SINGAPORE — Claims that the United States government had conducted a multi-decade programme to collect and try to reverse-engineer crashed unidentified flying objects (UFOs) have attracted widespread interest.

On Wednesday (July 26), the claims gained further traction when former US intelligence official David Charles Grusch testified in front of a congressional committee that he "absolutely" believes the government is in possession of "non-human biologics", that is alien remains, recovered from UFOs.

Mr Grusch previously worked for the Pentagon’s task force looking into unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), the term used by the US government to refer to UFOs.

“I was informed in the course of my official duties of a multi-decade UAP crash retrieval and reverse engineering program to which I was denied access,” he told the House of Representatives Oversight Committee, as reported by the New York Times newspaper.

Mr Grusch had earlier told The Debrief, a US-based science and tech news site, that his claims are based on “extensive interviews with high-level intelligence officials”. 

He added that the objects retrieved over decades are “of exotic origin (non-human intelligence, whether extraterrestrial or unknown origin) based on the vehicle morphologies and material science testing and the possession of unique atomic arrangements and radiological signatures”. 

When asked on Wednesday if he had any knowledge of people who have been harmed or injured in efforts to cover up extra-terrestrial technology, Mr Grusch said he did have such knowledge.

TODAY takes a closer look at Mr Grusch and his claims.

WAIT, WHY ‘UAP’ AND NOT ‘UFO’? 

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) website defines UAP as “observations of events in the sky that cannot be identified as aircraft or known natural phenomena — from a scientific perspective”. 

According to Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary, some organisations have recently started replacing the term UFO with UAP because the former carries several “problematic” connotations. 

It said that even though UFO’s literal meaning is neutral, “people tend to equate UFOs with alien spacecraft, Martian invaders, etc” — and that UAP “avoids the heavy cultural baggage” attached to UFO.

WHO IS DAVID GRUSCH?

Mr Grusch, 36, was a combat officer within the US Armed Forces during the war in Afghanistan, and is a veteran of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) — which designs, builds and operates the reconnaissance satellites of the US federal government. 

He was also the representative of the NRO to the UAP task force from 2019 to 2021 — established specifically to investigate UAPs. It has since been reorganised and expanded into the All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office to include investigations of objects operating underwater.

According to a report by the Vice media outlet, Mr Grusch assisted in drafting the National Defense Authorization Act of 2023, which includes provisions for the reporting of UFOs like whistleblower protections.

Mr Grusch told The Debrief that he left the US government on April 7, 2023 in order to “advance government accountability through public awareness”.

While UFO sightings have long been dismissed as conspiracy theories by likely cranks, Mr Grusch's somewhat impressive credentials are causing some to take a closer look at his claims.

In a 2021 NRO performance report seen by The Debrief, Mr Grusch was described as an intelligence strategist who “analysed UPA reports” and “boosted congressional leadership intel gaps [in] understanding”.

He was also assessed to be an “adept staff officer and strategist”.

Mr Karl Nell, a retired army colonel who worked with Mr Grusch on the UAP task force, told The Debrief that his assertions on the government’s reverse engineering efforts on technologies deriving from non-human intelligence were “fundamentally correct”. 

HOW SERIOUSLY SHOULD HIS CLAIMS BE TAKEN?

His allegations were backed by several other witnesses at the congressional hearing including Mr Ryan Graves, a retired navy pilot and the founder of a UAP non-profit Americans for Safe Aerospace, who claimed that he saw UAP off the Atlantic coast “every day for at least a couple years”. 

Mr Graves said that the sightings were “not rare or isolated” and were being witnessed by military aircrews and commercial pilots “whose lives depend on accurate identification”.

UAP objects had been detected “essentially where all navy operations are being conducted across the world”, he added. 

However, the US Department of Defense has denied Mr Grusch’s claims of a cover-up. 

Spokesperson Sue Gough said that investigators had not discovered “any verifiable information to substantiate claims that any programmes regarding the possession or reverse-engineering of extraterrestrial materials have existed in the past or exist currently”.

In his opening remarks at a public meeting about UAP held by NASA on May 31, All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office director Sean Kirkpatrick said that “only a very small percentage of UAP reports display signatures that could reasonably be described as anomalous”. 

He added that the office is approaching those cases with “the highest level of objectivity and analytic rigour” before reaching any conclusions. 

LACK OF DETAIL CASTS DOUBT ON CLAIMS

Mr Grusch told the committee that he could neither publicly disclose the names of those with firsthand knowledge of the supposed programme, nor state when the programme began and who authorised it — as much of that information is classified. 

According to the report by The Debrief, while "locations, program names, and other specific data" remain classified, the Intelligence Community's Inspector General was provided with these details.

Several experts in the field have equated this lack of specificity by Mr Grusch to a lack of credibility. 

Professor Joshua Semeter, who is the director of Boston University’s Center for Space Physics and a member of Nasa's UAP independent study team, said in an interview with the university’s publication BU Today that Mr Grusch's claims are “two steps removed from being Earth-shattering”. 

“Not only has he not shared any verifiable evidence — photographs, artefacts, or any other manner of data — but he also has not personally seen or touched any of the objects he references," said Prof Semeter. 

“In the long history of claims of extraterrestrial visitors, it is this level of specificity that always seems to be missing.”

Professor of astrophysics at the University of Rochester Adam Frank published an article on US website Big Think last month casting doubt on Mr Grusch’s allegations, stating that “it has all happened before”. 

“For all the hoopla surrounding the whistleblower story, it is just hearsay,” Prof Frank wrote. 

“A guy says he knows a guy who knows another guy who heard from a guy that the government has alien spaceships. There’s no evidence here that a scientist like me could use to actually determine anything.”