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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regarding the recovery or existence of extraterrestrial beings or crafts. Although AARO
continues to conduct interviews, research programs, and pursue investigatory leads, AARO’s
work has resulted in disproving the majority of these claims using the verifiable information
made within those claims.
AARO researched and interviewed numerous people, programs, and leads. It has
determined that modern allegations that the USG is hiding off-world technology and beings
largely originate from the same group of individuals who have ties to the cancelled
AAWSAP/AATIP program and a private sector organization’s paranormal research efforts.
These individuals have worked with each other consistently in various UAP-related efforts.
• Persons 1-5 and Interviewees 1, 3, 9, 12, 13, and 14 have repeatedly voiced these
claims in various public and private venues, and they have petitioned Congress in
various capacities on UAP issues. They have not provided any empirical evidence of
their claims to AARO. 120
• Persons 1 and 3 and Interviewees 1, 3, and 12 were involved with the paranormal
research conducted under AAWSAP/AATIP. 121
• Person 5 and Interviewees 3, 9 and 14 were involved with the alleged crashed UAP
materials that were provided to the U.S. Army and subsequently to AARO for
examination.122
• Persons 4, 7, and 8 and Interviewees 1, 3, and 13 investigated UAP on their own and
were responsible for successfully expanding the remit of an existing IC program to
include UAP exploitation language.123
• AARO notes that Persons 1 and 4 never formally sat down with AARO to provide
official, signed statements; these individuals have been mentioned by other
interviewees frequently as sources of their claims. Person 8 held an informal
interview and Interviewee 14 sat for an official interview but has not signed the
memo for the record documenting this interview.
SECTION VII: Historical Context of UAP Investigatory Efforts Since 1945
Summary
AARO assesses that the incidents of UAP sightings reported to USG organizations, the
claims that some constitute extraterrestrial craft, and the claims that the USG has secured and
is experimenting on alien technology, most likely are the result of a range of cultural,
political, and technological factors. AARO bases this conclusion on the aggregate findings of
all USG investigations to date, the misinterpretation of all reported named sensitive programs,
the lack of empirical evidence to support the USG reverse-engineering narrative, and AARO’s
assessment that the piece of metal alleged to be recovered from an alien spacecraft in the late
1940s is ordinary, of terrestrial origin, and possesses no exceptional qualities.
• Although many cases remain unsolved—primarily because of the lack of actionable
and researchable data—AARO and its predecessor organizations concluded that the05Page determined to be Unclassified
Review by Chief of Staff, AARO
IAW FY24 NDAA, Section 1841 (a)(1)(C)
Date: 02/05/2025

Cases discussed

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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.