Gimbal UAP

On January 21, 2015, a U.S. Navy F/A-18F Super Hornet recorded a 34-second infrared video of an unidentified object off the coast of Jacksonville, Florida. The footage, captured by the aircraft's targeting pod during USS Theodore Roosevelt carrier strike group training, shows an object that appears to rotate and was detected on radar within 10 nautical miles of the recording aircraft. The video remained largely unknown until the New York Times published it in December 2017, and the Pentagon officially released it in April 2020.

What was recorded in the Gimbal video?

The 34-second clip shows infrared imagery in "Black Hot" mode, where hotter objects appear dark against a lighter background. The object in the video rotates approximately 90 degrees from a horizontal to a vertical orientation. According to aircrew accounts, the object was accompanied by a formation of 4 to 6 other unknown objects, which pilots described as a "fleet."

Who witnessed the incident?

Lieutenant Ryan Graves, an F/A-18F pilot with VFA-11 "Red Rippers," is the primary public witness. Graves has testified before Congress and given interviews about the 2015 encounters. He refined the range estimate to 6 to 8 nautical miles from the recording aircraft.

What did radar show?

Radar systems aboard the aircraft and carrier detected the object and the accompanying formation. From the aircrew's radar display, the object appeared to stop and reverse direction with no radius of turn. Pilots noted that the objects moved against a 120-knot wind. The Navy had recently upgraded its F/A-18 fleet to the AN/APG-79 AESA radar system, which provided higher resolution and the ability to detect smaller targets at greater distances than earlier systems.

How was the video released?

The New York Times first reported on the incidents on December 16, 2017, and published two videos labeled "FLIR" and "GIMBAL." The Pentagon officially released the Gimbal video on April 27, 2020, through Naval Air Systems Command's Freedom of Information Act document library. Department of Defense officials determined that the footage did not reveal sensitive capabilities or systems.

What are the competing explanations?

One hypothesis proposes that Gimbal shows infrared glare from a conventional jet aircraft viewed tail-on at approximately 30 nautical miles from the recording aircraft. According to this theory, the rotation observed in the video is an artifact of the targeting pod's derotation system. Optical engineers have demonstrated that bright infrared sources can produce asymmetric glare, and when the system derotates the image, the glare can appear to rotate even if the target itself does not. However, this explanation addresses only the rotation, not the radar tracks, the fleet context, or the aircrew's interpretation of the data.

Why does this incident matter?

Regardless of the object's nature, the Gimbal incident highlights a critical aviation safety issue. Unidentified contacts in military training airspace present a collision risk. Pilots reported near-misses and training disruptions during the 2015 deployment. The incident also underscores the importance of reliable reporting systems for such encounters, which did not mature until 2019.