The All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) is the United States Department of Defense’s primary body for detecting, identifying, and attributing unidentified anomalous phenomena. Established in July 2022, AARO represents the most institutionalized UAP investigation effort in U.S. government history — and the most controversial.
Unlike its predecessors — AATIP and the UAPTF — AARO operates under a congressional mandate, reports to both the Secretary of Defense and the Director of National Intelligence, and is required to submit annual unclassified reports to Congress. It also runs the PURSUE portal, the government’s first public interface for releasing declassified UAP evidence.
History & Establishment
AARO was established on July 20, 2022, by direction of the Deputy Secretary of Defense, pursuant to Section 1683 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022 (FY2022 NDAA). Congress mandated its creation after years of frustration with the limited mandate and resources of the UAP Task Force (UAPTF), which had been stood up in August 2020 but lacked the cross-domain authority and congressional reporting requirements that lawmakers wanted.
AARO absorbed the functions of the UAPTF and was placed under the authority of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security (USD(I&S)), reporting jointly to the Secretary of Defense and the Director of National Intelligence. Unlike its predecessors, AARO has a statutory mandate — it exists by law, not by executive discretion — and is required to produce annual unclassified reports to Congress on UAP incidents and its investigation activities.
The name “All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office” reflects its expanded scope beyond the air domain: AARO is responsible for investigating UAP in air, space, subsurface maritime, and transmedium environments — a significant expansion from earlier programs that focused primarily on aerial incidents involving military aircraft.
Mission & Mandate
AARO’s stated mission is to minimize technical and intelligence surprise by synchronizing the detection, identification, and attribution of UAP. In practice, this means:
- Collecting and standardizing UAP reports from across the military services, intelligence community, and federal agencies
- Investigating individual incidents using all available sensor data, imagery, and witness testimony
- Assessing national security implications of UAP activity near military installations and training areas
- Reporting to Congress on trends, statistics, and unresolved cases annually
- Operating the PURSUE portal (war.gov/uap) — the public-facing declassification interface for UAP evidence releases
AARO also operates a secure mechanism for current and former government employees and contractors to report knowledge of past UAP programs, including any alleged classified crash-retrieval or reverse-engineering efforts — a provision inserted by Congress in direct response to David Grusch’s 2023 whistleblower allegations.
Directors
AARO has had three leaders since its founding, with significant turnover that has itself become a source of congressional scrutiny.
Sean Kirkpatrick (July 2022 – December 2023)
A career physicist and intelligence official, Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick was AARO’s founding director and the face of the office’s first 18 months. Previously chief of the Missile and Space Intelligence Center at the Defense Intelligence Agency, Kirkpatrick brought scientific credibility to the role and launched AARO’s reporting infrastructure. He testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee in April 2023 — the first public congressional testimony from a sitting AARO director — where he reported that AARO had identified approximately 650 UAP cases, with the majority explainable but 2–5% remaining genuinely anomalous.
Kirkpatrick became a lightning rod for criticism from disclosure advocates. He publicly stated that he found no evidence of non-human intelligence or extraterrestrial material in AARO’s investigations — a position that put him in direct conflict with Grusch’s whistleblower claims. He departed the role in December 2023 amid congressional pressure and published an op-ed in Scientific American arguing that UAP investigations had been co-opted by conspiracy thinking.
Tim Gallaudet (Acting, 2024)
Rear Admiral Tim Gallaudet served briefly as acting AARO director in 2024, following Kirkpatrick’s departure. His appointment was notable given his public statements about the importance of investigating transmedium UAP and unidentified submerged objects — a perspective more aligned with disclosure advocates than Kirkpatrick’s. Gallaudet’s tenure was brief and transitional.
Jon Spaulding (Acting, 2024–present)
Jon Spaulding, a career DoD official, took over as acting director following Gallaudet’s brief tenure. As of mid-2026, no permanent director has been confirmed. The vacancy has drawn criticism from congressional UAP advocates who argue that AARO cannot fulfill its mandate without stable, permanent leadership.
Key Reports & Outputs
AARO Historical Record Report, Volume 1 (March 2024)
AARO’s most significant public output to date, the Historical Record Report Volume 1 examined U.S. government UAP investigation programs from 1945 to 2023. Spanning 63 pages, it reviewed AAWSAP, AATIP, the UAPTF, and AARO itself, and assessed whether any evidence supported claims of non-human intelligence, crash retrievals, or reverse-engineering programs. AARO’s conclusion: it found no credible evidence substantiating such claims. The report was immediately contested by disclosure advocates including David Grusch, who argued AARO lacked the security clearances to access the most sensitive programs it was investigating.
Annual Reports to Congress (2023–present)
AARO produces annual unclassified reports to Congress summarizing the UAP cases it has received and investigated. The FY2023 report (released January 2024) covered 291 newly identified reports, bringing the cumulative total to over 800 cases. Approximately 4–5% remained uncharacterized after analysis. AARO has also produced classified annexes for congressional intelligence committee members.
The PURSUE Portal (war.gov/uap)
Launched in stages beginning May 2025 under a presidential directive signed February 26, 2025, the PURSUE portal (hosted at war.gov/uap) is the U.S. government’s first public interface for releasing declassified UAP-related materials. The first two releases (May 8 and May 22, 2025) included 72 documents spanning CIA records from the 1940s, DoD investigation files, and orb videos. AARO oversees the declassification review pipeline that feeds PURSUE. Critics — including Luis Elizondo, Ross Coulthart, and Rep. Tim Burchett — have argued the initial releases were largely historical documents and withheld the most significant material.
Controversy & Congressional Criticism
AARO has been a persistent target of criticism from disclosure advocates, congressional members, and several of the government’s own former UAP investigators — making it arguably the most contested institution in the modern UAP debate.
Grusch Whistleblower Allegations
In June 2023, former National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency analyst David Grusch alleged under oath to Congress and in a formal whistleblower complaint to the Intelligence Community Inspector General that the U.S. government operates classified crash-retrieval and reverse-engineering programs involving non-human craft. Grusch specifically alleged that these programs were withheld from AARO and that AARO had been deliberately stonewalled when investigators tried to access relevant materials. AARO director Kirkpatrick publicly disputed these claims, and AARO’s 2024 Historical Record Report concluded there was no evidence supporting them — a conclusion Grusch and congressional allies contested on the grounds that AARO lacked the necessary clearance levels to investigate the relevant Special Access Programs.
Elizondo Criticism
Luis Elizondo, former AATIP director, has been a consistent critic of AARO since its founding. In congressional testimony and public statements, Elizondo has argued that AARO operates with a predetermined conclusion rather than following evidence, that its public reports are sanitized summaries that omit the most significant classified material, and that its PURSUE portal releases have been performative rather than substantive. Elizondo has also raised specific concerns about the reporting chain — arguing that placing AARO under USD(I&S) effectively gives the office less independence than AATIP had, since it must operate within a bureaucratic structure that has historically suppressed UAP information.
Congressional Access Fights
In 2023 and 2024, multiple congressional members — including Rep. Mike Turner and Rep. Tim Burchett — reported being denied access to UAP programs that AARO claimed to be investigating. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, despite having authored AARO’s legislative mandate, expressed frustration that AARO was not receiving cooperation from other DoD elements. The tension led to congressional attempts to give AARO broader authority to compel document access and to move programs under its review umbrella, some of which passed in the FY2024 NDAA.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is AARO?
AARO — the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office — is the U.S. Department of Defense’s official body for detecting, identifying, and attributing unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP). Established in July 2022 under the FY2022 National Defense Authorization Act, AARO is the most institutionalized UAP investigation program in U.S. government history. It reports to both the Secretary of Defense and the Director of National Intelligence, and submits annual unclassified reports to Congress.
What does AARO stand for?
AARO stands for All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office. The “all-domain” refers to its mandate covering air, space, subsurface maritime, and transmedium environments — a broader scope than earlier programs like AATIP or the UAPTF, which focused primarily on aerial incidents.
When was AARO established?
AARO was established on July 20, 2022, pursuant to Section 1683 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022 (FY2022 NDAA). It absorbed the functions of the UAP Task Force (UAPTF), which had been stood up in August 2020.
Who runs AARO?
AARO’s founding director was Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick, who served from July 2022 through December 2023. Following his departure, Rear Admiral Tim Gallaudet served briefly in an acting capacity, followed by Jon Spaulding as acting director. As of mid-2026, no permanent director has been confirmed.
What is the PURSUE portal?
PURSUE (hosted at war.gov/uap) is the U.S. government’s first public interface for releasing declassified UAP-related materials. It was launched under a presidential directive signed February 26, 2025. The first releases (May 2025) included 72 documents including historical CIA records and DoD investigation files. Disclosure advocates have criticized the initial releases as too limited and focused on historical material.
Has AARO found evidence of non-human intelligence?
Officially, no. AARO’s 2024 Historical Record Report concluded that there was no credible evidence of non-human intelligence, extraterrestrial material, or secret reverse-engineering programs in its investigations. However, this conclusion is disputed by multiple former government officials including David Grusch, who allege that AARO was deliberately denied access to the most sensitive classified programs and therefore could not have conducted a complete investigation.
How is AARO different from AATIP?
AATIP (Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program) was a classified DoD program that operated from roughly 2007 to 2012 without a statutory mandate, limited budget, and no formal congressional reporting requirement. AARO, by contrast, was created by law, has a broader multi-domain mandate, is required to submit annual unclassified reports to Congress, and operates a public declassification portal. However, critics argue that AARO’s larger bureaucratic footprint has made it less agile and more subject to institutional suppression than AATIP was.
What is AARO’s website?
AARO’s official declassification portal is the PURSUE portal at aaro.mil. The PURSUE document release platform is hosted at war.gov/uap. AARO also submits annual unclassified reports to Congress that are publicly available through the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
Explore the full history of UAP disclosure on our UAP Disclosure Timeline — covering every landmark event from 1969 to 2026.