A newly released infrared image showed a ‘swarm’ of three ‘Tic-Tac shaped’ UFOs chasing four U.S. Navy destroyers off the coast of California. The grainy image has been released by the Navy and shows what appears to be three small dots, representing unmanned aerial systems (UAS), hovering near the USS Paul Hamilton.
It was one of the many occurrences Naval ships saw over the course of weeks, as many destroyers spotted these contraptions in July 2019. These three UAS appeared near the ship around 8 pm on July 17 shortly after the USS Paul Hamilton cut location broadcasting via the Automatic Identification System (AIS). Ships are not required to broadcast their location 24/7 and usually disable the transponder in situations that call for heightened security.
This decision was not reflected on the ship’s deck log, but earlier in the month, logs indicate that other ships in the area also turned of AIS during UAS activity. Additionally, the USS Paul Hamilton’s log did indicate that the UAS appeared shortly after it had turned its navigation lights on.
Shortly before 8 pm, one UAS was spotted one nautical mile away. Twenty minutes later, the timeline indicates that two more were seen, with one falling into the water, The Drive reported after viewing documents it received through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.
The ship reported seeing red, flashing lights. Roughly 30 minutes later, the USS Paul Hamilton reported a ‘UAS swarm’ and by 9:11 p.m., one UAS was directly above at 2,000 feet. By 9:15, the UAS moved away from the ship at almost 70mph before returning less than 10 minutes later.
The USS Hamilton reported that the ‘swarm’ lasted almost three hours from 7:56 p.m. to 10:39 p.m. The total number of UAS spotted by the Navy destroyer is unknown, due to abbreviated briefing slides, which were viewed by The Drive. Three days earlier, the USS John Finn also spotted ‘red flashing lights’ off the starboard side of the ship and indicated that they had turned off their AIS system.
The ship spotted two UAS at elevations of 1,000 and 1,500 feet. In addition to being concerning, taken cumulatively, the documents are also puzzling. It remains unclear why the Navy released a heavily redacted version of the timeline document, only to release it again without any redactions whatsoever. Furthermore, it is strange that an event described as a “UAS Swarm” would result in a detailed timeline and presentation slide, but no obvious references to the events in the underlying deck logs.
