USS Princeton
USS Princeton (CG-59) is a Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser whose SPY-1B radar system tracked unidentified aerial objects during November 2004 training exercises off the California coast, producing the sensor data that corroborated the visual accounts of F/A-18 pilots in the Nimitz UAP encounter - the most technically documented unidentified aerial phenomenon case in U.S. military history.
USS Princeton (CG-59) is a Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser commissioned November 11, 1989, homeported at Naval Base San Diego. The ship is equipped with the Aegis Combat System and the SPY-1B passive phased-array radar - at the time of the 2004 events, among the most sophisticated shipborne radar systems in the U.S. Navy. Princeton served as the command ship of Carrier Strike Group 11 (CSG-11) centered on the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier during pre-deployment training exercises in November 2004.1
The 2004 Nimitz UAP Encounter
For approximately two weeks beginning around November 10, 2004, Princeton's SPY-1B radar system tracked objects performing maneuvers inconsistent with known aircraft or natural phenomena: objects appearing at approximately 80,000 feet altitude, descending rapidly to 20,000 feet, hovering, and then disappearing from radar. The radar system had been recently upgraded; Princeton's crew initially attributed the unusual tracks to a software fault and recalibrated the system, but the anomalous returns persisted and were confirmed as real sensor data.
On November 14, 2004, Princeton's tactical officer vectored Commander Dave Fravor and Lieutenant Commander Alex Dietrich - flying F/A-18F Super Hornets from the USS Nimitz - toward one of the tracked objects. Fravor and Dietrich made visual contact with an approximately 40-foot oblong white object (described by Fravor as a "Tic Tac" shape) hovering at approximately 20,000 feet over a disturbed area of ocean surface, performing maneuvers that included mirroring Fravor's approach trajectory before departing at a velocity his experienced pilot's eye estimated far exceeded any known aircraft. Princeton's radar lost the contact and relocated it approximately 60 miles away within seconds.
Princeton's radar records and the data recorded by an F/A-18 ATFLIR targeting pod during a subsequent engagement by another crew were among the sensor data preserved and later released. The FLIR footage (the "Tic Tac video") was officially acknowledged and released by the Department of Defense in April 2020 as authentic U.S. Navy sensor recording.2
Institutional Significance
The Princeton's role in the Nimitz encounter made it a central exhibit in subsequent official investigations of UAP. The ship's SPY-1 radar data - tracking objects with performance characteristics including instantaneous acceleration, hypersonic velocities, and apparent lack of conventional propulsion signatures - provided the sensor corroboration that distinguished the Nimitz encounter from purely anecdotal witness accounts.
The Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP), the classified DOD program run by Lue Elizondo that investigated UAP from 2007 to 2012, specifically studied the Nimitz events, including the Princeton's sensor data. The UAP Task Force established in 2020 and the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) established in 2022 both referenced the Nimitz/Princeton encounter as a foundational case in their documentation of UAP incidents requiring investigation.1
Sources
- U.S. Department of Defense. Preliminary Assessment: Unidentified Aerial Phenomena. Office of the Director of National Intelligence, June 25, 2021. ↩
- Cooper, Helene, Ralph Blumenthal, and Leslie Kean. "Glowing Auras and 'Black Money': The Pentagon's Mysterious U.F.O. Program." The New York Times, December 16, 2017. ↩
Local network
USS Princeton's direct connections. Click any node to navigate, drag to pan, scroll (or pinch) to zoom. + 2‑hop expands the neighborhood one level further.