 averages roughly one anti-ISIS op every other day. Not exactly a quiet, inactive area.

 

[Z.W. Wolf]

There have been Iranian drone strikes on Northern Iraq.

https://thehill.com/policy/defense/...d-to-threaten-us-forces-brought-down-in-iraq/

09/28/22

U.S. forces on Wednesday brought down an Iranian drone that officials said appeared poised to attack American troops in Iraq.

The downing came as the Iranian military started a drone bombing campaign targeting the bases of an Iranian-Kurdish opposition group in northern Iraq, attacks that have killed at least nine people and wounded 32 others, according to the Kurdish Regional Government’s Health Ministry.


The bombings follow Iraqi and Iranian Kurds protesting in Iraq’s northern city of Erbil over the death of Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old Kurdish woman who died in the custody of Iran’s so-called morality police.

“U.S. Central Command condemns the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ unprovoked attack in Iraq’s Erbil Governorate this morning. Such indiscriminate attacks threaten innocent civilians and risk the hard-fought stability of the region,” command spokesman Joe Buccino said in a statement.

In the midst of the bombing campaign, U.S. forces at 2:10 p.m. local time brought down an Iranian Mojer-6 unmanned aerial vehicle “headed in the direction of Erbil as it appeared as a threat to CENTCOM forces in the area,” according to Buccino.

He noted that no U.S. forces were wounded or killed, no U.S. equipment was damaged as a result of the strikes and that Central Command forces are assessing the situation.

U.S. and coalition troops are based in Iraq to advise and assist its military to counter ISIS militants and keep the terrorist group from resurging in the region.

The U.S. government has condemned the strikes, with national security adviser Jake Sullivan stating Wednesday that Washington stands “with Iraq’s leaders in the Kurdistan region and Baghdad in condemning these attacks as an assault on the sovereignty of Iraq and its people.”

“Iranian leaders continue to demonstrate flagrant disregard not only for the lives of their own people, but also for their neighbors and the core principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity enshrined in the U.N. Charter,” Sullivan said. “Iran cannot deflect blame from its internal problems and the legitimate grievances of its population with attacks across its borders.”

Iraq’s Foreign Ministry and the Kurdistan Regional Government have also condemned the attacks.

 

[Duke]

There have been Iranian drone strikes on Northern Iraq.

https://thehill.com/policy/defense/...d-to-threaten-us-forces-brought-down-in-iraq/

09/28/22

Here's a photo of the Mohajer 6 drone shot done on 09/28/22 as identified in the article from "The Hill" you posted. The object shown in the six frames in the OP doesn't appear to be twin boom, pusher prop driven aircraft.



https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qods_Mohajer-6

 

[Mick West]

Are the ovals "tied" to the black object, moving along behind it at a constant distance as it crosses the field of view? Or do they remain in place where they are first seen, with new ovals being created periodically? Video would be most helpful.

We have six images, sequential, but not equal time between each one.

The ovals appear in positions where the dark shape was. They seem to be after-images or ghosts on the sensor.

In the above, the ghost image is presumably one frame (likely 1/30th) earlier.

It's very odd, as I can't recall seeing a similar artifact.

 

[Scaramanga]

Obviously, it looks like a missile, and equally obviously, the big question everyone will ask is "why is it cold?"

The camera is at 16,000 feet. The object could be anywhere, but if it's relatively high then it's flying through cold air (i.e. colder than the ground). Could it be after the engine switched off? Does that even happen? Wouldn't it still be hot?

I think the biggest clue is that in the space of 6 frames the object manages to point in a variety of slightly different directions and its flight path noticeably curves. That suggests an object wobbling about a bit at the very end of a ballistic trajectory....not a missile that has just been fired. If it is a missile then I'd suggest it has been fired from the ground...probably at the craft taking the video. The range was probably too long, the missile has missed, and is now falling to the ground.

That would also explain the lack of any hot exhaust...the missile propellant is depleted.

 

[flarkey]

I think the biggest clue is that in the space of 6 frames the object manages to point in a variety of slightly different directions and its flight path noticeably curves. That suggests an object wobbling about a bit at the very end of a ballistic trajectory....not a missile that has just been fired. If it is a missile then I'd suggest it has been fired from the ground...probably at the craft taking the video. The range was probably too long, the missile has missed, and is now falling to the ground.

That would also explain the lack of any hot exhaust...the missile propellant is depleted.

I'd suggest it is more likely that the object is was a surface-to-surface rocket fired at ISIS by Iraqi Forces.

If so, could we recreate the object's ballistic profile to give the potential launch site and target, as per this model....

 

[jackfrostvc]

If the missile/rocket had liquid propellant , couldn't that make it super cold just like Nasa rockets are when they are filled

 

[flarkey]

If the missile/rocket had liquid propellant , couldn't that make it super cold just like Nasa rockets are when they are filled

I think that's an unlikely propulsion fuel for a battlefield munition as it requires cooling (ie it cant be fired quickly). The cool appearance of the objects surface is probably due to cooling effect from the moving air going past. Surface heating only really occurs if there is a shock wave , ie the object is trans or super sonic.

 

[Duke]

If the missile/rocket had liquid propellant , couldn't that make it super cold just like Nasa rockets are when they are filled

Cruise missiles use jets, not rockets.

 

[jarlrmai]

They initially use a solid rocket booster in most instances, then switch to a turbofan after launch.

 

[Gaspa]

We have six images, sequential, but not equal time between each one.

The ovals appear in positions where the dark shape was. They seem to be after-images or ghosts on the sensor.

In the above, the ghost image is presumably one frame (likely 1/30th) earlier.

It's very odd, as I can't recall seeing a similar artifact.

I'm thinking it could be caused by some sort of temporal filter used to enhance movement, so that pixels that change in value from one frame to the next become more noticeable. It would have a similar effect. I just have no evidence that they use something like that.

 

[Duke]

They initially use a solid rocket booster in most instances, then switch to a turbofan after launch.

Ground lauched cruise missiles use boosters to launch, yes. Air launched cruise missiles do not.

 

[Mick West]

are the ovals why they labeled this "Baghdad Phantom"? did you watch the OP video? (i didn't, so i'm curious).

or does Phantom refer to maybe one camera picked up the black spot but no other radars picked it up? (ie. like a radar glitch/phantom)

or is Phantom like the name of a plane or a military operation?

I suspect it's because of the Ukranian thing, where they labeled black objects "phantoms" (I think most of what they saw were insects, but I don't think the Bagdad thing is an insect)

Article:

We have developed a special observation technique, for detecting and evaluating UAP characteristics. According to our data, there are two types of UAP, which we conventionally call: (1) Cosmics, and (2) Phantoms. We note that Cosmics are luminous objects, brighter than the background of the sky. We call these ships names of birds (swift, falcon, eagle). Phantoms are dark objects, with contrast from several to about 50 per cent.

Source: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2208.11215.pdf

 

[FatPhil]

The ovals appear in positions where the dark shape was. They seem to be after-images or ghosts on the sensor.

Indeed, it seems like a 60s/70s tech throwback, but it's such a good match for the shape, it must be ghosting.
I did a quick scout around the literature last night, and found several hardware/sensor patents specifically mitigating the effect, in particular in CMOS sensors, so clearly it's still a thing. Just from ancient reading, I seem to remember encountering the concept of taking a short exposure between two normal length exposures, and throwing that short ones away, in order to reduce ghosting in the normal length ones. The benefit of reduced ghosting being balanced against the drawback of longer downtime between frames captured.
I guess we're seeing this more clearly because the gain is high.

 

[Easy Muffin]

I was thinking sensor-related ghosting too or maybe artifacts of image enhancement routines along the lines of @Gaspa's idea. If you integrate over the last n frames and run it through an unsharp mask or highpass filter or something like that you might end up with these kind of remnant contours if a solid colour object travels across your FOV fast enough to change its position in each frame as drastically as this one.

 

[Agent K]

The ghosting looks like an artifact of video compression to me.

Edit: The ghosting artifact was shown in another video at the Congressional hearing. Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick called it a "sensor artifact," and the slides attribute it to video compression.

Article:

The object flew over South Asia earlier this year and appeared to have a propulsion trail, but it was later determined to be a "sensor artifact," Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick explained.

Source: https://www.foxnews.com/us/newly-released-ufo-video-sean-kirkpatrick-pentagon-all-domain-anomaly-resolution-office-aaro-truly-anomalous

 

[Agent K]

Shiny metal can reflect the cold sky.

Rockets don't have a plume after they burn all their propellant.

Do we know if this object was going fast or slow like "Go Fast"?

 

[Agent K]

Shiny metal can reflect the cold sky.

Rockets don't have a plume after they burn all their propellant.

Do we know if this object was going fast or slow like "Go Fast"?

It's pretty common for an aircraft to appear colder than the ground. Here's an example from a previous thread.
https://www.metabunk.org/threads/ny...r-with-unknown-object.9333/page-2#post-216579

 

[Mick West]

We have six images, sequential, but not equal time between each one.

The ovals appear in positions where the dark shape was. They seem to be after-images or ghosts on the sensor.

In the above, the ghost image is presumably one frame (likely 1/30th) earlier.

It's very odd, as I can't recall seeing a similar artifact.

I just noticed something similar on my Ring doorbell.

Just a bug or bit of dust. But it gave the same odd ghosting artifact - a cigar shape with an inverted ghost behind it that persists for a few frames.



Here is it, and inverted, and the the "Phantom".



Which makes me wonder if the Phantom is actually just a motion blurred heat source.

 

[FatPhil]

Just a bug or bit of dust. But it gave the same odd ghosting artifact - a cigar shape with an inverted ghost behind it that persists for a few frames.

That's a compression artefact from an extremely low bandwidth motion-estimation-and-DCT-based codec (such as all H.261-alikes, so all the H.26x's and MPEG).

Most blocks in most frames will be close enough to the previous frame that there's no need to transmit/store anything apart from 'this is unchanged', and that's common enough that it might be encoded using less than a single bit.
Many blocks will be similar enough to something nearby on a previous frame that the encoder just needs to send a short vector telling the decoder where to fetch the data from, that could be only a byte or two.
However, if the compressor notices that something's radically changed since the previous frame, it has to send a whole new block - which theoretically provides 64 DCT coefficients at 8-bit (or higher) resolution - naively at least 64 bytes. However, quantisation lets you throw away most of the bits, and just approximate, and most of the coefficients will be 0 after that, and there's ways to avoid sending just redundant data, so it's not that heavy in bandwidth, but it's still way worse than the usual case, and to keep it minimised, the quantisation will need to be harsh. You aren't going to get back anything like what what there two frames ago, before the transient thing. So it sticks out as a ghost. It's wrong, they know it's wrong, but they don't have the bandwidth to make it right ... yet.

It doesn't last for ever, as most of the time there's either an all-in-one refresh that just bites the bullet and transmits higher quality blocks, or a sweep of the screen that happens block by block, and eventually gets round to correcting the cruddy ones in turn.

 

[David Esp]

Frame rates are not always constant for phone camera video footage. By design -and/or from sensor & API limitations. Unlike proper video cameras.

eg Search: [iphone variable frame rate], eg in Reddit.