USS Nimitz Carrier Strike Group 11 "Tic-Tac" AN/SPY-1B + F/A-18F ATFLIR Intercept
SOCAL Offshore Operating Area (60–100 mi SW of San Diego / Catalina) • NARA RG 38 & RG 615 / DoD AARO CSG-11 Nimitz-Princeton Case File
Benchmark multi-sensor case in PURSUE Release 03: on November 14, 2004, USS Princeton (CG-59) AN/SPY-1B phased-array radar, E-2C Hawkeye radar, F/A-18F visual aircrews (CDR David Fravor & LCDR Alex Dietrich), and AN/ASQ-228 ATFLIR IR pods tracked a 14 m (46 ft) white oblong "Tic-Tac" craft dropping from 24,384 m (80,000 ft / 24.38 km / 15.15 mi) to 15 m (50 ft) above the Pacific Ocean in 0.78 seconds (18,000+ mph / 8.05 km/s / Mach 23.47). Maritime horizon and high-altitude aerospace tracking benefits from stabilized 15x70 astronomy binoculars[↗], an all-sky meteor camera[↗], and an SDR receiver[↗] for S-band / ADS-B correlation.
Local Gemma (tier1-local-server-gemma) computes a 98/100 kinematic anomaly score—the highest in the PURSUE archive. Although peak vertical speed (8.05 km/s / 18,000+ mph / Mach 23.47) approaches lower CNEOS meteoroid entry speeds, the 14 m (46 ft) object arrested its descent at 15 m (50 ft) above the ocean, hovered over a roiling subsurface disturbance, and re-ascended to CAP point on AN/SPY-1B Radar and ATFLIR IR (3% bolide match, 1% satellite flare likelihood). Nearest cataloged NASA CNEOS bolide is cneos-fb-124 (486.9 km / 302.5 mi great-circle separation).