The 2023 UAP Hearing
Subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs
July 26, 2023
Three witnesses sat before Congress under oath and penalty of perjury. A decorated Navy combat pilot described an object that outperformed every known aircraft. A former intelligence officer alleged a multi-decade crash retrieval programme hidden from Congressional oversight. A fighter pilot turned safety advocate testified that military aviators encounter unidentified objects routinely and cannot report them without professional consequences. The hearing lasted two hours and forty-one minutes. Over five million people watched it live.
Full Hearing Video
The complete July 26, 2023 hearing, "Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Implications on National Security, Public Safety, and Government Transparency." Two hours and forty-one minutes.
Source: Wikimedia Commons (Public Domain, U.S. Government work)
The Witnesses
A whistleblower, a combat pilot, and a safety advocate. All testified under oath.
Former USAF officer and National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) representative to the UAP Task Force. Filed a complaint with the Intelligence Community Inspector General in 2022, alleging the existence of a multi-decade UAP crash retrieval and reverse-engineering programme withheld from Congressional oversight. He told the subcommittee he had been informed of non-human biologics recovered from crash sites and that he experienced retaliation after filing his complaint.
Flew F/A-18F Super Hornets with VFA-11 off the USS Theodore Roosevelt. Between 2014 and 2015, Graves and his squadron encountered unidentified objects on radar and infrared sensors during training operations in the W-72 military warning area off the Virginia coast. The objects appeared nearly every day. He left active duty and founded Americans for Safe Aerospace to give military aircrew a channel for reporting UAP encounters without career consequences. His testimony focused on the failure of existing reporting systems and the stigma that silences pilots.
Commanding officer of VFA-41 (the Black Aces) aboard the USS Nimitz. On 14 November 2004, Fravor and Lt. Cmdr. Alex Dietrich were vectored to intercept an unknown contact off the coast of San Diego during the Nimitz Carrier Strike Group exercises. He described a white, featureless object roughly 40 feet long, shaped like a Tic Tac, hovering above a churning disturbance in the ocean. When he descended toward it, the object mirrored his movements, crossed his nose, and vanished. It reappeared moments later at his CAP point, 60 miles away.
Key Testimony
Under oath and penalty of perjury, before the United States Congress.
I was informed, in the course of my official duties, of a multi-decade UAP crash retrieval and reverse-engineering programme to which I was denied access.David Grusch, responding to Rep. Burchett
Grusch testified that he had been told by individuals with direct knowledge that the U.S. government possesses intact and partially intact craft of non-human origin. When Rep. Jared Moskowitz asked directly whether the government had non-human biologics, Grusch answered in the affirmative. He stated he could not elaborate further in an open setting due to classification constraints, but that he had provided specifics in a classified briefing to the Inspector General.
He also testified to experiencing retaliation after filing his ICIG complaint: professional reprisals and personal threats he described as both administrative and intimidating. He told the subcommittee that other individuals within the intelligence community had corroborated his claims and that some feared coming forward.
The stigma attached to UAP is real and powerful and challenges national security. If everyone who saw something was willing to report, we would have far more data.Ryan Graves, opening statement
Graves described the encounters his squadron experienced off Virginia Beach during 2014 and 2015. Objects appeared on the AN/APG-79 AESA radar, on the ATFLIR targeting pod, and occasionally as visual contacts. One near-miss between a UAP and an F/A-18F was reported through the Aviation Safety Reporting System, but the wider pattern of daily sightings went unreported for months because no mechanism existed to document them and no one wanted to be the pilot who filed that kind of report.
He testified that Americans for Safe Aerospace had received reports from over 30 military and commercial witnesses since its founding, and that the problem extended well beyond the Navy.
The technology that we faced is far superior to anything that we had at the time, have today, or are looking to develop in the next ten years.Cmdr. David Fravor (Ret.), describing the Tic Tac encounter
Fravor walked the subcommittee through the 14 November 2004 intercept in detail. The USS Princeton had been tracking anomalous returns on the AN/SPY-1 radar for over a week. When Fravor descended to investigate, the Tic Tac object matched his altitude changes, then accelerated out of visual range in under a second. A second aircraft, piloted by Lt. Cmdr. Chad Underwood, recorded the object on FLIR shortly afterward. That footage became the now-declassified "FLIR1" video, released by the Department of Defence in 2020.
No engine exhaust. No visible flight surfaces. No sonic boom despite apparent supersonic acceleration. Fravor, who had logged over 3,500 flight hours in tactical aircraft including combat operations in Iraq, testified he had never seen anything like it before or since.
What Was Disclosed
The claims entered into the Congressional Record on 26 July 2023.
Crash retrieval and reverse engineering. Grusch alleged a multi-decade programme to retrieve and reverse-engineer craft of non-human origin. He said the programme operated outside normal Congressional oversight, that its existence had been confirmed to him by multiple officials with direct knowledge, and that he had reported the full details to the ICIG and to the Senate Intelligence Committee in classified settings.
Non-human biologics. When asked directly by Rep. Moskowitz whether biologics had been recovered, Grusch confirmed that "non-human biologics" came with some of the recoveries. He did not describe their nature in the open hearing.
Retaliation against the whistleblower. Grusch told the subcommittee he had faced both administrative and personal retaliation after filing his complaint. He described threats that he characterised as intimidation, and said other potential witnesses had been discouraged from coming forward through similar means.
Routine military encounters. Graves testified that UAP encounters in restricted military airspace were not rare events. His squadron saw objects near-daily for months. The reporting infrastructure did not exist to capture these encounters, and the professional cost of speaking up kept most aircrew silent.
Performance beyond known technology. Fravor described flight characteristics that no known aircraft, drone, or missile system can replicate: instantaneous acceleration, no visible propulsion, hypersonic speeds without sonic boom, and apparent awareness of his own aircraft's movements.
Bipartisan engagement. The questioning came from both sides of the aisle. Republican members Tim Burchett (TN), Anna Paulina Luna (FL), Andy Ogles (TN), and Eric Burlison (MO) pressed on crash retrieval programmes and government secrecy. Democrats Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY), Jared Moskowitz (FL), Robert Garcia (CA), and Jamie Raskin (MD) focused on oversight failures, classification abuse, and the rights of whistleblowers. There was no partisan divide on the core questions.
Congressional Response
What happened in the weeks and months that followed.
The hearing triggered a legislative chain reaction that moved faster than any previous UAP-related effort in Congress.
Schumer-Rounds UAP Disclosure Act. On 14 July 2023, twelve days before the hearing, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senator Mike Rounds introduced the UAP Disclosure Act of 2023 as an amendment (S.Amdt.797) to the FY2024 National Defence Authorisation Act. Modelled explicitly on the JFK Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992, the bill proposed an independent review board with subpoena power to compel disclosure of UAP-related records. The timing was deliberate. Grusch's allegations had already circulated through classified channels and media reporting, and the Senate moved to legislate before the House hearing aired them publicly.
NDAA FY2024 provisions. The final National Defence Authorisation Act for Fiscal Year 2024, signed into law on 22 December 2023, included a stripped-down version of the Disclosure Act. The independent review board with subpoena power was removed during conference negotiations, reportedly after lobbying from defence and intelligence community stakeholders. What survived: an expanded mandate for the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), new whistleblower protections for individuals with UAP-related knowledge, and a requirement for a historical records review.
Bipartisan UAP Caucus. Representatives Burchett and Luna, alongside other members who had participated in the hearing, formalised bipartisan coordination on UAP oversight. This informal caucus pushed for follow-up hearings and additional witness depositions throughout late 2023 and into 2024.
Path to the 2024 and 2025 hearings. The momentum from July 2023 carried directly into the November 2024 Senate hearing and the continuing House oversight efforts in 2025. Several witnesses who testified in 2024 cited the 2023 hearing as the reason they felt safe enough to come forward.
S.Amdt.797: UAP Disclosure Act of 2023
Introduced by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Senator Mike Rounds (R-SD), 14 July 2023. Proposed an independent review board with subpoena power, modelled on the JFK Records Act, to compel disclosure of UAP-related government records. The review board provision was removed during NDAA conference. Remaining provisions were enacted as part of the National Defence Authorisation Act for FY2024 (Public Law 118-31), signed 22 December 2023.
