Leaked military radar readings, seen for the first time, have backed up reports of unidentified flying objects harassing a Navy ship off the coast of California, as the Pentagon prepares to tell Congress what they know about UFO sightings.
The sounds of U.S. Navy sailors reacting to a radar screen tracking UFOs flying around their ship in July 2019 can be heard as the radar lights up with nine different objects that then disappear into the night, off the coast of San Diego.
The radar readings follow leaked video, released by documentary filmmaker Jeremy Corbell, that shows objects captured on night vision and infrared video that appear to be swarming warships before disappearing. Corbell said the disappearing objects could have gone above or below radar range.
"It's moving above the capacity for that radar to see it or, they're moving below, which would mean into the water," Corbell told Gadi Schwartz on TODAY Friday.
Corbell also released a video earlier this month showing a flying sphere dropping into the ocean. A Pentagon spokesperson confirmed to NBC News the radar videos were taken by Navy personnel but wouldn't comment about how they were released. The Pentagon has declassified the footage.
"They want to be ahead of it, and they are out of options," Corbell said. "There is a lot of pressure by the global public and the American public for answers."
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Former President Barack Obama added to the intrigue when he told late-night host James Corden on Monday that he inquired about UFOs during his tenure.
"There's footage and records of objects in the skies that we don't know exactly what they are," Obama said. "We can't explain how they moved their trajectory. They did not have an easily explainable path."
Two former Navy pilots also spoke on "60 Minutes" earlier this month about seeing objects that appeared to fly at supersonic speeds without breaking the sound barrier.
While UFOs have become synonymous with aliens in pop culture, in the military context, it just means they cannot be identified as any type of aircraft. There has been debate over whether they could be drones from Russia and China, which have all invested heavily in advanced drone technology.
Lawmakers are demanding answers as U.S. intelligence agencies prepare to release their report next month.
"There's enough obvious evidence here that we need to take this seriously, not downplay it, and try to gather as much information as we can to figure out what is it these pilots are seeing and what does it mean," Democratic Sen. Martin Heinrich of New Mexico said on TODAY.