Government investigative office

All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office

The U.S. government office coordinating the identification, attribution and mitigation of UAP near national-security areas.

Visit official website Review sources

Established: 2022
Status: Active
Country: United States
Parent organisation: United States Department of War

Overview

The All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office is the principal U.S. government office dedicated to unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP). Established within the Department of Defense in July 2022 and subsequently given a broader statutory remit, it coordinates UAP reporting and analysis across military, intelligence and relevant civil systems.

AARO can draw on government reporting channels, classified information and technical expertise unavailable to most civilian researchers. Its publications establish the office's methods, case assessments and institutional conclusions; they do not settle incidents for which the underlying data remain unavailable to independent reviewers.

Purpose and remit

Synchronise the detection, identification, attribution and mitigation of UAP in the vicinity of national-security areas.
Receive and analyse authorised reports from Department of War and Intelligence Community channels, alongside relevant civil reporting streams.
Provide reports and briefings to Congress, publish unclassified case material, and maintain routes for authorised historical programme reporting.
Develop consistent analytical, scientific and intelligence-tradecraft practices across air, sea, space and transmedium domains.

Methods and outputs

Methods

Multi-agency case intake and intelligence analysis
Sensor and operational-data review
Historical records review and authorised witness interviews

Principal outputs

Congressionally required UAP reports
Case-resolution reports and official imagery
Historical Record Report and FOIA reading room

Reporting route: Restricted to authorised government and historical-programme reporting
Data availability: Selected case files; underlying data often restricted

History

20 July 2022

Office established
The Department of Defense established AARO and appointed Sean M. Kirkpatrick as its first director, consolidating work previously assigned to the Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronization Group.
December 2022

Statutory remit expanded
The FY2023 National Defense Authorization Act broadened the office's duties, including historical review, reporting and investigation across additional domains.
March 2024

Historical report published
AARO released Volume 1 of its Historical Record Report. The office reported that it had found no empirical evidence that the U.S. government or private companies had possessed extraterrestrial technology, while documenting earlier official programmes and allegations.
19 November 2024

Open Senate hearing
Director Jon T. Kosloski gave an open briefing to the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities and presented resolved and unresolved cases.
2025–26

Public case and records programme expanded
AARO continued publishing case-resolution reports, official imagery, annual reporting, mission material and records through its electronic Freedom of Information Act reading room.

Current work

Case intake and analysis

AARO receives authorised military and intelligence reports and Federal Aviation Administration pilot reports, then attempts to identify and attribute the detections using available operational and sensor context.

Public case releases

The office publishes selected imagery, case-resolution reports and supporting technical explanations. Public releases vary in completeness because operational data may remain classified or otherwise restricted.

Congressional reporting

AARO contributes to consolidated annual UAP reporting and provides classified and unclassified briefings required by statute.

Historical and FOIA records

Its electronic reading room publishes responsive documents concerning the office, while the historical-review mandate examines earlier government activity and allegations.

Key people

Linked names open the corresponding UAPRAD Human profile.

Jon T. Kosloski

Director

Leads AARO's current analytical, operational and public-reporting work.

Sean M. Kirkpatrick

Founding director, 2022–23

Led the office through its establishment and early reporting programme.

Ronald Moultrie

Former Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security

Oversaw the departmental intelligence structure in which AARO was established.

Related organisations

Office of the Director of National Intelligence

Co-produces statutory UAP reporting and coordinates intelligence-community participation.

Evidence assessment

AARO is most authoritative as evidence of how the United States government receives, organises and assesses UAP reporting. Its statutory remit, annual reports, hearing material and case-resolution papers establish the office’s procedures and stated conclusions. They do not, by institutional status alone, settle the physical explanation of every incident in its holdings.

The office has an evidential advantage over civilian researchers because it can draw on operational context, classified reporting and interagency records. The same access creates the principal limit on outside scrutiny: public case releases often omit the sensor data, collection circumstances or intermediate analysis needed to reproduce a judgement. A conventional resolution may be persuasive where AARO publishes a traceable comparison between the observation and a known source; it is less independently testable where the supporting record remains restricted.

AARO’s unresolved inventory should therefore be read as a measure of the office’s present ability to attribute reports, not as a category of extraordinary objects. Its longer-term value will depend on whether reporting becomes more consistent and whether enough data can be released for external specialists to test representative case analyses.

Scope and limits

What the record supports

AARO has the broadest formal U.S. government mandate for cross-domain UAP investigation and can request information unavailable to civilian researchers.
Its standardised reporting, public case analyses and congressional products create an official record against which wider claims can be tested.
The office's conclusions carry institutional weight but remain open to scrutiny where methods, source data or classification constraints prevent independent replication.

Limits on interpretation

Public case files often contain less information than the classified operational record, limiting outside replication.
A resolved label records AARO's assessment of the available evidence; it does not necessarily identify one recovered object or reproduce every stage of analysis publicly.
An unresolved case indicates insufficient information for attribution at the time of assessment, not positive evidence of an extraordinary origin.

Evidence note: AARO assessments reflect the information available to the office. Classification and operational restrictions can prevent independent replication of public case conclusions.

Sources

Sources are grouped by provenance so that official records, an organisation’s own account, research publications and independent analysis remain distinguishable.

Official records5 sources

Official
AARO — Mission and vision
Defines the office's current stated mission and operating vision.
Official
Department of Defense — Establishment of AARO
Records the departmental action establishing and assigning leadership to the office.
Official
AARO — Congressional and press products
Provides annual reports, hearing material and the Historical Record Report.
Official
AARO — UAP case-resolution reports
Publishes selected case conclusions and analytical explanations.
Official
AARO — Electronic FOIA reading room
Makes selected records released under the Freedom of Information Act available for examination.