B-52 Radar Contact over Saudi Arabia (1957)

The flight

In January 1957 the Strategic Air Command flew Operation Power Flite, a round-the-world mission by three B-52B Stratofortresses of the 93rd Bombardment Wing. The flight covered about 24,325 miles in 45 hours and 19 minutes, with four in-flight refuelings, and left Castle AFB, California, on 16 January before landing at March AFB on 18 January. The lead aircraft, Lucky Lady III (serial 53-0394), was commanded by Lt. Col. James H. Morris, and Maj. Gen. Archie J. Old Jr., commander of the 15th Air Force, flew as mission commander. Old described the flight as a routine training mission, while the Air Force characterized it as demonstrating the capability to drop a hydrogen bomb anywhere in the world.

The radar contact

On the night of 18 January, at roughly 39,000 feet and about 642 knots true airspeed over eastern Saudi Arabia (approximately 27°N, 47°E), the tail gunner, M/Sgt C. H. Ballew, saw an unidentified return on the A-3A fire-control scope. The return sat at the 6,000-yard marker and was held for five to seven minutes. A second B-52 in the area produced a larger return at 5,000 yards. When Lucky Lady III banked left, the contact disappeared from the scope, toward the Baghdad Flight Identification Region. The sources describe only this radar contact; none mention a visual sighting. The report notes that no other aircraft were expected in the area.

The declassified report

The event is recorded in Air Intelligence Information Report DOW-UAP-D155, filed on 19 January 1957 and prepared at the 22nd Bombardment Wing intelligence office at March AFB. It was distributed to the 15th Air Force, SAC, the 93rd Bombardment Wing and Air Force headquarters. It carries a reliability rating of B-2 (usually reliable, probably true) and was classified SECRET. The document was included in the Pentagon's seventh UAP release in October 2026. Coverage of the release has disagreed on some details: SMBtech gives a 2024 declassification date, and Fox LA reports the Air Force ultimately labelled the contact a "probable meteor", a label SMBtech ties to a different Catalina Island sighting. Neither account cites a finding that identifies this return.

Assessment

The report offers no identification and does not say whether the contact was investigated further. It notes that the disappearance may have coincided with the bomber's change of heading, and that a return appearing where no aircraft were expected is what made it worth logging. Possible explanations include a radar artifact, an unlisted aircraft, or a return tied to the bomber's own manoeuvre. The surviving summary cannot test any of them. The case sits alongside the 1957 RB-47 radar-visual encounter as an early Cold War military radar report that remained unexplained, and it is notable mainly because it reached the public through a recent UAP release rather than through sighting-club circulation.