Case file · Official inquiry
East Coast Navy encounters
Repeated US Navy encounters produced the released 'Gimbal' and 'GoFast' videos.
2015 CE · 27.00, -79.00 · status: unexplained
The researched reading
A long run of real contacts near training ranges. Drones, balloons and radar effects likely account for much; some remains unexplained.
| Explanation | Weight | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Something known, misidentified | 40% | Many of the 2014–15 contacts behaved like balloons or drones drifting with the wind; the released Gimbal and GoFast videos both have ordinary explanations, and a near-miss ‘cube in a sphere’ resembles a balloon. |
| Genuinely anomalous | 22% | Pilots report daily contacts with long endurance and no visible propulsion, not all of which have been explained. |
| Secret human technology | 17% | Persistent objects near training areas fit foreign surveillance drones or balloons, a concern the Pentagon later raised. |
| Perception, memory or mind | 10% | Once squadrons expected the objects, ambiguous returns were more readily interpreted as craft. |
| A known natural phenomenon | 8% | The contacts began after the APG-79 radar upgrade; pilots themselves first suspected false tracks. |
| A poorly understood natural phenomenon | 2% | No natural phenomenon is proposed. |
| A hoax or fabrication | 1% | Accounts come from Navy aviators and official records. |
Official position: The Navy acknowledged the encounters as unidentified; AARO has explained some UAP of this type as balloons and drones without resolving these cases.
Connections in the atlas
- Navy updates its UAP reporting guidance
- The GoFast video
- The Gimbal video
- Ryan Graves
- House Oversight hearing: Grusch, Fravor and Graves
- AATIP (Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program)