CASE FILE US-2015-001
GIMBAL ATFLIR Video
Official finding
Unidentified — video confirmed as an authentic, unaltered Navy recording; depicted phenomenon not identified
U.S. Department of Defense
Statement by the Department of Defense on the Release of Historical Navy Videos
Anomaly Index assessment
Unresolved: insufficient dataThe public record consists of a single infrared sensor channel with no released radar track, visible-light corroboration, range/altitude data, or full unedited pod footage. A glare-and-sensor-mechanics explanation — infrared glare from a distant aircraft, with the apparent rotation produced by the ATFLIR pod's own "derotation" when it reaches a gimbal limit — is technically plausible and consistent with how the sensor works, but cannot be confirmed or ruled out without the missing data. No government body has published a case-specific resolution.
Anomaly Index assessments are editorial evaluations of the public record. They are not official government determinations.
Unresolved means that the available evidence does not support a reliable identification. It does not imply extraterrestrial or nonhuman origin.
What was reported
On or about 21 January 2015, an F/A-18 aircrew assigned to the USS Theodore Roosevelt carrier strike group, operating in the Atlantic off the Florida coast, used an AN/ASQ-228 ATFLIR targeting pod to record an elongated object that appears in the resulting video to rotate in place while continuing along a steady flight path. The clip, which became known as GIMBAL after the pod's gimbal mechanism, shows only the object's infrared signature against a largely featureless sky. No visible-light imagery, radar track, or synchronized sensor data from the same encounter has been publicly released, and no full, unedited version of the pod recording is available. The Department of Defense later confirmed the clip as an authentic, unaltered Navy recording without offering a conventional explanation for what it depicts.
What is verified
- An F/A-18 aircrew from the USS Theodore Roosevelt strike group recorded ATFLIR infrared video of an object off Florida's Atlantic coast in January 2015.[2]
- The Department of Defense confirmed the GIMBAL video as an authentic, unaltered Navy recording in April 2020.[2]
- As of AARO's most recent public case-resolution reporting, no dedicated resolution report for GIMBAL has been published, unlike the related GOFAST video from the same deployment window.[1]
Evidence ledger
| Type | Description | Originality | Source organization | Released | Raw or edited | Metadata | Provenance | Known limitations | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Infrared | GIMBAL — ATFLIR infrared video showing an elongated object that appears to rotate as the sensor pod tracks it. | Derivative | U.S. Navy / Department of Defense | 2015 (recorded); 2017 (leaked); 2020 (official release) | Unknown | No | Circulated privately before being published by To The Stars Academy and The New York Times in December 2017; officially confirmed as an authentic, unaltered Navy recording by DoD in April 2020. | Single infrared sensor channel; no visible-light corroboration, no released radar track, and no confirmed range, altitude, or aircraft heading data. The publicly circulated clip is also shorter than the full pod recording described by some analysts. | [2] |
| Official document | DoD's April 2020 statement authorizing release of the FLIR, GIMBAL, and GOFAST videos, confirming their authenticity without offering a conventional explanation. | Original | U.S. Department of Defense | 2020-04-27 | Raw | Yes | Official Department of Defense press statement. | Confirms the video's authenticity but supplies no altitude, range, heading, or radar data for the encounter it depicts. | [2] |
| Official document | AARO's public case-resolution reporting, reviewed for GIMBAL-specific material. | Original | All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office | 2022-present (ongoing) | Unknown | Partial | AARO's official public-facing case resolution reports collection. | AARO has published case resolutions for related cases (e.g., GOFAST, February 2025) but not for GIMBAL as of this review; the absence of a published resolution is not itself evidence of an anomaly, only of an open case. | [1] |
Proposed explanations
Infrared glare and ATFLIR "derotation" artifact
Proposed by Independent optical analysts (e.g., discussion collected on forums such as Metabunk); not an official government finding, though consistent with AARO's general public statements about sensor artifacts as a recurring source of misperceived "anomalous" motion.
Supporting: The ATFLIR pod is mechanically known to "derotate" its image when the sensor head reaches a gimbal limit while tracking a target, which can make a stationary glare blob or distant aircraft appear to spin; the object's apparent rotation rate and timing in the released clip are consistent with this known sensor behavior.
Contradicting: Without the full pod video, synchronized radar data, or the aircrew's range and altitude estimates, the object's true distance and size cannot be independently confirmed, so the glare hypothesis cannot be conclusively verified either. Some aircrew from the same deployment window described encountering multiple objects, not a single distant aircraft.
PlausibleUnconventional aircraft or unknown technology
Proposed by Some aircrew accounts relayed in later media interviews and commentary.
Supporting: Pilot accounts from the deployment describe unusual and persistent contacts in the area during this period.
Contradicting: No independent sensor channel corroborates unconventional flight characteristics for the specific object shown in the GIMBAL clip; the observed rotation is explainable by known sensor mechanics.
UntestedWhy this classification?
This case is classified as Unresolved: insufficient data because the public record is limited to a single, edited infrared video with no released radar track, visible-light imagery, or flight metadata. A plausible conventional explanation exists — glare combined with a known ATFLIR sensor artifact — but the missing data needed to test it against the alternative of a genuinely unconventional object has never been made public, and no government body has issued a case-specific resolution.
What remains unknown
- The object's true range, altitude, and size, which cannot be derived from the released clip alone.
- Whether a synchronized radar track exists and, if so, what it would show.
- Whether the full, unedited ATFLIR recording contains additional context that the publicly circulated clip omits.
- Whether the object in this video is related to the multiple contacts some aircrew from the same deployment window have described encountering.
Classification history
- 2015
Recorded; not publicly disclosed — U.S. Navy
Video remained internal to the Navy and was not publicly known at the time.
- 2020
Confirmed authentic Navy recording; phenomenon characterized as unidentified — U.S. Department of Defense
Official statement authorizing release of the FLIR, GIMBAL, and GOFAST videos.
- 2025
No case-specific resolution published — All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office
AARO published a dedicated resolution for the related GOFAST video in February 2025 but has not done so for GIMBAL.
- 2026
Unresolved, insufficient data — Anomaly Index
Sources
- Primary source: Tier AAll-domain Anomaly Resolution Office — reports and case resolutions (opens in new tab)
Source provenance note
The Department of Defense office responsible for resolving unidentified anomalous phenomena reports. Publishes annual reports, case resolution summaries, and declassified imagery.