Ryan Graves, a former U.S. Navy lieutenant and F/A-18F pilot, was the first active-duty fighter pilot to publicly report UAPs' tactical appearances.
The pilot reports that more data is needed on the unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP from unidentified anomalous phenomena).
"We should encourage pilots and other witnesses to come forward and pressure Congress to give priority to the UAP as a matter of national security," Graves says in an article in The Hill.
The pilot reports.
The US government, former presidents, members of Congress from both parties, and directors of national intelligence are trying to tell the American public the same unpleasant truth I shared publicly in 2019:
Objects exhibiting extreme capabilities routinely fly over our military installations and training fields. We don't know what they are and we can't mitigate their presence.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) published its second report last week for the activity of UAPs. It is short, but its findings are discouraging. Over the past year, the government has collected hundreds of new reports of mysterious objects from military pilots and sensor systems. These objects cannot be identified and "represent a risk to flight safety". The report also states that some UAPs may represent advanced technology, noting “unusual characteristics flights and possibilities performance".
Mysteriously, no UAP reports have been confirmed to be foreign so far.
Why don't we have more data?
"There is the stigma. I know the fear of stigmatization is a major issue because I was the first active duty fighter pilot to publicly report UAP tactical appearances, and it wasn't easy. There is no support or incentive for aircrew to speak publicly about this issue.
For pilots to feel comfortable, there will have to be a culture change within organizations and society at large. I have myself seen on radar and spoken to pilots who have had near misses with mystery objects off the East Sea that have caused unsafe evasive actions and safety reports.
There are 50 or 60 people who flew with me in 2014-2015 and saw UAP every day. However, only one other pilot has publicly confirmed this.
I spoke publicly in 2019, at great personal and professional risk, because nothing was happening.
The ODNI report itself notes that efforts to reduce stigma were the main reason for the increase in reports this year.
"To take the data and analyze it scientifically, we will have to uproot the lingering cultural stigma of 'UFOs' since the 1950s that has prevented pilots from reporting the phenomena and scientists from studying them.
Last September, the US Navy said all government UFO videos are classified information and the release of any additional UFO videos would "harm national security".
