The GIMBAL and GOFAST Videos: Two FLIR Clips, A Carrier Strike Group's Witnesses, and a Geometry Problem That Reframed the Simpler Reading.

What the videos and the encounter cluster are, in a paragraph.

The USS Theodore Roosevelt carrier strike group, based at Norfolk, Virginia, was conducting pre-deployment training operations along the U.S. East Coast through late 2014 and the early months of 2015 in preparation for an Indian Ocean deployment that ultimately included combat operations against the Islamic State. During this work-up period, F/A-18F Super Hornet aircrew of Strike Fighter Squadron 11 ("Red Rippers") and Strike Fighter Squadron 87 ("Golden Warriors") reported a sustained series of encounters with unidentified aerial objects appearing on their air-intercept radar and, in some cases, observed visually and recorded by the aircraft's AN/ASQ-228 Advanced Targeting Forward-Looking Infrared (ATFLIR) sensor pod. The encounters were not isolated events; the pilots have testified that they were, in some periods, encountering similar objects on a near-daily basis. Two specific FLIR recordings of January 21, 2015 have become the public anchors of the case. The first, internally identified as GIMBAL, is a 36-second clip from an F/A-18F's ATFLIR showing an object against a slight cloud background, with characteristic visual features including a glowing/glaring infrared signature and what appears to be a rotation of the object as the ATFLIR tracks it; the aircrew's recorded voice tracks (one pilot in particular saying "There's a whole fleet of them" and "Look at that thing, dude") have circulated widely. The second, internally identified as GOFAST, is a 35-second clip showing a smaller object moving against an ocean background; the tracking display shows the ATFLIR locked onto the target. Both videos were released to journalists through To The Stars Academy of Arts & Science in 2017–2018 and were officially released by the Department of Defense on April 27, 2020. The DoD characterized the release as resolving the question of the videos' authenticity (they are real Navy footage) without resolving the question of what they show. The pilots have spoken publicly. Lt. Ryan Graves, Lt. Cmdr. Alex Dietrich (who was the WSO on Lt. Danny Accoin's aircraft during a related November 2014 encounter), and other Roosevelt strike group personnel have given television interviews and, in Graves's case, sworn House Oversight subcommittee testimony on July 26, 2023. The aircrew reports of objects appearing at altitudes inconsistent with launch points, exhibiting flight profiles inconsistent with conventional aircraft, and apparently transiting from high altitude to sea level rapidly, have been treated by AARO and the ODNI as elements of the Roosevelt encounter cluster — one of the most-documented modern encounter clusters — pending continued analysis. The analytical complication is geometry. Mick West and a number of other analysts have performed parallax reconstructions of the GOFAST footage suggesting that the object's actual speed over the water was substantially less than the visual impression of the ATFLIR display, and that the apparent "low altitude, high speed" reading derives from the angular projection rather than from the object's actual motion. A similar reanalysis of GIMBAL has been argued for the rotation feature, with the proposed alternative being that the rotation is an artifact of the ATFLIR gimbal mechanism rotating to keep the target framed, rather than a rotation of the object itself. Neither parallax reanalysis disposes of the underlying encounter cluster or of the multi-witness aircrew reports. The case sits at a useful methodological edge: sensor data with strong multi-witness reinforcement, combined with significant analytic problems for at least one specific reading of the imagery.

The documented record.

The Roosevelt deployment work-up

The USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71) was conducting pre-deployment work-up cycles in late 2014 and early 2015 prior to her March 2015 deployment to the Persian Gulf region for combat operations against the Islamic State. The work-up period included standard training exercises in the Atlantic operational areas off the U.S. East Coast, with regular sorties from the embarked Carrier Air Wing One (CVW-1). Verified [1]

Pilots of the embarked Super Hornet squadrons — principally Strike Fighter Squadron 11 (the "Red Rippers") and Strike Fighter Squadron 87 (the "Golden Warriors") — flew typical training profiles including air-intercept exercises, surface-attack training, and continuation training of various kinds. The aircrew involved in the encounter cluster were primarily from these squadrons.

The encounter cluster

Beginning in approximately late 2014 and continuing through the work-up period, multiple aircrew reported encounters with objects appearing on their air-intercept radar that did not correspond to known aircraft. Lt. Ryan Graves, who flew with Strike Fighter Squadron 11, has stated in subsequent congressional testimony and in television interviews (most notably on 60 Minutes, May 16, 2021) that such encounters were sufficiently frequent during the work-up period that aircrew came to treat them as a routine but undesirable feature of operations in certain training areas. Verified [2][3]

Graves's specific accounts include encounters in which his radar acquired contacts at altitudes and motions inconsistent with any known platform, his wingman's radar independently acquired the same contact, and (in some cases) the object's apparent position was confirmed visually by the aircrew. Lt. Cmdr. Alex Dietrich and Lt. Danny Accoin have given parallel accounts of a November 2014 encounter in which they observed visually a small cube inside a transparent sphere; this incident is distinct from the January 21, 2015 GIMBAL/GOFAST recordings but is part of the broader encounter cluster [3][4].

The January 21, 2015 GIMBAL recording

The GIMBAL video is an approximately 36-second clip recorded by an F/A-18F's AN/ASQ-228 ATFLIR pod. The clip shows an object against a slight cloud background with a glowing infrared signature; the object's visual presentation changes during the clip in a manner that has been variously interpreted as a rotation of the object itself or as a rotation of the gimbal mechanism within the ATFLIR pod. The aircrew's audio track captures expressions of surprise and engagement. Verified [5]

The video was first publicly released by To The Stars Academy of Arts & Science in December 2017 alongside the broader public release of FLIR1 (the November 2004 Nimitz video) and was subsequently formally released by the Department of Defense on April 27, 2020 [6].

The January 21, 2015 GOFAST recording

The GOFAST video is an approximately 35-second clip recorded by an F/A-18F's ATFLIR, showing a smaller infrared signature moving against an ocean background. The tracking-display overlay shows the ATFLIR successfully maintaining target lock; the aircrew's audio expresses excitement about the perceived high speed of the target ("look at that thing, it's going fast"). Verified [5]

The video was likewise released through TTSA in 2018 and officially by DoD on April 27, 2020 [6].

The April 27, 2020 Pentagon release

On April 27, 2020, the Department of Defense's Office of the Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs issued a statement formally releasing the FLIR1, GIMBAL, and GOFAST videos. The statement read in part that the DoD was releasing the videos "in order to clear up any misconceptions by the public on whether or not the footage that has been circulating was real, or whether or not there is more to the videos." The Department confirmed the videos as authentic Navy recordings, characterized the objects in them as "unidentified," and stated that "the aerial phenomena observed in the videos remain characterized as 'unidentified.'" Verified [6]

The Graves testimony

Lt. Ryan Graves testified before the House Oversight Subcommittee on National Security on July 26, 2023, alongside Cmdr. David Fravor (of the November 2004 Nimitz encounter, our Nimitz Tic-Tac file) and David Grusch (our Grusch Testimony file). Graves's sworn opening statement and his answers under questioning characterized the Roosevelt encounter cluster as involving repeated and unexplained observations of objects displaying flight characteristics inconsistent with any known aircraft. Graves emphasized the cluster's persistence across multiple sorties and aircrew, the consistency of object descriptions across independent witnesses, and the operational concern that such objects represented for safety of flight. Verified [7]

The Dietrich-Accoin November 2014 encounter

A specific encounter from earlier in the work-up cycle, in November 2014, has been described publicly by Lt. Cmdr. Alex Dietrich (then a WSO) and Lt. Danny Accoin in a 60 Minutes interview, May 16, 2021 [3]. Dietrich and Accoin described observing a small cube enclosed within a transparent sphere, hovering essentially stationary at altitude, with no visible propulsive feature. The visual observation was paired with radar contact. The Dietrich-Accoin encounter is treated by AARO and ODNI as part of the broader Roosevelt encounter cluster, distinct from but contextual to the January 21, 2015 video records. Verified

The parallax reanalysis of GOFAST

Mick West and a number of independent analysts have produced detailed reconstructions of the GOFAST video using the available displayed metadata (aircraft altitude, range, sensor angle) and the standard kinematic equations relating apparent motion to actual motion at depth. Disputed [8]

West's reconstruction concludes that the object in GOFAST is at high altitude (not, as the visual impression suggests, low over the water), is moving at modest subsonic speed (not, as the visual impression suggests, at high speed), and that the impression of speed is produced by the parallax-and-angle geometry of the ATFLIR observing a relatively slow object from a distance and an angle that magnifies apparent motion against the background. Several analysts have produced parallel reconstructions reaching similar conclusions. The parallax analysis has not been formally adopted by the Department of Defense or by AARO as a positive identification of the GOFAST object, but it has been substantially incorporated into AARO's case-by-case methodology for evaluating FLIR records of moving objects [9].

The parallax reanalysis is independently corroborated by the displayed ATFLIR ranges in the original footage; the reading is not based on speculation about unrecorded parameters but on a kinematic interpretation of the metadata visible in the clip itself. The reanalysis does not, in itself, identify the object: it is consistent with multiple possible identifications (a bird, a balloon, a small drone, an aircraft at distance). It substantially weakens the "low-altitude, high-speed" reading of GOFAST without explaining the object positively.

The GIMBAL rotation question

The GIMBAL video's most-noted feature is the apparent rotation of the object during the clip. Two readings have been offered. The first, taken by some pilots and disclosure-oriented analysts, treats the rotation as a feature of the object itself. The second, advanced by Mick West and other analysts familiar with the ATFLIR pod's gimbal mechanism, treats the rotation as a visual artifact produced when the pod's gimbal rotates to maintain target acquisition near the limits of its tracking envelope — the object's apparent rotation in the visual frame reflecting the pod's rotation, not the object's. Disputed [10]

This reading does not eliminate the object as anomalous — the object is still present, and the question of what it is remains — but it disposes of the specific element of the case treated by many as most striking.

The candidate framings.

Framing: Non-human or anomalous technology

Argument: the Roosevelt encounter cluster involves objects with capabilities (sustained station-keeping at altitude, motion without visible propulsion, regular operation in U.S. coastal airspace without identification) inconsistent with any known platform, observed by trained naval aviators across multiple sorties with sensor-data reinforcement. The most parsimonious account is that something genuinely novel is present. Claimed

Limits: The framing rests on the strength of the witness cluster more than on the individual videos. The parallax reanalysis of GOFAST and the gimbal-mechanism reanalysis of GIMBAL substantially weaken the videos as standalone evidence. The witness cluster's strength does not by itself identify the objects.

Framing: Foreign-power surveillance drones

Argument: a foreign power (most often hypothesized as China or Russia) has fielded a class of surveillance drones capable of long-duration observation in U.S. operational areas. The pilots have repeatedly observed and reported these drones, which have been characterized internally as "unidentified" because their specific origin has not been publicly attributed. The 2023 disclosure of the Chinese surveillance balloon incident has been cited as a partial precedent. Claimed

Limits: The framing fits some encounter characteristics (long duration, persistent presence) but struggles with others (the reported flight envelopes are not consistent with known foreign-power UAV technology of 2014–2015). The hypothesis is not unreasonable but lacks direct corroborating identification.

Framing: U.S. classified asset

Argument: a U.S. classified asset (a stealthy UAV, a research-program platform, an inter-service test article) was operating in the area and was unfamiliar to the Roosevelt aircrew under standard compartmentation. The unfamiliarity reflects compartmentation rather than the object's exotic origin. Claimed

Limits: If true, the multiple years of subsequent public engagement — congressional testimony, AARO investigation, Pentagon video releases — would represent unusual treatment of a U.S. compartmented program. The hypothesis is not impossible but is institutionally awkward.

Framing: sensor and perceptual artifact compounded by reporting bias

Argument: ATFLIR pod readings of distant aircraft, birds, and balloons can produce visually striking outputs that, when combined with display geometry, produce the impression of anomalous motion. Witness reporting bias — pilots in a heightened-attention training environment, with a shared expectation that something unusual is recurring — reinforces the impression. The cluster is a perceptual-reporting cluster as much as a physical-object cluster. Claimed

Limits: The framing fits the GOFAST parallax analysis cleanly and fits the GIMBAL gimbal-rotation analysis cleanly. It fits less well with the visual observations Graves and others have described of objects observed from the cockpit with the naked eye and characterized as physically present. The framing does not by itself reduce the multi-witness reporting record to artifact alone.

The unanswered questions.

The full ATFLIR raw data

The GIMBAL and GOFAST videos as released are processed mission-tape output. The underlying raw ATFLIR sensor data, which would allow comprehensive independent technical re-analysis (including frame-by-frame examination of subpixel features, full IR-intensity profiles, and sensor-state metadata beyond the displayed overlay), is held by the U.S. Navy and has not been comprehensively released to independent analysts.

The other Roosevelt encounter videos

Pilots from the Roosevelt encounter cluster have described in testimony other recordings made during the period. The full set of FLIR clips from the Roosevelt strike group's work-up period has not been publicly released; what exists is a portion of the available material.

The strike group radar data

The USS Theodore Roosevelt's own surface-search and air-search radar data, and the contemporaneous air-track data from the embarked E-2C Hawkeye early-warning aircraft, have not been comprehensively released. Such data would clarify whether the targets the Super Hornets engaged were independently held by surface and airborne radar at greater distance.

The AARO Volume II

AARO's Historical Report Volume II, which has been described as treating contemporary case material more thoroughly than Volume I's historical scope, has been described as pending across multiple congressional cycles. As of the date of this case file, it has not been publicly released. Whether Volume II provides substantive case-by-case AARO conclusions on GIMBAL, GOFAST, and the Roosevelt cluster is unresolved.

Independent corroboration of the Dietrich-Accoin cube-in-sphere observation

The November 2014 Dietrich-Accoin observation, while described in television interviews, has not been formally documented in any released sensor record. The encounter rests substantially on the aircrew's recollection. Whether contemporaneous mission tapes or other sensor records exist and could corroborate the visual observation is unknown to the public record.

Primary material.

• The GIMBAL video (36 seconds, ATFLIR sensor footage, F/A-18F Super Hornet, January 21, 2015). DoD released April 27, 2020.
• The GOFAST video (35 seconds, ATFLIR sensor footage, F/A-18F Super Hornet, January 21, 2015). DoD released April 27, 2020.
• Department of Defense statement on the release of the three Navy videos (FLIR1, GIMBAL, GOFAST), Office of the Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs, April 27, 2020.
• Lt. Ryan Graves's sworn House Oversight subcommittee testimony, July 26, 2023.
• 60 Minutes interview with Cmdr. Fravor, Lt. Cmdr. Dietrich, Lt. Graves, and Lt. Accoin, broadcast May 16, 2021 (CBS News).
• ODNI Preliminary Assessment: Unidentified Aerial Phenomena, June 25, 2021. Includes Roosevelt cluster within its 144-incident dataset.
• AARO. Report on the Historical Record of U.S. Government Involvement with Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP), Volume I. Department of Defense, March 2024.
• Mick West parallax reconstruction of GOFAST and analytical write-ups of GIMBAL, available through Metabunk.org.

The sequence.

1. Late 2014 USS Theodore Roosevelt strike group begins pre-deployment work-up. Aircrew begin reporting unidentified contacts.
2. November 2014 Dietrich-Accoin cube-in-sphere visual encounter.
3. January 21, 2015 GIMBAL ATFLIR recording.
4. January 21, 2015 GOFAST ATFLIR recording.
5. March 2015 USS Theodore Roosevelt deploys to Persian Gulf for operations against Islamic State.
6. 2015–2017 Mission tapes retained in Navy archive. Encounter records incorporated into UAP Task Force / AATIP analytical workflow during the 2017 transition.
7. December 16, 2017 New York Times publishes "Glowing Auras and Black Money." FLIR1 video released publicly via TTSA. Public attention turns to Navy UAP video material.
8. 2018 GIMBAL and GOFAST released to public via TTSA (To The Stars Academy of Arts & Science).
9. April 27, 2020 Department of Defense officially releases GIMBAL, GOFAST (and FLIR1). DoD characterizes objects as "unidentified."
10. May 16, 2021 60 Minutes broadcasts Roosevelt aircrew interviews.
11. June 25, 2021 ODNI Preliminary Assessment to Congress. Roosevelt cluster within scope.
12. 2020–2022 Mick West, Tim Printy, and other analysts publish parallax and sensor-mechanism reanalyses of GOFAST and GIMBAL.
13. July 2022 AARO formally established.
14. July 26, 2023 Lt. Ryan Graves testifies before House Oversight subcommittee.
15. March 2024 AARO Historical Report Volume I released. Cluster within scope.

Cases on this archive that connect.

The Nimitz Tic-Tac (File) — the natural pair. The Nimitz encounter (November 2004, USS Nimitz strike group) and the Roosevelt encounter cluster (2014–2015, USS Theodore Roosevelt strike group) together constitute the empirical foundation of the modern U.S. Navy UAP record. Fravor and Graves testified together at the July 26, 2023 House hearing. The two cases share structural features (multi-sensor, multi-witness, naval aviator observers) and differ in geography (Pacific vs. Atlantic) and in scale (single intense encounter vs. sustained cluster).

The Grusch Testimony (File) — the institutional-disclosure pair. Graves's pilot testimony alongside Grusch's intelligence-officer testimony in the same July 26, 2023 hearing brought the empirical encounter record and the institutional-program claim into the same hearing room. Whether the two strands are connected to a single underlying phenomenon, or whether they represent independent issues that have become coupled in public discourse, is an open question.

Planned: a future file on the broader Roosevelt encounter cluster beyond the two released videos; the Aguadilla, Puerto Rico thermal imaging case (2013, U.S. Customs and Border Protection); the South Asia Sea / Iranian Air Force F-4 incident of 1976; and a methodological file on ATFLIR sensor interpretation.

Full bibliography.

1. U.S. Navy deployment records for USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71), 2014–2015 work-up and subsequent Persian Gulf deployment. Naval History and Heritage Command.
2. Graves, Ryan, Lt. (USN, ret.). 60 Minutes interview, CBS News, May 16, 2021. Subsequent print and broadcast interviews 2021–2023.
3. Dietrich, Alex, Lt. Cmdr. (USN, ret.) and Lt. Danny Accoin. 60 Minutes interview, CBS News, May 16, 2021.
4. Cooper, Helene, Ralph Blumenthal, and Leslie Kean. "'Wow, What Is That?' Navy Pilots Report Unexplained Flying Objects." The New York Times, May 26, 2019.
5. GIMBAL and GOFAST ATFLIR video clips, recorded January 21, 2015. AN/ASQ-228 ATFLIR pod, F/A-18F Super Hornet.
6. Department of Defense, Office of the Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs. Statement on the release of three Navy videos (FLIR1, GIMBAL, GOFAST), April 27, 2020.
7. Subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs, U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Accountability. "Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Implications on National Security, Public Safety, and Government Transparency." Hearing transcript and Graves's written opening statement, July 26, 2023.
8. West, Mick. "Analysis of the GOFAST UAP Video," Metabunk.org, multiple analytical posts and discussion threads, 2019 onward.
9. West, Mick. Escaping the Rabbit Hole: How to Debunk Conspiracy Theories Using Facts, Logic, and Respect. Skyhorse Publishing, 2018. (Methodological background; later GOFAST and GIMBAL analyses build on the methods discussed.)
10. West, Mick. "Gimbal: The Rotation Explained," Metabunk.org, 2020 (and revisions). Analysis of the gimbal-mechanism reading of the GIMBAL clip.
11. Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Preliminary Assessment: Unidentified Aerial Phenomena. June 25, 2021. Annual reports through 2025.
12. All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO). Report on the Historical Record of U.S. Government Involvement with Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP), Volume I. Department of Defense, March 8, 2024.
13. Kean, Leslie. UFOs: Generals, Pilots, and Government Officials Go on the Record. Harmony Books, 2010. Background for Kean's broader role in the 2017–2023 UAP disclosure cycle.
14. To The Stars Academy of Arts & Science. Initial public releases of FLIR1, GIMBAL, and GOFAST through the Community of Interest portal, 2017–2018. (Now superseded by the official DoD release of April 27, 2020.)