That's not just unusual. That's physically impossible. Or at least, it should be.
Let's start with the basics, because this is where things get properly strange. Water is roughly 800 times denser than air. The drag forces on any object moving through it increase exponentially with speed. The Soviet supercavitating torpedo – one of humanity's most advanced underwater weapons – manages about 230 mph by creating a gas bubble around itself. It's also uncontrollable, lasts mere minutes, and requires absolutely colossal amounts of energy.
Now consider the 2004 Nimitz incident. Commander David Fravor's encounter off San Diego is famous for the aerial "Tic Tac" craft, but what's less discussed is what happened beforehand. His wingman, pilot Jim Slaight, reported a cross-shaped disturbance beneath the water, with something large moving just below the surface. The object Fravor then encountered performed aerial manoeuvres that would generate forces exceeding 600G – fatal to any human pilot, and frankly, destructive to any conventional material we know of.
When these objects transition between water and air? No splash. No steam explosion. No sonic boom. They just... slip through, as if the medium doesn't matter.
That's your first clue we're not dealing with conventional physics.
Here's where we venture into territory that sounds like science fiction, but might actually be the most logical explanation – which is a somewhat disturbing thought in itself.
What if these craft aren't entirely in our dimension? Physicist Jack Sarfatti has proposed that advanced civilisations might manipulate what's called "metric engineering" – essentially warping spacetime around a craft. If you create a bubble of altered space around an object, the object isn't technically moving through the water at all. The space containing the water is moving, whilst the craft remains stationary within its own localised spacetime.
This would explain the lack of cavitation beautifully. No friction, no drag, no heat buildup – because there's no actual contact with the medium. The water and the craft exist in slightly offset dimensions, close enough to interact gravitationally but not physically. It sounds absurd, I know, but it's actually consistent with Einstein's field equations. We simply lack the technology – or the energy – to create such effects.
The trans-medium capability – moving seamlessly between air and water – suddenly makes sense under this model. If you're manipulating spacetime rather than pushing through matter, the density of the medium becomes largely irrelevant.
There's another possibility, though, and it's even more profound. What if these craft operate under physical laws that simply aren't accessible to matter as we know it?
Quantum mechanics already shows us that reality behaves very differently at different scales. Particles can exist in multiple places simultaneously. They tunnel through barriers they shouldn't be able to cross. Entangled particles affect each other instantaneously across vast distances, seemingly violating the speed of light limit.
What if whoever built these craft has learned to apply quantum principles at macroscopic scales? Materials that exist in superposition states – simultaneously solid and intangible. Propulsion systems that exploit quantum tunneling to bypass the messy business of acceleration altogether.
The 1967 Shag Harbour incident off Nova Scotia provides a fascinating case study. Multiple witnesses watched a craft crash into the water. Naval vessels rushed to investigate and tracked something large moving underwater for days, even following it as it travelled underwater for miles before vanishing. Divers found no wreckage. No debris. Nothing.
If a craft could quantum-tunnel its damaged components away, or shift them into another dimensional state, you'd see exactly this: a definite impact, trackable underwater movement, then absolute disappearance without trace.
Of course, all of this requires truly staggering amounts of energy. Warping spacetime, manipulating quantum states at large scales, creating interdimensional bubbles – we're talking about power sources that make nuclear reactors look like AA batteries.
But here's the thing: if you can manipulate spacetime itself, you potentially have access to the zero-point energy field – the quantum foam of virtual particles constantly appearing and disappearing in "empty" space. It's everywhere, it's enormous, and if you could tap it, energy ceases to be a limitation at all.
The Puerto Rico Trench incidents, where USOs have been tracked repeatedly by the US Navy, often show these objects loitering at depths exceeding 20,000 feet. The pressure at that depth is roughly 9,000 pounds per square inch. Yet these craft apparently sit there, unbothered, before accelerating away at impossible speeds.
The honest answer is: utterly baffled, but with tantalising hints. These objects behave as if our physical laws are mere suggestions rather than hard rules. Whether through dimension-shifting technology, mastery of quantum mechanics at scales we can't comprehend, or manipulation of spacetime itself, something is moving through our oceans with contemptuous ease.
And perhaps most unnervingly – they've been doing it for decades, possibly longer, whilst we've been staring at the stars.
