The U.S. Pentagon has declassified three online videos appearing to show UFOs, previously confirmed by the U.S. Navy in 2019.
“The Department of Defense has authorized the release of three unclassified Navy videos, one taken in November 2004 and the other two in January 2015, which have been circulating in the public domain after unauthorized releases in 2007 and 2017,” said Susan Gough, a Defense Department spokesperson in a statement released Monday.
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“After a thorough review, the department 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,” said Gough.
Last year, for the first time since the videos made national news in 2017, the Navy confirmed the content of the videos. Navy spokesperson Joseph Gradisher told “The Black Vault (John Greenwald),” and Vice’s The Motherboard that “the Navy considers the phenomena contained/depicted in those 3 videos as unidentified.”
Here's what we know about these UFOs or UAPs:
The videos
The videos in question are known as FLIR1, Gimbal and GO FAST. The videos were released publicly in 2018 by To The Stars Academy of Arts & Science. Take a look below:
Gimbal
"Gimbal is the first of three US military videos of unidentified aerial phenomenon (UAP) that has been through the official declassification review process of the United States government and has been approved for public release."
FLIR1
"FLIR1 is the second of three US military videos of unidentified aerial phenomenon (UAP). It is the only official footage captured by a US navy F/A-18 Super Hornet present at the 2004 Nimitz incident off the coast of San Diego."
GO FAST
"GO FAST is the third of three official USG videos selected for release after official review by multiple government organizations. This footage was captured by a U.S. Navy F/A-18 Super Hornet using the Raytheon ATFLIR Pod that was being operated by a highly trained aerial observer and weapons system operator whom the government has spent millions of dollars to train."
What are UAPs/UFOs?
In December 2017, The New York Times reported about Navy pilots who intercepted an object off the coast of San Diego on Nov. 14, 2004, capturing video of the object with their F-18's gun camera (FLIR1). Another video, taken on Jan. 21, 2015, shows another (Gimbal) object rotating.
Months later, To the Stars Academy released the third video (GO FAST) showing an object quickly flying over the surface of the water. It was taken on the same day as the second video -- Jan. 21, 2015.
"I very much expected that when the U.S. military addressed the videos, they would coincide with language we see on official documents that have now been released, and they would label them as ‘drones' or ‘balloons,'" Greenwald told Motherboard. "However, they did not. They went on the record stating the ‘phenomena' depicted in those videos, is ‘unidentified.' That really made me surprised, intrigued, excited and motivated to push harder for the truth."
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In a 2017 New York Times interview, retired U.S. Navy Commander David Fravnor said the flying object that he observed from the cockpit of his F/A-18F Super Hornet in 2004 was "around 40 feet long and oval in shape," and described it as similar to a Tic Tac.
According to Fravor, the USS Princeton told him it had been tracking objects for weeks that "appeared suddenly at 80,000 feet, and then hurtled toward the sea, eventually stopping at 20,000 feet and hovering. Then they either dropped out of radar range or shot straight back up."
Lieutenant Ryan Graves, another Super Hornet pilot, told the New York Times that the objects he saw in 2014 and 2015 looked like a "sphere encasing a cube."
"These things would be out there all day," Graves said. "Keeping an aircraft in the air requires a significant amount of energy. With the speeds we observed, 12 hours in the air is 11 hours longer than we'd expect."
So, is it aliens?
The UFO community has increasingly started using UAP instead, as to say that these objects are not necessarily being piloted by aliens. These objects could be drones, the result of equipment malfunctions, or any one of dozen or more things.
The Navy told "The Black Vault" this about UAPs:
"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."
Jack Brewer, a prominent UFO blogger, says that ufologists should be cautious about the Navy's new statements.
"I think it's important not to read more into statements, such as the one pertaining to UAP, than is actually said. It is important that we prioritize data available for public review, as compared to statements and implications."
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