Office of the Secretary of Defense: 08_Go_Fast

UNCLASSIFIED
20
UNCLASSIFIED
Figure 14: Starting and possible ending locations of the UAP given windspeed effect on the flight path of the F/A-
18. Black line represents the “no wind” case.
To expand upon this analysis and determine if there are any outlying conditions beyond the four
directions considered, the F/A-18 flight path and resulting UAP path was calculated for all wind
directions between 0° and 360° at 1° increments. Figure 13 shows the difference in the UAP
heading and the wind heading at 3,962 m as a function of the wind heading on the F/A-18. Each
of the headwind, crosswind, and tailwind cases are marked with the appropriately colored lines.
Note that there are two angles where the difference is 0° indicating the UAP is moving exactly
with the wind. Figure 14 shows the difference between the calculated UAP speed with the
contribution of the wind to the UAP speed at 3,962 m removed. This “intrinsic speed” of the
UAP represents the speed that cannot be accounted for by the wind “pushing” it and assumed to
be inherent with the UAP (e.g. a propulsion system). The minimum intrinsic speed occurs near
the case of the headwind, and maximum in the case of a tailwind. These findings indicate that
the four specific cases considered sufficiently constrain the estimated performance of the UAP in
terms of speed and heading.08Page determined to be Unclassified
Reviewed by Chief of Staff, AARO
IAW FY24 NDAA, Section 1841(a)(1)(C)
Date: 2/14/2025