UNCLASSIFIED // PUBLIC RECORDPERSONNEL FILE
Ryan Graves
Former F/A-18 pilot, U.S. Navy
Ryan Graves is a former U.S. Navy F/A-18F Super Hornet pilot and a trained engineer. He joined the Navy in 2009 and, by his account, served more than a decade, including deployments in Operations Enduring Freedom and Inherent Resolve. In 2014 he was flying with Strike Fighter Squadron 11 (VFA-11) near Virginia Beach when, he says, an upgraded radar system began detecting unknown objects in the squadron’s training airspace.
Graves says the radar tracks were first dismissed as software glitches but were then corroborated by infrared sensors, and that sightings became part of daily briefs. He describes a near-miss in which a pilot reported a ‘dark gray cube inside of a clear sphere’ at the entry point of a training area off Virginia Beach, forcing two jets to take evasive action. The squadron filed a safety report, he says, but received no official acknowledgement.
On CBS’s ‘60 Minutes’ in May 2021, Graves said his squadron saw the objects ‘every day for at least a couple years,’ while adding, ‘I don’t know what it is, frankly.’ On July 26, 2023, he testified under oath before a House Oversight subcommittee with David Fravor and David Grusch. His written testimony called UAP ‘a national security and an aviation safety problem’ and said sightings ‘are not rare or isolated; they are routine.’
Graves founded Americans for Safe Aerospace in 2023 to support and collect accounts from aircrew who report UAP. At the 2023 hearing he said it had nearly 5,000 members and was working with more than 30 witnesses, most of them commercial airline pilots. He also chaired a UAP committee of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and backed the Safe Airspace for Americans Act, a bill to create a protected FAA reporting channel.
Officials and skeptics have offered ordinary explanations for some Navy footage from this period. In November 2024, AARO director Jon Kosloski told senators that the ‘Go Fast’ object, filmed off Florida, was most likely about 13,000 feet up, its apparent speed an effect of parallax. Graves has said this finding does not debunk the video. Science writer Mick West has argued that ‘Gimbal’, which Graves says his squadron recorded, is consistent with infrared glare from a distant jet.
The reporting bill Graves supports was introduced in January 2024 and reintroduced in September 2025, when Representative Robert Garcia’s office quoted Graves as the group’s executive director. He continues to frame UAP mainly as a flight-safety and national security issue, arguing that pilots need a confidential way to report what they see without fear of professional consequences.
Ryan Graves testifying, July 26, 2023. Photo: U.S. House Subcommittee on National Security (cropped) · Public domain · source
