From the depths of the ocean, UFOs surface as a Navy officer warns of a threat too real to be ignored.
An extraordinary new investigation, originally published by Popular Mechanics is drawing fresh attention to a string of unexplained encounters between U.S. Navy personnel and unidentified submerged objects (USOs). These sightings -- recorded over decades and across multiple oceans -- are now being described by former officers as a legitimate threat and part of a global pattern that defies conventional physics.
Unexplained Encounters During Training Missions
In 2014, Lieutenant Ryan Graves, a U.S. Navy F/A-18 pilot stationed off the coast of Virginia Beach, began to detect anomalies during flight training missions. Initially dismissed as radar glitches, the signals reappeared repeatedly -- only this time, they were backed by infrared and optical confirmation.
According to Graves, these unidentified objects could hover completely still or accelerate to supersonic speeds. They were seen across all altitudes, always above or near the ocean. Graves reported seeing a particularly strange object: a black or dark gray cube enclosed in a clear sphere, estimated to be 5 to 15 feet in diameter. It passed within 50 feet of one of the jets. That incident, he later explained, "was the turning point."
When Graves later spoke with pilots stationed on the USS Nimitz and USS Princeton off the West Coast, he discovered that similar sightings had occurred for years.
Craft That Travel Between Air And Sea
The military has since adopted the term unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs) to describe objects like those witnessed by Graves. A growing number of them appear to be transmedium -- able to travel from air to sea without slowing down, splashing, or generating turbulence. These transitions contradict what we know about aerodynamics and hydrodynamics.
Rear Admiral Tim Gallaudet, a retired oceanographer and Navy commander, was among the first to review footage of these transmedium encounters, captured in 2015 by jets from the USS Theodore Roosevelt. The craft shown in those videos moved at extraordinary speeds, rotated midair, and left no propulsion trail.
"What I saw was not our technology," Gallaudet said. "No nation has craft that can move like that." For him, these phenomena represent a national research priority. He now collaborates with Graves and former Pentagon officials to push for transparency and investigation.
Four Major Incidents Still Unexplained
Several high-profile military encounters continue to raise questions about unidentified submerged objects. In 2004, Navy pilots aboard the USS Nimitz witnessed a Tic Tac-shaped craft that dropped from 80,000 feet to sea level in under one second, with no wings or engines.
In 2013, infrared footage from Aguadilla, Puerto Rico captured a spherical object entering the ocean without a splash, resurfacing, then splitting into two before submerging -- defying known flight and fluid dynamics.
A 1990s incident involved a CH-53 Sea Stallion helicopter crew near Puerto Rico. As they retrieved a drone, a massive dark object rose from below and pulled it back underwater, leaving the pilot stunned.
In 2019, the USS Omaha recorded a spherical object hovering over the Pacific before it dropped into the water without any visible splash. A sailor later confirmed similar sightings aboard the USS Jackson in 2023.
This New U.S. Law Could Expose Alien Technology
The volume and consistency of these reports have led to real political action. In 2023, Congress passed the UAP Disclosure Act, mandating federal agencies to catalog, analyze, and disclose data about recovered nonhuman craft and biologics. The legislation marks a shift in how the U.S. treats this topic, acknowledging the possibility of nonhuman intelligence and hinting at secret recovery programs.
Graves and Gallaudet recently briefed Washington officials on the national security implications of USOs. Graves said:
"We're at a unique moment in history. People have access to tools that can reveal things. The momentum is building." Reflecting on what lies beneath, Gallaudet posed a final theory:
"Maybe they lived here for a long time, before we even evolved, and sought safety from the Earth's atmospheric and geologic cataclysms by creating a habitat or place to live beneath the seafloor... That's one hypothesis."