On the evening of July 15, 2019, crew aboard the Independence-variant littoral combat ship USS Omaha (LCS-12) operating off Southern California recorded a short infrared video of a spherical object and, separately, combat-information center displays that appeared to show multiple unknown tracks around the ship.
The Pentagon later confirmed that imagery from this 2019 series was taken by the U.S. Navy personnel and that the incidents were included in the UAP Task Force’s examinations, though it did not identify the objects. Independent FOIA releases and a 2022 congressional hearing fueled a counter-narrative that at least some of the 2019 Southern California events involved drones launched from nearby commercial vessels.
The Omaha sequence sits in the overlap of these two realities: authenticated Navy-captured imagery and unresolved target attribution.
This article reconstructs what happened, audits the data and the known government record, catalogs the witnesses, surfaces the controversy, and outlines the most defensible implications.
The night in question
Shortly after 9 p.m. Pacific on July 15, 2019, a spherical object is seen on a Navy infrared system as it moves above the ocean near a U.S. warship operating in a Southern California warning area.
The brief clip, later leaked to a filmmaker and televised by major outlets, ends with operators uttering “splash” and directing a bearing and range call.
The Pentagon’s spokesperson confirmed that the imagery in question was recorded by Navy personnel and was part of the UAP Task Force’s work, although the Department did not identify the object or endorse any extraordinary interpretation. (CBS News)
Separate leaked segments purport to show the USS Omaha’s radar display that night with multiple tracks around own-ship, coupled with crew voice loops using standard watch floor roles like OOD, CSM, and TAO.
The captions provided with the leak place the ship near 32°29′21.9″N, 119°21′53.0″W, with as many as 14 unknown tracks at one time between roughly 9 and 11 p.m. Pacific.
These clips, disseminated by the same filmmaker, are not part of an official public release, but they have become central to how the “Omaha case” is commonly described. (EXTRAORDINARY BELIEFS)
Two things can be said with confidence from the open record.
First, Navy-captured imagery from 2019 involving a spherical object is authentic, in the sense that it was recorded by Navy personnel and examined by the UAP Task Force.
Second, the Navy’s wider operating picture in summer 2019 off Southern California featured multiple nights where warships were concerned about small unmanned aircraft in their vicinity, a fact now documented in FOIA releases and discussed in Congress. The Omaha sequence lives at that intersection. (CBS News)
Who saw what: witnesses and source materials
There are no named, on-the-record USS Omaha eyewitnesses publicly describing the July 15 event in detail. What the public does have is:
- Navy-captured imagery, acknowledged as such
The Pentagon confirmed that photos and videos from 2019, including a spherical object and night-vision footage from other ships, were taken by Navy personnel and examined by the UAP Task Force. That confirmation is foundational. It authenticates provenance, not content or interpretation. (CBS News) - Leaked Omaha-labeled clips with crew audio
The radar and infrared snippets attributed to Omaha include watchstander dialogue and interface symbology.
The published captions also give approximate position and timeframe; they claim as many as 14 unknowns and describe a crescendo with one object entering the water, after which a search reportedly found no debris. These claims originate with the leak source rather than an official Navy release. (EXTRAORDINARY BELIEFS) - Media documentation and contemporaneous reporting
A widely circulated broadcast segment presented the Omaha infrared clip alongside commentary and Pentagon confirmation that the imagery was Navy-captured. Those reports did not identify the object. (Yahoo) - Navy FOIA documents from adjacent ships and dates
Deck logs, briefings, and imagery released via FOIA show that multiple destroyers encountered suspected small unmanned aircraft in the Southern California operations area in 2019. These records establish the drone context for the same operating area and season, though they do not directly adjudicate the Omaha clip itself. (The War Zone) - House UAP hearing testimony
At the May 17, 2022 hearing, the Deputy Director of Naval Intelligence used 2019 night-vision footage as an example of a solved case, explaining that the triangular appearance was due to a known optical effect and that the objects in that instance were identified as aircraft or UAS.
That testimony speaks to the 2019 Southern California environment and the Navy’s analytic posture, not to the Omaha sphere specifically. (Congress.gov) - FOIA effort focused on USS Omaha
The Black Vault documented a FOIA trail related to Omaha deck logs and audio, noting that logs for the core dates were unavailable while logs just after the period were provided.
The absence of those specific logs does not by itself resolve anything about the objects but has fueled debate. (The Black Vault)
The data, line by line
Infrared clip
The leaked infrared sequence shows a small, high-contrast, roughly spherical target translating above a dark ocean background. Near the end, the target’s intensity fades at the horizon line and operators call “splash.” Without range, altitude, or sensor geometry, several interpretations remain possible. The Pentagon’s statement confirms the clip’s provenance, not its kinematics. (CBS News)
Radar segments
The radar snippets show tracks with associated speeds and bearings discussed on voice. Captions assert speeds up to “138 knots,” though skeptics have noted the risk of mishearing voice callouts and the need to calibrate against own-ship motion, sensor mode, and track quality.
The leaked pages also reference X-band radar and the use of cross-checks. Absent raw radar files or a full console data export, we cannot independently validate the track designations or the track-to-target correlation with the infrared clip. (EXTRAORDINARY BELIEFS)
Approximate position and time
The published captions put Omaha at approximately 32°29′N, 119°21′W between 9 and 11 p.m. Pacific on July 15, 2019.
That locale matches a well-used Southern California warning area with heavy Navy traffic, instrumented ranges, and frequent air-sea test activity. The night, area, and operational context align with FOIA-documented UAS concerns from nearby ships in the same period. (EXTRAORDINARY BELIEFS)
Voice loop roles
Operators reference OOD, CSM, TAO, and call for bearing and range. That is consistent with a Navy watch team managing multiple contacts in a restricted area at night.
Some commentary online has quibbled over whether an Independence-variant LCS has a literal “CIC” in the destroyer sense.
A ship tour video and discussions among Navy-watchers suggest that the functional space exists, though the ship’s open-architecture layout differs from an Arleigh Burke’s hardened CIC. The terminology debate does not meaningfully change the technical questions at issue. (Metabunk)
What the government has said, formally
The most important formal statements are narrow but consequential.
- Provenance and inclusion
DoD spokesperson Susan Gough stated that the referenced 2019 photos and videos were taken by Navy personnel and that the UAP Task Force had included the incidents in its examinations.
This affirms that the government treats the underlying data as real operational captures, not hoaxes. It makes no claim about origin or capability. (CBS News) - Context of drones in 2019 SOCAL operations
FOIA releases, briefings, and a House hearing indicate that Navy destroyers encountered UAS swarms off Southern California in 2019.
One Navy briefing slide singled out a Hong Kong-flagged bulk carrier, MV Bass Strait, as likely conducting surveillance with UAVs during one encounter, and the Navy released videos of suspected drones near ships on other nights. The hearing also addressed a separate 2019 “pyramid” night-vision clip, attributing the shape to lens bokeh and ultimately to aircraft or UAS. This establishes that 2019 SOCAL events were not a monolith. Some were definitely drones or aircraft seen under odd optics. That still leaves the Omaha sphere clip unresolved on its own merits. (The War Zone) - Status of the broader UAP portfolio
The June 2021 ODNI Preliminary Assessment described 144 military UAP events and emphasized limited high-quality data as a primary barrier to resolution. Subsequent ODNI and AARO reports adopted a more formal taxonomy and noted that many new cases trend toward balloons, drones, and clutter, yet a subset remains uncharacterized without better data.
That posture neither validates nor debunks the Omaha clip, and it underscores the importance of comprehensive sensor fusion that the public does not currently have. (Director of National Intelligence) - Transparency limits
The Navy has explicitly declined to release additional UAP videos in at least one FOIA case, citing national security and the sensitivity of revealing operations, vulnerabilities, or capabilities.
That policy choice constrains the public evidentiary record for cases like Omaha. (Task & Purpose)
The controversy: drones, illusions, or transmedium?
The drone hypothesis
Multiple Navy ships documented suspected UAS activity during the same summer around the same ranges.
The War Zone’s FOIA-driven reconstructions are the most granular public record of those nights and include official slides labeling at least one case “swarm,” with a commercial vessel assessed as likely launching drones for surveillance. This is a coherent, conventional explanation for many 2019 SOCAL contacts.
The question is whether it explains the specific Omaha infrared clip that ends with “splash.” It could, but the clip alone does not supply enough geometric data to prove that a small quad or hex-rotor was the recorded target or that the apparent descent was not a horizon-line effect. (The War Zone)
The sensor/optics hypothesis
Analysts who tackled the 2019 “pyramid” night-vision clip showed how bokeh from an out-of-focus lens can create triangular artifacts.
Some skeptics apply similar caution to the Omaha infrared clip, arguing that the apparent water entry could be a distant target dropping behind the horizon or a contrast change at the sea-sky boundary. Without range or multi-sensor cross-fixes publicly available, this cannot be excluded.
The Pentagon’s provenance confirmation alone does not certify kinematics. (Congress.gov)
The transmedium hypothesis
The leak source characterizes the sphere as “transmedium,” asserting that it entered the water and that a follow-on search, including a submarine, recovered nothing.
In the absence of released sonar, MAD, or subsea sensor returns tied to that timestamp and location, the “transmedium” descriptor remains a hypothesis offered by the leak source and some former officials who have spoken publicly about such capabilities in general terms.
The claim is testable if more data is released, but it is not established by the short IR clip itself. (EXTRAORDINARY BELIEFS)
What counts as evidence in this case
A data-first approach separates four layers:
- Provenance evidence
Confirmed. The imagery was captured by Navy personnel and examined by the UAP Task Force. This puts the case inside the legitimate national-security pipeline. (CBS News) - Sensor evidence
Partial. We have short-form IR and radar snippets without raw data, metadata, or synchronized multi-sensor exports. That is insufficient for rigorous kinematics. It is still meaningful as a prompt for targeted release review. (EXTRAORDINARY BELIEFS) - Operational context evidence
Strong. Multiple nights of UAS concerns off Southern California in 2019 are documented and were briefed to Congress. This weighs toward drones as an explanation for at least some events. Whether it explains this one cannot be settled from the public file. (The War Zone) - Attribution evidence
Indeterminate. The public record neither proves a drone nor a transmedium craft for the Omaha clip. AARO’s broader reporting trends toward many UAP being mundane once data improves. The Omaha clip has not been re-released with that level of data. (AARO)
Government involvement beyond confirmation
The Omaha clip entered the system through the Navy’s UAP Task Force, which fed the ODNI preliminary report delivered to Congress in June 2021.
After Congress mandated a permanent office, AARO assumed the mission, published annual assessments, and briefed lawmakers on case resolution methods that include signal processing, cross-domain sensor fusion, and environmental correlation.
This top-down architecture exists precisely for events like Omaha where sensors at sea capture something the operators cannot immediately classify.
The Pentagon has said it will not publicly detail many operational observations to protect capabilities, a stance at tension with public interest but consistent with long-standing classification norms. (Director of National Intelligence)
Implications
- Maritime domain awareness needs to evolve
The 2019 SOCAL cluster underscored that small UAS pose persistent challenges for surface forces. Even if Omaha’s sphere were ultimately a small drone or aircraft, the episode highlights the need for better automated correlation across IR, radar, EW, and optical channels at sea.
The Navy’s subsequent counter-UAS deployments and exercises reflect this trajectory. (The War Zone)
- Policy and public trust depend on releasable synchronization
The single biggest barrier to resolving Omaha in the public sphere is the absence of synchronized, metadata-rich exports across sensors with time stamps and platform states.
AARO keeps pushing toward standardized ingest and analytic pipelines. The policy dilemma is familiar: how to release enough to educate without exposing tactics, techniques, and procedures. (AARO)
- The “transmedium” label is a testable claim
If an object truly entered the ocean, correlating that timestamp and location with acoustic arrays, sonobuoys if deployed, or submarine logs would be decisive.
The Navy has not released such data. Until then, “transmedium” remains a hypothesis, not a conclusion. (EXTRAORDINARY BELIEFS)
- The burden of proof is not evenly distributed
The drone hypothesis gains leverage from the documented 2019 SOCAL swarm context. The non-prosaic hypothesis would require either multi-sensor correlation that rules out small UAS or a recovery. Neither has been presented publicly.
That does not mean it did not happen. It means the current public evidence does not settle it. (The War Zone)
Contested details, point-by-point
- “Up to 14 unknowns”
This figure appears in captions to the leaked radar segments and in broadcast narration drawn from those captions. Without the raw radar data and track files, the exact number and identity of tracks remain unverified in the public record. (EXTRAORDINARY BELIEFS) - “138 knots”
Speed callouts in the audio are debated. Analysts have warned against over-reliance on a single shouted figure absent context on own-ship motion, sensor mode, and track covariance. (Metabunk) - “Entered the water”
The IR clip ends near the horizon. “Splash” can be a call as much as a fact. Without range and altitude, a behind-the-horizon fade remains a live possibility. That does not disprove water entry. It makes the clip insufficient by itself to prove it. (Yahoo) - “VIPER team in the CIC”
The term “VIPER team” appears in leak captions. Discussions among naval observers note that the LCS has a functionally equivalent combat information space, even if its architecture differs from larger combatants. The precise labeling does not change the evidentiary weight of the sensor data. (Metabunk)
Why this still matters in 2025
The Omaha sequence is an ideal stress test for the new U.S. UAP enterprise. It was a legitimate Navy capture that drew attention from Congress and the public, yet it sits adjacent to a well-documented series of drone incursions in the same waters and season.
The case demands transparent, synchronized, releasable data if public adjudication is the goal. In the absence of that, it becomes a narrative mirror where one side sees transmedium craft and the other sees hard-to-see drones flying at night among bright portholes and stars. AARO’s own reports emphasize that better data often moves cases into mundane bins.
It is precisely because the Omaha clip is data-poor in public that it has not moved definitively into any bin. (AARO)
Claims taxonomy
Verified
• The video and photos from 2019 used in UAP Task Force examinations were recorded by U.S. Navy personnel. This includes a spherical object video captured in July 2019 off California. The Department of Defense confirmed provenance and inclusion. (CBS News)
• Multiple Navy ships operating off Southern California in 2019 encountered suspected drone activity on several nights, documented in FOIA materials and acknowledged in public hearings. (The War Zone)
Probable
• Several of the 2019 Southern California incidents involved unmanned aerial systems launched from or associated with nearby commercial vessels, including MV Bass Strait, as assessed in Navy briefings. (The War Zone)
Disputed
• The Omaha radar segments showing “up to 14” unknowns, with speed callouts as high as “138 knots,” have not been publicly corroborated with raw data. Numbers in leaked captions and audio remain disputed by independent analysts. (EXTRAORDINARY BELIEFS)
• The interpretation that the IR target “entered the water” is unconfirmed. The clip is too short and lacks range/altitude data to exclude a horizon fade. (Yahoo)
Legend
• None. There is no cultural or religious narrative attached to Omaha that needs to be separated from the evidentiary record.
Misidentification
• The 2019 “pyramid” night-vision video from USS Russell, often lumped into the Omaha conversation, was explained as an optical bokeh effect of out-of-focus cameras viewing aircraft lights. It was not part of Omaha’s infrared clip and should not be conflated with it. (Congress.gov)
Speculation labels
- Hypothesis: The recorded sphere was a small UAS or conventional aircraft seen near the horizon, with a contrast fade misinterpreted as water entry.
- Hypothesis: The recorded sphere was a transmedium vehicle entering the ocean, with no debris because it was intact and operating.
- Witness interpretation: Operators honestly reported what they perceived in real time under stress, including a “splash,” without full geometric context.
- Researcher opinion: FOIA records showing 2019 drone swarms nearby make a drone explanation more probable for many contacts, but they do not conclusively attribute the Omaha IR target. (The War Zone)
Bottom line
The USS Omaha sequence remains a narrow, provocative sliver of a larger 2019 Southern California operational picture.
The Department of Defense established the image provenance and the case’s inclusion in official study. FOIA releases and congressional testimony show that drones were definitively part of the story that year.
What we do not have is the synchronized, multi-sensor, metadata-rich archive that would settle the specific Omaha infrared clip one way or the other. Until that delta is closed, serious analysis must keep two propositions in tension: the 2019 SOCAL area had drones, and the Omaha clip itself is still unresolved.
References
All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office. (2023). Fiscal Year 2023 Consolidated Annual Report on Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena. AARO/DoD. https://www.aaro.mil/ (PDF direct) (AARO)
Gough, S. [quoted in Watson, E.]. (2021, April 17). Pentagon confirms authenticity of videos showing unidentified flying objects. CBS News. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ufo-video-authenticity-pentagon/ (CBS News)
Kehoe, A., & Cecotti, M. (2022, June 10). Drone swarms that harassed Navy ships off California demystified in new documents. The War Zone. https://www.twz.com/ (The War Zone)
Kehoe, A., & Cecotti, M. (2022, June 15). Navy releases videos from mysterious drone swarms around warships off California. The War Zone. https://www.twz.com/ (The War Zone)
Kehoe, A., & Cecotti, M. (2022, February 10). Navy releases timeline for mysterious 2019 “UAS swarm” involving warships off California. The War Zone. https://www.twz.com/ (The War Zone)
Office of the Director of National Intelligence. (2021, June 25). Preliminary assessment: Unidentified Aerial Phenomena. ODNI. https://www.dni.gov/ (Director of National Intelligence)
Schwartz, G., & Stelloh, T. (2021, May 17). Leaked Navy video appears to show U.F.O. off California coast. NBC News [syndicated at Yahoo News]. https://news.yahoo.com/ (Yahoo)
U.S. House of Representatives, Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. (2022, May 17). Unidentified Aerial Phenomena hearing transcript. Congress.gov. https://www.congress.gov/ (Congress.gov)
The Black Vault. (2022, February 3). USS Omaha deck logs, voice recordings missing during alleged UAP encounter timeframe. TheBlackVault.com. https://www.theblackvault.com/ (The Black Vault)
Slayton, N. (2022, September 10). The Navy says its UFO footage is classified for national security. Task & Purpose. https://taskandpurpose.com/ (Task & Purpose)
Corbell, J. (2021, May 27). Navy UAP radar data & footage. Extraordinary Beliefs. https://www.extraordinarybeliefs.com/ (EXTRAORDINARY BELIEFS)
Corbell, J. (2021, May 14). The U.S. Navy filmed spherical UAPs. Extraordinary Beliefs. https://www.extraordinarybeliefs.com/ (EXTRAORDINARY BELIEFS)
Metabunk forum. (2021–2022). Analyses of USS Omaha clips and related 2019 SOCAL footage. Metabunk.org. https://www.metabunk.org/ (Metabunk)
Commander, Naval Surface Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet. USS Omaha (LCS 12) official page. U.S. Navy. https://www.surfpac.navy.mil/Ships/USS-Omaha-LCS-12/ (SurfPac)
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