On September 9, 2025, Rep. Eric Burlison (R-MO) played a roughly 50-second video clip during a congressional hearing on UAP transparency. The footage, described as sensor video from a U.S. MQ-9 Reaper drone, appears to show an AGM-114 Hellfire missile engaging a small, unidentified object over water off the coast of Yemen.
The missile appears to reach the target. The object appears to keep flying.
“It kept going, and it looked like the debris was taken with it.” — Rep. Eric Burlison, September 9, 2025
The clip was presented as never-before-seen footage, publicly released for the first time at the hearing. The Pentagon has offered no comment.
What the Video Shows
The footage, framed as MQ-9 electro-optical/infrared sensor video, shows a tracked object — described by Burlison as an “orb” — moving over water. On-screen symbology includes indicators consistent with active laser designation, suggesting a laser-guided Hellfire employment.
According to Burlison, a second MQ-9 Reaper launched the missile. That aircraft does not appear in the released clip. The missile enters the frame and appears to impact or pass extremely close to the object. After the engagement, the object continues on its trajectory.
“This video is of an MQ-9 drone tracking an orb or this object off the coast of Yemen.” — Rep. Eric Burlison
Burlison declined to characterize the object further: “I’m not going to speculate what it is.”
The Hearing
The footage was shown during a hearing titled “Restoring Public Trust through UAP Transparency and Whistleblower Protection,” convened by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform’s Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets, chaired by Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL).
The hearing featured five witnesses:
- Alexandro Wiggins — U.S. Navy Senior Chief Petty Officer, who testified about prior UAP encounters and pushed for improved reporting protections
- Jeffrey Nuccetelli — U.S. Air Force veteran, advocating transparency and reporting reforms
- George Knapp — investigative journalist, who urged continued congressional pressure for disclosure
- Dylan Borland — UAP advocate, who argued for stronger reporting channels
- Joe Spielberger — senior policy counsel at the Project On Government Oversight (POGO), focused on oversight frameworks
It was the first UAP-focused hearing held by the declassification task force — and the Yemen clip became its most widely covered moment.
“We’ve Never Seen a Hellfire Bounce Off”
Former Pentagon intelligence official Lue Elizondo, commenting on the footage in a CBS News interview the following day, emphasized the destructive capability of the Hellfire missile:
“We’ve never seen a Hellfire missile hit a target and bounce off.”
“When a Hellfire makes a hit… there’s usually not much left of whatever it is it’s hitting. It’s very, very destructive.”
The AGM-114 Hellfire is a precision-guided air-to-surface missile deployed extensively by U.S. military drones. It is designed to destroy armored vehicles, bunkers, and hardened targets. If the missile struck the object directly, the lack of visible destruction would be highly unusual.
However, the video alone does not confirm a direct hit.
What We Don’t Know
Several critical details remain unresolved:
- Authentication. The U.S. military has not confirmed the footage is genuine. Pentagon officials told CBS News they have “no comment.”
- Mission context. The incident date given is October 30, 2024, during a period of regular U.S. strikes against Houthi targets threatening Navy vessels and commercial shipping in the Red Sea. Whether this engagement was part of those operations, or something else entirely, has not been explained.
- Impact vs. near miss. The War Zone’s technical analysis notes the video can be consistent with a near miss or a non-detonating pass, not necessarily a direct hit that the object survived. Fuze behavior, Hellfire variant, and proximity all remain unknown.
- Object identity. Without range, altitude, or speed metadata, the object could be a drone, UAS, balloon, or something else. “Orb” is a description, not a classification.
The Parallax Problem
Experienced analysts caution that airborne EO/IR footage is deceptive. Apparent speed, size, and behavior can be distorted by parallax, camera motion, and tracking algorithms. An object that appears to shrug off a missile strike in a 50-second clip viewed from a single sensor angle may look very different with additional data.
This is a persistent challenge with UAP footage. AARO’s FY2024 annual report — which logged 757 UAP reports in a single year — noted that 22% of described shapes were orbs or spheres, and that the vast majority of resolved cases turned out to be drones, balloons, or birds.
The Yemen clip may ultimately have a mundane explanation. Or it may not. The problem is that without authentication and context from the military, there is no way to tell.
Congressional Momentum
The September 9 hearing is part of a broader pattern of escalating congressional interest in UAP. In July 2023, David Grusch told the House Oversight Committee that the U.S. government operates secret crash-retrieval programs — testimony that triggered a wave of legislative action and eventually contributed to President Trump’s 2026 directive to release UFO files.
Burlison, notably, serves as a key congressional figure on UAP issues and has worked closely with Grusch as an advisor. His decision to publicly release the Yemen footage at a hearing signals that the congressional push for UAP transparency is accelerating, not cooling.
The question, as always, is whether the Pentagon will respond to that pressure — or whether another piece of military sensor footage will join the growing pile of clips that the public can see but nobody in uniform will discuss.
Timeline
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| Oct 30, 2024 | Incident date: MQ-9 engages unidentified orb with Hellfire missile off Yemen’s coast |
| Sep 9, 2025 | House Oversight Task Force hearing; Rep. Burlison publicly releases the footage |
| Sep 10, 2025 | CBS News, ABC News, and others amplify the clip; Pentagon declines comment |
Sources: House Oversight Hearing Page · The War Zone · DefenseScoop · CBS News · ABC News · Wiggins Written Statement (PDF) · Nuccetelli Written Testimony (PDF) · AARO FY2024 Annual Report (PDF)