Claim

The objects Navy F/A-18 crews tracked off the U.S. East Coast in 2014–15 were not conventional aircraft, drones or balloons

Also known as Gimbal claim, GoFast claim, Roosevelt claim

Disputed. AARO (2025) and NASA (2023) resolved one of the two videos: the GoFast object was moving at about wind speed at 13,000 feet. The Gimbal video has no official resolution, and the near-daily radar tracks and near misses the crews reported remain unexplained. (AARO case resolution: "Go Fast" (2025))

During the USS Theodore Roosevelt's pre-deployment exercises, F/A-18 crews with newly upgraded radars reported objects almost daily, some of them near misses, and recorded the Gimbal and GoFast videos. The claim is that these were not ordinary objects. The official findings so far cover only the GoFast video, not the pattern as a whole.

Evidence against

Who has said it, in order

  1. January 2015 — says so, first-hand: A crew member says there is a whole fleet of them on the aircraft's situation display (the “ASA”); Ryan Graves says he saw that fleet on the radar display in the debrief. Source: Gimbal: the official U.S. Navy video (January 2015) at 0:04
  2. January 2015 — says so, first-hand: The crew remark that the objects are all going against the wind, which they put at about 120 knots. Source: Gimbal: the official U.S. Navy video (January 2015) at 0:11
  3. January 2015 — context, documented: The object appears to race across the sea surface; AARO and NASA later found it was at about 13,000 feet, moving at roughly wind speed, the apparent speed coming from parallax. Source: GoFast: the official U.S. Navy video (January 2015) at 0:20
  4. 27 April 2020 — context, documented: The Department of Defense officially released two Navy videos taken in January 2015 (Gimbal and GoFast), together with the 2004 FLIR1 video, stating that "the aerial phenomena observed in the videos remain characterized as 'unidentified.'" Source: Statement by the Department of Defense on the Release of Historical Navy Videos (April 27, 2020)
  5. 8 September 2020 David Fravor — says so, relayed: Fravor, from the aircrew he knows: the Gimbal and GoFast videos were shot by the same person; the new APG-79 radar showed about five other objects in a V ahead of the Gimbal object, which reversed course, as Ryan Graves has also described. Source: David Fravor: UFOs, Aliens, Fighter Jets, and Aerospace Engineering | Lex Fridman Podcast #122 at 2:45:23
  6. 26 July 2023 Ryan Graves — says so, first-hand: In the debrief of the Gimbal encounter he says he saw on the radar display the “fleet” of objects the pilots refer to, which do not appear on the FLIR video; a friend who recorded the GoFast video told him the crew detected four objects in line abreast, not one. Source: House holds hearing on UFOs, government transparency | full video at 1:43:20
  7. 26 July 2023 Ryan Graves — says so, relayed: Graves: off Virginia Beach, two F/A-18 Super Hornets were split by a UAP, a dark gray or black cube inside a clear sphere, that came within 50 feet of the lead aircraft; the squadron filed a safety report but got no official acknowledgement. Source: House holds hearing on UFOs, government transparency | full video at 26:33
  8. 26 July 2023 Ryan Graves — says so, first-hand: Graves: objects sat at “0.0 Mach” over fixed points while “completely stationary in category four hurricane winds,” then accelerated to 1.1–1.2 Mach. Source: House holds hearing on UFOs, government transparency | full video at 50:26
  9. 26 July 2023 Ryan Graves — says so, first-hand: Graves: in the Gimbal incident the pilots refer to a fleet of objects not visible on the FLIR, which he saw on the radar display in the debrief. Source: House holds hearing on UFOs, government transparency | full video at 1:43:20
  10. 14 September 2023 NASA — disputes it, documented: NASA's 2023 UAP study analysed the GoFast video and found that the object moved about 390 metres in 22 seconds, roughly 40 mph, "a typical wind speed at 13,000 feet". It appeared colder than the ocean, with no evidence of propulsion heat, so it was most likely drifting with the wind. Source: NASA Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Independent Study Team report (2023)
  11. 13 November 2024 Tim Gallaudet — says so, relayed: Gallaudet recounts the urgent flight-safety email received during the 2015 exercise, with the “GoFast” video attached. Source: Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Exposing the Truth at 44:03
  12. 19 November 2024 — disputes it, documented: On GoFast the slide gives the object's altitude “with high confidence as approximately 13,000 feet above sea level at a calculated velocity of approximately 45 mph / 39 knots”, with winds of about 60 knots at that height, and notes that “High confidence analysis of the UAP's exact position was not possible given a lack of precise positional data from the observing Navy aircraft.” Source: doc-aaro-case-slides-2024-11-19.pdf
  13. 19 November 2024 Jon T. Kosloski — disputes it, documented: Kosloski: AARO assesses with high confidence that the GoFast object was near 13,000 feet, not skimming the water; parallax made it look fast. AARO published its calculations so that the public can “check our math.” Source: Oversight Hearing on AARO and UAPs/UFOs Nov 19th 2024 (UnEdited) at 15:40
  14. 6 December 2024 Ryan Graves — says so, first-hand: Three sensors correlated: the ATFLIR targeting pod and the AIM-9X missile seekers also detected and locked onto the radar tracks, so the squadron treated them as physical objects. Source: US fighter pilots witness UFO: Ryan Graves (American Alchemy, 2024) at 14:28
  15. 6 February 2025 All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office — disputes it, documented: AARO's 2025 case resolution of the GoFast video finds with high confidence that the object did not move at anomalous speeds: it was at about 13,000 feet, not skimming the sea, and moving at roughly 5–92 mph relative to the wind. AARO does not identify the object. Its resolution covers that video only, not the squadron's other radar tracks or near misses. Source: AARO case resolution: "Go Fast" (2025)
  16. 6 February 2025 All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office — disputes it, documented: AARO's February 2025 case resolution of the GoFast video assesses “with high confidence that the object did not move at anomalous speeds”: it was at about 13,000 feet, not near the sea surface, moving at roughly 5 to 92 mph once wind is accounted for. AARO says it cannot definitively identify the object. Source: AARO case resolution: "Go Fast" (2025)
  17. 25 June 2026 Marik von Rennenkampff — says so, opinion: Von Rennenkampff says his analysis with citizen scientists reconstructs the Gimbal object's 3D flight path with high confidence that it was at the close range the aircrew described; AARO has issued no case resolution. Source: UAP & National Security: Mellon, Gallaudet, von Rennenkampff & McConnell at Disclosure Forum 2026 at 1:17:19
  18. 25 June 2026 Sean Kirkpatrick (as reported by Marik von Rennenkampff) — disputes it, relayed: Von Rennenkampff: Sean Kirkpatrick twice told him the Gimbal object was a balloon reflecting sunlight, which he disputes because it was night and the aircrew described it moving against 120-knot winds. Source: UAP & National Security: Mellon, Gallaudet, von Rennenkampff & McConnell at Disclosure Forum 2026 at 1:18:44
  19. 23 August 2026 Tim Gallaudet — context, opinion: On AARO's parallax explanation for GoFast, which Jon Kosloski presented to the Senate in November 2024, Gallaudet concedes the object wasn't going fast — “I don't dispute that” — but says it was a spherical object without control surfaces, in formation with others, while pilots saw dozens. Source: Top Navy Admiral: “The Ocean is FULL OF UFOs!” at 10:14
  20. 21 October 2026 Jay Stratton — says so, first-hand: "I'm the guy who told the press that these are unidentified", because "we got to be honest with American people". Source: Jay Stratton's first on-camera interview, recorded 2022 (WEAPONIZED, released October 2026) at 20:42

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