On 15 July 2022 the AOIMSG was renamed and expanded into AARO, in line with the FY2022 NDAA. Names Dr Sean M. Kirkpatrick as director and sets out a mission covering space, airborne, submerged and transmedium objects.
“This includes anomalous, unidentified space, airborne, submerged and transmedium objects.” source
Internet Archive copy (30 August 2025). The original defense.gov address now redirects to war.gov and refused automated access (HTTP 403).
OFFICIALUnited States Code (Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School) · 2025-12-18
The law behind AARO. First enacted in the FY2022 NDAA (Pub. L. 117-81, § 1683), rewritten by the FY2023 NDAA (Pub. L. 117-263, §§ 1673 and 6802), amended again in 2023 and 2025. Requires the historical-record report and four years of annual reports.
Reproduction of the US Code by Cornell's Legal Information Institute; the official text is at uscode.house.gov.
OFFICIALAll-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, US Department of Defense · 2024-03-08
AARO's review of US UAP efforts since 1945, based on archives and about 30 interviews. Finds no confirmed extraterrestrial technology and no empirical evidence of reverse-engineering; attributes modern claims largely to circular reporting.
“AARO found no evidence that any USG investigation, academic-sponsored research, or official review panel has confirmed that any sighting of a UAP represented extraterrestrial technology.” source
Report dated February 2024, cleared 6 March 2024, released 8 March 2024. Volume II was announced in the same report. Archived copy (Wayback Machine, 9 January 2025): https://web.archive.org/web/20250109134632/https://media.defense.gov/2024/Mar/08/2003409233/-1/-1/0/DOPSR-CLEARED-508-COMPLIANT-HRRV1-08-MAR-2024-FINAL.PDF (original returns HTTP 403 to automated checks).
OFFICIALAll-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, US Department of Defense · 2024-11-14
Covers 757 reports received from May 2023 to June 2024. Resolved cases were prosaic (balloons, birds, drones, satellites, aircraft); 21 merited further analysis; 444 went to an archive for lack of data.
“It is important to underscore that, to date, AARO has discovered no evidence of extraterrestrial beings, activity, or technology.” source
Internet Archive copy (7 October 2026); media.defense.gov refused automated access (HTTP 403). The report gives two different counts of cases resolved in the period (118 and 49).
AARO's own list of reports, hearings and releases: annual reports for 2023 and 2024, open Senate hearings in April 2023 and November 2024, and the appointment of Dr Jon Kosloski as director on 26 August 2024.
Internet Archive copy (14 July 2026); aaro.mil refused automated access (HTTP 403).
AARO's site as of October 2026: the legal definition of UAP, common causes of reports (clutter, balloons, aircraft, drones, launches, satellites, planets), and a plain answer on extraterrestrial technology.
“Has the Department found any evidence of extraterrestrial technology? No.” source
Internet Archive copy (23 October 2026) of https://www.aaro.mil/, which refused automated access (HTTP 403). The quote joins the FAQ question and the first word of its answer.
OFFICIALOffice of the Director of National Intelligence · 2023-01-12
ODNI's unclassified 2022 annual report on UAP, published 12 January 2023 (archived ODNI page).
PDF: https://archive.dni.gov/files/ODNI/documents/assessments/Unclassified-2022-Annual-Report-UAP.pdf (linked from the page; PDF itself not opened).
CLASSIFIEDDeclassifiedFILE NO. 014SHEET 2 OF 4
Testimony
Interviews and witness statements: who, in what role, when and where it was said.
OFFICIALHouse Committee on Oversight and Accountability, Subcommittees on Cybersecurity, IT and Government Innovation and on National Security, the Border and Foreign Affairs · 2024-11-13
Official transcript. In her opening statement the chair, Rep. Nancy Mace, says AARO's historical report was heavily criticised, questions the office's transparency and notes that its budget is not public.
“The report has stoked suspicions AARO is unable or, perhaps, unwilling to bring forward the truth about the government's activities concerning UAPs.” source
CLASSIFIEDDeclassifiedFILE NO. 014SHEET 3 OF 4
Press
Newspaper and magazine coverage, then and now. Linked, never copied.
Press release for the FY2024 report: 757 reports in the period, 272 of them about events in 2021–2022, bringing the total AARO is reviewing to over 1,600 as of 1 June 2024.
Internet Archive copy (27 August 2025); defense.gov refused automated access (HTTP 403).
Launch of PURSUE, an interagency release of declassified UAP files on WAR.GOV/UFO with the White House, ODNI, DOE, AARO, NASA and the FBI. Says the files were reviewed for security but many have not been analysed.
“While all of the files have been reviewed for security purposes, many of the materials have not yet been analyzed for resolution of any anomalies.” source
Internet Archive copy (23 October 2026); war.gov refused automated access.
OFFICIALUS Department of War (statement by spokesman Sean Parnell) · 2026-09-18
Reports the AARO FY2025 Consolidated Annual Report on UAP (July 2026): 319 new reports (284 in period, 35 older), 370 cases closed, all resolved cases with conventional explanations, 44 space reports consistent with satellite glint, 9 still in analysis, no evidence of recovered UAP material.
PDF hosted by The Black Vault; an official AARO/war.gov link has not been verified.
CLASSIFIEDDeclassifiedFILE NO. 014SHEET 4 OF 4
Analysis
Our own reading of the file, written from the sources on the other sheets. Opinion is marked as such.
AARO is the latest in a line of US government efforts that runs back to Project Sign in 1948. Its own historical review counts about two dozen of them, depending on how you count. Unlike Blue Book, it rests on a statute, covers air, sea, space and “transmedium” objects, and must report to Congress every year.
Its findings are consistent. No evidence of extraterrestrial beings, activity, or technology, most resolved cases turn out to be balloons, birds, drones, satellites or aircraft, and hundreds of cases cannot be analysed because the data are too thin. Its 2024 historical review went further and called the story of hidden reverse-engineering programmes largely the product of circular reporting.
That last finding put AARO at the centre of the political fight. At a House Oversight hearing in 2024 the subcommittee chair said the review had been heavily criticised and that the office does not even make its budget public. In 2026 the Department of War launched a separate public release of UAP files, saying that many of the materials had not yet been analysed. AARO's conclusions have not changed in the official record; the arguments about them have not stopped either.
What it shows
That the US Department of Defense runs a permanent, statutory office to collect and analyse UAP reports.
That this office has published, in its own name, that it has found no evidence of extraterrestrial technology.
That it has resolved many cases to ordinary objects such as balloons, birds and drones, and reports this to Congress.
What it doesn't prove
That every case has an ordinary explanation. Many remain unresolved, mainly for lack of usable data.
That nothing is being withheld. AARO's reports are unclassified summaries; critics in Congress dispute their completeness.
That the office is beyond criticism. Its historical review has been disputed by lawmakers and campaigners.
The other side
Critics say the label overstates what AARO can show. At a House Oversight hearing in November 2024, the subcommittee chair said AARO's historical report was heavily criticised by those seeking UAP transparency, that it had stoked suspicion the office is unable or unwilling to bring out the truth, and that even its budget is kept from the public. On this view an office that investigates the government's own record cannot be the final word on it.