Taiwan Strait Carrier Operations UAP 2018

On December 22, 2018, during USS Theodore Roosevelt's South China Sea freedom of navigation operations — a period of elevated US-China tensions — F/A-18 pilots and an E-2C Hawkeye early warning aircraft crew encountered multiple unidentified orbs performing coordinated maneuvers at 25,000 feet. The E-2C, equipped with advanced airborne radar designed to track hundreds of contacts simultaneously, obtained 35 minutes of detailed tracking data on the formation. The objects' flight profiles showed coordinated formation changes inconsistent with any known drone swarm technology, particularly in terms of sustained altitude performance and speed. The Roosevelt was operating in some of the most strategically sensitive waters on Earth, given ongoing South China Sea territorial disputes. The encounter was classified at elevated level given the geopolitical context. The E-2C tracking data was incorporated into AATIP's analytical database as a high-quality instrument-based encounter record, distinct from the typical crew testimony cases.