Organization
Skywatcher
Also known as Skywatcher Technologies, skywatcher.ai
Skywatcher is a private UAP research venture founded by Jake Barber, a former Air Force airman and helicopter pilot, with James Fowler, who by his own account was a founder and consultant from August 2024 and led its field operations until July 2025, and the investor Alex Klokus. It said it would validate UAP scientifically by calling them with machines (electromechanical signalling, the "dog whistle") and with trained people ("psionic" calling), and reported nine classes of UAP from field work at Sierra Blanca, southeast of El Paso, Texas. Garry Nolan and Don Paul Bales are among the people its site lists.
Barber says Skywatcher summoned the egg he once retrieved, in August 2024, and briefed AARO's director on it, and that it supported a federal task force in New Jersey in December 2024. Nolan, who was there in August, says he did not see the object. No official record on file mentions Skywatcher.
The group went quiet in 2025; Fowler stepped away that August for a new aerial-intelligence venture. In August 2026 Ross Coulthart reported, from confidential sources, that it had dissolved and that its methods had been taken up by a covert government operation at White Sands that summons and shoots down craft; he linked the El Paso airspace closure of February 2026 to it. The administration said that closure was about cartel drones, and the Associated Press reported an anti-drone laser used without coordination with the FAA.
Sources: skywatcher.ai (About) · NewsNation special (19 January 2025) · Interview with Jesse Michels (January 2025) · Don Paul Bales interview (January 2025) · James Fowler on X (18 August 2025) · Ross Coulthart, Reality Check Q&A (9 August 2026) · Associated Press (11 February 2026)
Facts and claims
- claimed Skywatcher's own site describes it as an aerial-intelligence group integrating “multi-domain sensing, cutting-edge aerospace research, and real-world operational experience”, and lists Jacob Barber, James Fowler, Alex Klokus, Dan Flechsenhaar, Garry Nolan, Joseph DiNoto, Fred Baker and Don Paul Bales. Source: skywatcher.ai (archived)
- claimed In NewsNation's special of January 2025, Barber said Skywatcher recruits people from within the program and works “in coordination with government agencies” he would not yet name, funded by venture capital, to produce the sensor data and film the public wants. — Jake Barber Source: Whistleblower reveals UAP retrieval program: Jake Barber's first public account (NewsNation special, 2025) at 36:10
- claimed Barber says Skywatcher summoned the egg in August 2024, tracked it at “10,000 mph”, and showed videos and a report to AARO's new director. — Jake Barber Source: “I Retrieved a UFO With My Helicopter!” Jake Barber with Jesse Michels (2025) at 47:53
- claimed Barber says Garry Nolan was in the desert when the egg was summoned but “didn't see it with his own eyes because no one did. It was moving too fast”; Nolan saw the data afterwards. — Jake Barber Source: “I Retrieved a UFO With My Helicopter!” Jake Barber with Jesse Michels (2025) at 53:08
- claimed Of that August 2024 session, Barber says the psionic asset reported he was “piloting” a craft, then after four or five minutes cried “get me out of here”; the overwatch, Fred Baker, saw a disc. — Jake Barber Source: Whistleblower reveals UAP retrieval program: Jake Barber's first public account (NewsNation special, 2025) at 37:37
- claimed Nolan, who was present at the August 2024 session, says what he saw was the person attempting the call in distress at the moment of the “supposed interaction”, not the object; something showed up later in a rooftop observer's drawing and video. — Garry Nolan Source: Whistleblower reveals UAP retrieval program: Jake Barber's first public account (NewsNation special, 2025) at 38:52
- claimed Barber says Skywatcher went to New Jersey in December 2024 to support a DoD–FBI task force, and that orange orbs appeared over Picatinny Arsenal on the first night. — Jake Barber Source: “I Retrieved a UFO With My Helicopter!” Jake Barber with Jesse Michels (2025) at 2:19:13
- claimed Don Paul Bales says the one sighting from Skywatcher's public work he can discuss is one he missed: members of his team saw an object pass directly over his entry control point while he faced the other way. — Don Paul Bales Source: Don Paul Bales on Jake Barber: Reality Check with Ross Coulthart (NewsNation, 2025) at 23:39
- claimed James Fowler announced on X on 18 August 2025 that from August 2024 to July 2025 he had served “as a founder and consultant at Skywatcher, where I led field operations”, and that he was “stepping away from active involvement with Skywatcher, with my contributions now limited to my foundational work”, to focus on “a new venture in Aerial Intelligence”. Source: x.com (archived)
- claimed Ross Coulthart said in August 2026 that Skywatcher had posted nothing on X since Christmas Day 2025 and nothing on its site since James Fowler left in mid-August 2025, that it ran no field operations after July 2025, and that it appeared to have been dissolved as a business entity. — Ross Coulthart Source: Ross Coulthart Q&A: Skywatcher didn't disappear, it went government (NewsNation Reality Check, 2026) at 0:41
- claimed Coulthart said multiple insiders told him that by its last field operation, in July 2025, Skywatcher was working with and reporting to government agencies including NASA, the Department of Defense and the CIA. — Ross Coulthart Source: Ross Coulthart Q&A: Skywatcher didn't disappear, it went government (NewsNation Reality Check, 2026) at 3:12
- claimed Coulthart said an FAA notice of 8 November 2025 made the area over Sierra Blanca, southeast of El Paso, where Skywatcher had operated, national defense airspace, requested, he was told, by the Joint Special Operations Command's liaison to the FAA to “shoot down drones”; he says it was cancelled on 14 November 2025. — Ross Coulthart Source: Ross Coulthart Q&A: Skywatcher didn't disappear, it went government (NewsNation Reality Check, 2026) at 12:06
- claimed Coulthart said defence sources told him UAP swarms appeared over White Sands Missile Range while Skywatcher operated at Sierra Blanca, and that the government has since used airspace closures to summon, detect and shoot down craft with the same “dog whistle” and psionic methods; he suspects key Skywatcher people now work with the Department of War there. — Ross Coulthart Source: Ross Coulthart Q&A: Skywatcher didn't disappear, it went government (NewsNation Reality Check, 2026) at 17:19
- claimed Coulthart conceded that his account rests on confidential sources he cannot name: “I know there will be a lot of people who roll their eyes and say, you know, this is all confidential sources. We can't prove this. Prove me wrong.” — Ross Coulthart Source: Ross Coulthart Q&A: Skywatcher didn't disappear, it went government (NewsNation Reality Check, 2026) at 32:38
- documented The official explanation of the El Paso airspace closure of February 2026, which Coulthart ties to this story, makes no mention of UAP: Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the Defense Department and the FAA had halted an incursion by Mexican cartel drones and “the threat has been neutralized”; two people told the Associated Press the Pentagon had let Customs and Border Protection use an anti-drone laser near Fort Bliss without coordinating with the FAA. Source: wect.com (archived)
Connected files
People
- Jake Barber (co-founded by) — Founded by Jake Barber with James Fowler, who led its field operations until July 2025, and the investor Alex Klokus
- Garry Nolan (works with) — Barber says Nolan is on the team; Skywatcher's site lists him
- Ross Coulthart (statements by)
- Don Paul Bales (members) — Skywatcher's site lists him among its people, and he speaks of its public work
Concepts
- Remote viewing & telepathy (about) — Its “psionic” calling uses people trained, Barber says, in remote viewing and psychic abilities
- CE-5 (Close Encounters of the Fifth Kind) (about) — It said it summons UAP by machine signalling and by psionic calling
Videos
- Whistleblower reveals UAP retrieval program: Jake Barber's first public account (NewsNation special, 2025) (discussed in)
- Don Paul Bales on Jake Barber: Reality Check with Ross Coulthart (NewsNation, 2025) (discussed in)
- Ross Coulthart Q&A: Skywatcher didn't disappear, it went government (NewsNation Reality Check, 2026) (subject of)
- “I Retrieved a UFO With My Helicopter!” Jake Barber with Jesse Michels (2025) (discussed in)
Mentioned in this file
- All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (Program)
Mentioned in videos
- Whistleblower reveals UAP retrieval program: Jake Barber's first public account (NewsNation special, 2025)
- Ross Coulthart Q&A: Skywatcher didn't disappear, it went government (NewsNation Reality Check, 2026)