File 037 · 2007–2020 · UAP

AATIP and the Navy UFO videos

A secret Pentagon program studied UFO reports from 2007 to about 2012, and in 2020 the Pentagon officially released three Navy videos of objects its pilots could not identify.

Background

In December 2017 The New York Times reported that the Pentagon had run a little-known program called the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, or AATIP, from 2007 to about 2012. The article said it had been funded in part through the efforts of Senator Harry Reid, that most of the money went to a company owned by businessman Robert Bigelow, and that it had looked at reports of unidentified aerial objects. Reporting put funding at roughly 22 million dollars; sources differ on whether that was the total or per year.

The same reporting published three Navy infrared videos. In 2020 the Pentagon released them officially. Two, known as 'Gimbal' and 'GoFast', were recorded in January 2015, and one, 'FLIR1', in November 2004, during an encounter involving the USS Nimitz carrier group off California.

What the record shows

• The Pentagon confirmed that AATIP existed and ran between 2007 and 2012 but said it was shut down because other programs were judged higher priority.
• The Pentagon officially confirmed that the three videos were taken by Navy personnel and that the aerial phenomena they show remain unidentified.
• The official statement said the release was meant to clear up misconceptions about whether footage was real, and did not say anything about what the objects are.
• The Pentagon later disputed some public claims about who ran AATIP and what it did.

Timeline

• Nov 2004 Navy pilots report an unidentified object off the California coast; the 'FLIR1' video is recorded.
• 2007 AATIP begins, funded through the Defense Intelligence Agency.
• 2012 AATIP funding ends, according to Pentagon statements.
• Jan 2015 The 'Gimbal' and 'GoFast' videos are recorded from Navy jets.
• 16 Dec 2017 The New York Times publishes the AATIP story and the first video.
• 27 Apr 2020 The Pentagon officially releases the three videos and confirms they are authentic.

Checking the claims

The claim: the videos show craft of non-human origin. What was found: nothing in the videos or in the Pentagon statements establishes that. 'Unidentified' means the data was not enough for an identification, not that the object was extraordinary.

Independent analysts have offered explanations for individual videos. For 'Gimbal', some argue that the apparent rotation is an artifact of the camera's glare and the sensor's rotation. For 'GoFast', some argue that the object's apparent speed comes from parallax and the aircraft's motion, and that it could be a distant, slow object near the surface. Others reject such analyses and point to the pilots' accounts. No explanation has been confirmed by an official finding, which is why the case remains open. The useful test is the same for every video: what the sensor recorded, from what distance, and whether an ordinary object could produce it.

Claimed, but not shown

Claims that AATIP recovered craft or biological remains are not supported by the Pentagon's public statements or released documents.

Verdict

Sources

• US Department of Defense, statement 'Statement by the Department of Defense on the Release of Historical Navy Videos' (27 April 2020)
• Helene Cooper, Ralph Blumenthal and Leslie Kean, The New York Times (16 December 2017)
• Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Preliminary Assessment: Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (June 2021)

Connected files (red threads)

• UAP and "The Age of Disclosure" — The modern UAP era begins with these disclosures
• AARO's historical report on UFO claims — AARO later reviewed historical claims
• The 2023 UAP hearing in Congress — Pilots from this era testified to Congress

← Back to the case board