December 2022 Pentagon UAP briefing
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event
Contents 7
| Date | 17 December 2022 |
|---|---|
| Topics | Crashes & retrievals (topic), Secrecy & cover-up (topic), Government programs (topic) |
| People | Ronald Moultrie, Sean Kirkpatrick |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 213 |
| Year | 2022 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 2022 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 5 |
On 16 December 2022, at a Pentagon press briefing, Ronald Moultrie, Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security, and Sean Kirkpatrick, director of the new All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), said they had seen no evidence of alien visitation or crashed alien craft.[1][2]
The briefing
Moultrie said he had not seen anything in the government's holdings suggesting an alien visitation. Kirkpatrick, whose office had been formed in July 2022, did not rule out extraterrestrial life and said AARO would take a scientific approach, following the data wherever it went. He said several hundred new cases had been documented since the government's 2021 report, many of which could be explained as balloons, drones or clutter, while a small share remained unexplained and would be studied.[1][2]
Background
The June 2021 intelligence assessment had covered 144 reports since 2004, of which only one was explained, as a deflating balloon. A senior Navy official had said in May 2022 that the total had reached about 400. AARO's mission was to investigate unexplained objects around military installations and in restricted airspace and to identify possible threats. The annual defence bill, then awaiting the President's signature, required a report on government UFO records back to 1945.[1][3]
Significance
The briefing was the Pentagon's clearest statement yet against the extraterrestrial hypothesis. Critics argued that AARO might not have access to all relevant programs. AARO's historical report of March 2024 reached a similar conclusion. Kirkpatrick left AARO in December 2023.[3][4]
People and topics
- Unidentified anomalous phenomena — The U.S. government's current term for unidentified objects in the air, in space and underwater.
- Ronald Moultrie — Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security.
- Sean Kirkpatrick — First director of AARO (2022–23).
- AARO — The Pentagon office set up in 2022 to investigate UAP.
- Extraterrestrial hypothesis — The idea that UFOs are spacecraft from other planets.
On the Timeline
- FY2023 NDAA UAP provisions (6 December 2022) — The UAP sections of the 2023 defense bill are published with late changes.
- Dulles–Kennedy meeting of 28 June 1961 (17 December 2022) — A declassified calendar shows CIA chief Allen Dulles met President Kennedy on 28 June 1961.
See every 2022 event on the UAP Timeline →
References
- "No evidence of space aliens so far in Pentagon's UFO deep-dive", Reuters, via WHBL (16 Dec 2022) · whbl.com · archived copy
- "Pentagon's UFO investigation finds no evidence of alien origin", ABC News · goodmorningamerica.com · archived copy
- All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- "Pentagon UFO office finds 'no empirical evidence' for alien technology in new report", Space.com (Mar 2024) · space.com · archived copy
- defense.gov · defense.gov · archived copy
Further reading
- AARO official site · aaro.mil · archived copy
This page was last edited on 29 October 2026. Articles are written in our own words from the sources listed under References; disputed claims are attributed to the people who made them.
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