Government and military
The Pentagon UAP offices: AATIP, the UAP Task Force, AOIMSG and AARO, with their reports. 109 events, newest first.
WhistleblowersAug 2024
Luis Elizondo, who says he led the Pentagon's AATIP effort, published Imminent: Inside the Pentagon's Hunt for UFOs, arguing that UFOs are a serious national security issue the Defense Department withholds. The Pentagon said in 2019 he had no responsibilities for AATIP.
Photo: Luis Elizondo/HarperCollins/United States Department of Defense, Public domain
Government6 Jun 2024
More than 80 Japanese lawmakers formed a nonpartisan group, headed by former defense minister Yasukazu Hamada, urging the government to create a body to gather and analyze UAP information and to work with the U.S. AARO. Members framed UAP chiefly as possible security threats.
Photo: Cabinet Public Relations Office, Japan, CC BY 4.0
WhistleblowersMay 2024
Retired Army Col. Karl Nell, who had worked with the Pentagon's UAP Task Force, told a SALT iConnections audience in New York that non-human intelligence exists and has long interacted with humanity. AARO has said it found no evidence that UAP are alien.
Government12 Apr 2024
Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence Christopher Mellon published a long rebuttal to AARO's March 2024 Historical Record Report, arguing it was error-ridden, too narrow and dismissive of unresolved cases. AARO stood by its finding of no evidence of alien technology.
Photo: Max Moszkowicz, CC BY 3.0
Government8 Mar 2024
The Pentagon released volume one of AARO's review of U.S. government UAP efforts since 1945. AARO said it found no verifiable evidence that the government or private companies had recovered or reverse-engineered extraterrestrial technology.
Photo: All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, Public domain
Government8 Mar 2024
Acting AARO director Tim Phillips told reporters the office was developing Gremlin, a portable, reconfigurable sensor kit built with Energy Department labs and Georgia Tech, to be sent to UAP report sites to collect data. He said Texas range tests also picked up many birds and bats.
Photo: Touch Of Light, CC BY-SA 4.0
Whistleblowers19 Jan 2024
Sean Kirkpatrick, AARO's first director, wrote in Scientific American that claims of a secret U.S. program to recover and reverse-engineer alien craft were unsupported by evidence, arguing they spread by circular reporting among a small group of advocates.
Photo: Defense.gov, Public domain
Government11 Jan 2024
Reps. Robert Garcia and Glenn Grothman introduced H.R. 6967, which would let pilots, controllers and other aviation workers report UAP to the FAA, have the FAA pass reports to AARO, and protect reporters from retaliation or medical disqualification. It did not advance past committee.
Photo: House Creative Services, Public domain
Government1 Dec 2023
AARO added its first case resolution reports to aaro.mil, covering cases labeled Atmospheric Wake, Southeast Asia Triangles and Western United States, with imagery. Later reports found no anomalous behavior in other cases, including the GoFast video and a 2013 Puerto Rico infrared video.
Photo: U. S. Department of Defense, All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, Public domain
GovernmentDec 2023
AARO's first director, Sean Kirkpatrick, left the office in December 2023, as announced by the Pentagon in November. Deputy Secretary Kathleen Hicks credited his team with investigating over 800 cases; new deputy Tim Phillips led the office in an acting role.
Photo: Defense.gov, Public domain
Government1 Dec 2023
When Sean Kirkpatrick left AARO, new deputy director Tim Phillips, on assignment from ODNI, became acting director. The Pentagon said his priorities were interviewing people with firsthand UAP knowledge and fusing intelligence and sensor data on open cases.
Photo: U.S. Department of Defense, All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, Public domain
Government31 Oct 2023
Under the FY2023 NDAA, the Defense Department opened a form on aaro.mil for current or former government employees, service members and contractors with direct knowledge of alleged UAP programs since 1945. Reports were to inform AARO's historical record report to Congress.
Photo: U. S. Department of Defense, All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, Public domain
Government31 Aug 2023
The Defense Department launched aaro.mil, a public site for its UAP office meant to carry declassified photos and videos of resolved cases, reports and FAQs. A secure reporting form for government personnel was promised for later.
Photo: U. S. Department of Defense, All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, Public domain
Whistleblowers26 Jul 2023
Former Air Force intelligence officer David Grusch testified under oath that he had been told of a decades-long program to recover craft of non-human origin, which he said he learned through interviews rather than firsthand access. The Pentagon and AARO have said they found no verifiable evidence of such programs.
Photo: U.S. House Subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs, Public domain
Government14 Jul 2023
The House passed its FY2024 defense bill on July 14, 2023 with an amendment from Rep. Tim Burchett directing the Pentagon to release records on publicly known UAP sightings, provided release would not harm national security.
Photo: House Creative Services, Public domain
Government22 Jun 2023
The Senate Intelligence Committee reported its FY2024 Intelligence Authorization Act, whose Section 1104 would bar spending on UAP recovery, analysis or reverse-engineering efforts unless disclosed to AARO and congressional leaders, and would require contractors holding such material to report it.
Photo: Ryan Donnell, Public domain
Government6 Jun 2023
Days after David Grusch's claims of a secret crash-retrieval program went public, Oversight Chairman James Comer said his committee planned a UAP hearing, with Reps. Anna Paulina Luna and Tim Burchett leading the inquiry. The Pentagon said it had found nothing verifiable to support Grusch.
Photo: US House of Representatives, Public domain
Media5 Jun 2023
Leslie Kean and Ralph Blumenthal reported in The Debrief that ex-intelligence officer David Grusch told Congress and the Intelligence Community Inspector General that the U.S. holds craft of non-human origin. His statements were cleared for release by the Pentagon's prepublication review office.
Photo: U.S. House Subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs, Public domain
GovernmentJun 2023
After David Grusch alleged a hidden craft-retrieval program, Defense Department spokesperson Sue Gough told NewsNation that AARO had found no verifiable information that programs to hold or reverse-engineer extraterrestrial materials ever existed.
Photo: U.S. House Subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs, Public domain
Government19 Apr 2023
AARO director Sean Kirkpatrick testified in open session to the Senate Armed Services emerging threats subcommittee and showed two declassified MQ-9 videos, including a spherical object over the Middle East that he said could not be identified from the available data.
Photo: Defense.gov, Public domain
Whistleblowers7 Apr 2023
Former intelligence officer David Grusch, who had represented the NRO and NGA on UAP task force work, left government service on April 7, 2023. About two months later The Debrief published his claims that the U.S. holds craft of non-human origin.
Photo: U.S. House Subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs, Public domain
Government7 Mar 2023
Pentagon UAP office director Sean Kirkpatrick and Harvard astronomer Avi Loeb released a draft, 'Physical Constraints on Unidentified Aerial Phenomena'. It was not peer-reviewed or an official Pentagon document; a speculative passage on a mothership releasing small probes drew wide headlines.
Photo: Christopher Michel, CC BY-SA 4.0
Military12 Feb 2023
At a Pentagon briefing on the objects downed over North America, a reporter asked Gen. Glen VanHerck whether aliens had been ruled out. He said he would leave that to intelligence agencies and had not ruled anything out. The White House said the next day there was no indication of aliens.
Photo: U.S. Northern Command, Public domain
Government9 Feb 2023
At a Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee hearing, Pentagon official Melissa Dalton said Chinese balloons had briefly crossed the U.S. at least three times under the prior administration. Officials said they waited to shoot over water to limit risk from debris.
Photo: Leonard Fitzgerald, Public domain
Government3 Feb 2023
China's Foreign Ministry said the object over the U.S. was a civilian airship for mainly meteorological research, blown off course by westerly winds, and expressed regret over its unintended entry. The Pentagon rejected this, saying it was a surveillance balloon.
Photo: Jeanne, Public domain
