Videos released in 2017 and 2018 that show U.S. Navy pilots encountering unknown aircraft are the real thing, the Navy has confirmed.
But the three videos don’t show UFOs, or “Unidentified Flying Objects.” They show UAPs, or “Unidentified Aerial Phenomena.”
At least that’s what military officials prefer the unknown objects be called, according to the Washington Post. The name change doesn’t mean they have any idea what the objects are.
According to NBC News, the three videos are known as known as “FLIR1,” “Gimbal” and “GoFast.” The FLIR1 video dates to 2004 and reportedly was made by an aircraft from the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz. The GoFast and Gimbal videos reportedly are from 2015.
In the Gimbal video, fighter pilots can be heard talking in amazement as objects move across the sky, CNN reports. One of the pilots believes the objects might be drones.
Spokesman Joseph Gradisher tells NBC the Navy isn’t sure what the objects are. Gradisher tells the Washington Post the Navy prefers calling them “unidentified aerial phenomena” because of the cultural stigma associated with “UFO.”
“All of this is about incursions into our training ranges by what we’re calling UAPs,” Gradisher tells The Post. “These incursions cause a hazard to the safety of our aviators and the security of our operators, and that’s what the Navy’s investigating, these range incursions.”
Gradisher tells NBC News that drones might be responsible for an increase in “range incursions.”
___
© 2019 The Plain Dealer
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
