News / Disclosure
What the Pentagon’s UFO office has actually found
AARO was set up in 2022 to investigate UFO reports across the US military. Here’s what it has said publicly, and what is still disputed.
By Track the Unknown ·
What AARO is
The All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) is the US Department of Defense office set up in July 2022 to investigate reports of unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP), the government’s current name for UFOs. It took over from earlier task forces and works across the military and intelligence agencies.
Its biggest finding so far
In March 2024 AARO published the first volume of its historical record report, a review of US government UFO investigations going back to 1945. It found no evidence that any government investigation, research or classified programme had confirmed that a sighting involved extraterrestrial technology.
The report said many claims about hidden programmes came from a small number of people repeating each other’s stories, and that some traced back to real, secret projects that were misunderstood.
What most reports turn out to be
When AARO can resolve a case, the answer is usually ordinary: balloons, birds, drones, satellites or aircraft, often seen from an unusual angle or picked up by sensors in odd ways. A share of cases don’t have enough data to explain. That isn’t the same as being unexplainable; it usually means nobody recorded enough at the time.
What is still disputed
Some members of Congress, former officials and whistleblowers say AARO hasn’t been given access to everything and reject its conclusions. Those claims were aired under oath in a series of hearings: see the UFO hearings in Congress.
Seen something?
AARO takes reports from current and former US government staff and contractors. Anyone can check what was in the sky at the time and, if it still can’t be explained, open a case file here.
Source: All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office
Tags: AARO, Pentagon, Government