Weird object or UFO as seen from a U.S. Navy F/A-18F Super Hornet’s ATFLIR (ATS referenced )

The Aviationist has the ATFLIR images of the UFO recently spotted by the USN. ATS's aviation forum is referenced in the article of one of the premier aviation blogs as well.

Back in 2007, a user (cometa2) of the popular Above Top Secret (ATS) forum posted an alleged official CVW-11 Event Summary of a close encounter occurred on Nov. 14, 2004. Back then, when the encounter had not been confirmed yet, many users questioned the authenticity of both the event log and the footage allegedly filmed during the UFO intercept. More than 10 years later, with an officially released video of the encounter, it’s worth having a look at that unverified event log again: although we can’t say for sure whether it is genuine or not, it is at least “r
Read more at theaviationist.com... at-it-was/#SVMeG3KAZgeB3uKC.99

theaviationist.com... at-it-was/

great find and i wish we could see what those pilots were seeing. a whole fleet of them they are saying. very interesting and does have that classic ufo shape

a reply to: FredT

Thank you, man, such data helps a lot toward helping the lesser informed gain the concepts with which they will have to eventually face. The day of reckoning is coming, it must.

originally posted by: TheScale
great find and i wish we could see what those pilots were seeing. a whole fleet of them they are saying. very interesting and does have that classic ufo shape

Yeah, since watching the video earlier today, I have been curious about just how many of the craft there were, since the one pilot referenced 'a fleet' of them.

Interesting that a craft traveling at a considerable speed could rotate in the manner that it did.

I say craft, since that is pretty much what we are seeing in the video.... a craft the size of a commercial aircraft.

Is this about the fifth thread today?

I've been hanging back all day, waiting for anyone to start some analysis, other than me.

When they beam me up, I'll believe!!!!

a reply to: FredT

The article in the Aviationist gave some interesting links, one of which to this article from NYT where it appears the pilots from the original incident were interviewed.

www.nytimes.com...

“Well, we’ve got a real-world vector for you,” the radio operator said, according to Commander Fravor. For two weeks, the operator said, the Princeton had been tracking mysterious aircraft. The objects appeared suddenly at 80,000 feet, and then hurtled toward the sea, eventually stopping at 20,000 feet and hovering. Then they either dropped out of radar range or shot straight back up.

That right there is some interesting information.Tracking mysterious aircraft for two weeks???!!!

The article also links back to the original ATS thread which is worth a read.
www.abovetopsecret.com...

I'm confused tho, back in the day this footage was dismissed as a hoax and now the Government is releasing it?
Scratching my head???

a reply to: FredT

Where the heck did you come from , Fredt? And a super moderator to boot.

Just, wow !

LOL !

BTW, yes, this story has been played out.

a reply to: Groot
err no, it has not. It was called a hoax, and now they have to eat their words as the government just proved its authenticity.

originally posted by: FredT
The Aviationist has the ATFLIR images of the UFO recently spotted by the USN. ATS's aviation forum is referenced in the article of one of the premier aviation blogs as well.

Back in 2007, a user (cometa2) of the popular Above Top Secret (ATS) forum posted an alleged official CVW-11 Event Summary of a close encounter occurred on Nov. 14, 2004. Back then, when the encounter had not been confirmed yet, many users questioned the authenticity of both the event log and the footage allegedly filmed during the UFO intercept. More than 10 years later, with an officially released video of the encounter, it’s worth having a look at that unverified event log again: although we can’t say for sure whether it is genuine or not, it is at least “r
Read more at theaviationist.com... at-it-was/#SVMeG3KAZgeB3uKC.99

theaviationist.com... at-it-was/

nice catch mate

I have been reading up on this a bit, but here is my summary / collection of thoughts:

- Tom de Longe (TDL) and To The Stars Academy (TTSA) did FOIA to get these two videos released. You can see a little more analysis including what the avionics symbology means in their youtube videos here.
- TTSA is very suspicious and includes a massive amount of spooks from the US intelligence community.
- The US intelligence community has been studying "UFO's", this may partly be because sighting reports allow them to study potential adversary weapon systems as pointed out by JimOberg here (his links are an excellent read).
- False information has been fed to UFO researchers before, to put them on the wrong track.
- Big thread is on the Alien & UFO subforum and will also be on other sites.
- Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program now has its own Wiki page, which can be found here. iirc, the leader is now affiliated with TTSA.
- I think the Fightersweep article adds the most credibility which is dated 2015. This is a must-read.
- A lot of information in the New York Times articles here and here. Some of those mentioned include those affiliated with TTSA. And an interesting quote from the 2nd article:

Under Mr. Bigelow’s direction, the company modified buildings in Las Vegas for the storage of metal alloys and other materials that Mr. Elizondo and program contractors said had been recovered from unidentified aerial phenomena. Researchers also studied people who said they had experienced physical effects from encounters with the objects and examined them for any physiological changes. In addition, researchers spoke to military service members who had reported sightings of strange aircraft.

Some possibilities:
- The encounter did actually happen as described. If this is the case it could be aliens. Or the US was testing some advanced aircraft in the presence of the F/A-18s, potentially to see what would happen or even deliberately create a UFO sighting to help hype its military capabilities.
- Unusual conditions made the pilots think they saw something they actually didn't.
- Other nations have had similar experiences, the US wants to say "we don't know what these are either" when they do, so they're releasing the video.
- psy-op, the ATFLIR footage is from something else entirely with fake audio dubbed, because let's be honest, you cannot see much in the videos. Many sources have the same story however.
- It could also be a combination of these. In any event, governments wishing to spread false information online about military, defence, and aerospace matters is extremely common.

Other comments:
- If the US government really wanted this to go away though, obviously they wouldn't have released the videos.
- Who the hell leaked this here in 2007? Why?

My opinion is the sighting and video are probably real, but I have no idea what they actually saw.

a reply to: Caver78

So how do they know the altitude of the object? It isn't like the object has a transponder.

a reply to: FredT

A couple of readers here have reported unusual aerial phenomena in that area significantly more recently (but I haven't personally myself).

a reply to: C0bzz

Thanks for that in depth... will be diving down that rabbit hole...

Off hand, the question that sticks in my mind is why the gubment 'officially' releases a couple videos that show literally nothing but blurry blobs, but don't release the other actual evidence claimed they have.

If this is disclosure and not a leak I mean, why bother leaking anything if its not concrete or supported by corroborating evidence?

That part disturbs me. I could be swayed off my fence about this, revert to debunking the evidence in the two videos. In my mind they are tracking footage of man made aircraft anyway. Slightly out of focus, not really displaying any 'novelistic motion' to quote a famous movie line.

On the face of it, so what.

If they had released radar data, close up imagery from (F18) tracking cameras plus pilot interviews... if I could see the images of the 'oofos' in the grainy, fuzzy, flir footage...

then, maybe... always left with ... maybe...

originally posted by: gariac
a reply to: Caver78

So how do they know the altitude of the object? It isn't like the object has a transponder.

The altitude is displayed on screen, bottom left, reflecting twenty five thousand feet.

What it doesn't show is a clear profile, close ups, heading, or speed of pursuit aircraft.

a reply to: C0bzz

The US military, and many (every?) other nations have, and are continuing to, one must assume, study the UFO phenomena.

Projects Grudge, Sign, etc... from back in the day. High level interest just after WWII (mystery rocket objects) lead to those, and other, projects that may still be running.

Fascinating video. No idea what's going on, but they saw and tracked something strange.

a reply to: gariac

My interest was piqued by the admission

For two weeks, the operator said, the Princeton had been tracking mysterious aircraft.

CObzz makes some good points in that we really are probably seeing the tip of the iceberg. What the actual iceberg is?
Yet to be determined.

My thoughts on this now that 24 hours have passed is "how is this different" essentially from the US Government acknowledging the Foo Fighters? Back then we had gun camera footage, we had the US saying they didn't know what they are. we had pilot reports.

Despite Reid's admission's I can't help thinking things haven't really changed. It feels like another wash-rinse-repeat
cycle without anything more than what we had decades ago. Newer dates, different named back op program, but essentially no new info.

Even the video the government acknowledged became public back in 2007, so also recycled. I'm thinking we're expected to run off like per normal all excited that we now had our "gotcha" moment but really, we don't have squat except confirmation there was an ongoing investigation, but we'd already suspected as much.

So, where does this leave us?

a reply to: intrptr

What it doesn't show is a clear profile, close ups, heading, or speed of pursuit aircraft.

I believe it did mention the speed of the headwind that the objects were flying against (was it 125 kt ?)
I guess a person could find the stall speed of an F-18 with the given headwind and get a minimum speed at which the objects would have had to been travelling at.

originally posted by: intrptr

originally posted by: gariac
a reply to: Caver78

So how do they know the altitude of the object? It isn't like the object has a transponder.

The altitude is displayed on screen, bottom left, reflecting twenty five thousand feet.

What it doesn't show is a clear profile, close ups, heading, or speed of pursuit aircraft.

That is the altitude of the f-18. How so they know the altitude of the target?

a reply to: Caver78

Yes the notion that they have been looking at this for two weeks is weird. So the pilots were not briefed on this?