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 research and development necessary to support a serious
2 investigation. It took a letter to Secretary Austin from
3 Senator Rubio and me and 14 other senators to get the office
4 temporary relief for the current fiscal year.
5 In this hearing I intend to probe a series of specific
6 issues. In the recent incidents where multiple objects were
7 shot down over North America it seemed that Pentagon
8 leadership did not turn to AARO office to play a leading
9 role in advising the combatant commander.
10 We need to know whether this will continue. We need to
11 know whether the leadership in DOD will bring AARO into the
12 decision-making process in a visible way and we need to know
13 what role AARO will play in interagency coordination after
14 the NSC Working Group disbands.
15 In the fiscal year 2023 National Defense and
16 Intelligence Authorization Act Congress established a direct
17 reporting chain from the AARO director to the Deputy
18 Secretary of Defense.
19 The role of the Office of the Under Secretary of
20 Defense for Intelligence and Security is limited to
21 providing administrative support. We need to know how this
22 direction is being implemented.
23 UAP are frequently observed flying in extremely high or
24 very low speeds and come in various sizes and shapes.
25 During the recent shoot downs over North America DOD
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.