Update for 1pm ET: The hearing is over. See our wrap story for our coverage.
If the truth is really known about what the US government knows about UFOs, we may be able to get a little closer to that today.
On Wednesday (July 26), the United States House of Representatives will hear testimony from three witnesses on Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena, or UAP, a new term that encompasses not only unidentified flying objects (UFOs) in the sky, but also any craft or phenomena seen in space or underwater that cannot be identified.
The hearing will be held by the House of Representatives Subcommittee on National Security, Boundaries, and Foreign Affairs and will feature testimony from former U.S. military and intelligence personnel who claim to have come into contact with aircraft that defy physics and known flight capabilities. defy or even have seen evidence of “non-human intelligence.”
The hearing will take place streamed live on YouTube by the House Oversight and Accountability Committee starting at 10am EDT (2pm GMT) on Wednesday (July 26). Watch it live here courtesy of the committee.
Related: The US Congress is holding UFO hearings this week. What can we learn?
Wednesday’s hearing will feature testimony from two former US Navy pilots, Ryan Graves and David Fravor, both testifying to separate highly publicized encounters with what appeared to be unconventional aircraft operating in US military airspace.
In addition, the hearing will call David Grusch as a witness. Grusch was the subject of one report Published last month in which the decorated former combat officer and veteran of the Pentagon’s intelligence community claimed to have received “extensive classified information about deep-secret programs that he says have recovered intact and partially intact craft of non-human origin.” While controversial to say the least, Grusch’s statements have received attention from both majors news media and American politicians.
Some members of the US Congress have also insinuated that hidden UFO/UAP knowledge does indeed exist that has been hidden from the public. “The bureaucrats of the Pentagon and Washington have been hiding this information for decades, and we are finally going to shed some light on it,” Representative Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) said in a House Committee on Oversight and Reform. rack. “We are bringing in credible witnesses who can give public testimony because the American people deserve the truth. We’re done with the cover-ups.’
Graves, who has spoken out about the need to better understand the UAP issue as it pertains to airspace safety, calls these unidentified phenomena an “urgent and critical national security issue” that deserves better scientific investigation. “If UAP are foreign assets, we must respond appropriately. If UAP continues to defy conventional explanation, we must invest in scientific research,” Graves said in a press statement.
This congressional hearing is just the latest in a long line of major milestones involving UFOs/UAP and the US government and its federal agencies. Nearly a year ago, the U.S. Department of Defense created the All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), which aims to collect and analyze all UFO data available to the U.S. military and intelligence community.
At a hearing in April 2023, AARO’s director stated that the agency has “so far found no credible evidence of extraterrestrial activity, out-of-world technology, or objects defying the known laws of physics.” These comments now contrast sharply with the claims of the witnesses who will testify on Wednesday.
NASA also recently held a public meeting of its independent UAP study group, and is releasing a report from the group.
