Unidentified Drones Swarmed U.S. Navy Ships
The Claim
Unidentified drones swarmed U.S. Navy warships on several evenings in 2019.
News posted on
Emerging story
On June 8, 2020, the UFO conspiracy theorist and filmmaker Dave Beaty tweeted about a July 2019 encounter between the warship USS Kidd and some unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) off the coast of California. He tweeted what he claimed to be the ship’s log as proof.
Reports of the drones went viral on social media.
Misbar’s Analysis
Misbar’s investigation found that the automotive news website The Drive submitted Freedom of Information Act requests to learn more about the alleged unidentified drone swarm. The information that The Drive received added more mystery to the event.
The documents include information from the USS Kidd’s logs, which state that the incident began with two drone sightings at 10pm on July 14, 2019.
The ship’s crew then deployed a SNOOPIE team, an onboard intelligence team, to document the drones. Two other nearby US Navy ships then verified the sightings. The sightings lasted approximately 90 minutes.
The next night, July 15, 2019, similar events occurred, with one of the other US Navy ships in the vicinity, the USS Rafael Peralta, being the first to spot a drone at 8:38 pm. On this night, five or six drones pursued the US Navy ships. The final drone sighting occurred at 11:51 pm.
And further logs reveal similar incidents occurring with the same ships in the same locations on July 25 and July 30.
The Drive also claims to have acquired emails from US Navy officials launching an investigation into the incidents.
While David Beaty, the conspiracy theorist and filmmaker who brought the incidents to light, is a suspect information source, other reliable sources of information back up the unidentified drone claims. For example, Yahoo has reported The Drive’s information to be accurate. And NBC News stated that it had acquired the same documents from the US Government.
Our analysis shows that it is likely for further information about the incident to come to light in the future. NBC News notes that the Defense Department has requested a report on the incident by June 25, 2021.
On April 5, 2021, the US Navy’s top officer, Admiral Michael Gilday, spoke at a Washington D.C event for defense writers. Gilday confirmed that as of April 5, the drones had remained unidentified.
However, UFO conspiracy theorists should also note that Gilday stated that there were no indications that the drones were of extraterrestrial origin. What is significantly more likely is that the drones were the result of foreign adversaries.
