GIMBAL: First Recorded UAP Footage

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About

GIMBAL: First Recorded UAP Footage is a viral video released in December 2017 by the To The Star Academy of Arts & Science. The clip features black and white footage from Navy pilots encountering unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP). The footage, confirmed by the Pentagon as legitimate, has been referred to as the first official UFO video.

Origin

On December 16th, 2017, the To The Stars Academy of Arts & Science released, "Gimbal: The First Official UAP Footage from the USG for Public Release." The video received more than 7.3 million views in less than three years (shown below).

Gimbal is the first of three US military videos of unidentified aerial phenomenon (UAP) that has been through the official declassification review process of the United States government and has been approved for public release. This footage, and all official USG footage you will see on TTS Academy’s community of interest (COI), comes with essential chain-of-custody documentation validating that it is received in its original and unaltered form and is authentic.

In their explanation of the video, To The Stars explains the origins of the footage.^[5]

GIMBAL is a product of one of the most sophisticated tracking systems on US military aircraft. It was captured by a US Navy F/A-18 Super Hornet using the Raytheon AN/ASQ-228 Advanced Targeting Forward-Looking Infrared (ATFLIR) pod. The ATFLIR contains the most advanced sensors and powerful tracking lasers on the market and must be operated by a weapons sensor operator who the military trains at a cost of millions. The ATFLIR has high resolution and can locate and designate targets at distances exceeding 40 nautical miles.

Spread

That day, numerous news outlets reported on the video, including The New York Times^[1] and Politico.^[2]

Navy Confirmation

On September 17th, 2019, Motherboard ^[3] reported that the U.S. Navy officially acknowledged the videos and that "UFOs are real." They write:

Navy spokesperson Joseph Gradisher told Motherboard that “the Navy considers the phenomena contained/depicted in those 3 videos as unidentified.” Previously, the Navy never addressed the content of the videos. The terminology here is important: The UFO community is increasingly using the terminology “unidentified aerial phenomena” to discuss unknown objects in the sky.

Tom DeLonge's Involvement

Following his exit from the punk rock band Blink-182, singer and guitarist Tom DeLonge established To The Stars Academy of Arts & Science, and the organization soon landed a six-part docu-series on the History Channel entitled Unidentified: Inside America’s UFO Investigation. To The Stars obtained and released the original video.

The musician's participation in the release of the video continues to be a point of interest for the general public. For example, on April 27th, 2020, Twitter ^[4] user @jenndrickf tweeted, "if you were to tell me last year that Tom DeLonge was going to get the US Navy to confirm UFO video credibility for the first time in history, & that it wouldn’t even be the craziest thing to happen this year, I would not have believed you. Alexa, play “Aliens Exist” by Blink-182." The tweet received more than 8,600 likes and 2,300 retweets.

Pentagon's Acknowledgement

On April 27th, 2020, the Pentagon officially released the three videos to the public.^[6] The Department of Defense said in a statement that the videos do not "reveal any sensitive capabilities or systems, and does not impinge on any subsequent investigations of military air space incursions by unidentified aerial phenomena."

The Department of Defense has authorized the release of three unclassified Navy videos, one taken in November 2004 and the other two in January 2015, which have been circulating in the public domain after unauthorized releases in 2007 and 2017. The U.S. Navy previously acknowledged that these videos circulating in the public domain were indeed Navy videos. After a thorough review, the department has determined that the authorized release of these unclassified videos does not reveal any sensitive capabilities or systems, and does not impinge on any subsequent investigations of military air space incursions by unidentified aerial phenomena. DOD is 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 aerial phenomena observed in the videos remain characterized as "unidentified."

That day, DeLonge posted about the release of the videos on Instagram. ^[7] He wrote, "The Pentagon just officially released the videos… just saying." The post received more than 21,000 likes in less than 24 hours (shown below).

However, the acknowledgment by the Department of Defense sent the footage viral again. Through the day, #AliensExist and #AliensAreReal trended on Twitter (examples below).

That day, Redditor ^[8] Phantompain43 shared the video on the /r/WTF subreddit.The post recieved more than 44,000 (93% upvoted) and 5,100 comments in less than 24 hours.

Media Coverage

Several media outlets covered the Pentagon's acknowledgment, including CNN,^[9] The Guardian,^[10] BBC,^[11] the New York Post,^[12] ABC,^[13] Forbes^[14] and more.

Pentagon Confirms UFOs Memes

Pentagon Confirms UFOs, also known as Pentagon Confirms Aliens, refers to the news in late April 2020 that the Pentagon formally released three declassified videos containing footage of “unidentified aerial phenomena” (UAP) recorded by U.S. Navy pilots in 2017. Following this confirmation, a series of memes spawned in its wake describing the news across social media platforms and sites, typically referencing the nonchalant reaction from most people online or further adding to the discussion surrounding 2020’s apocalyptic events with an impending alien invasion.