X-47B Military Drone Mistaken For UFO On D.C.’s Capital Beltway (Photo)

X-47B (Twitter)

An X-47B military drone was mistaken for a UFO in Washington, D.C., creating panic.

The X-47B was spotted at around 11:00pm Wednesday atop a flatbed truck on the Capital Beltway. Many took to Facebook and Twitter to share their UFO sighting.

Authorities, however, has confirmed it was not a UFO but the X-47B which was en route to the Patuxent Naval Air Station in southern Maryland.

"In the coming months, you can expect to see the X-47B flying over the base and surrounding area along the Chesapeake Bay," lead test engineer Matt Funk told MSNBC. 

The US military has revealed more info about the mysterious object in a press release:

"The X-47B is the first unmanned vehicle designed to take off and land on an aircraft carrier. As part of the program's demonstration, the X-47B will perform arrested landings and catapult launches at Pax to validate its ability to conduct precision approaches to the carrier. The base is one of only a few sites in the world where the Navy can run performance tests on aircraft-carrier catapult operations at a land-based facility with flight test and engineering support resources not available on a ship."

This not the first time a drone was mistaken for a UFO. The same thing happened last year when a drone was by flatbed to Pax River for practicing aircraft carrier takeoffs and landings.