Video of UFOs appearing during 1958 nuclear weapon test

This has been getting some attention over on r/UFOs
Smoking Gun: Two cameras filmed the atomic nuke sea testing 1958.
On both footages UFOs showed up immediately after the detonation

It's a great clip showing an underwater nuclear blast during Operation Hardtack

Notice the airspace above and around the splash, both before and after the explosion

At least 8 objects heavily resembling 'Tic Tac' style UFOs appear, surrounding the site
I've seen a couple good attempts at explanation, but each has since been heavily contested

1) Balloons for recording radiation levels, etc
- Why would they not be visible until after the explosion?
- Some have suggested that the blast wave 'clears up' atmosphere that was obscuring them
- I'd disagree, as even the clouds in the far distance are clear and unobscured

2) Clouds created by heat/radiation/ionic interference etc
- I've never seen nor heard of this happening before, and I've seen hundreds of these videos
- Mushroom clouds DO cause cloud formation- but not anything like that seen in this example
- They are simply too similar in size, unmoving, unchanging, and concentrated to simply be clouds

3) A hoax?
- The channel hosting the video,Atomic Tests Channel, appears very reputable
- They don't have any other content promoting UFO stuff, it's all just bomb tests
- They once even debunked a potential UFO video that they showed was a plane

What are your ideas? Does this have a credible explanation behind it?

Or is it perhaps the best UFO footage of all time?

a reply to: ADAMandEVIL

Interesting footage. They just kind of blink in out of nowhere? From outer space?

Military aircraft observing and filming the test.

a reply to: ADAMandEVIL

Fascinating. What is the distance from the camera to the detonation point?

a reply to: ADAMandEVIL

great thread, I hope it gets the traction it deserves, its what ATS is meant to be about after all

Quick question did you post this earlier? as I am sure I saw it this morning please dont tell me I have just lived through a Mandella Effect

a reply to: godsovein

Not a big believer, but you need to see the film, they definitely appear rather than fly in and stop

So that’s the idea. If and when these lunatics start flying those nukes in droves, the aliens may let one or two go, so humans learn a hard lesson, but they’ll zap the rest of them to smithereens

I seen this somewhere earlier today but cant recall where.

Could they be aircraft filming and taking measurements/readings of the blast?

originally posted by: Butterfinger
a reply to: godsovein

Not a big believer, but you need to see the film, they definitely appear rather than fly in and stop

Camera focus and panning.

a reply to: ADAMandEVIL

I would also lean towards observing aircraft or balloons. Either could have been bare aluminum, in the case of aircraft, or Mylar, in the case of balloons. Aircraft could have been painted anti-flash white by that time as well. In either case they would be highly reflective. Both anti-flash white paint scheme and Mylar weather balloons were widespread by the late 1950s. Given the lack of sounding rockets I would be more inclined to believe they are observing aircraft or balloons.

Also, the cameras pan up to follow the water column, leaving a lot of the sky unseen until after the detonation. It's possible the objects were there the entire time and simply out of frame.

Here is an aerial video from another angle, giving some validity that the objects in question are other aircraft.

Hardtack Umbrella underwater nuclear explosion footage

a reply to: ADAMandEVIL

I haven't paid to much attention to daytime water test. Where are the plasma balls that tend to show up at ground test? They don't usually last for so long though.

Ground test.
not the best example as what's circled are puff of smoke and believe.


Maybe a someone here knows.

I sure don't.

Duplicate post.

The footage would never had been released if those were flying saucers.

a reply to: ADAMandEVIL

Why would they not be visible until after the explosion?

Only the first, third, and last formation appear on camera. The rest are visible when the camera jiggles and pans onto that area of sky.

If they were balloons, I imagine they would need to be coated with highly reflective material and reflecting clouds and sunshine and giant water mushroom cloud. The blast wave and air current eddies afterward could have knocked them over a jostled them a bit.

I have no idea what those objects are.

originally posted by: Bigburgh
Where are the plasma balls that tend to show up at ground test? They don't usually last for so long though.

Ground test.

They last for about as long as the trails from the sounding rockets. I'm guessing they're another sort of munition. Considering the spacing, probably something for the high speed to catch in regards to the propagation of the shockwave. Here is a video of that test where they can be seen as smoke, not plasma.

Operation Desert Rock Nuclear testing 1950s



Atomic Bomb with Troop exercises in HD

a reply to: cmdrkeenkid

Thanks for the replies. For as many nuke test there has been over the years, there's only a handful of footage that are re shown.

a reply to: Bigburgh

A lot of the reuse of clips is because many were only recently declassified back in 2017 or 2018. Most of, if not all of, the recently declassified videos were uploaded in HD to the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory YouTube channel. There were a few hundred declassified and uploaded around then.

a reply to: cmdrkeenkid

Thank you, I just subbed their channel. Love watching these.

Much appreciated.

a reply to: Bigburgh

I like the tests where onlookers unexpectedly get clothing blown off.