Direct answer: In naval (and related military) contexts, "fast walker" usually refers to an unidentified aerial object tracked by radar that moves at unusually high speed—NORAD/US military reporting has used "Fast Walker(s)" to describe such fast-moving radar contacts rather than a standard nautical term.

Quick details

  • Origin and use: The phrase appears in modern defense and open-source reporting about radar/space-domain monitoring, where analysts distinguish "fastwalkers" (rapid, high-speed contacts) from slower contacts; it is most commonly seen in discussions of radar tracks and unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) rather than in classic shipboard vocabulary.
  • Meaning in practice: It denotes a contact or track characterized by unusually high ground/relation speed on sensors, often with uncertain origin or propulsion, and is treated as notable for follow-up or classification.
  • Not a traditional naval jargon entry: Standard historical navy-term lists and glossaries (e.g., Naval History resources and compiled slang lists) do not show "fast walker" as a long-established seamanship term, so its usage is contemporary and technical rather than old-school deck slang.

Short example (how you might see it used)

  • "NORAD logged multiple fast walkers over the range last night; sensor teams are correlating tracks with visual reports." This implies high-speed radar tracks requiring investigation.

If you want deeper context, I can:

  1. Pull recent declassified/official notices or articles showing how U.S. military organizations have used the term.
  2. Summarize forum and news discussions where "fastwalkers" and "slowwalkers" are compared (useful to see public debate).

Which would you like next? Bottom note: Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.