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Kevin Campbell on MQ-9 imagery over East Asia

Kevin Campbell on MQ-9 imagery over East Asia

Campbell says he worked for about eight months in 2023-2024 as a satellite-communications network engineer in a DISA network operations center at Hill Air Force Base. His duties included checking the quality of live intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance video feeds. He describes using the Unified Video Dissemination System, or UVDS, on SIPRNet to view multiple live drone feeds and archived highlights. A 2017 DISA account independently describes UVDS as a system for viewing live and archived full-motion video from aerial platforms over SIPRNet: https://www.doncio.navy.mil/CHIPS/ArticleDetails.aspx?ID=8879.

Four sets of imagery

At 9:05, Campbell says his first exposure came during onboarding, when coworkers showed him an informal shared folder of notable military video. One older infrared clip appeared to show five to seven bright, elongated rectangular streaks crossing above a Middle Eastern village in a V formation. He says coworkers debated whether they were ordnance.

He then describes three MQ-9 events in the East China Sea or Yellow Sea region:

  1. At 21:02, he describes a white-hot, uneven sphere moving a few feet above the sea with a bobbing or tumbling motion. He estimates its size at one to three meters by comparison with later measurements and a fishing vessel it passed. A close view appeared to show three faint vortex-like features above and below the object and a narrow line of light or reflection in the water beneath it. The recording ended when the camera stopped following it.
  2. At 27:03, he describes another object that appeared circular and white-hot in infrared but rust-brown, elongated, and cocoon-like in three electro-optical color frames. He says it changed direction in a broad J-shaped turn and that UVDS split the event into two saved clips.
  3. At 29:38, he says he watched a third event live after opening an MQ-9 feed for a coworker. In infrared, the bright object appeared roughly circular and twinkled like a star; in color, it appeared white and somewhat rounded rather than strongly elongated. He says the display alternately measured it at one and three meters. The object made a broad turn, then was no longer visible after the camera widened and searched for it. Campbell places this event about 100 miles off South Korea.

Campbell does not give exact speeds. He says the objects stayed close to the water, and he could not determine the wind direction or whether the final object entered the sea.

Storage and collection process

Campbell describes UVDS as a live-video portal whose users could save five- or fifteen-minute highlights and then copy them into program folders on the classified network. He says the DISA folder was an informal collection of interesting footage rather than a dedicated UAP archive, and that other workplaces may have had similar folders. By the time he left, at least some of the clips had accumulated hundreds of internal views.

After the first East Asia event, he says coverage in the area changed from one MQ-9 to two aircraft operating continuously with a third flying relief. He interprets the apparent search pattern and sustained coverage as evidence that the area had been prioritized, although he did not know the mission orders.

Reporting trail and congressional request

Campbell says DISA had no reporting process that he knew to use. After the July 2023 UAP hearing, he contacted Americans for Safe Aerospace. He declined an early AARO route that would have required a former coworker to write to a generic SIPRNet address, then spoke with the FBI after ASA made the connection. He says the FBI sought details and treated the report seriously. Graves says ASA obtained Campbell's permission to refer the case and that the FBI accepted the locations of the videos rather than copies held by Campbell.

At 43:00, Campbell connects his account to the House Oversight Task Force's March 31, 2026 request for 46 named video records. He says he is "99% sure" one entry is one of the videos he reported. The official list includes item 22, "MQ-9 observer UAP in East China Sea, 1/5/23," which matches the date and region he says he recognized: https://oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/UAP-Request-Letter-FINAL.pdf.

New additions to the record

  • A named former contractor gives a detailed account of three East Asia MQ-9 events, including one he says he watched live.
  • The account identifies UVDS and an informal DISA shared folder as the route by which the clips were viewed and retained.
  • Campbell describes an apparent increase from one MQ-9 to continuous coverage by two aircraft plus relief after the first event.
  • He links one reported event to a specific dated item in a congressional request.
  • The interview documents ASA's referral path from an unsuccessful early AARO approach to an FBI interview.

Followup items

  • Determine whether item 22 in the House request is the incident Campbell describes and whether it has appeared in a Department of War release.
  • Identify the DISA contractor and employment records that establish Campbell's role and dates.
  • Locate any public record of the FBI interview or the video-location referral described by Graves.
  • Compare Campbell's descriptions with the underlying UVDS clips if they are released.
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