CIA-UAP-D023, Intelligence Information Cable, USS Gyatt Radar and Visual Tracking, 1963

CIA-UAP-D023 is a declassified CIA information cable reporting concurrent radar and optical tracking of high-velocity unidentified contacts by the guided missile destroyer USS Gyatt (DDG-1). The document was declassified and released publicly for the first time as part of PURSUE Release 05 on August 7, 2026. The tracking incident occurred on May 8, 1963, in the Atlantic Ocean. ¹²³

  Provenance and Context

The document is an Intelligence Information Cable distributed by the Central Intelligence Agency, based on a report from the U.S. Navy. The USS Gyatt (DDG-1), an early guided missile destroyer equipped with an advanced sensor suite for its era, logged the contacts and passed the report up the chain. The CIA then circulated the cable to the wider intelligence community.³

  Detailed Content / Analysis

The cable states that the USS Gyatt held radar and optical tracks on the same contacts at the same time in the Atlantic Ocean. Crew visual observations matched the ship's radar returns. The contacts' speed and flight paths did not match any aircraft known to be operating in the area at the time.³

  What the Record Supports

The record establishes that the USS Gyatt logged concurrent radar and visual tracks on high-velocity contacts in May 1963 and that the CIA distributed the report as a cable. It does not identify what the contacts were.³

  References

  References

1. war.gov ↩

2. war.gov ↩

3. war.gov ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴