The Navy released on Monday three unclassified videos of unidentified flying objects, which the Pentagon insists on calling “unidentified aerial phenomena,” that had previously leaked online.
“After a thorough review, the [Department of Defense] has determined that the authorized release of these unclassified videos does not reveal any sensitive capabilities or systems, and does not impinge on any subsequent investigations of military air space incursions by unidentified aerial phenomena,” Pentagon spokeswoman Sue Gough told the Washington Examiner in a statement. “DOD is releasing the videos in order to clear up any misconceptions by the public on whether or not the footage that has been circulating was real, or whether or not there is more to the videos. The aerial phenomena observed in the videos remain characterized as ‘unidentified.’”
The videos, released through the Freedom of Information Act, depict flying objects moving at incredible speeds and performing seemingly impossible aerial maneuvers. One of the videos was shot in November 2004; the other two were shot in January 2015. They have been circulating the internet since unauthorized leaks in 2007 and 2017. The three videos were code-named “FLIR1,” “Gimbal,” and “GoFast.” The 2004 video doesn’t feature any cross-talk, but in the 2015 videos, Navy pilots filming the aerial phenomena can be heard expressing their disbelief.
All three UFO videos were captured by Navy F/A-18 Super Hornets.
In one video, as he managed to lock on to the fast-moving object, one man exclaimed: “Whoa, got it! Woohoo! What the f— is that thing?” Another man said, “Wow, what is that, man?” The object soon sped away from the jet capable of flying at 1,190 miles per hour.
In another, the men capturing the flying object on camera were similarly stunned, saying, “Dude, it’s a f—ing drone, bro,” and, “There’s a whole fleet of them.” One man said “my gosh” as another pointed out that “they’re all going against the wind — the wind is 120 knots to the west.”
The videos were made public and published because of efforts by the New York Times, as well as through efforts by the To The Stars Academy, which was founded by Tom Delonge, more popularly known as the founder and lead vocalist for the bands Blink-182 and Angels & Airwaves. His research group, which investigates UFOs and other unexplained phenomena, is assisted by former scientists and experts from the Pentagon, CIA, and prominent defense contractors. The group’s Virtual Analytics UAP Learning Tool, dubbed “VAULT,” provides details about the military’s UFO videos that were released. For instance, his group identified the camera the Navy pilots used to capture the footage as the Raytheon AN/ASQ- 228 Advanced Targeting Forward-Looking Infrared Pod.
The Pentagon told the Washington Examiner on Monday that the 2004 video now available on the Navy Air Systems command FOIA reading room website was the only version of the video that exists. The Pentagon explained that imagery from military aircraft were routinely treated as classified until they are reviewed and appropriately marked and that investigations into unidentified incursions into military airspace involves various intelligence agencies. The Pentagon claimed one copy of the 2004 video had been “erroneously marked classified” during that investigation process, and so one reason the videos were made public on Monday was to “clear up the misconception” that another classified version of the video exists somewhere.
The UFO videos were acknowledged as authentic by the Navy in September of last year, but Monday was the first time that the U.S. government released the videos.
Last year, Joseph Gradisher, the official spokesman for the deputy chief of naval operations for information warfare, told The Black Vault blog that “the Navy designates the objects contained in these videos as unidentified aerial phenomena.”
When asked why the military preferred that phrasing over “UFO”, he responded: “The ‘Unidentified Aerial Phenomena’ terminology is used because it provides the basic descriptor for the sightings/observations of unauthorized/unidentified aircraft/objects that have been observed entering/operating in the airspace of various military-controlled training ranges.”
These videos are said to have been a part of the Defense Department’s Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, identified by the New York Times as a secret, $22 million project that was founded in 2007 at the insistence of former Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and that the Pentagon said ended in 2012.
Kevin Day, a Navy radar operator who witnessed the 2004 UFO and dubbed it the flying “Tic Tac,” which it is now popularly known as, said the aerial phenomenon “wasn’t behaving within the normal laws of physics” in a recent interview with New York Magazine.
“The thing that stood out to me the most was how erratic it was behaving. And what I mean by ‘erratic’ is that its changes in altitude, air speed, and aspect were just unlike things that I’ve ever encountered before flying against other air targets,” Day said in December 2019. “It was just behaving in ways that aren’t physically normal. That’s what caught my eye. Because aircraft, whether they’re manned or unmanned, still have to obey the laws of physics. They have to have some source of lift, some source of propulsion. The Tic Tac was not doing that. It was going from like 50,000 feet to, you know, a hundred feet in like seconds, which is not possible.”
