Rep. Tim Burchett is once again putting UFOs — or, more officially, unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) — back into the national spotlight.
The Tennessee Republican, who has become one of Capitol Hill’s most outspoken advocates for UAP transparency, is drawing renewed attention after suggesting that extraterrestrials may be operating from multiple underwater bases off the U.S. coast.
As with most viral UFO moments, the reactions were mixed. Some users leaned into the spectacle, joking that aliens might simply be searching for better WiFi beneath the sea. Others expressed skepticism, tying the resurfaced claims to broader political conspiracy theories. But at the center of the conversation is Burchett’s account of what he says he’s been told in classified briefings.
In recent interviews, including appearances in early 2025 on conservative news outlets, Burchett recounted an alleged conversation with an unnamed Navy admiral who described detecting a massive unidentified submerged object (USO) via sonar. According to Burchett, the object was roughly the size of a football field and moved at speeds far exceeding known submarine capabilities.
Typical U.S. military submarines top out at around 40 knots (about 46 mph). Burchett, however, has referenced speeds between 200 and 500 knots in some classified accounts — numbers that, if accurate, would represent a dramatic leap beyond publicly acknowledged propulsion technology.
The congressman has speculated that there could be “five or six” such underwater installations positioned in deep ocean regions off American coastlines. With oceans covering 71% of Earth’s surface — much of it unexplored — Burchett argues that the sea would be an ideal hiding place for advanced intelligences seeking to avoid detection.
“If they were hostile,” he has quipped in past interviews, “they would have barbecued us a long time ago.”
Burchett’s comments build on momentum from a series of congressional UAP hearings held in 2023 and 2024, which pushed the topic further into the mainstream.
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One of the most headline-grabbing moments came from former intelligence official David Grusch, who testified under oath that the U.S. government possesses recovered non-human craft and “non-human biologics.” Grusch alleged that certain retrieval programs have been hidden from Congress under layers of classification — claims that sparked bipartisan calls for greater oversight.
The Department of Defense has denied that it operates secret extraterrestrial retrieval programs, and no publicly released evidence has confirmed Grusch’s more extraordinary allegations. Still, the hearings marked a rare moment when UFO-related testimony moved from the fringes to formal congressional proceedings.
While there is no peer-reviewed evidence supporting the existence of extraterrestrial bases — underwater or otherwise — official UAP reports have acknowledged unexplained cases.
In 2021, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence released a preliminary assessment covering 144 UAP incidents reported between 2004 and 2021. The report concluded that most cases lacked sufficient data for firm conclusions but noted that several involved objects appearing to demonstrate unusual flight characteristics, including so-called “transmedium” travel between air and water.
The U.S. Navy has confirmed encounters with unidentified objects but has not attributed them to extraterrestrial origins, suggesting that many sightings could stem from sensor errors, drones, or advanced foreign technology.
Burchett continues to advocate for expanded disclosure requirements, including provisions in recent defense legislation that call for additional reporting on underwater anomalies. Whether the explanation ultimately points to misunderstood natural phenomena, cutting-edge adversarial tech or something more extraordinary, the demand for answers isn’t fading.
