The military reported to the Pentagon that it recorded hundreds of cases of unidentified flying object sightings this year.
The information was passed on to the newly established All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), which was set up six months ago and prefers to call UFOs Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP). UAP is now working with three branches of the military to collect reports. UFOs have attracted public attention for years and continue to do so.
Previously, such sights were not documented, but thanks to cameras in everyday life, they are now easier to record. The military is present worldwide and witnesses such sights, with advanced sensors in its equipment recording such objects. With the aim of transparency in work and collecting information on such events, the government established the aforementioned AARO within the Ministry of Defense earlier this year.
The new office expanded the scope of its investigation by including the observation of unidentified objects in space, at sea, under the sea, and on land, categorizing them all under the term UAP.
According to the office, most UAP cases are linked to surveillance technology used by Russia and China, which poses a threat to US military facilities and operations and therefore has the task of investigating them.
From 2004 to 2021, 144 UFO cases were reported, 80 of which were detected by military sensors. However, that number has significantly increased since the establishment of the new office, but no case has been linked to evidence of the existence of extraterrestrial life. Several hundred cases have been recorded this year.
NOTE:Â
On July 15, 2022, Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks, in coordination with the Director of National Intelligence (DNI), amended her original direction to the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence & Security by renaming and expanding the scope of the Airborne Object Identification and Management Group (AOIMSG) to the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), due to the enactment of the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2022, which included a provision to establish an office, in coordination with DNI, with responsibilities that were broader than those originally assigned to the AOIMSG.
Today, USD(I&S) Hon. Ronald S. Moultrie informed the department of the establishment of AARO within the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security, and named Dr. Sean M. Kirkpatrick, most recently the chief scientist at the Defense Intelligence Agency’s Missile and Space Intelligence Center, as the director of AARO.
The mission of the AARO will be to synchronize efforts across the Department of Defense, and with other U.S. federal departments and agencies, to detect, identify and attribute objects of interest in, on or near military installations, operating areas, training areas, special use airspace and other areas of interest, and, as necessary, to mitigate any associated threats to safety of operations and national security. This includes anomalous, unidentified space, airborne, submerged and transmedium objects.
The AARO Executive Council (AAROEXEC), led by Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence & Security (USD(I&S)) Ronald Moultrie, will provide oversight and direction to the AARO along these primary lines of effort:
1. Surveillance, Collection and Reporting
2. System Capabilities and Design
3. Intelligence Operations and Analysis
4. Mitigation and Defeat
5. Governance
6. Science and Technology
See Deputy Secretary of Defense Hicks’ AARO establishment memo here.
See USD(I&S) Moultrie’s AARO establishment memo here.
Read Dr. Kirkpatrick’s bio here.
