Documents / Official release

Office of the Secretary of Defense: 05_AARO_Historical_Record_Report

Department of Defense. Office of the Secretary of Defense. · 2023 · 63 pages · text from the file's own layer

This is Volume I of the Historical Record Report from the Department of Defense's All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), dated February 2024 and released in full in February 2025. It reviews US government UAP investigations since 1945, from Project SIGN and Blue Book through the Condon Report, AATIP and the UAP Task Force. AARO found no evidence that any sighting involved extraterrestrial technology or that anyone reverse-engineered alien craft. It says the claims come largely from circular reporting, and it names KONA BLUE as a proposed program that was never approved.

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propulsion, the use of unconventional materials and controls, and signature
reduction.62
• Although investigating UFO/UAP was not specifically outlined in the contract’s
statement of work, the selected private sector organization conducted UFO research
with the support of the DIA program manager. This research included: reviewing
new cases and much older Project BLUE BOOK cases, operating debriefing and
investigatory teams, and proposals to set up laboratories to examine any recovered
UFO materials.63
• AAWSAP/AATIP also investigated an alleged hotspot of UAP and paranormal
activity at a property in Utah—which at that time was owned by the head of the
private sector organization—including examining reports of “shadow figures” and
“creatures,” and exploring “remote viewing” and “human consciousness anomalies.”
The organization also planned to hire psychics to study “inter-dimensional
phenomena” believed to frequently appear at that location.64
• DIA did not seek, nor specifically authorize, this work though a DIA employee set up
and managed the contract with the private sector organization.65
• On 24 June 2009, Senator Reid sent a letter to then Deputy Secretary of Defense
William Lynn III requesting that AAWSAP/AATIP be made a DoD Special Access
Program. Deputy Secretary Lynn declined to do so based on the recommendation of
then-Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence, James R. Clapper, Jr., that such a
designation was not justified.66
• Just prior to DoD’s cancellation of the program, the private sector organization
proposed as a new line of effort to host a series of “intellectual debates” at academic
institutes to influence the public debate, which included hiring supportive reporters
and celebrity moderators. The goal of this proposed public relations campaign was to
assume that “E.T. visitations are true” and that the moderators would steer debate
away from “dead-end discussions” and the “morass” about discussing “evidence.”67
A stated goal of this proposal was to increase public interest in government
“disclosure” around the “E.T. topic” and explore the consequences of disclosure on
the public.68
Results: The AAWSAP/AATIP contract with the private sector organization produced
exploratory papers addressing the 12 scientific areas tasked in the contract’s statement of work.
These scientific papers were never thoroughly peer reviewed.
• AARO has yet to uncover any other substantive UAP case work conducted by
AAWSAP/AATIP. Instead, AAWSAP/AATIP reviewed a large number of Project
BLUE BOOK and private cases and conducted interviews of UAP observers and
conducted unrelated work on alleged paranormal activities at the private sector
organization’s property in Utah.
• AAWSAP/AATIP was terminated in 2012 upon the completion of its deliverables
due to DIA and DoD concerns about the project.05Page determined to be Unclassified
Review by Chief of Staff, AARO
IAW FY24 NDAA, Section 1841 (a)(1)(C)
Date: 02/05/2025

Cases discussed

About this file

Official release, from the nara collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 63 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.