At unprecedented UFO hearing, Americans told pilots face tech 'far superior' than theirs

Objects that stop in midair, then go in the other direction, ones that remain stationary in 130 mph-plus winds – these were just two accounts of what U.S. pilots are encountering in the missions, a group of retired military members told Congress on Wednesday about unidentified flying objects, or UFOs.

The objects are part of what is more officially known as the country's "unidentified anomalous phenomena," a topic that is of increasing concern to lawmakers and other Americans, in no small part because they fear the U.S. is losing to ground to rivals in the race for superior artificial intelligence. 

And they fear the U.S. military and intelligence community know more than they're telling. 

"There lies a pressing demand for government transparency and accountability," said Wisconsin GOP Rep. Glenn Grothmen, chairman of the House subcommittee on National Security, the Border and Foreign Affairs, which held the hearing.

Retired Navy Cmndr. David Fravor described to the panel his personal encounters with unidentified aerial objects, saying, "The technology that we faced was far superior than anything that we had. ... And there's nothing we can do about it.”

He also suggested some of the objects have been captured and efforts have been made to reverse engineer their technology – but that the U.S. is still facing a national security threat over the superiority.

“We have nothing that can stop in midair and go the other direction, nor do we have anything that can, like in our situation, come down from space, hang out for three hours, and go back up,” Fravor also said.

Retired Navy Pilot Ryan Graves testified there are far more UAPs than are known.

“As we convene here, UAP are in our airspace, but they are grossly underreported,” he said.

The former F-18 pilot also said his crew has seen objects do what no U.S. military craft can do – including hovering at “zero air speed” and staying “completely stationary" in Category 4 hurricane winds, then accelerating to supersonic speeds.

Graves said UAP sightings became "so frequent" during his service that aircrew would discuss the risk of them as part of their regular pre-flight briefs.

“If everyone could see the sensor and video data I’ve witnessed, our national conversation would change,” he also said.

The Pentagon's All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office has investigated about 800 UAP reports since the division was created last year, according to CBS News.

Retired Air Force intelligence officer David Grusch said he faced retaliation for becoming a whistleblower.

“It was very brutal," he said, "the tactics they used to hurt me both professionally and personally."

All three expressed a desire for more transparency and a safe system to report UAP sightings, claiming there’s a “stigma” associated with doing so, along with alleged dangers.

Grusch also said he was “absolutely” certain the U.S. government has UAPs in its possession.

On the question of whether the U.S. has found “bodies of the pilots” of allegedly crashed UAPs, he said non-human biologics came with some of these recoveries.

A Defense Department spokeswoman told Fox News the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office "has not discovered any verifiable information to substantiate claims that any programs regarding the possession or reverse-engineering of extraterrestrial materials have existed in the past or exist currently.”

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