They Swarmed the Destroyers for Days. The Logs Prove It.
In 2019 unidentified drones shadowed U.S. warships off California for a week — matching course, hovering over flight decks, shining lights on the bridge. FOIA released the ship logs two years later.
In July 2019, over several nights near the Channel Islands off Southern California, unidentified drones repeatedly swarmed U.S. Navy destroyers conducting exercises. The ships affected included the USS Kidd, USS Rafael Peralta, USS Russell, USS John Finn and USS Paul Hamilton. 12
The details came out of Navy ship logs obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by The War Zone in 2021. 3 As many as six aircraft operated around the warships at a time, often in low visibility. 2 One matched a destroyer's speed at 16 knots while hovering over its helicopter landing pad. 2 On one occasion drones illuminated a ship's bridge. 3
The Navy took it seriously enough that the response ran through NCIS, the FBI's Los Angeles field office, the Maritime Intelligence Operations Center of Third Fleet, and correspondence reaching the office of the Chief of Naval Operations. 1
They never established who was flying them. 14
The pyramids
From the same period came a separate piece of footage: night-vision video shot from the deck of the USS Russell showing pyramid-shaped objects above the ship. Released publicly in April 2021, it was confirmed authentic by the Department of Defense and identified as part of the UAP Task Force's investigation. 67
The pyramids have a strong prosaic explanation that deserves equal billing. Footage recorded through a night-vision device with a camera behind it produces bokeh — out-of-focus points of light take the shape of the lens aperture. A triangular or pyramidal aperture turns distant aircraft lights into pyramids. 8
That does not explain the drones in the ship logs. Those were tracked by crews, in multiple domains, for days.
The pyramid clip is probably a lens artefact. The swarm is documented in Navy paperwork and remains unattributed. The two are constantly conflated, and only one of them is a genuine unsolved incursion.
Five years later the same pattern would appear over Langley, over British air bases and over New Jersey. The 2019 logs are where the record starts. 5
SOURCES
This report was written by UFONN from the reporting and primary documents below. Numbers in the text correspond to this list. Every link goes to the original publisher.
- 1Mystery drones hovered over U.S. Navy destroyers off California coastNBC News
- 2Mystery Drones Kept Buzzing US Destroyers During Exercises Off CaliforniaForbes
- 3Swarmed Navy Destroyer Had Its Bridge Illuminated By Mysterious DronesThe War Zone
- 4UFOs Swarmed Navy Destroyers Off California, Records ShowCoffee or Die
- 5UFOs or Drones: What Is Swarming U.S. Navy Warships?The National Interest
- 6Leaked Video: Pyramid-like UFOs swarm Navy destroyerAmerican Military News
- 7Pentagon Confirms Pyramid-Shaped UFO Video Footage Is AuthenticScienceAlert
- 8Did Pentagon Confirm Leaked Pics of UFOs Were Taken by Military Personnel?Snopes
