Turns out Tom DeLonge was actually right about UFOs
Former Blink-182 frontman Tom DeLonge has always had an interest in UFOs. Now it appears that his hobby has produced some results. In public statements, the United States Navy has officially recognized video of UFOs first surfaced by DeLonge's research organization as real "Unidentified Aerial Phenomena” (UAPs) that are believed to have violated American airspace, according to The Black Vault, a publication that maintains a massive archive of declassified government documents.
The findings were confirmed to Vice in a statement from the Navy that confirmed the footage depicted "unidentified" crafts.
The videos in question that show the UFOs were first made public in 2017 and 2018 by the New York Times and To The Stars Academy of the Arts and Science, an organization founded by DeLonge and dedicated to studying UFOs and extraterrestrial life. The videos were recorded by Navy pilots from their aircrafts. The first, published by the Times in December 2017, showed strange objects crossing the sky in front of Navy pilots operating off the coast of San Diego on November 14, 2004. That footage of the object, dubbed FLIR1, was recorded by the camera equipped to an F-18 jet's gun. The second video, taken on January 21, 2015, shows another aircraft referred to as GIMBAL that appears to be rotating in the sky off the coast of Florida. Finally in 2018, To the Stars Academy released a third video, also recorded January 21, 2015, that shows an object called GoFast skirting away quickly just over the surface of a body of water. There is speculation that the objects both recorded on the same day may in fact be the same craft.
The disclosure from the Navy comes after the military organization changed its policy earlier this year regarding disclosure of unidentified aircraft to allow for the sightings to be more easily shared. The policy change came as both an attempt to de-stigmatize the sightings, which still have a sort of taboo feel that makes it challenging to be taken seriously when reporting them, while also acknowledging that the number of sightings have increased recently and may require a new approach. To be clear, this is not the Navy saying that UFOs exist; at least not the kind piloted by alien life. But it is recognition that the aircraft spotted by Navy planes and made public by organizations like DeLonge's To the Stars Academy are truly a mystery, even to those most informed. The military is recognizing that it doesn't always know what is traversing our skies — something that is equal parts exciting and terrifying.
The recognition by the Navy also marks a significant win for DeLonge's To The Stars Academy, which has been publishing footage of what the organization believes to be UFOs since 2015. To date, the organization has released five videos. It has also used the videos that it has unearthed to develop technologies meant to study the behavior of other unknown aircraft, including its Virtual Analytics UAP Learning Tool (VAULT) algorithm.
That said, To The Stars Academy has also made somewhat out there claims about its discoveries. Earlier this year, the organization said it obtained "potentially exotic materials" that contain properties it believes to be unknown to science. Filings made by the organization with the Securities and Exchange Commission in 2018 also revealed the Academy to be nearly $38 million in debt, significantly threatening its potential future operations. If nothing else comes from the operation, at least it now has confirmation that UFOs are out there. It may not be worth $38 million, but it's certainly worth something.
