File 064 · January 2015
Gimbal FLIR
Off the U.S. East Coast, United States · Region, not street
Opened 9/4/2026
Ledger illustration of the file — not a photograph of the object. Ledger illustration of the report. Open Atlantic under high haze. — Night Ledger illustration of the file
Standing
Unidentified
On the public record, and still open. A claim, paper, or film — not a finding that it was ours, and not a finding that it was not.
Gimbal — official Navy ATFLIR
U.S. Navy / Department of Defense, authorized release 27 April 2020.
Original tape · original language kept
English writing · original voice kept
English cockpit radio on the Gimbal tape, January 2015, USS Theodore Roosevelt. One crewman says there is a fleet of objects, that they are going against a 120-knot west wind, and that the object in the FLIR appears to rotate. The Department of Defense released the clip in 2020. It remains unidentified in the public file. Later analyses argue the rotation may be a glare artifact.
What was claimed
An F/A-18 crew recorded an infrared object that appears to rotate, with radio comment about a fleet of objects.
What is on the record
DoD released the clip in 2020 and still calls it unidentified. Later analyses argue the rotation may be a glare artifact. The official status is: real Navy video, no public identification.
F/A-18F crews from a carrier strike group operating off the East Coast had been seeing unknown objects for months — sometimes on radar, sometimes as lights, sometimes as cubes in spheres, according to later interviews with Lt. Ryan Graves. On the Gimbal tape, an infrared object with a discernible shape holds against a wind, then appears to rotate as the camera gimbal itself moves.
The Pentagon authenticated the video in 2017 and again in 2020. Mick West and others argue the rotation is an artifact of the camera’s gimbal and the glare of a distant jet. Graves and other aircrew say the objects were not distant jets, and that they were tracked in numbers, for hours, in restricted airspace.
The file is the tape plus the pilots. Identification is still open in the official UAP ledgers.
Could this have been ours?
The known sky, that night.
The station was flying. Starlink was not. A string of orbs in this year is usually not a train.
1998 —
International Space Station
A bright, steady moving star. A few minutes to cross. No strobe. Occupied since 2000. NASA publishes the pass times. Not unidentified.
Always
Venus and the bright planets
A fixed brilliant point. Does not streak. Does not hover over a street then leave. Often the first misread light in a rural report.
Always
Aircraft, balloons, meteors
Landing lights, flares, lanterns, reentries, fireballs. They are on the known sky. They do not close a file by themselves — they are what a serious look has to hold the claim against.
Orbit · Space — the desks for lights that are already named.
Sources
Paper on this file
Official or public documents that belong with this case — not a verdict.
16 December 2017
Pentagon AATIP confirmation
U.S. Department of Defense · United States
After the New York Times described a Pentagon UFO study, the Defense Department confirmed that the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program had existed and that some of its work continued.
27 April 2020
Pentagon UAP video release
U.S. Department of Defense · United States
The Pentagon authenticated three Navy infrared videos — FLIR, GIMBAL, and GoFast — as real UAP recordings, already in circulation.
June 2021
Preliminary Assessment: Unidentified Aerial Phenomena
Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) · United States
Preliminary assessment submitted to Congress on UAP reported by U.S. government sources, primarily military aviators, between 2004 and 2021. It evaluates potential explanations and national security implications without addressing historical crash or occupant claims.
14 September 2023
NASA UAP Independent Study Team report
NASA · United States
NASA’s independent team called for better data, less stigma, and a scientific approach to UAP — and appointed a director of UAP research.
2024
AARO / DoD UAP annual reporting
All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office · United States
Subsequent AARO public reporting continued to log hundreds of new incidents, resolve many as ordinary objects, and leave a remainder unidentified.
Related files
Same craft, same place, same years. A neighbor in the catalogue — not a conclusion.
Same craft · Same country · Same year · September 2015
Pantex airspace, Amarillo
Pantex Plant, Amarillo, Texas · United States
Unidentified
A Department of Energy file released in 2026 describes an unidentified object in the airspace over the Pantex nuclear weapons plant.
Same place · Same year · 2015
GoFast FLIR
Off the U.S. East Coast · United States
Unidentified
A Navy FLIR clip shows a small object skimming what looks like the ocean at high speed. Range data later suggested it may have been higher and slower than it looks.
Same craft · Same country · August 14, 2026, 2:00 PM
Large Rectangular Multi-Colored Object Above Tree Line
Coeur d'Alene, Idaho · United States
Unidentified
Married couple observed and filmed a very large (300-400 ft) rectangular object hovering above a tree line in daylight. It emitted multiple colors of blinking lights from different sides.
Same craft · Same country · 13 August 2026
Pale object high over Ocracoke Island
Ocracoke, North Carolina · United States
Unidentified
A fisher near the southern end of Ocracoke Island reported a solid off-white rectangular-conical object high in the eastern sky before sunset.
Nearby · Same year · January 21, 2015
GIMBAL
Off the East Coast (Atlantic Ocean) · United States
Unidentified
U.S. Navy F/A-18 ATFLIR footage showing a rotating unidentified object tracked during operations from the USS Theodore Roosevelt. Cockpit audio captures pilot reactions to the object's apparent rotation and flight characteristics.
Nearby · Same year · January 2015
GOFAST
Off the East Coast (Atlantic Ocean) · United States
Unidentified
U.S. Navy F/A-18 ATFLIR infrared video of a small object appearing to skim above the ocean surface at high speed. Later AARO analysis attributed the apparent speed primarily to parallax effect from the aircraft's motion.