In late 2014, Navy fighter pilots training off the U.S. East Coast began reporting something that did not fit any category they had been trained to identify. The objects appeared on radar, showed up on infrared targeting pods, and were encountered so frequently during training missions that they became a routine part of flying. Lt. Ryan Graves, an F/A-18 pilot with Strike Fighter Squadron 11 (VFA-11), was among the first to document the encounters through official channels. The incidents, which continued into early 2015, are now considered one of the most well-documented clusters of UAP activity reported by military pilots.
All three Pentagon-confirmed UAP videos (FLIR1, Gimbal, and Go Fast) shown side by side. The Gimbal and Go Fast videos were recorded by pilots in the same squadron and operational area as the encounters described by Ryan Graves.
TL;DR: Between late 2014 and early 2015, Navy pilots training with the USS Theodore Roosevelt carrier strike group off the U.S. East Coast reported frequent encounters with unidentified objects. Lt. Ryan Graves and at least four other pilots with VFA-11 Red Rippers documented the encounters through official channels. The objects appeared on radar and infrared sensors simultaneously, flew at 30,000 feet, and were encountered so frequently that pilots nicknamed them “those damn things.” One pilot described a near mid-air collision with a “cube inside a sphere.” The encounters produced the Gimbal and Go Fast videos, later declassified by the Pentagon. Graves testified at the July 2023 congressional hearing alongside David Grusch and David Fravor. Sources linked below.
Timeline
- Late 2014 Pilots with VFA-11 Red Rippers, operating from Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia Beach, begin reporting unidentified objects during training missions along the U.S. East Coast. The objects appear on radar as small returns at altitudes of 30,000 feet or higher.
- Early 2015 Lt. Ryan Graves and at least four other pilots continue documenting encounters. Objects appear during multiple training sorties, often detected on the AN/APG-79 radar and AN/ASQ-228 ATFLIR targeting pod simultaneously. One pilot reports a near mid-air collision with an object described as a “cube inside a sphere,” approximately 5 to 15 feet across.
- January 21, 2015 The Gimbal video is recorded by a Navy F/A-18 pilot using the ATFLIR pod during training operations. The video shows a dark, oblong object that appears to rotate against a cloud background.
- Early 2015 The Go Fast video is recorded during a naval exercise. It shows a small object moving rapidly across the surface of the ocean, later resolved by AARO as a balloon at 13,000 feet altitude with apparent speed caused by parallax.
- 2015 Graves and his colleagues formally report the encounters through official Navy channels. The squadron’s operations officer sends an email to commanders warning of multiple near mid-air collisions with unidentified objects.
- December 16, 2017 The New York Times publishes a report revealing the existence of AATIP (the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program) and includes the FLIR1 and Gimbal videos. The videos are released through To The Stars Academy of Arts and Science.
- May 26, 2019 The New York Times publishes a follow-up story titled “‘Wow, What Is That?’ Navy Pilots Report Unexplained Flying Objects,” featuring Graves and four other pilots by name. The article reports that the pilots “make no assertions of their provenance” but describe objects that appeared on multiple sensors during routine training, according to the New York Times.
- July 26, 2023 Graves testifies before the House Oversight Committee alongside David Grusch and David Fravor. In his written testimony, published on Congress.gov, Graves states that “military aircrews and commercial pilots” have experienced “near-miss incidents” with UAP and that his squadron’s operations officer expressed “safety of flight concerns about multiple near mid-air collisions with UAP.”
The VFA-11 Red Rippers
Strike Fighter Squadron 11, known as the “Red Rippers,” is one of the oldest squadrons in the Navy, established in 1919. During the 2014-2015 period, the squadron was based at Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia Beach and flew the F/A-18F Super Hornet. The squadron was assigned to Carrier Air Wing One as part of the USS Theodore Roosevelt carrier strike group. The Red Rippers were not a squadron known for unusual reports: they were a conventional strike fighter unit conducting standard training operations along the East Coast. The fact that a professional, combat-trained squadron filed official reports about unidentified objects adds weight to the encounters.
GO FAST UAP: Official Department of Defense video captured by a Navy F/A-18 over the East Coast, 2015.
What the Pilots Saw
The encounters reported by VFA-11 pilots had several consistent characteristics that distinguished them from routine training observations. These characteristics, reported independently by multiple pilots across different flights, made it difficult to dismiss the sightings as individual misperceptions or isolated sensor errors.
First, the objects appeared on multiple sensors simultaneously. They showed up as radar returns on the AN/APG-79 AESA radar at altitudes of 30,000 feet or higher. They were also visible on the AN/ASQ-228 ATFLIR infrared targeting pod. The fact that the objects appeared on both radar and infrared ruled out common explanations like radar ghosts or optical illusions, according to the pilots’ accounts.
Second, the objects flew in patterns that did not match any known aircraft. Graves has described objects that appeared to hover, accelerate rapidly, or fly in formation patterns inconsistent with conventional aircraft. According to Enigma Labs, the objects sometimes appeared as “gauzy blobs” when viewed through cockpit displays.
Third, the encounters were frequent. Graves has stated that the objects were present during training missions on a near-daily basis. “These things would be out there all day,” Graves told interviewers, according to The UFO Database. The frequency of the encounters led pilots to nickname them “those damn things.”
Fourth, at least one encounter involved a near mid-air collision. One pilot reported passing within close proximity of an object described as a “cube inside a sphere,” approximately 5 to 15 across. This incident was among those flagged in the squadron’s official safety reports, according to Graves’s congressional testimony. The near miss was not an isolated event: the squadron’s operations officer sent a formal communication to commanders warning of “multiple near mid-air collisions” with unidentified objects during the training period.
The Gimbal and Go Fast Connection
The encounters by VFA-11 pilots produced two of the three videos later declassified by the Pentagon. The Gimbal video, recorded on January 21, 2015, shows a dark, oblong object tracked by an ATFLIR pod. The Go Fast video, also recorded in early 2015, shows a small object moving across the ocean’s surface.
Both videos were recorded by Navy F/A-18 pilots in the same operational area and time period as the encounters described by Graves and his squadron mates. The videos were later released by To The Stars Academy and reported by the New York Times in December 2017, as described in our article on the Pentagon-confirmed UAP videos.
The connection between the squadron encounters and the declassified videos is significant because it provides context for what the videos show. The objects in the Gimbal and Go Fast videos were not isolated incidents, but part of a pattern of encounters that Navy pilots were experiencing on a regular basis. Understanding this context changes how the videos should be interpreted: they are snapshots of a much larger phenomenon that was occurring daily in a major U.S. military training area.
Graves and Americans for Safe Aerospace
After leaving active duty, Graves founded Americans for Safe Aerospace (ASA), an organization that advocates for the safe investigation of UAP from the perspective of aviation safety. ASA works with pilots, both military and commercial, who have reported UAP encounters, and advocates for standardized reporting procedures.
Graves has consistently framed the UAP issue as a flight safety concern rather than an alien mystery. In his July 2023 congressional testimony, he emphasized that the primary risk is a mid-air collision between a conventional aircraft and an unidentified object. His written testimony states that “military aircrews and commercial pilots” have reported near-miss incidents and that the current reporting system is inadequate for addressing the safety risk.
ASA has worked to reduce the stigma associated with UAP reporting among pilots. Graves has argued that the reluctance of pilots to report encounters, due to fear of career consequences or ridicule, makes the airspace less safe. The organization advocates for anonymous reporting channels and standardized investigation procedures. ASA has also worked with commercial airline pilots who have reported similar encounters, broadening the scope of the safety concern beyond military aviation.
Opposing Perspectives
The flight safety argument. Graves’s framing of UAP as a flight safety issue has gained support from aviation safety experts and some members of Congress. The argument is straightforward: if unidentified objects are appearing in airspace used by military and commercial aircraft, they represent a collision risk regardless of what they are. The frequency of the encounters described by VFA-11 pilots, and the near mid-air collision with the “cube inside a sphere” object, strengthen this position.
The conventional explanation. Skeptics have proposed several conventional explanations for the Roosevelt encounters. Some have suggested that the objects could be drones, weather balloons, or other unmanned systems that were not properly identified due to limitations in the aircraft’s sensor systems. The resolution of the Go Fast video as a balloon at 13,000 feet, with its apparent speed caused by parallax, demonstrates that some UAP sightings have prosaic explanations even when they appear extraordinary. However, the Go Fast resolution does not address the other encounters described by VFA-11 pilots, including the near mid-air collision with the “cube inside a sphere” object.
The sensor reliability question. A key question is whether the objects truly appeared on multiple sensors simultaneously, as the pilots have described. If so, this rules out many conventional explanations. However, some analysts have questioned whether the radar and infrared returns truly represented the same object, or whether the correlation was assumed rather than confirmed. Without access to the raw sensor data, it is difficult to evaluate this claim independently. The Navy has not released the raw radar and infrared data from the encounters, citing operational security concerns.
The frequency question. The fact that the encounters were frequent enough to be a daily occurrence raises important questions about what was happening in the airspace off the U.S. East Coast in 2014 and 2015. If the objects were foreign surveillance drones, their persistent presence in U.S. training airspace would represent a significant national security failure. If they were natural phenomena or sensor artifacts, the frequency would suggest a systemic issue with the Navy’s sensor systems. Neither explanation has been publicly confirmed. The Navy has not disclosed whether it identified the objects or took action to address the airspace incursions.
Ryan Graves presents on persistent detection of UAP by Navy tactical aircraft at the AIAA conference.
Former Navy F-18 pilot Ryan Graves testifies before Congress about UAP encounters off Virginia Beach.
YouTube Videos
Ryan Graves presents on persistent detection of UAP by Navy tactical aircraft.
Former Navy pilot Ryan Graves testifies before Congress about UAP encounters.
Sources
Source Links
- New York Times: ‘Wow, What Is That?’ Navy Pilots Report Unexplained Flying Objects
- Congress.gov: Ryan Graves written testimony, July 2023
- Enigma Labs: USS Theodore Roosevelt UAP Encounters
- Enigma Labs: Ryan Graves profile
- The Debrief: Devices of Unknown Origin Part II
- The UFO Database: USS Theodore Roosevelt UAPs
- Aerospace America: Mystery of the “damn things”
- WikiDisc: Ryan Graves biography
- BINJ: The Massachusetts Native Helping The Government Study UAP