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// COMPARISON //

Tic Tac vs GOFAST — Comparing the Two Most-Cited Navy UAP Encounters

The 2004 Tic Tac (USS Nimitz) and 2015 GOFAST (USS Theodore Roosevelt) are the two best-known U.S. Navy UAP encounters. Tic Tac remains formally unresolved; GOFAST was resolved by AARO in 2026.

The Tic Tac UFO encounter (November 2004, USS Nimitz Carrier Strike Group) and the GOFAST clip (2015, USS Theodore Roosevelt strike group) are the two most-cited modern U.S. Navy UAP encounters. Both involve F/A-18 Super Hornet aircrew and ATFLIR/FLIR1 sensor footage, but the two cases differ on almost every other dimension. Tic Tac is a multi-day multi-witness multi-radar event with a 40-foot visual object directly observed by an experienced strike-group commander; GOFAST is a 35-second sensor clip of a small white object whose true altitude and speed were misperceived. AARO formally resolved GOFAST in 2026 as a parallax artifact at ~13,000 feet altitude. Tic Tac remains formally unresolved by AARO as of 2026, with the case still rated anomalous due to the multi-sensor corroboration and the experience level of the witnesses.

“Smooth, white, 40-foot object shaped like a Tic Tac.”

Side-by-side

// TIC TAC (USS NIMITZ) //
DATE
November 2004
STRIKE GROUP
USS Nimitz
LOCATION
Off Baja California, Pacific
WITNESSES
Multi-day multi-aircrew + USS Princeton SPY-1 radar
VISUAL DESCRIPTION
40-foot white object resembling a Tic Tac
SENSOR FOOTAGE
FLIR1 ATFLIR (released 2017)
AARO STATUS (2026)
Anomalous, formally unresolved
// GOFAST //
DATE
2015
STRIKE GROUP
USS Theodore Roosevelt
LOCATION
Atlantic Test and Evaluation Range
WITNESSES
Single F/A-18 aircrew
VISUAL DESCRIPTION
Small white object (apparent low-altitude, high-speed)
SENSOR FOOTAGE
ATFLIR (released 2017)
AARO STATUS (2026)
RESOLVED — parallax at ~13,000 ft

Why Tic Tac is harder to dismiss

The Tic Tac case has multi-sensor corroboration that GOFAST lacks. The Nimitz event was tracked over multiple days by E-2C Hawkeye radar and the USS Princeton's SPY-1 radar before any aircraft were vectored to investigate; Commander David Fravor and Lt. Commander Jim Slaight then visually observed the object hovering over churning water and watched it accelerate beyond their tracking capability. GOFAST, by contrast, is a single 35-second sensor clip with one aircrew, and the apparent extraordinary behavior turned out to be a parallax illusion.

Why GOFAST was resolvable

GOFAST's resolution by AARO in 2026 was possible precisely because the case has a single sensor, a known aircraft altitude, and a recoverable geospatial geometry. AARO Director Dr. Jon Kosloski stated: "Through a very careful geospatial intelligence analysis and using trigonometry, we assess with high confidence that the object is not actually close to the water, but is rather closer to 13,000 feet." The same trigonometric resolution approach is harder to apply to Tic Tac because there were multiple independent sensors and visual confirmation.

// PRIMARY SOURCES //
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