Funny, a first deployment of a highly complex networked software driven system developed by gov contractors, being admittedly used by newly trained people (a training program called COMPUTEX as per the article), makes me even more sceptical that it may simply be an error/anomaly rather than providing better evidence of it being UFOs.

If this is indeed positive evidence, then the big question not asked was how many of these sensors detected the object in real time? If it was just 2-3 from the same sources (ie, jets or circling surveillance planes in the same area) then it's no different than technology from 2004 or earlier. Radar is still radar. The fact they are all linked together helps with real-time analysis. But in matters of UFO investigations their real-time interconnectivity doesn't really add any additional validation. When a post-incident analysis could simply reconstruct the moment by cross-checking multiple unconnected sensors present at the time - as any investigative team would have in prior eras.

The upgrades to the E-2C Hawkeye seem to be only related to the networking functionality adding real-time analysis on top of the system rather than providing better individual radar tracking. Unless I'm missing the part where each sensor became more accurate individually regardless of realtime networking or after-the-fact analysis?

Not to mention the whole uncertainty that first-deployment of new software brings to the whole equation.

When the stealth bomber was top secret and still being tested, most of the army, air force, and navy was unaware of it. Something flying at such a high altitude was considered impossible. Naturally, Air Force fighter pilots were some of the first to observe it, and some of those pilots wondered out loud if it was an alien encounter. No one at Area 51 corrected them. So, this could be a similar scenario. It could even be the case that those working on this unidentified flying object did not know the new radar tech was being tested. The many branches of the DoD are not as coordinated as they may seem.

I still don’t believe there was unassisted visual confirmation. And if they are using combined radar imagery, it seems that much more likely that a glitch in one radar system would cause a glitch in all systems. Then again, I’m heavily speculating.

Skepticism means positing alternative theories that explain the evidence, not coming up with less-extraordinary theories that contradict the evidence, which is what most of the threads here do.

Super intelligent AI certainly seems plausible as a thing which could exist. Fusion powered sub-light speed autonomous drones certainly seems like a thing which could exist. Any super intelligent AI would take actions to ensure it's preservation, and extraterrestrial (to it) civilizations confer x-risk.

My pet theory is that these things are real, and are a autonomous surveillance and intervention system deployed by an extraterrestrial entity or civ (AI or organic is irrelevant) to prevent an external threat in the form of a galaxy-ending weapon. They are subluminal but such a system would have galaxy-wide coverage in at worst a few tens of centuries. We will likely never know since these things are so far beyond our ability to capture or analyze, but my theory at least doesn't break physics.

The reason I like my theory is that one could imagine humanity building and deploying such a system inductively, when we have the tech and determine the largest x-risk to our civilization are external emerging civilizations developing weapons or tech which could destroy the galaxy (perhaps inadvertently, like a misplanned AI takeoff)

At first I thought these were just glitches in complex military imaging and sensor software/hardware.

But then a more sane version of me took over and concluded that I’m looking at aliens in YouTube videos.

I spent my childhood around New Mexico, my family also knew a handful of scientists out at the labs. We heard a lot of funny stories.

I wouldn’t be surprised at all if some gov tech was testing against the Navy. But I also wouldn’t be surprised if we just don’t have a clue.

My uneducated, completely bonkers guesses would be plasma stealth drones or multibeam lasers.

I knew several scientists in the 90s that worked on lasers to create floating hotspots, weapons targeting, and to create artificial chaff.

Plasma stealth has also been in development by the Russians for a long time - perhaps someone was testing such systems also. The idea is to inject plasma around a craft - and also to possibly use it for propulsion in an magnétohydrodynamique drive. Glowing white ball would be an apt description.

Again - it’s all purely speculative and sci-fi. I wouldn’t rule out aliens - but it’s really the last possibility simply because the probability is basically almost zero just due to distance, cost, and energy.

So, the US was testing unknown and presumably expensive drone technology on Carrier Air Groups? Why would they do that in a "live" situation with people who would report it? I would think (and perhaps I'm wrong) that keeping advanced craft secret would be in the US interest.

I don't buy the ET explanation and I don't buy this one either.

If it is real and it is a craft it's much more likely it was a state actor testing us.

For these encounters to coincide with the first tests of next gen tech, it's entertaining to imagine these "aliens" were caught unawares and subsequently improved their stealth posture as a result of us seeing things we're not supposed to.

Some hubris in that, but if they really are just automated probes, they may be reactionary in nature and adjust behaviour accordingly, and not, say, analyzing our comms and behaving "intelligently"... Of course it could be that they just want to be seen.

Or that we really are imagining things--the ghostly artifacts of a complex system with kinks not yet sorted out.

Then probably it is a UAV from another U.S. DoD dept acting as a Red Team to test the 'New Air Defense Tech'.

Well this level of sensor capability would be an ideal real world means of testing the latest stealth, aircraft, and detection, technologies all at once.

It also reveals just how blind even the best equipped ships are and that you need to be able to integrate so many resources at once to have real security.

If you think this stuff is wild wait till more people hear about UAP’s turning off Nukes, with military eyewitnesses verifying that it happened on multiple occasions...

The heat signature is interesting. When seen in black mode, the hot center is surrounded by a white cooler-than-atmosphere halo. What could be the use of such a thermoelectric effect? Or if it's a by-product what else could be causing it?

So, in at least a couple of cases, these events coincide with the deployment of new air defense tech with advanced information processing capabilities? One should at least consider the possibility that they are machine-generated artifacts, possibly responses to unusual conditions that have mundane explanations.

Its kindof jarring how the article is written like a series of marketing bullet points. Where is the discussion of possible atmospheric effects or other explanations?

1) are owners of Earth returning to harvest the crop (of plastics?)?

2) are the authors of /r/outside beta-testing a new faction?

3) are humans from the future messing around, then looking up incidents in history books and competing with each other who made a bigger splash?

4) is there a group of humans with so much advanced technology and science that the rest of us are just neanderthals in comparison?

We had foo-fighters in the second World War. Not much has changed.

My theory is that these UFOs aren't physical but are projections from elsewhere, literally like a TV projector. If two sources direct waves at the same location correctly, perhaps the interference can make the air molecules emit light like ships? Some audio advertising is starting to do this with sound waves (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_from_ultrasound). These projected ships would look like they could defy physics with how they fly.

Are these UFO sightings always over water? Maybe there's some submarine source?

"And by intention or chance, this is exactly what happened."

Funny how the author is hinting that they believe the exercise might have been intentionally setup to see how the systems could handle the UFO.

So my best bet explanation for a non-UFO explanation is a hypersonic plasma cloaked, MHD controlled drone.

Control despite visible wings or aerodynamic surfaces, at will invisibility to radar, anomalous thermal signatures, hypervelocity at relatively low altitudes, accelerations that will kill humans, can all be explained by this.

However, I will admit that the extremely high reported acceleration afaik is not something we know of. Perhaps solid rocket boosters?

UFOs are real. But that doesn't mean aliens are. More than likely a foreign country has invented advanced technology and is keeping it secret. The sightings all happened near the coast, right where you'd expect advanced recconissance aircraft to be.

Second Foundation

I think it is a system malfunction when everything comes together.

I hope this puts it to rest for all the doubters here. Hell, you think the HN crowd would start to get excited about the possibility of seeing ET code soon...

Any interesting anecdotes on HN? I haven't seen anything like this unfortunately, but I've heard enough stories from people I consider reliable to believe that some of these UFO sightings are ET ships/drones monitoring us. All the stories seem to have incredible accelerations involved and chaotic movements as a common theme.