Speaking ahead of the upcoming release of the Pentagon’s report on Unidentified Aerial Phenomena, former US Navy Lieutenant Ryan Graves opened up about his own alleged encounters with airborne objects of unclear origin.
According to CBS News, Graves revealed that he and other pilots of his F/A-18 fighter squadron detected "strange, maneuverable and unidentified objects" in the restricted airspace southeast of Virginia Beach.
These detections apparently occurred on a regular basis, taking place practically every day for two years straight starting in 2015, with Graves remarking that pilots eventually began taking them for granted.
"I am worried, frankly. You know, if these were tactical jets from another country that were hanging out up there, it would be a massive issue," he said during an interview on 60 Minutes. "But because it looks slightly different, we're not willing to actually look at the problem in the face. We're happy to just ignore the fact that these are out there, watching us every day."
While Graves called these objects a "threat to security", the media outlet notes, he said that pilots who witnessed UAP apparently have different opinions on what these objects might actually be, with "secret US technology" and "enemy observation platform" being some of the possible explanations.
"This is a difficult one to explain. You have rotation, you have high altitudes. You have propulsion, right? I don't know. I don't know what it is, frankly," he said while watching one of the unclassified videos. "I would say, you know, the highest probability is it's a threat observation programme."