PURSUE Record — FLIR (Tic-Tac) — USS Nimitz UAP encounter: U.S. Navy · Pacific Ocean, off Baja California — USS Nimitz Carrier Strike Group · November 14, 2004

Among the 28 video records in PURSUE Release 01 — the May 8, 2026 declassification package from the U.S. Department of War — one stands out for its prior public history: the FLIR recording from the 2004 USS Nimitz encounter, widely known as the "Tic-Tac" video. Released officially by the Department of Defense on April 27, 2020, this single-part sensor file is now formally catalogued alongside the full PURSUE dataset. What follows is an editorial examination of what the record actually contains, and what it does not resolve.

What this record contains

The record is classified by type as VID — a military sensor video — released by the U.S. Navy. The incident date is November 14, 2004, and the location is the Pacific Ocean off Baja California, during a training exercise conducted by the USS Nimitz Carrier Strike Group. The official description identifies the source footage as a forward-looking infrared (FLIR) recording captured by a U.S. Navy F/A-18F Super Hornet. The release comprises a single file part.

According to the official description blurb: the clip shows "an oblong, white, featureless object — described by pilots as resembling a 'Tic Tac mint' — being tracked at low altitude over the Pacific Ocean off Baja California." The footage was originally leaked in 2007 through To The Stars Academy before the Pentagon formally declassified and re-released it on April 27, 2020, stating the videos "do not reveal sensitive capabilities." The 2004 incident is also documented to have produced radar tracks, multiple pilot witnesses — Commander David Fravor and Lieutenant Commander Alex Dietrich are named in the official description — and a corroborating sensor return from a second F/A-18, making the evidentiary record broader than the video alone.

Sensor & operational context

Forward-looking infrared sensors do not record visible light. They detect differences in thermal emission, rendering objects as bright or dark relative to their temperature contrast against the background. The object in the FLIR footage appears as a bright, white, oblong shape — consistent with how any surface warmer than its surroundings would register on such a system. What FLIR cannot establish, on its own, is the object's precise altitude, size, speed, or material composition. Those parameters require independent corroboration — radar data, triangulation from multiple platforms, or direct visual acquisition — all of which the official description states were present during the Nimitz encounter.

The operational setting was a routine carrier strike group training exercise, not an active combat patrol. F/A-18F Super Hornets flying training sorties do routinely carry sensor pods, and their FLIR systems are designed for target acquisition and reconnaissance. The sensor was functioning in its intended mode; the recording is not an artifact of equipment malfunction as far as the public record establishes.

What this does and does not prove

The documented facts are these: a U.S. Navy sensor system recorded an object that trained pilots could not immediately identify, during a period when multiple independent detection systems — radar and at least one additional airborne sensor — returned corroborating data. The Pentagon has confirmed the video's authenticity and its official declassification. What the record does not establish, and what no currently public analysis has resolved, is what the object was. Its propulsion, origin, and flight characteristics remain officially unexplained. "Unresolved" in the PURSUE framework means the case has not been explained to a conclusion — it does not constitute confirmation of any specific hypothesis, extraterrestrial or otherwise. Interpretation beyond the documented sensor data is not supported by the record itself.

How it fits PURSUE Release 01

The FLIR Tic-Tac record sits within the Navy sensor video cohort of PURSUE Release 01's 28-video subset. The broader release of 162 documents spans military sensor records coordinated through AARO, NASA archive materials, and FBI files dating to 1947 — the full scope of which is catalogued on the SkyLens UAP files page. The Nimitz footage is arguably the most publicly recognized entry in the entire release, having circulated for nearly two decades before formal declassification. Its inclusion in PURSUE Release 01 places it in an official investigative record alongside cases that have been resolved — balloons, sensor artifacts, birds — a methodological choice the Department of War describes as demonstrating analytical discipline. The Nimitz case is not among those resolved. For additional PURSUE coverage across the full release, see the SkyLens PURSUE editorial series.

Editorial note: This analysis is independent commentary on a publicly released document. The original record, source links, and full release metadata are catalogued on the SkyLens UAP files page alongside every other case in the PURSUE Release 01 set.