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 STATEMENT OF DR. SEAN M. KIRKPATRICK, DIRECTOR, ALL-
2 DOMAIN ANOMALY RESOLUTION OFFICE
3 Mr. Kirkpatrick: Thank you, Chairwoman Gillibrand,
4 Ranking Member Ernst, and distinguished members of the
5 subcommittee. It is a privilege to be here today to testify
6 on the Defense -- Defense's efforts to address unidentified
7 anomalous phenomena.
8 First, I want to thank Congress for its extensive and
9 continued partnership as the department works to better
10 understand and respond to UAP in an effort to minimize
11 technical and intelligence surprise.
12 Unidentified objects in any domain pose potential risks
13 to safety and security, particularly from military personnel
14 and capabilities. Congress and DOD agree that UAP cannot
15 remain unexamined or unaddressed.
16 We are grateful for sustained congressional engagement
17 on this issue, which paved the way for the DOD's
18 establishment of the All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office in
19 July of last year.
20 Though AARO is still a young office, the spotlight on
21 UAP in recent months underscores the importance of its work
22 and the need for UAP to be taken seriously as a matter of
23 national security.
24 All leadership that I have had the pleasure of working
25 with, whether DOD, IC, DOE, civil, scientific, or industrial
Page determined to be Unclassified
Reviewed by Chief of Staff, AARO
IAW FY24 NDAA, Section 1841(a)(1)(C)
Date: 2/6/2025
022

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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.