House Intelligence Subcommittee holds first congressional UAP hearing in over fifty years

On 17 May 2022, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence's Subcommittee on Counterterrorism, Counterintelligence, and Counterproliferation, chaired by Rep. André Carson (D-Indiana), convened the first open congressional hearing on Unidentified Aerial Phenomena since the U.S. Air Force closed Project Blue Book in 1969.

Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security Ronald Moultrie and Deputy Director of Naval Intelligence Scott Bray testified on the public record. Bray played two short video clips, including one taken through a U.S. Navy F/A-18F's targeting pod off the U.S. East Coast, and acknowledged a backlog of approximately 400 UAP reports under review by the Department of Defense's then-newly established Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronization Group.

The hearing was followed by a closed classified session for the full subcommittee and is widely regarded as the moment Congress moved from indirect oversight, conducted through legislation and statements, to direct, in-the-room engagement with the topic.