USS Theodore Roosevelt Encounters
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Evidence quality · 6 components
Behavioral anomalousness · 4 components
TL;DR
Near-daily encounters by USS Theodore Roosevelt F/A-18 pilots over approximately one year, producing two DoD-authenticated FLIR videos (Gimbal, GoFast) and sworn congressional testimony from pilot Ryan Graves about a mid-air near-miss in restricted airspace.
Confirmed
- ✓GIMBAL and GOFAST videos are authentic Navy ATFLIR footage, officially released by DoD as 'unidentified' (April 27, 2020)
- ✓Ryan Graves testified under oath before the House Oversight Committee about near-daily encounter frequency and a near-miss safety incident (July 26, 2023)
- ✓Navy updated its UAP reporting guidelines in 2019 directly citing the Roosevelt-era encounter pattern
- ✓Multiple F/A-18 pilots reported consistent object descriptions - sphere, acorn, and metallic blimp shapes - across approximately one year
Unresolved
- ?Whether the GIMBAL object's apparent rotation is of the object itself or an AN/ASQ-228 ATFLIR gimbal artifact
- ?True groundspeed and altitude of the GOFAST object
- ?Origin and operator of the objects - adversarial drone, classified U.S. program, or genuinely anomalous
- ?Whether complete radar track data from ship and aircraft systems confirms object performance claims
Strongest mundane explanation
Analyst Mick West argues the GIMBAL rotation is an ATFLIR gimbal mechanism artifact and the GOFAST object's true groundspeed is approximately 40-50 knots when accounting for aircraft motion and wind, making both consistent with a distant jet or slow-moving drone - but this does not address the sustained, near-daily multi-crew observations or the reported near-miss safety event.
Over a sustained period in 2014-2015, multiple F/A-18 pilots attached to the USS Theodore Roosevelt carrier strike group reported near-daily encounters with unidentified objects operating in restricted military airspace. The objects - described as sphere, acorn, or metallic blimp shapes - had no visible propulsion, flew at altitudes from sea level to 30,000 feet, and were tracked on radar. The DoD released three associated videos (Gimbal, GoFast, FLIR1) in 2020. Pilot Ryan Graves testified under oath before Congress in 2023. Elizondo and Mellon facilitated the video release.
Key Facts
- ›Encounters were near-daily and sustained over approximately one year - not isolated incidents
- ›Objects operated in restricted military airspace used for training, representing a potential safety and security concern
- ›Object shapes described as sphere, acorn, or metallic blimp - consistent across multiple pilots
- ›No visible propulsion, no wings, no exhaust; appeared to operate in all weather conditions
- ›Altitude range: sea level to 30,000 feet with rapid transitions
- ›Gimbal video: shows rotation of a thermal object that pilots couldn't explain; released by DoD April 2020
- ›GoFast video: shows a fast-moving object skimming the ocean surface; released by DoD April 2020
- ›FLIR1 video: the Nimitz encounter footage also released; sometimes grouped with these incidents
- ›Ryan Graves testified before Congress July 26, 2023 that pilots were reporting encounters 'every day for years'
- ›Luis Elizondo (AATIP director) and Chris Mellon (former DASD Intelligence) facilitated video release through TTSA and the New York Times