Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Implications on National Security, Public Safety, and Government Transparency

“Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Implications on National Security, Public Safety, and Government Transparency ... Hearing ... Before the Subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs of the Committee on Oversight and Accountability, House of Representatives, One Hundred Eighteenth Congress, First Session July 26, 2023”

“The Subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:06 a.m., in room 2154, Rayburn Office Building, Hon. Glenn Grothman, [Chairman of the Subcommittee] presiding.”

“James Comer, Kentucky, Chairman”

“Jamie Raskin, Maryland, Ranking Minority Member”

“Glenn Grothman, Wisconsin, Chairman”

“Robert Garcia, California, Ranking Minority Member”

“Mr. Ryan Graves, Executive Director, Americans for Safe Aerospace - Oral Statement”

“Mr. David Grusch, Former National Reconnaissance Office Representative, Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force, Department of Defense”

“Commander David Fravor (Ret.), Former Commanding Officer, United States Navy - Oral Statement”

“The National Defense Authorization Act of 2022 established the all-domain anomaly resolution officer - AARO - to conduct or to coordinate efforts across the Department of Defense and other Federal agents to detect, identify, and investigate UAPs.”

“However, AARO's budget remains classified, prohibiting meaningful oversight from Congress.”

“we were even denied access to a classified briefing in a SCIF prior to this hearing due to the amount of hoops that we had to jump through to grant temporary clearance to witness Grusch, who has knowledge of classified information.”

“I am a former F-18 pilot with a decade of service in the U.S. Navy including two deployments in Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Inherent Resolve.”

“I have experienced advanced UAP firsthand and I am here to voice the concerns of more than 30 commercial aircrew and military veterans who have confided their similar encounters with me.”

“In 2014, I was an F-18 Foxtrot pilot in the Navy Fighter Attack Squadron 11, the Red Rippers, and I was stationed at NAS Oceana in Virginia Beach.”

“After upgrades were made to our jet's radar systems, we began detecting unknown objects operating in our airspace. At first, we assumed they were radar errors but soon we began to correlate the radar tracks with multiple onboard sensors, including infrared systems, eventually through visual ID.”

“During a training mission in Warning Area W-72, 10 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach, two F-18 Super Hornets were split by a UAP.”

“The object, described as a dark gray or a black cube inside of a clear sphere”

“came within 50 feet of the lead aircraft”

“was estimated to be five to 15 feet in diameter.”

“The mission commander terminated the flight immediately and returned to base. Our squadron submitted a safety report but there was no official acknowledgement of the incident and no further mechanism to report the sightings.”

“Soon these encounters became so frequent that aircrew would discuss the risk of UAP as part of their regular preflight briefs.”

“Recognizing the need for action and answers, I founded Americans for Safe Aerospace. The organization has since become a haven for UAP witnesses”

“More than thirty witnesses have come forward and almost 5,000 Americans have joined us in the fight for transparency at safeaerospace.org.”

“Pilots are reporting UAP at altitudes that appear above them at 40,000 feet, potentially in low Earth orbit or in the gray zone below the common line, making unexplainable maneuvers like right hand turns and retrograde orbits, or J hooks.”

“we would see these objects being at 0.0 Mach - that is zero airspeed - over certain pieces of the ground. ... These objects were staying completely stationary in category four hurricane winds.”

“My name is David Charles Grusch. I was an intelligence officer for 14 years both in the U.S. Air Force, both active-duty Air National Guard and Reserve at the rank of Major”

“most recently from 2021 to 2025 - excuse me, 2023 - at the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, NGA, at the GS-15 civilian level, which is the military equivalent of a full bird colonel.”

“I was my agency's co-lead in unidentified anomalous phenomena and trans medium object analysis as well as reporting to the UAP Task Force - UAPTF - and eventually, once it was established, the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office - AARO.”

“I became a whistleblower through a PPD-19 urgent concern filing in May 2022 with the intelligence community inspector general following concerning reports from multiple esteemed and credentialed current and former military and intelligence community individuals that the U.S. Government is operating with secrecy above congressional oversight with regards to UAPs.”

“I was informed in the course of my official duties of a multi-decade UAP crash retrieval and reverse engineering program to which I was denied access to those additional read-ons when I requested it.”

“I made the decision based on the data I collected to report this information to my superiors and multiple inspectors general and, in effect, becoming a whistleblower. As you know, I have suffered retaliation for my decision”

“do you believe that our government is in possession of UAPs? Mr. Grusch. Absolutely, based on interviewing over 40 witnesses over 4 years.”

“As I have stated publicly already in my News Nation interview, biologics came with some of these recoveries. Yes. ... Nonhuman, and that was the assessment of people with direct knowledge on the program I talked to that are currently still on the program.”

“Have you faced any retaliation or reprisals for any of your testimony ... Mr. Grusch. Yes. I have to be careful what I say in detail because there is an open whistleblower reprisal investigation on my behalf ... But it was very brutal and very unfortunate. Some of the tactics they used to hurt me both professionally and personally”

“In 2004, I was a commanding officer of Strike Fighter Squadron 41, the world-famous Black Aces. We were tasked to Carrier Airwing 11 stationed on board the USS Nimitz and had begun a 2-month workup cycle off the coast of California.”

“to hone not only our skills but those of the USS Princeton when they had been tracking them for 2 weeks. The problem was that there was never manned aircraft airborne when they were tracking them and this was the first day”

“is it true that you saw, in your words, a 40-foot flying Tic Tac shaped object? Commander Fravor. That is correct.”

“There were no rotors, no rotor wash, or any sign of visible control surfaces like wings.”

“No, there is none. There is no IR plume coming out and Chad, who took the video, went through all the EO, which is black and white TV and the I&R modes and there is no visual signs of propulsion. It is just sitting in space at 20,000 feet.”

“we got within a half mile of the Tic Tac, which people say that is pretty far, but in airplanes that is actually relatively close.”

“the controller came up and said, "sir, you are not going to believe this, but that thing is at your CAP point roughly 60 miles away in less than a minute."”

“The other airplane that took the video did get it on a radar. As soon as it tried to lock it, it jammed the radar, spit the lock and he rapidly switched over to the targeting pod, which you can do in the F-18.”

“What is shocking to us is that the incident was never investigated. None of my crew were ever questioned. The tapes were never taken”

“It was not until 2009, until Jay Stratton had contacted me to investigate. Unbeknownst to all, he was part of the ATIP program in the Pentagon led by Lue Elizondo.”

“I was made aware that Lue had left the Pentagon in protest and joined forces with Tom DeLonge, Chris Mellon, Steve Justice and others to form To the Stars Academy, an organization that pressed the issue with leading industry experts and U.S. Government officials.”

“It also led to the Whistleblower Protection Act in the NDAA.”

“Mr. Sean Kirkpatrick, Director of the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, the component of the DoD office that investigates UAP data, has testified before the Senate this year that his unit has found no evidence of extraterrestrial activity.”

“I proposed legislation to go in the FAA reauthorization that just said if an airline pilot has a sighting that when he makes that report to the FAA that it would come to Congress.”

“In its initial analysis there are 171 uncharacterized UAP reports - and this is the words from the report - that appear to have demonstrated unusual flight characteristics or performance capabilities.”

“[Whereupon, at 12:22 p.m., the Subcommittee was adjourned.]”