A former Navy fighter pilot's experiences with unidentified aerial phenomenon (UAP) led him to launch an aerospace safety and national security advocacy organization designed to call on the federal government for more transparency.
Ryan Graves joined the Navy in 2009 and went through years of intensive training as a pilot, including how to be an expert observer "in identifying aircraft with our sensors and our own eyes."
"It's our job to know what's in our operating area," Graves wrote in a Politico magazine piece published Tuesday. "That's why, in 2014, after upgrades were made to our radar system, our squadron made a startling discovery: There were unknown objects in our airspace.
"These were no mere balloons. The unidentified aerial phenomena accelerated at speeds up to Mach 1, the speed of sound. They could hold their position, appearing motionless, despite Category 4 hurricane-force winds of 120 knots. They did not have any visible means of lift, control surfaces or propulsion — in other words nothing that resembled normal aircraft with wings, flaps or engines. And they outlasted our fighter jets, operating continuously throughout the day."
After retiring from the Navy in 2019, Graves testified before Congress about what he had seen. While he says there has been "some notable coverage of the encounters" and Congress has forced the military and intelligence agencies to do more to investigate, "there has not been anything near the level of public and official attention that has been paid to the recent shootdowns of a Chinese spy balloon and the three other unknown objects."
Graves says the lack of attention is a problem and is launching Americans for Safe Aerospace (ASA), a new nonprofit organization for aerospace safety and national security. The group will "support pilots and other aerospace professionals who are reporting UAP."
"Our goal is to demand more disclosure from our public officials about this significant safety and national security problem," Graves wrote. "We will provide credible voices, public education, grassroots activism and lobbying on Capitol Hill to get answers about UAP."
Last month, the Director of National Intelligence reported that "UAP events continue to occur in restricted or sensitive airspace, highlighting possible concerns for safety of flight or adversary collection activity," citing 247 new reports over the last 17 months. The Navy has also officially recognized 11 near-misses with UAP that required pilots take evasive action and generated mandatory safety reports between 2004 and 2021.
The formally trained engineer calls for a "coordinated, data-driven response that unites the public and private sectors."
"Right now, the pieces of the UAP puzzle are scattered across silos in the military, government and the private sector," Graves said. "We need to integrate and analyze these massive data sets with new methods like AI. We also need to make this data available to the best scientists outside of government.
"New rules are needed to require civilian pilots to report UAP, protect the pilots from retribution, and a process must be established for investigating their reports. Derision or denial over the unknown is unacceptable. This is a time for curiosity."
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