Pentagon UAP Videos

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Footage captured by an MQ-9 over South Asia in 2023, presented as a resolved case during congressional testimony.

Encounter context

One of two clips from the same encounter shown by AARO Director Sean Kirkpatrick to the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities on April 19, 2023. The distant oblong object was determined to be a commuter plane, with the apparent propulsion trail later assessed as a sensor artifact. Released on DVIDS the same day as the hearing.

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Footage captured by an MQ-9 in the Middle East on July 12, 2022. The object in the clip is not exhibiting anomalous behavior but remains unidentified.

Encounter context

Footage of a silver, orb-like object moving across the field of view of an MQ-9 drone's electro-optical sensor over the Middle East. AARO Director Sean Kirkpatrick presented the clip to the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities on April 19, 2023 — the first new UAP video declassified since AARO's establishment, distinguishing it from the three legacy Navy clips released in 2020. The object remains officially unidentified; subsequent open-source analysis by Bellingcat and others has proposed a balloon as the most likely conventional explanation.

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Infrared video of objects observed by U.S. military assets in the western United States in 2021.

Encounter context

Infrared footage shared publicly by AARO Director Sean Kirkpatrick at a NASA UAP Independent Study Team public meeting on May 31, 2023. AARO's analysis — combining the footage with commercial flight data for the region — concluded the objects were commercial aircraft. Released on DVIDS as part of AARO's effort to publish resolved cases alongside its unresolved ones.

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I can confirm that the video was taken by Navy personnel, and that the UAPTF included it in their ongoing examinations.

Encounter context

Infrared night-vision footage from the deck of the USS Omaha showing a spherical object flying over the ocean, moving rapidly across the screen before stopping and descending into the water. The footage was surfaced publicly by Jeremy Corbell and George Knapp via Extraordinary Beliefs and Mystery Wire in May 2021 and confirmed authentic that month by Pentagon spokesperson Susan Gough. Cited as one of the early publicly-acknowledged examples of apparent transmedium behavior (air-to-water transition). Skeptical analyses propose a conventional aircraft or balloon as the more parsimonious explanation.

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I can confirm that the referenced photos and videos were taken by United States Navy personnel.

Encounter context

Night-vision footage from the deck of the USS Russell showing several apparent pyramid-shaped objects flashing in the clouds off the coast of San Diego. The footage was surfaced publicly by Jeremy Corbell via Extraordinary Beliefs in April 2021 and confirmed authentic that month by Pentagon spokesperson Susan Gough as part of the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force's ongoing examinations. Skeptical analysis — notably by Mick West — argues the pyramidal shape is a bokeh artifact produced by the camera's triangular aperture defocusing point light sources.

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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. The aerial phenomena observed in the videos remain characterized as "unidentified."

Encounter context

Infrared footage from an F/A-18 Super Hornet's ATFLIR targeting pod showing a saucer-shaped object that appears to rotate, captured by aircrews from the USS Theodore Roosevelt strike group during deployment training off the East Coast. First published by The New York Times on December 16, 2017 alongside FLIR1; formally declassified by the Department of Defense on April 27, 2020. Pentagon spokesperson Susan Gough's statement noted that the release "does not reveal any sensitive capabilities or systems" and that the phenomena in all three 2020-released videos remain officially characterized as unidentified.

Official caption

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. The aerial phenomena observed in the videos remain characterized as "unidentified."

Encounter context

Infrared footage from an F/A-18 Super Hornet's ATFLIR targeting pod showing what appears to be a fast-moving object skimming low over the ocean off the East Coast, captured by aircrews from the USS Theodore Roosevelt strike group on the same day as Gimbal. First published by The Washington Post in March 2018; formally declassified by the Department of Defense on April 27, 2020. The object's apparent high speed has been the subject of debate: skeptical analyses note that parallax from the aircraft's own motion can make a slow-moving object appear far faster on an infrared display than its actual ground speed.

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Footage of unidentified objects captured by a U.S. Customs and Border Protection aircraft over Puerto Rico in April 2013.

Encounter context

Infrared footage from a U.S. Customs and Border Protection aircraft showing what appears to be an object moving at high speed, splitting into two, and entering and exiting the water off Puerto Rico's northwestern coast. AARO's published case-resolution report concludes the apparent high speed is the result of motion parallax and assesses the objects as two ordinary objects (likely sky lanterns) traveling near each other at wind speed — resolved as non-anomalous. The Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies (SCU) has submitted technical questions challenging that assessment.

Official caption

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. The aerial phenomena observed in the videos remain characterized as "unidentified."

Encounter context

Infrared footage of a white, oblong, featureless object — described by Underwood as resembling "a big Tic Tac" — captured during the November 14, 2004 USS Nimitz Carrier Strike Group encounter off the coast of southern California. The visual encounter (witnessed by Cmdr. David Fravor and Lt. Cmdr. Alex Dietrich) preceded Underwood's FLIR recording from a follow-on sortie; Fravor reported the object mirrored his maneuvers before disappearing. First published by The New York Times on December 16, 2017 with the headline "2 Navy Airmen and an Object That 'Accelerated Like Nothing I've Ever Seen.'" Formally declassified by the Department of Defense on April 27, 2020 — the most-cited single piece of UAP footage in modern popular discourse.