[News Terms] 'All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO)' Investigating UFOs and UAPs

The All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) is an agency under the U.S. Department of Defense established to identify and respond to Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP), including Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs), which are considered to pose potential risks to national safety and security.

According to the U.S. Department of Defense, AARO was established last July under the National Defense Authorization Act, led by Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks. The inaugural director of AARO is Sean Kirkpatrick, a laser and materials physicist. Kirkpatrick studied at the University of Illinois and the Naval Research Laboratory and has worked at the Air Force Research Laboratory and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). In March of this year, he co-authored a paper titled "Physical Constraints on Unidentified Aerial Phenomena."

On December 30 last year, an 'Unidentified Anomalous Phenomenon (UAP)' appeared in the skies over Goyang-si, Gyeonggi-do. Military authorities stated that it is suspected to be a drone flight or an unannounced missile test by North Korea.
[Photo by AP/ Yonhap News]

AARO prioritizes investigating UAPs observed in security-sensitive areas and phenomena reported by pilots during missions by systematizing data collection and investigation methods related to UAPs. In this process, it is expected to identify and analyze the nature of UAPs such as the recent surge in unmanned small aerial vehicles like drones and the Chinese spy balloon that was detonated in the air last February.

At a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing in April, AARO reported that it had investigated over 650 UAP cases since its inception. Director Kirkpatrick stated, "More than half are spherical or round, measuring 1 to 4 meters, with characteristics such as white, silver, translucent, or metallic surfaces, hovering at altitudes of 10,000 to 30,000 feet or flying at Mach 2 speeds, with no heat emissions detected and intermittent radar, radio, and thermal signals." He added, "No evidence has been collected that would justify considering these as activities of extraterrestrial life."

According to Defense Scoop, a U.S. defense publication, although AARO’s headquarters are located within the Pentagon, the investigation details are managed in a system where Director Kirkpatrick reports directly only to Deputy Secretary Hicks. NASA recently announced it will publish a UFO investigation report by the end of this month. Director Kirkpatrick also promised at the recent hearing to provide a UAP investigation report by June or July. It remains to be seen whether the UFO and UAP investigation reports from NASA and AARO will satisfy readers’ curiosity.