The Mission, Activities, Oversight, and Budget of the All - Domain Anomaly Resolution Office

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to improve UAP data collection, standardize the Department’s UAP internal report-
ing requirements, and implement a framework for rigorous scientific and intel-
ligence analysis, resolving cases in a systematic and prioritized manner. Meanwhile,
consistent with legislative direction, AARO is also carefully reviewing and research-
ing the U.S. Government’s UAP-related historical record.
AARO is leading a focused effort to better characterize, understand, and attribute
UAP, with priority given to UAP reports by DOD and IC personnel in or near areas
of national security importance. DOD fully appreciates the eagerness from many
quarters, including here in Congress and in the American public, to quickly resolve
every UAP encountered across the globe, from the distant past through today.
It is important to note, however, that AARO is the culmination of decades of
DOD, Intelligence Community, and congressionally directed efforts to successfully
resolve UAP encountered first and foremost by U.S. military personnel, specifically
Navy and Air Force pilots.
The law establishing AARO is ambitious, and it will take time to realize the full
mission. We cannot answer decades of questions about UAP all at once, but we must
begin somewhere. While I assure you that AARO will follow scientific evidence
wherever it leads, I ask for your patience as DOD first prioritizes the safety and
security of our military personnel and installations, in all domains.
After all, UAP encountered first by highly capable DOD and IC platforms, fea-
turing the Nation’s most advanced sensors, are those UAP most likely to be success-
fully resolved by my office assuming data can be collected. If AARO succeeds in first
improving the ability of military personnel to quickly and confidently resolve UAP
that they encounter, I believe that in time we will have greatly advanced the capa-
bility of the entire U.S. Government, including its civilian agencies, to resolve UAP.
However, it would be naive to believe that the resolution of all UAP can be solely
accomplished by the DOD and IC alone. We will need to prioritize collection and
leverage authorities for monitoring all domains within the continental United
States. AARO’s ultimate success will require partnerships with the interagency, in-
dustry, academia, the scientific community, and the public.
AARO is partnering with the Services, Intelligence Community, DOE and across
the U.S. Government to tap into the resources of the interagency. The UAP chal-
lenge is more an operational and scientific issue than an intelligence issue. As such,
we are also working with industry, academia, and the scientific community, which
bring their own resources, ideas, and expertise to this challenging problem set. Ro-
bust collaboration and peer-review across a broad range of partners will promote
greater objectivity and transparency in the study of UAP.
I want to underscore today that only a very small percentage of UAP reports dis-
play signatures that could reasonably be described as ‘anomalous.’ The majority of
unidentified objects reported to AARO demonstrate mundane characteristics of bal-
loons, unmanned aerial systems, clutter, natural phenomena, or other readily ex-
plainable sources. While a large number of cases in our holdings remain technically
unresolved, this is primarily due to a lack of data associated with these cases. With-
out sufficient data, we are unable to reach defendable conclusions that meet the
high scientific standards we set for resolution, and I will not close a case that we
cannot defend the conclusions of.
I recognize that this answer is unsatisfying to those who in good faith assume
that what they see with their eyes, with their cameras, or with their radars is in-
controvertible evidence of extraordinary characteristics and performance. Yet, time
and again, with sufficient scientific-quality data, it is fact that UAP often, but not
always, resolve into readily explainable sources. Humans are subject to deception
and illusions, sensors to unexpected responses and malfunctions, and in some cases
intentional interference. Getting to the handful of cases that pass this level of scru-
tiny is the mission of AARO.
That is not to say that UAP once resolved are no longer of national security inter-
est, however. On the contrary, learning that a UAP isn’t of exotic origin but is in-
stead ‘‘just a quadcopter’’ leads to the question of who is operating that quadcopter,
and to what purpose. The answers to those questions will inform potential national
security or law enforcement responses.
AARO is a member of the Department’s support to the Administration’s ‘‘Tiger
Team’’ effort to deal with stratospheric objects such as the PRC High Altitude Bal-
loon. When previously unknown objects are successfully identified, it is AARO’s role
to quickly and efficiently hand off such readily explainable objects to the Intelligence
or Law Enforcement Communities for further analysis and appropriate action. The
U.S. Government—and DOD and the IC in particular—has tremendous capabilities
to deal with those encountered objects. In the wake of the PRC HAB event, the
interagency is working to better integrate and share information to address identifi-
able stratospheric objects, but that is not AARO’s lane.