EDITORIAL GUIDE
~5 min read
The GoFast UAP Video Explained — Speed, Altitude, and Why the Math Matters
The GoFast video is the third of the three officially declassified Pentagon UAP videos — alongside FLIR1 (Nimitz, 2004) and Gimbal (Roosevelt, 2015). Recorded by an F/A-18 Super Hornet in January 2015 off the U.S. Atlantic coast, it shows an object moving fast across the ocean surface. Unlike FLIR1, GoFast has generated extensive public mathematical analysis: the object's apparent ground speed depends critically on its altitude, which is known from sensor metadata. The result is a case where the raw math either produces an extraordinary number or an unremarkable one — depending on a single altitude assumption. AARO designated the Roosevelt encounter cluster, which includes GoFast, officially unresolved.
What the GoFast Video Shows
The GoFast video was recorded by an ATFLIR pod on an F/A-18 Super Hornet during the USS Theodore Roosevelt's 2015 operating period in restricted Atlantic Military Operating Area airspace off the Virginia/North Carolina coast. The 34-second clip shows a roughly circular object moving rapidly across what appears to be an ocean surface, tracked by the ATFLIR from a high altitude.
The object is small in the field of view and moves with apparent speed across the frame. Unlike the Gimbal video, GoFast does not show an obvious anomalous behavior like rotation — its significance lies in the calculated velocity, which depends on sensor metadata about the recording aircraft's altitude, speed, and the ATFLIR's elevation angle at the time of capture. Cockpit audio includes 'Oh my gosh dude. Wow. What is that man? Look at it fly!' — indicating the observing pilots found the object's behavior surprising.
The Speed Calculation Debate
The GoFast speed debate centers on one variable: the object's actual altitude above sea level. The ATFLIR sensor data embedded in the video provides information about the sensor's depression angle and the recording aircraft's altitude, which in principle allows calculation of the object's ground speed.
Using the sensor metadata, independent analysts calculated the object's apparent ground speed at approximately 40 mph at sea-level altitude — unremarkable. However, this calculation assumes the object is at sea level. If the object is at a different altitude (say, 50 feet above the ocean surface), the trigonometry changes, and at some altitude assumptions the implied ground speed increases dramatically.
The critical question is whether the ATFLIR's autotrack lock was on the ocean surface directly below or on the object itself. If autotracking the object and it is not at sea level, the apparent motion and calculated speed diverge. Luis Elizondo has stated that the classified full sensor data shows the object's behavior is not consistent with a sea-level-altitude calculation. The official position — AARO unresolved — does not publicly specify which altitude assumption the analysis used.
Context: The Roosevelt Encounter Cluster
GoFast is one of multiple incidents in the USS Theodore Roosevelt's documented 2014–2015 encounter period in the Atlantic MOAs. Ryan Graves, then an active F/A-18 pilot with the Roosevelt strike group, testified in 2023 that UAP encounters in the restricted airspace occurred with near-daily frequency — with approximately 40–50 unreported incidents for every formally reported one.
The same ATFLIR system that captured GoFast also captured Gimbal during this period. Both were provided by Christopher Mellon to the New York Times and published in December 2017. The Pentagon officially confirmed GoFast's authenticity in April 2020 alongside FLIR1 and Gimbal. The Roosevelt encounter cluster as a whole — encompassing both videos plus the non-videoed encounters described by Graves — represents one of the highest-density documented UAP encounter periods in the official archive. AARO reviewed the cluster with all available sensor data and designated it unresolved.
GoFast Within the Official Video Trilogy
The three officially released Pentagon UAP videos serve different evidential functions. FLIR1 (Nimitz, 2004) has the most corroborating data: Princeton Aegis radar, E-2C Hawkeye radar, multiple pilot witnesses, and the Nimitz Fire Control System data. It is the most evidentially complete of the three. Gimbal (Roosevelt, January 2015) has the most technically contested behavior: the rotation phenomenon and the sensor-artifact debate. GoFast (Roosevelt, January 2015) has the most accessible public mathematical debate: the speed calculation whose result depends on an altitude assumption.
Together, the three videos established three things: that the U.S. military has sensor-recorded UAP encounters it cannot explain; that professional military aviators observe these phenomena in restricted airspace regularly; and that the U.S. government — which held the videos for between 13 and 11 years before release — considered them significant enough to classify.