EARTH, Laniakea Supercluster—If the truth is out there, some members of U.S. congress seems to want to know.

In a live-broadcast on Tuesday, lawmakers convened the third official hearing on so-called UFO/UAPs—this time under the Trump administration—following headline-making sessions in 2023 and 2024 that shattered decades of taboo but left many questions unanswered.

The latest hearing, titled “Restoring Public Trust Through UAP Transparency and Whistleblower Protection,” may have gone further than ever before. Led by Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) and the Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets, the September 9 proceeding featured dramatic new footage, chilling testimony from decorated veterans, and warnings that the United States—if not the Earth itself—could be severely outmatched by mysterious intruders.

The witnesses:

Jeffrey Nuccetelli:
A former Air Force security officer who investigated multiple UAP incursions near Vandenberg Air Force Base, Nuccetelli has become a leading whistleblower calling for transparency and protection for service members who come forward.

Alexandro Wiggins:
A current U.S. Navy Senior Chief Petty Officer with decades of service, Wiggins testified about a 2023 UAP encounter aboard the USS Jackson caught on radar, warning lawmakers that unexplained objects pose immediate aviation and maritime safety risks.

Dylan Borland:
An Air Force veteran who alleges his career was derailed after reporting a UAP incident at Langley in 2012, Borland represents the growing chorus of whistleblowers speaking out about retaliation within the ranks.

George Knapp:
A veteran investigative journalist from Las Vegas, Knapp has spent more than three decades covering everything from the mafia to interstellar. Knapp officially filed into US congress a now publicly available bundle of Russian documents regarding UFOs.

Joe Spielberger:
Senior policy counsel at the Project on Government Oversight, Spielberger advocates for stronger whistleblower protections and greater government accountability in UAP investigations.

5 Major Takeaways from the September 9 Hearing

1. Startling Video Evidence: A Missile That Didn’t Work

Rep. Eric Burlison (R–MO), one of the leading government representative investigators on the issue, showed a never-before-seen video he obtained that appeared to be a Hellfire missile fired by an MQ-9 Reaper drone at a glowing orb flying off the coast of Yemen in October 2024. The missile stunned lawmakers by bouncing off the object with no visible effect, while the orb continued its path uninterrupted. Although unclear, it appears the missile may have dislodged a few pieces of the orb during impact, but then collectively continue flying alongside the orb after.

EMBED THIS TWEET

Below is the video I revealed in our
@GOPoversight
UAP hearing today, made available to the public for the first time.

October 30th, 2024: MQ-9 Reaper allegedly tracking orb off coast of Yemen.

Greenlight given to engage, missile appears to be ineffective against the target.…
pic.twitter.com/jxJwl0e00S

— Rep. Eric Burlison (@RepEricBurlison)
September 9, 2025

2. Whistleblowers Shared Chilling Personal Encounters

Multiple military veterans came forward to recount their own firsthand experiences with UAPs.

Navy Senior Chief Petty Officer Alexandro Wiggins—the first active duty officer to testify at one of these hearings—discussed a 2023 sighting off the coast of California from the USS Jackson. Wiggins allegedly witnessed the object with not just radar, but also the naked eye when he went to the ship’s deck. The video of the radar footage was previously released to the public by George Knapp during his weaponized Podcast earlier this year. Wiggins stressed the urgent implications for operational safety:

“Aviation and maritime safety: when crews and watchstanders observe objects that maneuver or accelerate in ways that does not match known profiles and do so near our ships and aircraft, that is first and foremost a safety issue.”

Similarly, Air Force veteran Jeffrey Nuccetelli testified about a series of sightings at Vandenberg Air Force Base in the early 2000s, including one where fellow service members reported an enormous rectangular craft “larger than a football field.” He told lawmakers:

“These facilities were vital and they were repeatedly visited by UAP.”

3. A UFO Incident Almost Triggered a Russian Nuclear Launch

The hearing also revisited historical cases, including a chilling event from the Cold War. George Knapp testified about declassified Soviet military files concerning a 1982 incident over a nuclear base in Ukraine, where UFOs allegedly interfered with launch controls:

“There was an incident in October of 1982 over an ICBM base where UFOs popped up… right at the end… the launch control codes for the ICBMs lit up… the missiles were fired up and ready to launch, and they could not shut it down.”

Knapp called it “chilling” to think “we were a couple of seconds away from World War III starting, and the UFOs were responsible for it.”

While Knapp had previously discussed that incident in his 2011 book Hunt for the Skinwalker, its mentioning in a congressional setting allowed Knapp to put into the public record a far larger cache of Soviet-era UFO documents that he smuggled out of Russia in the 1990s. He noted that only a fraction of those files have ever been published.

“Only about one percent of those records have ever been shared publicly.”

4. Borland Alleges Retaliation Against Whistleblowers

Former Air Force geospatial intelligence specialist Dylan Borland delivered one of the most heartrending accounts of the hearing—not for what he saw in the sky, but for what he lost on the ground.

In his written testimony, Borland described a visceral encounter—a silent, triangular craft, about 100 feet wide, hovering near Langley Air Force Base in 2012, so close it interfered with his telephone, descended silently, then shot upward without a trace of sound or wind displacement. But the true cost came later. Borland revealed that his professional life unraveled after he went public.

“Because of my direct knowledge of the reality of certain legacy UAP programs, my professional career was deliberately obstructed, and I have endured sustained reprisals from government agencies for more than a decade.”

He testified that he was effectively blacklisted, barred from prior employment roles, and subjected to workplace harassment and phishing attempts—actions he links directly to retaliation for his disclosures.

5. Whistleblower Protections, the Stalled Disclosure Act, and Need for Transparency

The hearing made clear that protecting UAP whistleblowers remains a pressing challenge. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna stressed, “in general, we need more, stronger protections for everyone as a whole. But there is a different case in point for UAP whistleblowers specifically.”

Lawmakers pointed to the stalled UAP Disclosure Act, which aimed to expand protections and ensure safe reporting.

Despite bipartisan interest, entrenched secrecy and political resistance mean the bill may not move in 2025—leaving witnesses exposed and public trust hanging in the balance. Knapp reminded lawmakers that for decades, officials dismissed UFOs as fiction while classified documents told a different story:

“The public has been told over and over since the late 40s, ‘there’s nothing to worry about here…’ Those documents paint a much different picture… ‘These things are real. They’re not fictitious. They can fly in formation, they’re evasive, and they outperform any aircraft known to exist, including ours.'”

The witnesses and lawmakers alike framed disclosure not just as an issue of curiosity, but one of national security and democratic accountability. Without transparency, they argued, the government risks eroding both public safety and public trust.