BUZZ KILL
Watch as US Navy’s most advanced warship is buzzed by mysterious ‘UFO’ drone swarm amid cluster of close encounters
NEW video shows a mysterious "drone swarm" buzzing the US Navy's most advanced warship off the coast of California.
Six unidentified craft with flashing lights circled the USS Zumwalt for nearly 90 minutes, and one flew right over sailors' heads.
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Details of the close encounter - which remains unexplained - first emerged in secret files that were accidentally posted online by the US Navy.
Now shaky video footage filmed by a crewman on board the Zumwalt has been under freedom of information laws.
It shows four of the six craft apparently flying in square formation near the $4.4bn warship.
Two at opposite corners are seen flashing strobe-like bright lights towards the vessel, each with a different frequency.
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One flashes a red for 1/30th of a second every 1.33 seconds, and the other flashes blue once a second for around 1/6th of a second, according to analysis by UFO researcher Dave Beaty.
The encounter was recorded between 8.15pm and 9.40pm local time on April 24, 2019, in international waters to the west of the Marine Corps base at Camp Pendleton in southern California.
The Navy's documents include a map showing how the six "unmanned aircraft systems" - the official name for drones - repeatedly crossed Zumwalt's path.
The drone swarm appeared to fly in a four-mile-wide triangular route while the destroyer sails north and then south.
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Initially one unknown craft was spotted off the starboard bow at 8.15pm - recorded as 0315 "zulu" or GMT.
Ten minutes later the commanding officer on the bridge was notified of three "steady white lights".
Then at 8.30pm the crew recorded "two sets of flashing red/green lights".
The JOOD - junior officer of the deck - "determined by shape and light position that (the) lights were consistent with a UAS".
Three minutes later the starboard lookout saw one drone zooming directly across the ship's deck.
The sighting was confirmed by the port lookout after it crossed and headed away from the ship.
There was no recorded attempt to intercept or shoot down the mystery craft.
But they were filmed and photographed by crew from the Snoopie team - which stands for the Ship Nautical Or Otherwise Photographic Interpretation and Exploitation.
They are tasked with documenting dangerous, uncertain or unusual situations using commercially available cameras.
One sailor's voice is heard on the new video clip saying: "While conducting routine operations 17 nautical miles from Camp Pendelton, six UAS made multiple flyovers and circle patterns around the ship.
"Operating at various altitudes at between 300ft and 1,000ft, all appeared to fly consistent pattern, North-West, South, East, without alteration of course, speed and altitude.
"No weapons were observed."
X FILES
USS Zumwalt - the world's largest destroyer at 600ft - entered service in 2016 and is known for its sleek stealthy profile.
Its drone swarm encounter was one of several included in files that were apparently published by accident in June - and then swiftly deleted.
More than 60 pages were uploaded with the file name "proposed redaction" - suggesting the unaltered documents were not meant for public release.
The crew of the USS Harpers Ferry recorded drones that made several "dangerous" approaches.
And the USS Russell reported a flashing green triangle flying off California.
Some of the mysterious craft seen buzzing warships are thought to be spy drones.
At least two of the encounters involve a Hong Kong-flagged bulk carrier - suggesting the drones could have been launched from its deck.
However the origin of other craft spotted by US sailors is still a mystery.
Earlier this year US lawmakers grilled intelligence chiefs about the encounters as they confessed over the last year they have probed 400 sightings and 11 near misses.
It was the first hearing of its kind in 20 years.
The intelligence bosses attempted to explain how difficult it is to track these objects, and showed congressmen two videos.
And while they did not mention aliens, they did admit there are some of the 400 encounters they have on their books which are truly unexplained.
Photos of the green triangles were shown - and they were said to be of unknown drones tracked by the US Navy.
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It came off the back of a landmark Pentagon report in 2021 following the leaking of three videos showing US Navy encounters with unexplained objects.
Nasa revealed its own plan to study UFOs - but made it clear they were not explicitly looking for aliens.
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