UFO Whistleblower David Grusch Claims U.S. Knows of Massive Undersea Base and Deadly Encounters With Non-Human Beings

David Grusch Claims U.S. Knows of Massive Undersea UAP Base and Violent Encounters With Non-Human Beings

Former U.S. intelligence officer and UFO whistleblower David Grusch has dramatically expanded his claims about what the American government allegedly knows about unidentified anomalous phenomena, telling Joe Rogan that officials are aware of an enormous unidentified “base of operations” beneath the ocean and recounting extraordinary reports involving recovered non-human bodies, reptilian looking beings and deadly confrontations with U.S. personnel.

The allegations, discussed by investigative journalist Ross Coulthart during a new NewsNation “Reality Check” Q&A, go substantially beyond what Grusch publicly alleged during his explosive 2023 congressional testimony. They are also, crucially, unproven. No publicly available physical evidence currently establishes that the United States possesses extraterrestrial spacecraft or biological remains, that a non-human installation exists beneath the ocean, or that American personnel have fought non-human beings.

That distinction is essential because Grusch’s latest statements combine several different evidentiary categories: information he says was provided to him by intelligence and military sources, classified records he says he reviewed, and footage he claims to have personally seen. The allegations themselves are extraordinary. The evidence necessary for the public to independently verify them remains classified, undisclosed or unavailable.

Grusch Says a Massive ‘Base of Operations’ Exists Beneath the Ocean

Among the most consequential claims from Grusch’s latest interview was his assertion that U.S. authorities know about an enormous unidentified structure beneath the ocean. When Rogan pressed him about what the government knows regarding underwater UAP activity, Grusch said he had to be careful because the subject involved sensitive Navy capabilities, but nevertheless claimed there was “some sort of base of operations” in certain locations.

Grusch described the alleged structure as extremely large, on the scale of multiple city blocks, and said he did not know when it arrived or how long it had been there. He suggested that the government possesses significantly more information about the installation than has been publicly disclosed, while stopping short of revealing details that he said could expose sensitive U.S. underwater surveillance capabilities.

Grusch also made an extraordinary pop culture comparison, saying people familiar with the underwater intelligence world had told him to think about James Cameron’s 1989 science fiction film “The Abyss” almost as a “docudrama.” The movie centers on humans encountering an advanced non-human civilization living deep beneath the ocean.

The claim intersects with a growing area of the modern UAP debate involving so called USOs, or unidentified submerged objects. Retired Navy Rear Adm. Tim Gallaudet, a former acting administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, has publicly argued that unexplained objects reportedly transitioning between the atmosphere and ocean deserve serious scientific and national security investigation. That, however, does not independently verify Grusch’s much larger claim that an enormous non-human installation exists on the seafloor.

Grusch Describes Alleged Encounter With Seven Foot ‘Reptilian’ Beings

Even more extraordinary was Grusch’s account of what he said colleagues described as a violent confrontation at a recovered craft. According to Grusch, a Tic Tac shaped object was discovered partially embedded in the ground during an alleged retrieval operation. He said information provided to him indicated that small beings resembling the stereotypical “Gray” aliens associated with decades of UFO mythology were found dead inside or around the craft.

But Grusch claimed that was not all recovery personnel encountered. He said living beings approximately seven feet tall were also present and described them as “reptilian looking,” with features he compared to a combination of reptiles and gorillas. Grusch alleged that a confrontation subsequently occurred between the beings and American personnel, resulting in U.S. casualties before the entities themselves were killed. The story is one of the most sensational allegations Grusch has made publicly. There is currently no independently verifiable evidence available to the public proving such a confrontation occurred, and the Pentagon has not publicly confirmed that American service members have ever fought non-human entities.

Grusch himself has acknowledged that portions of the account came from other people rather than from an event he personally witnessed. That distinction matters enormously when evaluating the claim: a former intelligence official repeating information allegedly obtained through classified channels is newsworthy, but it is not equivalent to publicly verifiable evidence that the underlying event occurred.

Grusch Says He Personally Saw Classified Retrieval Footage

Grusch’s claims become potentially more consequential when he discusses material he says he personally viewed. During the Rogan interview, Grusch said he had seen classified contemporary footage associated with a UAP retrieval operation. He described recovered bodies with a bluish gray appearance that were nevertheless strikingly humanoid, wearing form fitting clothing and possessing physical features he characterized as unusually attractive or almost idealized.

Grusch said information accompanying the alleged retrieval suggested biological material had undergone genomic analysis and comparison with human DNA. If authenticated, documentation proving that the government possessed biological specimens from an unknown intelligent species would represent one of the most consequential scientific discoveries in human history. But the public has not seen the footage Grusch described, the alleged bodies, genomic data, laboratory reports or chain of custody records. Without those materials, his description remains an extraordinary firsthand claim about classified evidence rather than independently established scientific fact.

The ‘Greek Gods’ Claim Leads Back to Missing Air Force General Neil McCasland

The discussion took another unusual turn when Grusch connected the alleged humanoid beings to retired Air Force Maj. Gen. William Neil McCasland, the former commander of the Air Force Research Laboratory who disappeared from his Albuquerque home on Feb. 27, 2026. McCasland’s disappearance is real and remains the subject of an active missing person investigation. The FBI joined local authorities in the search after the retired general vanished, leaving behind his phone and other personal electronic devices. Investigators have not publicly established any connection between his disappearance and UAPs.

McCasland’s name has nevertheless circulated within UFO circles for years because of emails released through WikiLeaks in which Blink-182 co-founder Tom DeLonge discussed McCasland in connection with DeLonge’s efforts to speak with senior government officials about UFOs. According to DeLonge’s account, McCasland encouraged him to consider ancient Greek gods when thinking about the appearance or nature of certain alleged non-human beings. That history has fueled intense speculation since McCasland disappeared, but speculation is not evidence. Authorities have not said his disappearance involved classified programs, UAPs, non-human intelligence or his previous work for the Air Force.

Coulthart specifically pushed back against broader internet theories suggesting that scientists or officials connected to UAP research are being systematically eliminated. He said he had not seen convincing evidence supporting claims of an organized assassination campaign, while maintaining that McCasland’s unexplained disappearance deserved continued scrutiny.

Grusch Says the Real UFO Program Is Buried Inside Other Classified Programs

Grusch also returned to one of the central allegations behind his original whistleblower complaint: that alleged UAP retrieval and reverse-engineering operations have been concealed inside deeply classified government programs where congressional oversight is extraordinarily limited. He described the mechanism as involving waived, unacknowledged Special Access Programs, some of the most tightly restricted compartments within the national security system, and suggested UAP related activities could be concealed within programs carrying innocuous names and legitimate classified missions.

Grusch and Coulthart also discussed the Atomic Energy Act and historical emergency authorities as potential legal architecture used to restrict access to information. The broader allegation is that secrecy surrounding nuclear weapons and highly classified technology became a mechanism through which information concerning recovered anomalous technology could allegedly be hidden from much of Congress and, potentially, senior elected officials. Again, this remains disputed. The Pentagon’s All domain Anomaly Resolution Office has said its investigations have not uncovered verifiable evidence that the U.S. government or private industry possesses extraterrestrial technology or that confirmed reverse engineering programs involving extraterrestrial material exist.

Defense Contractors and the Billion Dollar Ownership Question

Another major component of the discussion concerned private defense contractors. Grusch and Coulthart discussed allegations that recovered technology may have been transferred into private aerospace companies, where programs could potentially operate with additional layers of secrecy and outside ordinary government transparency requirements. Companies including Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and MITRE surfaced during the broader conversation about the defense establishment and alleged legacy programs.

There is no publicly verified evidence establishing that those companies possess extraterrestrial spacecraft or non-human technology, and merely naming a defense contractor in discussions surrounding alleged UAP programs should not be interpreted as proof of involvement. The more interesting legal question raised during the conversation concerned intellectual property. If private companies had spent decades reverse-engineering technology originally transferred from the government, Coulthart and Grusch suggested that disclosure could trigger enormous disputes over ownership, patents, trade secrets and potentially billions or trillions of dollars in economic value.

That argument offers a different explanation for alleged secrecy than the traditional UFO narrative. Instead of disclosure being blocked solely because officials fear public panic, the theory suggests that decades of classified contracting, proprietary technology and legal liability could have created an institutional system extraordinarily difficult to unwind.

Congress Remains Deeply Interested in UAP Transparency

Whatever one believes about Grusch’s most extraordinary allegations, congressional interest in UAPs is no longer confined to the political fringe. Lawmakers including Reps. Tim Burchett, Anna Paulina Luna, Eric Burlison and Jared Moskowitz, along with Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and others, have pushed for greater transparency surrounding UAP investigations, whistleblower protections and alleged government retrieval programs.

Grusch’s 2023 testimony before a House Oversight subcommittee marked a major turning point in that effort. Under oath, he told lawmakers that he had been informed of a “multi-decade UAP crash retrieval and reverse-engineering program” and alleged that “biologics” associated with recovered objects had been identified as non-human by people with direct knowledge of the program. Those allegations triggered enormous public attention but did not produce the physical evidence necessary to independently prove them. The approaching 2026 midterm elections could also change the congressional landscape surrounding UAP disclosure. Committee leadership, subpoena authority and membership on intelligence and oversight panels can significantly affect lawmakers’ ability to pursue classified testimony and government records.

The Pentagon Says It Has Found No Verified Extraterrestrial Technology

Any serious examination of Grusch’s claims must include the government’s competing position. The Pentagon’s UAP office has repeatedly stated that it has found no verifiable evidence that the U.S. government or private companies possess extraterrestrial technology. Previous Pentagon reviews have also rejected allegations that historical government programs successfully recovered and reverse engineered alien spacecraft. That does not mean every UAP has been explained. Military pilots, radar operators and other personnel have documented incidents involving objects that were not immediately identified, and the government itself acknowledges that some cases remain unresolved because available data are insufficient to reach a definitive conclusion.

“Unresolved,” however, does not mean extraterrestrial.

That distinction is frequently lost in the public UAP debate. An object that investigators cannot identify because the available sensor data are incomplete is fundamentally different from verified evidence of an advanced non-human civilization operating on Earth.

Grusch Has Now Made Claims That Demand Evidence on an Extraordinary Scale

David Grusch’s latest interview pushes the modern UAP debate into territory far beyond unidentified lights, unusual radar tracks or mysterious objects recorded by Navy pilots. He is now publicly discussing alleged underwater installations spanning multiple city blocks, multiple categories of non-human beings, recovered bodies, genomic analysis, classified retrieval footage and even lethal encounters between American personnel and alleged non-human entities.

Those claims are staggering.

They are also not publicly proven.

Grusch’s background is part of what makes the story difficult to dismiss outright. He served as an Air Force intelligence officer, worked with the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency and National Reconnaissance Office, participated in government UAP investigations and testified before Congress under oath. But credentials cannot substitute for evidence, particularly when the allegations being made would fundamentally rewrite humanity’s understanding of biology, physics, history and our place in the universe. The next phase of the UAP story therefore cannot simply consist of increasingly extraordinary testimony. If the evidence Grusch describes actually exists, retrieval footage, biological analyses, classified documentation, sensor data and physical materials, then ultimately those materials will have to survive independent scrutiny.

Until that happens, the most accurate description of this remarkable story is also the simplest: a former U.S. intelligence officer is making some of the most extraordinary allegations ever publicly associated with the American national security establishment, while the evidence capable of proving them remains hidden from the public.

Sources & Further Reading

NewsNation — Reality Check with Ross Coulthart

The Joe Rogan Experience #2560 — David Grusch transcript

New York Post — David Grusch discusses alleged non-human beings on Joe Rogan

ABC News — FBI assists search for missing retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Neil McCasland

ABC News — What investigators know about Neil McCasland’s disappearance

NewsNation — Reality Check investigation into underwater UAP reports