Documents / Official release

Office of the Secretary of Defense: 022_SASC_Transcript_2023

Department of Defense. Office of the Secretary of Defense. · 2023 · 50 pages · text from the file's own layer

This is a stenographic transcript of an April 19, 2023 hearing of the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities, chaired by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, on the mission and budget of the All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office. AARO released it in full in 2025. Director Sean Kirkpatrick testified that AARO has found no credible evidence of extraterrestrial activity and that most reports resolve into mundane objects. He also presented trend data and two declassified MQ-9 videos, one of which was resolved as a commuter aircraft.

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1 Our next annual report you all have given us -- moved it up
2 to June, July -- we are going to be having that done about
3 that timeframe and we will have a -- we will be combining a
4 whole number of reports into that one.
5 I think we are currently sitting at around -- if I
6 remember correctly, we are around 20 to 30-ish or about
7 halfway through that analytic process. A handful of them
8 have made it all the way out to the other side, gone through
9 peer review. We have got case closure reports done and
10 signed.
11 We are going to get faster as we get more people on
12 board and we get more of the community tools to automate
13 some of the analysis that has to be done.
14 Senator Gillibrand: Thank you, Dr. Kirkpatrick.
15 Senator Ernst?
16 Senator Ernst: Thank you, Madam Chair.
17 And Dr. Kirkpatrick, the ODNI annual threat assessment
18 states that China's space activities are designed to erode
19 U.S. influence across military, technological, economic, and
20 diplomatic spheres.
21 Likewise, Russia will remain a key space competitor.
22 In the course of your work have you become aware of any
23 Chinese or Russia technical advancements to surveille or
24 attack U.S. interests?
25 Mr. Kirkpatrick: That is a great question. Part of
Page determined to be Unclassified
Reviewed by Chief of Staff, AARO
IAW FY24 NDAA, Section 1841(a)(1)(C)
Date: 2/6/2025
022

Cases discussed

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Official release, from the nara collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 50 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.