Go Fast Footage, AARO Resolution Companion

Brief

AARO assessed with high confidence that the UAP observed in the 2015 'Go Fast' footage did not travel at anomalous speeds. The perceived rapid lateral movement across the ocean surface was attributed to motion parallax, a geometric effect produced by the aircraft's own velocity relative to the object's lower altitude. AARO estimated the object's true ground speed at between 5 and 92 mph at approximately 13,000 feet, a range consistent with a slowly drifting or near-stationary airborne object such as a balloon.

Metadata

Agency

All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), U.S. Department of Defense

Release

2025-02-06

Type

VIDEO • .webm

Length

19.0 M

Classification

UNCLASSIFIED

Tags

motion parallax, FLIR, Navy intercept, USS Theodore Roosevelt, 2015, Atlantic, Go Fast, AARO resolution, low-altitude UAP

Key points

• AARO assessed with high confidence that the object's apparent rapid motion was caused by motion parallax, not anomalous propulsion or speed.
• The object's actual speed was estimated at 5 to 92 mph, a wide band consistent with a passively drifting object, not powered flight.
• Object altitude was estimated at approximately 13,000 feet at the time of the intercept by USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft in 2015.
• The footage was originally recorded by a Navy FLIR system and was one of three videos (alongside GIMBAL and FLIR1) released to the public by the DoD in 2020.
• This resolution is part of AARO's post-disclosure case-by-case adjudication of legacy UAP videos, released February 6, 2025.

Most interesting

• The 'Go Fast' video was widely cited in UAP advocacy circles as evidence of hypersonic low-altitude flight; AARO's parallax analysis inverts that interpretation entirely.
• Motion parallax is a well-documented optical phenomenon in aerial targeting: a fast-moving aircraft filming a slow or stationary object at a lower altitude will make that object appear to race across the background terrain.
• The 5–92 mph speed range AARO published is unusually wide, reflecting uncertainty in the object's exact altitude, a tighter altitude fix would narrow the speed estimate substantially.
• The encounter occurred during the same 2014–2015 USS Theodore Roosevelt deployment that also produced the GIMBAL and FLIR1 (Tic-Tac) footage, all three of which AARO has now adjudicated.
• Despite the mundane resolution, AARO's case file does not publicly identify the object's specific nature, it rules out anomalous performance but stops short of a definitive 'balloon' or 'bird' identification.