Sky Watcher

Skywatcher (also written Sky Watcher) is a private group that described itself as an "independent initiative focused on aerial intelligence, advanced sensing, and unconventional aerospace research." It was announced in January 2025 in connection with the NewsNation special "Hunting UFOs: The Crash Retrieval Whistleblower," and NewsNation described it on April 7, 2025 as "a private group known as Skywatcher," "founded by UFO whistleblower Jake Barber."¹² Its website names Jacob Barber, James Fowler, Alex Klokus, Dan Flechsenhaar, Garry Nolan, Joseph DiNoto, Fred Baker and Don Paul Bales on its About page.³

Formation and founders

NewsNation described Barber as the founder of Skywatcher and reported on January 16, 2025 that his "Skywatcher Team" had deployed "on behalf of the U.S. government" to investigate the 2024 East Coast drone sightings, and that in August 2024 the team had conducted "their own operation, with a psionic asset, to see if they could summon a UAP themselves."¹ A later NewsNation column by Coulthart gave the founders as "Jake Barber, James Fowler and financier Alex Klokus."⁴ The writer Jimmy of the UAP Files newsletter stated in August 2026 that the Skywatcher YouTube account was created on January 18, 2025, six days before Barber's January 24, 2025 appearance on Coulthart's "Reality Check," and that Klokus "personally registered the skywatcher.ai domain in his name in December 2024."⁵ Jason Colavito's blog wrote on January 19, 2025 that Steven Greenstreet had reported that Barber "launched his own UFO organization, Skywatcher, in November, and its website is owned by Alex Klokus, the co-founder of the SALT conference, where UFO figures frequently speak to tech and financial elites."⁶

The website's FAQ states that Skywatcher "is funded through private partnerships and professional consulting engagements," and, in answer to the question whether it is "a direct extension, surrogate for, or acting as a public messaging conduit for the US Government or any element of the US Intelligence Community," answers "No. Skywatcher is an independent and private entity." It also states that it does not "currently claim possession" of recovered materials, although it is "actively engaged in the public recovery and analysis of exotic aerospace materials."⁷ It lists 20 or more experts and "400+ years of combined" experience, and describes its approach as bridging "Special Operations, Advanced Sensing, & Non-Traditional Air Defense Techniques."⁷ Its research page lists a "Skywatcher Discovery Framework," described as "our proposed model for responsible UAP engagement, civilian access to data, and long-term transparency."⁸

Officers, investors and filings

No Form D filing by an issuer named Skywatcher was found in a full-text search of the Securities and Exchange Commission EDGAR database restricted to Form D on October 3, 2026, and a search for "Jake Barber" and "Jacob Barber" in Form D filings returned none.⁹ A search of OpenCorporates for the name returned several unrelated state registrations (including Delaware entities named Skywatcher Technologies Corporation, file number 10021279, and Skywatcher Technologies Initiative LLC, file number 4376561, with registered agents and no public officer data), none of which has been tied by any source to Barber, Fowler or Klokus.¹⁰ Klokus appears as a named officer, director or managing member in Form D filings of other issuers. Futurism, LLC (Brooklyn, New York; Form D signed December 19, 2016; first sale November 22, 2016; total offering 6,000,652 dollars, all sold, one investor) lists Alexander Klokus and Dan Sutera as executive officers and directors and Johnson Bryan and Michael G. Clark as directors. Theo Rewards, Inc. (New York; Form D filed February 3, 2020; 300,000 dollars offered and sold) lists "Alexander Lockwood Klokus" as director, co-chief executive officer and chief financial officer and Ankur Jain as director, co-chief executive officer and secretary. SALT Fund I, L.P. (Palm Beach Gardens, Florida) lists Klokus and Alexander Scaramucci as managing members of the general partner; its Form D of March 16, 2021 shows a 25,000,000 dollar offering with nothing yet sold, and an amended Form D of July 6, 2021 shows a 40,000,000 dollar offering with 34,585,000 dollars sold to 91 investors, first sale March 17, 2021. Kyber Capital Crypto Fund I LP (Form D August 24, 2022; indefinite offering, none sold) lists Klokus and "Alexander Joseph Scaramucci" as managing members of the general partner and investment manager, SALT Fund Management, LLC. Tomorrow Farms Inc. (New York) lists Ben Berman as chief executive officer, Scaramucci as treasurer and Klokus as secretary in its Form D of May 24, 2022 (8,500,000 dollars offered, 8,255,000 sold to 21 investors) and, as Tomorrow Farms, PBC, in a Form D filed April 29, 2024 (11,849,995 dollars offered, 4,765,635 sold to six investors). Further filings list Klokus and a Scaramucci together as directors of Microcapital, Inc. (East Hampton; Form D November 7, 2024; 1,535,000 dollars sold) and Radial Health, Inc. (Salt Lake City; Form D April 29, 2024; 8,499,990 dollars offered, 7,797,992 sold), and as executive officers ("Alex Klokus" and "AJ Scaramucci") of Shuttle Labs LLC (New York; Form D November 28, 2022; 25,000 dollars).¹¹ The name is recorded here exactly as filed ("Alexander Scaramucci," "Alexander Joseph Scaramucci," "Scaramucci Alexander," "Alexander J Scaramucci," "AJ Scaramucci"); none of the filings gives a middle or alternate name connecting the filer to any other person of the surname, and the filings do not mention Skywatcher.¹¹ Separately, a Form D of Solari Capital funds beginning December 2024 (for example Solari Capital Fund III, L.P., Form D December 19, 2024) lists "Alexander Scaramucci" as managing member of the general partner.¹¹

Federal Election Commission records list two contributions of 25 dollars (September 12, 2019) and 5 dollars (June 28, 2019) by an "Alex Klokus" of Brooklyn, employer and occupation "self," to ActBlue, and no other contributions under that name; a separate FEC entry of June 15, 2023 lists one contribution of 250 dollars, through ActBlue to Yassamin Ansari for Congress, by "Alexander Scaramucci" of San Francisco with employer "Solari; SALT."¹² The Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act database returned no filing for a client or registrant named Skywatcher or Sky Watcher on October 3, 2026, and a USAspending.gov search of contract awards to a recipient named "SKYWATCHER LLC" returned none.¹³¹⁴

Field operations

The Skywatcher media page lists two videos. "Skywatcher Part I: The Journey Begins" is described as including interviews with Klokus, Barber, Nolan, David Grusch, Col. Karl Nell and Baker, followed by an attempt "to replicate the process firsthand." "Skywatcher Part II: Mapping the Unknown" is described as introducing Fowler, "who leads the technology team," a taxonomy of nine UAP classes, and field work with "Dr. Garry Nolan, Alex Klokus, Matt Pines, and others," using "electromechanical signaling ('machine calling') and neuromeditative interaction ('psionic calling')."¹⁵ The nine classes on its research page include Tetra, Tic Tac, jellyfish and manta ray; its Tic Tac class is described as seen "with the Manta Ray in proximity."⁸

On April 7, 2025 NewsNation reported Coulthart's statement that Skywatcher used a "secret location known as 'The Range'" and an "electro-mechanical dog whistle," that "every time they use their dog whistle, it's worked 100% of the time in summoning the phenomenon," and that the group said it had hosted representatives of the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office "at its private base."² Coulthart wrote in August 2026 that the base was at Sierra Blanca, Texas, southeast of El Paso, Texas, and that Skywatcher operated there "until July" 2025.⁴

Cessation and later reporting

Coulthart wrote that Skywatcher's last post on X was on December 25, 2025, that nothing had been posted on the website since Fowler left "in mid-August last year to follow what he described as a new opportunity in aerial intelligence," and that "multiple insiders" had told NewsNation that by its last field operation in July 2025 Skywatcher "was working with and reporting to a number of government agencies, including NASA, the Department of Defense and several intelligence agencies, including the Central Intelligence Agency."⁴ He stated that a Federal Aviation Administration notice to airmen posted on November 8, 2025 closed airspace southeast of El Paso through November 7, 2026 as "national defense airspace," that it was canceled on November 14, 2025, and that he had "learned the TFR was initiated by the Defense Department's Joint Special Operations Command liaison to the FAA and imposed 'to shoot down drones.'"⁴ He added that "Sources in the Trump administration" told him the government was using "the same so-called dog-whistle" and "psionic summoners" in operations at White Sands Missile Range, and that "White House sources" said Donald Trump had personally authorized it; these statements are Coulthart's, attributed to unnamed sources.⁴ Coulthart's column also describes a February 10, 2026 closure of airspace over El Paso by the Federal Aviation Administration, rescinded about seven hours later; he wrote that The New York Times reported the closure followed use by immigration officials of an antidrone laser shared by the Pentagon against what turned out to be a party balloon, and that the administration had first cited cartel drones; he called the cartel-drone explanation one that "made no sense."⁴ On August 7, 2026 NewsNation published a Coulthart question-and-answer segment titled "Skywatcher didn't disappear, it went government."¹⁶

The Defense Department's response to Barber's January 2025 claims, given by spokesperson Sue Gough, was that it "has not discovered any verifiable information to substantiate claims that any programs regarding the possession or reverse-engineering of extraterrestrial materials have existed in the past or exist currently."¹⁷ On February 24, 2025 NewsNation reported that the department confirmed it was investigating Barber's claims, and Coulthart said that AARO director Jon Kosloski had indicated his office was talking with whistleblowers such as Barber.¹⁸