No, a viral video of three UFOs isn’t real

On July 26, a self-proclaimed whistleblower testified  before a congressional committee and claimed the U.S. was covering up evidence of unidentified flying objects (UFOs).

On Aug. 1, a video went viral on social media claiming to show three UFOs flying over New Mexico. It was captured by an “eyewitness,” the post said. A version of the video on X, formerly Twitter, has more than a million views and over 650 retweets.

Mexican journalist Jaime Maussan also posted the video with claims it was taken in the skies over Nevada. Maussan later deleted the video, but not before it racked up more than three million views.

THE QUESTION

Is this video claiming to show three UFOs real?

THE SOURCES

THE ANSWER

No, this video isn’t real. It’s footage from a video game. 

WHAT WE FOUND

This viral video doesn’t show real UFOs. It’s from a combat flight simulator video game called Digital Combat Simulator. 

VERIFY conducted a reverse image search of several frames from the viral video and traced it to a video posted to TikTok. 

That TikTok video  was posted on July 31 by  user @iceman_fox1. According to their TikTok profile, the account posts “realistic DCS videos.” DCS is an acronym for Digital Combat Simulator. DCS is a free-to-play digital battlefield game that offers realistic depictions of aircraft and other military equipment.

On Instagram, @iceman_fox1 posted the same UFO video and included “Filmed with Digital Combat Simulator” in the caption.

In an email to VERIFY, @iceman_fox1 confirmed the video was generated with Digital Combat Simulator. They said they use DCS to create multiple videos a week of military and science fiction content.