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.
4 Though AARO is still a young office, the spotlight on UAP in re- cent months underscores the importance of its work and the need for UAP to be taken seriously as a matter of national security. All leadership that I have had the pleasure of working with, whether DOD, IC, Department of Energy (DOE), civil, scientific, or industrial view Congress as a critical partner in this endeavor. AARO has accomplished much in the last 9 months since it was es- tablished. The AARO team of more than 3 dozen experts is orga- nized around four functional areas: operations, scientific research, integrated analysis, and strategic communications. In the 9 months since AARO’s establishment, we have taken im- portant steps to involve and improve UAP data collection, stand- ardize the department’s UAP internal reporting requirements, and implement a framework for rigorous scientific and intelligence analysis, allowing us to resolve cases in a systematic and prioritized manner. Meanwhile, consistent with legislative direction, AARO is also carefully reviewing and researching 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, espe- cially here in Congress and in the American public, to quickly re- solve every UAP encountered across the globe from the distant past through today. It is important to note, however, AARO is the culmination of dec- ades 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 featuring the Nation’s most advanced sensors are those UAP most likely to be resolved by my office, assuming the data can be collected. If AARO succeeds in first improving the ability of military per- sonnel to quickly and confidently resolve UAP they encounter I be- lieve that in time we will have greatly advanced the capability of the entire U.S. Government, including its civilian agencies, to re- solve UAP. However, it would be naı¨ve 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, industry partners, academia, and the scientific com- munity as well as the public.
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.