AARO: the Pentagon’s UAP office

About AARO

The full story, section by section

The story of AARO in 7 parts. Tap any part to read it in full.

1. PredecessorsAARO is the latest of several Defense Department efforts, funded by Congress, to study UFOs in the 21st century.Read this part → Illustration drawn for this site — not a photograph.
2. Establishment and remitLegislation in the 2022 and 2023 National Defense Authorization Acts widened the group's scope beyond special use airspace and directed the Secretary of Defense and the Director of National Intelligence to set up an office to continue the task force's duties.Read this part → Official portrait of Jon T. Kosloski, director of the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office. · Photo: All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
3. LeadershipSean M. Kirkpatrick, a physicist, was AARO's first director and reported to Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks.Read this part → Jon T. Kosloski, director of AARO from August 2024 · Photo: All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
4. Public reporting channelsAARO is required by law to run a public website.Read this part → Sean Kirkpatrick, AARO's first director, presenting to NASA's UAP independent study team on 31 May 2023 · Photo: NASA Headquarters / NASA/Joel Kowsky, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
5. Annual reports and findingsAARO and ODNI's National Intelligence Manager for Aviation produced the unclassified 2022 Annual Report on Unidentified Aerial Phenomena, with input from agencies including the DIA, FBI, NRO, NGA, NSA, the armed services, the FAA, NASA, NOAA and the Department of Energy.Read this part → AARO slide on UAP reporting hotspots, presented to NASA's study team in May 2023 · Photo: U.S. Air Force All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) report to National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
6. The Historical Record ReportOn 6 March 2024 the Defense Department cleared for release AARO's Report on the Historical Record of U.S.Read this part → Illustration drawn for this site — not a photograph.
7. CriticismAARO has been attacked from both directions.Read this part → Illustration drawn for this site — not a photograph.

Read the full AARO article →

Key people

The people at the centre of the story — witnesses, investigators, officials and sceptics:

• Sean KirkpatrickSean Michael Kirkpatrick is an American physicist and former intelligence official who served as the first director of the Pentagon's All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office from July 2022 to December 2…
• Jon KosloskiAmerican scientist Jon Kosloski has directed the Pentagon's All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, which investigates unidentified anomalous phenomena, since August 2024. Before this role, he worked a…
• Robert BigelowRobert Thomas Bigelow is an American businessman from Las Vegas who made a fortune in real estate and the Budget Suites of America hotel chain. He founded Bigelow Aerospace to develop expandable spac…
• Marco RubioMarco Antonio Rubio is an American Republican politician born in Miami in 1971 who represented Florida in the US Senate from 2011 to 2025. He became a prominent congressional figure regarding unident…
• Mick WestMick West is a science writer, skeptical investigator, and retired video game programmer who co-founded Neversoft before turning to debunking pseudoscience and conspiracy theories. He founded the web…
• Kirsten GillibrandKirsten Gillibrand is an American lawyer and Democratic politician who has served as a U.S. senator from New York since 2009.
• Ronald MoultrieRonald S. "Ron" Moultrie is an American intelligence official who served as the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security from June 2021 to February 2024. Throughout his career, he hel…
• Harry ReidHarry Reid was an American lawyer and politician who served as a U.S. senator from Nevada and Senate majority leader.
• Michael ShellenbergerMichael Shellenberger is an American writer and political activist known for his ecomodernist views, books on various public issues, and unsuccessful runs for governor of California. In 2024, he publ…
• Christopher MellonChristopher Karl Mellon is an American former Senate intelligence staffer and Defense Department official who worked on defense and intelligence oversight from 1985 until leaving government service. …
• David GruschDavid Grusch is a former U.S. Air Force officer and intelligence official who publicly claimed in 2023 that the United States government runs secret programs to recover and reverse-engineer non-human…
• Jacques ValléeJacques Vallée is a French computer scientist, internet pioneer, venture capitalist, author, astronomer, and ufologist born in 1939. He began his career as an astronomer, co-developing NASA's first d…
• Eric W. DavisEric W. Davis is an American astrophysicist who has worked on speculative propulsion physics, studies on teleportation, and as a consultant to Pentagon UFO programs. He is well-known in UFO circles f…
• Harold PuthoffHarold Edward Puthoff is an American electrical engineer and parapsychologist born in Chicago in 1936. From 1972 to 1985, he directed CIA-sponsored research into remote viewing at the Stanford Resear…

Related cases & events

Events and sightings linked to AARO:

🗓️ Event · 7 min readKona BlueKona Blue was a proposed Department of Homeland Security special access program put forward in 2011 by former participants of a Pentagon UFO study to investigate unidentified phenomena and recovered materials. The program was established as a prospective prog…🗓️ Event · 7 min readSubmarine encounters study (1952)The submarine encounters study is a reported 1952 review of nine underwater encounters between United States Navy submarines and unidentified objects. According to a 2024 congressional timeline sourced from a book by writer Timothy Good, the review was suppos…🗓️ Event · 4 min readAirline pilots and the "Big Brother" gag rules (1958)On December 22, 1958, the Newark Star-Ledger published a report by John Lester about more than fifty veteran airline pilots criticizing Air Force UFO secrecy as ridiculous. The anonymous pilots stated that military reporting rules and directives like JANAP 14…🗓️ Event · 6 min readNORAD's $294,157 search feeIn the late 1970s, civilian researcher Robert Todd used the Freedom of Information Act to ask the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) for records of unidentified objects. NORAD stated it had no UFO records and that compiling its millions of uncor…🗓️ Event · 5 min readKevin Thomas and the Nimitz black triangleFormer U.S. Navy combat photographer Kevin Thomas stated in an October 2022 television interview that in 1991, while aboard the USS Nimitz at night, he witnessed a silent, massive black triangle partially emerging from the water before it rose and disappeared.🗓️ Event · 6 min readMichael Smith's NORAD reporting accountThis article is about the testimony of former U.S. Air Force radar operator Michael W.🗓️ Event · 6 min readDisguised UFO sensor network claimIn March 2002, former CIA scientist Christopher Green told astronomer Jacques Vallée that a sensor network used to track UFOs was disguised as environmental monitoring equipment. No documents have ever been released to confirm the existence of this alleged ne…🗓️ Event · 7 min readVallée on privatized UFO research (2002)This article is about a May 6, 2002 journal entry by UFO researcher Jacques Vallée, in which he concluded that United States UFO research had almost certainly been privatized outside government circles. During a conversation at the National Institute for Disc…🗓️ Event · 9 min readWilson–Davis notesThe Wilson–Davis notes are a 15-page document that surfaced online in 2019, presenting a physicist's record of a 16 October 2002 conversation with retired Vice Admiral Thomas R. Wilson. The notes describe Wilson's alleged 1997 search for a secret aerospace pr…

Programs, organizations & documents

The official programs, groups and papers involved:

📄 Document · 7 min readAARO Historical Record ReportThe AARO Historical Record Report is a Pentagon review of U.S. government involvement with unidentified anomalous phenomena since 1945, required by Congress and released in March 2024.🏢 Organization · 6 min readUAP Task ForceThe Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force was a United States Department of Defense program that collected and analyzed military reports of unidentified aerial phenomena from August 2020 to November 2021. Managed by the under secretary of defense for intel…🏢 Organization · 9 min readDefense Intelligence AgencyThe Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) is the United States Department of Defense's main military intelligence agency, established in 1961 and headquartered in Washington, D.C. It produces a significant portion of the intelligence in the President's Daily Brie…🏛️ Program or study · 10 min readAATIPThe Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP) was an unpublicized U.S. Defense Department effort initiated in 2007 or 2008 within the Defense Intelligence Agency to study unidentified aerial phenomena.🏢 Organization · 6 min readOffice of the Director of National IntelligenceThe Office of the Director of National Intelligence is a United States government agency established by the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 to support the Director of National Intelligence in leading and coordinating the nation's inte…🏢 Organization · 8 min readDepartment of EnergyThe United States Department of Energy (DOE) is a federal department responsible for national energy policy, nuclear power research, and the military's nuclear weapons program. Created in 1977, the department evolved from the Atomic Energy Commission establis…🏛️ Program or study · 6 min readProject SignProject Sign was the United States Air Force's first official study of unidentified flying objects, active for most of 1948 at Wright Field in Ohio. The project investigated various UFO sightings and allegedly concluded in an unproven top-secret report that t…🏛️ Program or study · 6 min readProject GrudgeProject Grudge was the United States Air Force's UFO investigation program that ran from February 1949 to March 1952. The study operated primarily to explain sightings away, ease public anxiety, and conclude that UFOs posed no security threat, though about 23…🏛️ Program or study · 8 min readProject TwinkleProject Twinkle was a United States Air Force effort to photograph and measure green fireballs and unusual lights reported over New Mexico from late 1948 onward. The project operated camera stations near Vaughn and Holloman Air Force Base between 1950 and 195…

Books, films & documentaries

Where to read and watch more:

🎬 Book or film · 6 min readThe DebriefThe Debrief is an American online news site launched in late 2020 by Micah Hanks, Tim McMillan, and MJ Banias to cover science, aerospace, defense, and unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP). The site has closely followed government UAP reports, including publis…🎬 Book or film · 8 min readSkinwalkers at the PentagonSkinwalkers at the Pentagon is a 2021 book by James Lacatski, Colm Kelleher, and George Knapp that details the secret Defense Intelligence Agency program known as the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program (AAWSAP). Spanning events from 2007 to…

Related topics & places

Ideas, terms and places that come up in the story:

📍 Place · 11 min readSkinwalker RanchSkinwalker Ranch is a 512-acre property in Utah that is reputed to be a site of paranormal and UFO activity. After a ranching family reported seeing strange lights, craft, and mutilated cattle there in 1996, the property was purchased by Robert Bigelow and la…📖 Term · 13 min readUnidentified anomalous phenomenaUnidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) is the U.S. government's current term for unidentified objects or events in the air, space, or underwater.📖 Term · 17 min readUnidentified flying objectAn unidentified flying object, or UFO, is an unexplained phenomenon or object seen in the sky, with the modern craze originating in the United States in June 1947. While popular culture often equates UFOs with alien spacecraft, most investigations reveal them…📖 Term · 7 min readNon-human intelligenceNon-human intelligence (NHI) is a term used to describe non-human beings or systems, which has become prominent in recent discussions and whistleblower claims regarding unidentified anomalous phenomena. Although various individuals and legislative proposals h…📖 Term · 5 min readTransmediumTransmedium describes objects that reportedly move between different environments like space, air, and water without difficulty. United States law includes transmedium devices as a category of unidentified anomalous phenomena, though Pentagon officials stated…🧭 Topic overview · 30 min readSecrecy & cover-up (topic)This overview page covers official secrecy, classification, and cover-up claims regarding unidentified anomalous phenomena from 1947 to 2023. It outlines historical classified studies, released government records, and modern claims of hidden reverse-engineeri…🧭 Topic overview · 26 min readGovernment programs (topic)This encyclopedia overview outlines government and private programs established to study UFOs and UAPs from 1947 to 2023. U.S.🧭 Topic overview · 22 min readBeings & bodies (topic)This topic overview covers reports and claims about non-human beings, bodies, and biological material spanning from 1947 to 2023. It outlines various second-hand and anonymous accounts involving crash-retrieval stories and alien abductions, mostly centered in…🧭 Topic overview · 19 min readCrashes & retrievals (topic)This topic overview covers claims from 1947 to 2023 that governments have recovered and studied crashed non-human craft or debris. Beginning with the 1947 Roswell incident in New Mexico, ufology claims have expanded through various witness accounts and testim…

🏛️ Official records

• Triangular UAP AARO Memorandum for Record, 2026Department of War · June 2026This document is a memorandum for record documenting an AARO witness debrief concerning reported unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) observations at a sensitive national security site in the western United States ove…
• Unresolved UAP Report, Iraq, May 2022Department of War · Released May 8, 2026The United States Central Command submitted a report of an unidentified anomalous phenomenon (UAP) to the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) consisting of a still image derived from a U.S. military system in 20…
• Mission Report, Mediterranean Sea, NADepartment of War · Released May 8, 2026This document is a Mission Report (MISREP), a standardized reporting form the U.S. Military uses to record the circumstances surrounding its operations. U.S. military services often use MISREPs to report Unidentified An…
• Mission Report, Djibouti, 2025Department of War · Released May 8, 2026This document is a Mission Report (MISREP), a standardized reporting form the U.S. Military uses to record the circumstances surrounding its operations. U.S. military services often use MISREPs to report Unidentified An…
• Mission Report, Arabian Gulf, 2020Department of War · Released May 8, 2026This document is a Mission Report (MISREP), a standardized reporting form the U.S. Military uses to record the circumstances surrounding its operations. U.S. military services often use MISREPs to report Unidentified An…
• Mission Report, Arabian Gulf, 2020Department of War · Released May 8, 2026This document is a Mission Report (MISREP), a standardized reporting form the U.S. Military uses to record the circumstances surrounding its operations. U.S. military services often use MISREPs to report Unidentified An…
• Mission Report, Arabian Gulf, 2020Department of War · Released May 8, 2026This document is a Mission Report (MISREP), a standardized reporting form the U.S. Military uses to record the circumstances surrounding its operations. U.S. military services often use MISREPs to report Unidentified An…
• Mission Report, Arabian Gulf, 2020Department of War · Released May 8, 2026This document is a Mission Report (MISREP), a standardized reporting form the U.S. Military uses to record the circumstances surrounding its operations. U.S. military services often use MISREPs to report Unidentified An…
• Mission Report, Arabian Gulf, 2020Department of War · Released May 8, 2026This document is a Mission Report (MISREP), a standardized reporting form the U.S. Military uses to record the circumstances surrounding its operations. U.S. military services often use MISREPs to report Unidentified An…
• FBI Photo B024FBI · Late 2025The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) submitted a report of an unidentified anomalous phenomenon (UAP) to the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) consisting of a still image derived from a U.S. military syst…
• FBI Photo B023FBI · Late 2025The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) submitted a report of an unidentified anomalous phenomenon (UAP) to the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) consisting of a still image derived from a U.S. military syst…
• FBI Photo B022FBI · Late 2025The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) submitted a report of an unidentified anomalous phenomenon (UAP) to the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) consisting of a still image derived from a U.S. military syst…

🛸 UFO sightings about AARO

Sightings that mention AARO

Open the sightings map → Search sightings →

More in the encyclopedia

Other articles that link to or mention AARO:

• House Oversight CommitteeThe House Oversight Committee is the main investigative committee of the US House of Representatives with broad power to investigate the executive branch. Starting in 2023, the committee became Congr…
• U.S. NavyThe United States Navy is the maritime branch of the US armed forces and has played a significant role in the history of unidentified aerial phenomena. Over the decades, its pilots and ships have rep…
• Puthoff locates the hardware program (2007)On August 4, 2007, physicist Hal Puthoff told Jacques Vallée in a journal-recorded conversation that he believed private defense contractors controlled secret UFO hardware and could override governme…
• Energy Department labs as analysts claimIn 2021, physicist Eric Davis stated in a Facebook comment that the U.S. Department of Energy does not own UFO material, but that its national laboratories and defense-industry labs analyzed such mat…
• Coulthart on divested UAP technologyIn late 2021, Australian journalist Ross Coulthart claimed in an interview and his book In Plain Sight that recovered UFO technology was divested into private aerospace companies to avoid government …
• Eric Davis on recovered hardware (2019)This article is about astrophysicist Eric W. Davis and his claims that the U.S.
• Coulthart on contractor scientists (2022)In 2022, Australian journalist Ross Coulthart stated in an interview that government contractors conduct secret research related to unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) outside of normal oversight.…
• Elizondo on rogue programs (2021)In September 2021, Luis Elizondo stated on a podcast episode that any UFO programs besides AATIP likely operated as rogue programs without proper oversight. He also discussed his Pentagon background,…
• UAP Disclosure ActThe Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Disclosure Act of 2023 was a legislative proposal by U.S. Senators Chuck Schumer and Mike Rounds to force the release of government records regarding UFOs and UAP…
• Contractor speculation dinner (2004)The contractor speculation dinner was a private gathering held in March 2004, recorded in the published journals of researcher Jacques Vallée. Vallée dined with Christopher Green, Hal Puthoff, Eric D…
• Eric Davis on an existing crash-retrieval programDuring a 2018 radio broadcast, physicist Eric Davis claimed that a secret government UFO crash-retrieval program still existed and that his Pentagon-funded study could have accessed it with proper le…
• BAASS "back door" approachIn December 2008, a member of the Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies team reportedly sought unofficial access to UFO hardware held by an aerospace contractor because official channels had faile…
• One black UFO operation claim (2003)This article is about a 2003 claim from Jacques Vallée's journals regarding a single alleged black UFO operation concerning hardware. According to the text, Hal Puthoff and John Petersen assured Vall…
• SBIRS UAP detections claimThe text discusses claims that the U.S. military's Space-Based Infrared System (SBIRS) satellites recorded unidentified objects entering Earth's atmosphere and changing direction.
• Alexander's no-secret-program conclusionIn his 2011 book, retired U.S. Army Colonel John B.
• Robertson PanelThe Robertson Panel was a group of scientists assembled by the Central Intelligence Agency in Washington in January 1953 to review the U.S. Air Force's evidence on unidentified flying objects.
• Roswell incidentThe Roswell incident involves the 1947 recovery of balloon debris from a ranch near Corona and Roswell, New Mexico, which was initially announced as a captured flying disc before being identified as …
• MJ-12MJ-12, or Majestic-12, is an alleged secret committee supposedly formed in 1947 by President Harry S. Truman to recover and study crashed alien spacecraft. The name originated in the early 1980s from…

Questions & answers