US Navy warships stationed off the coast of Los Angeles encountered swarms of mysterious drones, which pursued them at high speed in low visibility – prompting a high level investigation and some head scratching among top military brass.
The series of encounters with suspected UAVs, or unmanned aerial vehicles, in July 2019, saw as many as six mystery aircraft swarm several US Navy warships close to a sensitive training area at the Channel Islands, according to The Drive.
Based on deck log data from four US destroyers targeted in the series of encounters, The Drive worked out that the drones flew at speeds of up to 45 miles an hour and traveled at least 100 nautical miles – far exceeding the capabilities of any commercially-available unmanned aircraft.
The incident was brought to the attention of the Chief of Naval Operations and the FBI, and at one point the Navy began investigating itself as the potential source of the ‘mystery’ drone operators.
However before conclusive answers could be uncovered, the Navy classified all communications about their investigation.
USS destroyers on patrol in July 2019 were suddenly swarmed by flashing, tic-toc shaped drones, which were able to travel long distance at high speeds
The USS Kidd, pictured above in 2011, was one of four Navy destroyers swarmed by sophisticated drones traveling at high speeds during a bizarre incident in 2019. The origin of the drones is unknown
The USS Gonzalez, a guided-missile destroyer, is in the same class as the naval ships targeted by drones in a brazen attack off the coast of California in 2019. They use an onboard intelligence team known as a SNOOPIE to track unknown flying objects
The bridge of the USS Porter, which is the same Arleigh Burke-class destroyer as those targeted in the July 2019 drone skirmish
The Drive, which investigates military weaponry and tactics, using ship logbooks and internal emails released by the Navy under the Freedom of Information Act, were able to reconstruct the bizarre series of events.
Their account shows the drama began on the night of July 14 2019. Deck logs from the USS Kidd show that just before 10pm that night two drones were spotted.
An onboard intelligence crew responsible for documenting and investigating contact with unknown vessels – known as the Ship Nautical Or Otherwise Photographic Interpretation and Exploitation team – or SNOOPIE – was engaged to figure out who, or what, the mystery flying objects were.
Within a few minutes of the sighting, reports show the USS Kidd moved into quiet mode, minimizing communications as it sought to work what the threat level was.
It contacted a nearby warship also on patrol, the USS Rafael Peralta, who also engaged their onboard photo intelligence team, or SNOOPIE.
Several other US Navy destroyers on patrol nearby began noticing strange lights.
The USS John Finn also reported UAV activity, and noticed a ‘red flashing light’ at 10:03pm, according to its logbook.
Just over an hour later at 11:23pm, the USS Rafael Peralta spotted a white light hovering over the flight deck.
The drone was able to remain hovering above the destroyer’s helicopter landing pad while traveling at speeds of 16 knots and in low visibility.
The nearly 90-minute encounter was well beyond the capability of commercially-available drones.
The next night, the drones returned, this time as the warships were patrolling closer to the Californian mainland.
US warships have state-of-the-art detection systems, but were unable to discover the origin of these drones
The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Porter shows off its high-tech weaponry
Filmmaker and UFO enthusiast Dave Beaty was the first to bring the drone encounter to light, revealing it was in the same area as the 2004 Nimitz Encounter
He said the drones were ‘tic-tac shaped’, similar to previous reported UFO sightings
They were first spotted by the USS Rafael Peralta and the ship’s SNOOPIE team was engaged at 8:39pm.
At 8:56pm, logs show the USS Kidd had also come into contact with drones.
‘The drones seem to have pursued the ships, even as they continued to maneuver throughout the incident,’ The Drive reported.
Logbooks onboard the USS Russell show drones were swarming all over it, dipping in elevation from 1000 to 700 feet and seemingly able to move in any direction.
The USS Russell had separate contact with drones nine occasions in less than an hour.
Then at 9:20pm that night, the USS Kidd noticed ‘multiple UAVs’ around the ship.
The USS Rafael Peralta was also swarmed by as many as four drones. It was contacted by a passing cruise ship, the Carnival Imagination, to say they too had spotted up to six drones.
The three-hour frenzy of activity continued until close to midnight, with none of the warships able to say with certainty where the drones had come from.
The Navy’s top commanders including the Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) and commander of the Pacific Fleet were notified.
The Los Angeles bureau of the FBI was also brought in to look at the incident.
The subsequent investigation found that just a handful of civilian ships were in the area at the time that could have been used as landing pads for the drones.
Investigators suspected the drones may have been launched from the ORV Alguita, a catamaran in the area.
And while the Alguita did have drones onboard, it was soon established its aircraft were not capable of such aeronautical feats.
Naval intelligence was brought in on the investigation and it was soon turning its glare inwards.
The area is home to a large US Naval Base on Sam Clemente Island, where sensitive training operations are often undertaken.
Soon afterward, the Navy classified the investigation, preventing further information from being released to The Drive.
There were further drone sightings later in July 2019, with SNOOPIE teams aborad the destroyers again being called on to identify the drones and work out where they were coming from.
The bizarre incident was first noticed by filmmaker Dave Beaty, a UFO researcher who UFOs.
In June 2020, he Tweeted: ‘Did the navy ship #USSKidd #DDG100 encounter a UAP in July 2019 in So Cal OPAREA Trying to find out more. The ship logs indicate a “Snoopy Team” was deployed – an intel section that tries to visually ID objects. DM if you know more. Near San Clemente island.’
Later, relaying information he’d received from a Navy source, Beaty said a crew member on board ‘could see them with the naked eye and they were almost eye level with the bridge hovering’.
‘They were the same tic-tac shaped objects.’
Beaty said the sightings occurred in the same areas as another infamous UFO sighting in 2004 which became known as the ‘Nimitz Encounters’.
The Drive said there remained ‘baffling’ questions about how the drones had been able to fly with such breathtaking skill, speed and maneuverability.
‘If the drones were not operated by the American military, these incidents represent a highly significant security breach,’ it reported.
Just a few days ago, the former Director of National Intelligence revealed the US has evidence of UFOs breaking the sound barrier without a sonic boom and making maneuvers impossible with known technology.
John Ratcliffe, who served as Donald Trump’s Director of National Intelligence, said that many of the incidents still have no easy explanation.
‘There are a lot more sightings than have been made public,’ Ratcliffe told Fox News.
‘Some of those have been declassified.’