Government and military
The Pentagon UAP offices: AATIP, the UAP Task Force, AOIMSG and AARO, with their reports. 109 events, newest first.
Military3 Feb 2023
Colombia's Air Force said it detected an object with balloon-like features above 55,000 feet, moving about 25 knots, and tracked it out of the country's airspace, judging it no threat. The Pentagon had reported a Chinese balloon over Latin America; China called it a stray civilian craft.
Photo: Fuerza Aerea Colombiana, CC0
Military1 Feb 2023
A high-altitude balloon seen over Billings halted flights at the city's airport for about two hours. The Pentagon said it was tracking a Chinese surveillance balloon over sensitive sites in Montana, home to Malmstrom AFB's ICBM fields, and chose not to shoot it down over land.
Photo: Department of Defense, Public domain
Government12 Jan 2023
ODNI's first annual UAP report, written with the new AARO, counted 366 reports beyond the 2021 preliminary assessment, for 510 in total. Initial review characterized 163 as balloon-like, 26 as drone-like and 6 as clutter, leaving 171 uncharacterized.
Photo: Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Public domain
Skinwalker Ranch2023
AAWSAP program manager James Lacatski, deputy Colm Kelleher and journalist George Knapp published Inside the US Government Covert UFO Program: Initial Revelations, an insider account of the DIA-funded AAWSAP program. Its claims are the authors' own and have not been officially confirmed.
Photo: Peabody Awards, CC BY 2.0
Government23 Dec 2022
The FY2023 defense authorization law required a secure channel for authorized reporting of UAP events and of any government program on UAP material, rewrote the statute for the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office including a historical record report, and ordered a GAO audit of that record.
Government16 Dec 2022
Under Secretary Ronald Moultrie and AARO director Sean Kirkpatrick described the new office's mission to reporters and said it had received several hundred new reports. Both said they had seen nothing indicating alien visitation or a crash.
Photo: NASA/Joel Kowsky, Public domain
Government20 Jul 2022
The Defense Department announced the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, replacing an earlier group with a wider remit covering air, space, undersea and transmedium objects. Sean Kirkpatrick was named its first director.
Photo: U. S. Department of Defense, All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, Public domain
GovernmentApr 2022
The Defense Intelligence Agency released nearly 1,600 pages on AAWSAP, the program it funded through Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies, including contractor studies on topics like wormholes and antigravity. The release followed FOIA requests from Vice and The Black Vault.
Photo: MSGT KEN HAMMOND, Public domain
Government27 Dec 2021
The FY2022 defense bill, signed Dec. 27, 2021, ordered the Pentagon and intelligence community to set up an office on unidentified aerial phenomena, with unclassified annual reports and semiannual classified briefings to Congress. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand pushed the provision.
Photo: The White House, Public domain
Government6 Dec 2021
After the Pentagon set up the Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronization Group, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand's office told The Debrief it did not go nearly far enough. Days later her own UAP office amendment was included in the final FY2022 defense bill.
Photo: US Senate Photography, Public domain
Government23 Nov 2021
Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks directed the intelligence under secretary to set up the Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronization Group as successor to the Navy's UAP Task Force, focused on objects in special use airspace. It was later replaced by AARO.
Photo: United States Department of Defense, Public domain
Government4 Nov 2021
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand filed an amendment to the FY2022 defense bill, cosponsored by Sen. Marco Rubio, to replace the UAP Task Force with a permanent office reporting to Defense and intelligence leaders. Her office said on Dec. 9, 2021 that a version was included in the final NDAA.
Photo: US Senate Photography, Public domain
Media30 Oct 2021
Harvard's Galileo Project, led by Avi Loeb, named former Pentagon intelligence official Christopher Mellon and former AATIP figure Luis Elizondo as research affiliates, to help choose sites for its sky-watching instruments and weigh the implications of any findings.
Photo: Max Moszkowicz, CC BY 3.0
Government1 Sep 2021
At its September 1, 2021 markup the House Armed Services Committee approved an FY2022 defense bill with a section creating an office in the Office of the Secretary of Defense to take over the UAP Task Force's work and report each year.
Photo: U.S. Senate Photographic Studio, Public domain
Media8 Aug 2021
Showtime debuted 'UFO', a four-part documentary series from J.J. Abrams' Bad Robot and Zipper Bros. Films directed by Mark Monroe and Paul Crowder. It covered cases such as the Phoenix Lights and O'Hare, the Pentagon's AATIP study and the leaked Navy videos.
Photo: Montclair Film Festival, CC BY 2.0
Government25 Jun 2021
The day ODNI delivered its preliminary UAP assessment, Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks directed the intelligence under secretary to plan how to formalize the UAP Task Force's mission, including reporting procedures, range security and a new follow-on office.
Photo: United States Department of Defense, Public domain
Government3 May 2021
The Defense Department inspector general announced an evaluation of the extent to which the department had taken actions on UAP, covering the services, combatant commands and defense agencies. It was described as a policy review, not a criminal or misconduct investigation.
Photo: United States Department of Defense, Public domain
Whistleblowers3 May 2021
Former Pentagon official Luis Elizondo filed a 64-page complaint with the Defense Department inspector general alleging officials tried to discredit him over his UAP work, including a threat to call him crazy. The allegations were his; the inspector general did not publicly rule on them.
Photo: Freedom of Information act document publicly provided by John Greenewald, Jr., Public domain
MilitaryMay 2021
Filmmaker Jeremy Corbell released footage he said was filmed in the USS Omaha's combat information center in July 2019, showing a round object over water that appears to drop into the sea. A Pentagon spokesperson confirmed Navy personnel took the video and said the UAP Task Force was reviewing it.
Photo: US Navy, Public domain
Whistleblowers30 Apr 2021
Former Senate majority leader Harry Reid told The New Yorker he had been told for decades that Lockheed held retrieved materials and that the Pentagon refused his request for clearance to see them. He did not claim to have seen any himself.
Photo: CIA, Public domain
Media30 Apr 2021
Gideon Lewis-Kraus published a long New Yorker account of how UFOs moved from punch line to Pentagon concern, centered on journalist Leslie Kean and the 2017 AATIP story. It ran online weeks before a promised intelligence report on UAP was due to Congress.
MediaApr 2021
Filmmaker Jeremy Corbell released night-vision video of blinking 'pyramid' shapes he said was filmed from USS Russell off San Diego in July 2019. A Pentagon spokesperson confirmed Navy personnel took the imagery and that the UAP Task Force was examining it, without saying what it showed.
Photo: U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Michael K. McNabb, Public domain
Skinwalker Ranch2021
James Lacatski, Colm Kelleher and George Knapp published an insider account of AAWSAP, the DIA-funded program run through Bigelow's company that studied UFO reports and Skinwalker Ranch. A Pentagon review cleared it with amendments; DoD said clearance did not imply accuracy.
Photo: Paul from USA, CC BY-SA 2.0
Government4 Aug 2020
Deputy Secretary of Defense David Norquist approved a Navy-led task force to detect, analyze and catalog UAP that could threaten national security. The Pentagon announced it on August 14.
Photo: DNI, Public domain
Media23 Jul 2020
The New York Times reported that Pentagon UFO work had continued inside the Office of Naval Intelligence as the UAP Task Force and that a Senate report expected periodic public findings. Consultant Eric Davis said he had briefed officials on 'off-world vehicles'; none has been publicly verified.
Photo: U.S. Navy, Public domain
