USS Theodore Roosevelt — Gimbal & GoFast

In 2014–2015 F/A-18F crews of the Roosevelt strike group reported frequent unknown objects on their upgraded APG-79 radars off the East Coast. Two ATFLIR clips — "Gimbal", with a crew member exclaiming about "a whole fleet of them", and "GoFast", a small object skimming over the ocean — were released by the Pentagon in April 2020.

Explanation

Both videos were officially released and remain "unidentified" per DoD. Analysts such as Mick West argue GoFast shows a slow object (e.g. a balloon) at ~13,000 ft that only looks fast and low because of parallax, and that Gimbal’s rotation is a glare artifact of the ATFLIR pod. AARO later published a case resolution for GoFast worked out from the sensor’s geometry and the winds aloft.

What was seen

Shape: Rotating lozenge (Gimbal); small fast object (GoFast)
Witnesses: VFA-11 aircrew; Lt. Ryan Graves’ squadron reported near-daily objects
Duration: Seconds of video; months of sightings

Sources

• DoD statement on the release of historical Navy videos (Apr 2020)
• AARO case resolution: GoFast

Browse

• United States
• 2010s
• Disputed
• Military encounters
• Official government documents
• Military witnesses
• Pilot and aircrew witnesses
• Video footage
• Radar tracking
• Infrared or other sensor data

Similar cases

• USS Omaha sphere & USS Russell "pyramids" 15 July 2019
• Chilean Navy helicopter FLIR video 11 November 2014
• AARO’s “Eglin UAP” — a lighting balloon 26 January 2023
• USS Nimitz "Tic Tac" 14 November 2004