Documents / Hearing transcript
This is the transcript of an April 19, 2023 hearing of the U.S. Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities, chaired by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand. AARO Director Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick testified on the office's mission, budget, data collection and review of the historical record. He said AARO had found no credible evidence of extraterrestrial activity or off-world technology. He also presented trend data and two declassified MQ-9 videos, and one of them was resolved as a commuter aircraft.
(1) THE MISSION, ACTIVITIES, OVERSIGHT, AND BUDGET OF THE ALL-DOMAIN ANOMALY RESOLUTION OFFICE Wednesday, April 19, 2023 UNITED STATES SENATE, SUBCOMMITTEE ON EMERGING THREATS AND CAPABILITIES, COMMITTEE ON ARMED SERVICES, Washington, DC. The Subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 11:08 a.m. in room SR–232A, Russell Senate Office Building, Senator Kirsten E. Gilli- brand (Chairwoman of the Subcommittee) presiding. Subcommittee Members present: Senators Gillibrand, Rosen, and Ernst. OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR KIRSTEN E. GILLIBRAND Senator GILLIBRAND. The hearing will come to order. I would first like to thank our witness, Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick, for testifying here and in today’s earlier closed session, and for his long and distinguished career both in the intelligence community and in the Department of Defense (DOD). Dr. Kirkpatrick is the director of the All-Domain Anomaly Reso- lution Office, or AARO. Congress established this office in law to get to the bottom of the very serious problem of unidentified anom- alous phenomena, or UAP. Dr. Kirkpatrick has a very difficult mission. While we have made progress, there remains a stigma attached to these phenomenon. There is a vast and complex citizen engagement and there is also very challenging scientific and technical hurdles. We appreciate the willingness of Dr. Kirkpatrick to lean in on this issue and the work that he has accomplished thus far, and we look forward to both his opening statement and his presentation of examples of the work AARO has done. In late 2017, media reports surfaced about activities set in mo- tion by the late long-serving Majority Leader Senator Harry Reid more than a decade ago. We learned that there was strong evidence of advanced technology reflected in the features and performance characteristics of many objects observed by our highly trained servicemembers operating top-of-the-line military equipment. We learned that for at least the past 8 years, military pilots fre- quently encountered unknown objects in controlled airspace off both the East and West Coasts, across the continental United States, in test and training areas and ranges.
Hearing transcript, from the govinfo collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 26 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.