Indian Ocean Carrier Encounter 2004

On February 18, 2004, nine months before the famous Nimitz encounters, F/A-18 Super Hornet crews from USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70) operating in the Indian Ocean encountered unidentified spherical objects performing maneuvers at 35,000 feet. The objects demonstrated performance characteristics consistent with what Nimitz pilots would later describe — featureless white spheres with no propulsion or aerodynamic features, performing instantaneous course changes. CVN-70's CIC tracked the contacts. The encounters were reported to Pacific Fleet Command and classified in the same operational report chain that would later process the November 2004 Nimitz encounters. Researchers subsequently identified the Carl Vinson 2004 Indian Ocean encounters as part of the same operational phenomenon — suggesting the objects were active across the US Navy's entire Pacific and Indian Ocean operating area throughout 2004, not simply in one location. The Indian Ocean encounters predating Nimitz by nine months challenged the narrative that the Nimitz incidents were isolated.