'UFO' videos declassified by US Navy

U.S. Navy videos of alleged UFO sightings were previously available but had not been officially declassified.
U.S. Navy videos of alleged UFO sightings were previously available but had not been officially declassified. (Image credit: U.S. Navy)

Three videos of midair military interactions with UFOs, previously released without official permission by a UFO research group, were declassified and shared online today (April 27) by the U.S. Navy. 

The footage, captured by U.S. Navy pilots years ago, shows mysterious, wingless aircraft traveling at hypersonic speeds, with no visible means of propulsion. UFO research group To the Stars Academy of Arts and Science published the clips in 2017 and 2018; at the time, those videos were allegedly declassified, Live Science previously reported. However, in September 2019, Joseph Gradisher, a spokesperson for the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Information Warfare said that the footage had not been cleared for official release. 

Today, the three clips — "FLIR," "GOFAST" and "GIMBAL" — appeared for the first time on the Naval Air Systems Command website, available to download through the Freedom of Information Act.

Related: Flying saucers to mind control: 22 declassified military & CIA secrets

In releasing the videos, the U.S. Navy officially acknowledges that its pilots encountered so-called unidentified aerial phenomena, according to the military news website Military.com

The three sightings, which took place in November 2004 and in January 2015, were recorded by F/A-18 Hornet fighter pilots during military training exercises in restricted airspace. Unlike fighter jets, the airborne enigmas had "no distinct wing, no distinct tail, no distinct exhaust plume," Navy pilot Lt. Danny Accoin said in the 2019 History Channel documentary series "Unidentified: Inside America's UFO Investigation."

Department of Defense officials decided to release the videos after determining that the footage "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 spokesperson Sue Gough said in a statement.

To the Stars Academy, founded by former Blink-182 singer Tom DeLonge, shared the Flir and Gimbal clips in December 2017, and shared GoFast in March 2018. Though a video description claimed that all three clips had "been through the official declassification review process of the United States government and approved for public release," the footage had not been properly declassified and should not have been shared publicly, Gradisher said in 2019.

There is as yet no explanation or identification — official or not — for the mysterious aircraft that the pilots recorded.

Originally published on Live Science.

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  • jefferis
    Check out Project Timberwind. Also, during the first Gulf War, NBC videoed nuclear powered flying objects leaving Area 51 in ways that mimic "flying saucers."
    Reply
  • Deep End 2020
    You might want google a dude named Lazaar, I think. Claims he has reverse engineered one before. Like 20 yrs ago. Runs off of an antigravity , style of space warping power in which the entire craft is powered ( with WiFi type) or no connected wires or conductors . Says it works like a partlcw collidor, which uses an element 151 gas spit with some well known particle proton which turns, into gravity. It didn’t push the craft. It is pointed in the direction it wants to go and the warps the space in front so that it falls through the slopes bend it has created. Very interesting. Sounds do able to me. After all , every thing is the same.
    Reply
  • jefferis
    https://science.howstuffworks.com/space/aliens-ufos/bob-lazar.htmHis claims about his education and employment could not be verified, and his character proved to be questionable. In 1990 he was arrested for his involvement with the operation of a Nevada brothel.

    In 2003, element 115, a synthetic radioactive element was discovered by Russian scientists; it was added to the periodic table in 2013. However, this element (also called muscovium) is not the same thing as the one Lazar claimed to have found. (Lazar said his element could power alien spacecraft without worrying about gravity.) So far, no use has been found for muscovium, which has a half-life of less than a second and thus decays very quickly.
    Reply
  • Hayseed
    Do you have a link to that NBC film? I would like to see that. I couldn't find anything about it.
    Reply
  • jefferis
    Sorry, I remember watching it live during the 1st Gulf War... 1990, before the Internet was really going.
    Reply
  • Krzysztof
    Devil's tricks with the matter (2Thess 2:9)before the End (1Cor 15:24) to hide its moe subtle presence in this world (Luke 4:6,Ap 12:12): anti-life culture esp. in Akademia and Mass Media. The Devil does not have a direct way to the (divine) soul of a human being.
    Reply
  • Krzysztof
    Hayseed said:
    Do you have a link to that NBC film? I would like to see that. I couldn't find anything about it.
    what about International Space Station Ca?ptures UFO Leaving EArth FAster than Light (youtube;express.co.uk,6June,2020)? Also: Sun,12July,2013: 15 aliens stole my Datsun and dog(of Mr.Keith Robins at Cardiff, 20 years earlier,e.i.1983)
    Reply
  • ajaopify
    I was directed here from the Digg site in relation to this UFO article. I thought great, here's another science site but after reading the article, "'UFO' videos declassified by US Navy" that goes on in tabloid form and ends in, "There is as yet no explanation or identification — official or not — for the mysterious aircraft that the pilots recorded. " I find that this is not a credible science magazine. Not even a mention by this site's article nor its commenting members that this type of story must be addressed with scientific method. Among other easy to find sites that offer more scientifically sane commentary is this one https://www.vice.com/en/article/n7wjzg/the-skeptics-guide-to-the-pentagons-ufo-videos
    Reply