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// COMPARISON //

GOFAST vs GIMBAL — How the Two Famous Navy UFO Videos Differ

GOFAST and GIMBAL are both 2015 Navy F/A-18 ATFLIR clips declassified by the Pentagon. GOFAST was resolved by AARO in 2026 as a parallax illusion at 13,000 feet. GIMBAL remains formally unresolved.

GOFAST and GIMBAL are the two most-cited Navy ATFLIR (Advanced Targeting Forward-Looking Infrared) clips officially declassified by the U.S. Department of Defense in 2017–2020. Both were recorded in 2015 by F/A-18F Super Hornets from the USS Theodore Roosevelt strike group operating off the East Coast. The two clips look superficially similar — small white object, gun-camera framing, pilot audio in the background — but resolve into very different cases. AARO formally resolved GOFAST in 2026: geospatial-intelligence analysis placed the object at approximately 13,000 feet altitude, not skimming the ocean as it appeared, and identified parallax as the cause of the illusion of low altitude and high speed. GIMBAL remains formally unresolved as of 2026; the apparent 90-degree rotation may be either a real physical rotation or a gimbal-lock artifact of the ATFLIR pod itself, and AARO has not committed to either interpretation.

“The object is not actually close to the water, but is rather closer to 13,000 feet.”

Side-by-side

// GOFAST //
RECORDED
2015 (declassified 2017)
PLATFORM
F/A-18F Super Hornet ATFLIR
STRIKE GROUP
USS Theodore Roosevelt
LOCATION
Atlantic Test and Evaluation Range
DURATION
35 seconds
APPARENT BEHAVIOR
Small white object skimming ocean at high speed
AARO STATUS (2026)
RESOLVED — parallax artifact, ~13,000 ft altitude
// GIMBAL //
RECORDED
2015 (declassified 2020)
PLATFORM
F/A-18F Super Hornet ATFLIR
STRIKE GROUP
USS Theodore Roosevelt
LOCATION
Off East Coast
DURATION
34 seconds
APPARENT BEHAVIOR
Saucer-shaped object hovering, then rotating 90 degrees
AARO STATUS (2026)
Unresolved — possible gimbal-lock artifact

What's the same

Both clips were recorded in 2015 by F/A-18F Super Hornets from the USS Theodore Roosevelt strike group, both use the same ATFLIR sensor, both were officially declassified by the Department of Defense, and both feature pilot audio reacting in real time. Both are part of the broader narrative that drove the 2022 establishment of AARO under the National Defense Authorization Act.

What's different

GOFAST has been formally resolved by AARO in 2026 — the object was at approximately 13,000 feet altitude, not skimming the ocean, and the apparent high speed and low altitude were both parallax illusions. GIMBAL remains unresolved. The skeptical interpretation of GIMBAL is that the object's apparent 90-degree rotation is a gimbal-lock artifact caused by the ATFLIR sensor pod itself reaching a tracking-axis singularity — hence the clip's name. AARO has not formally committed to either the gimbal-lock or the genuine-rotation interpretation as of 2026.

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