All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office — the Pentagon’s statutory UAP office

The All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, known by the acronym AARO, is a task force of the United States Department of Defense, operating under the Office of the Secretary of Defense and established in 2022. Its stated mission is to minimize technical and intelligence surprise by synchronizing the identification, attribution, and mitigation of unidentified anomalous phenomena observed in the vicinity of national security areas. As of the FY2025 annual reporting cycle, AARO holds a total of 1,870 cases since its founding. It is the first U.S. government office to investigate such phenomena under a statutory congressional mandate that requires annual unclassified public reporting.

Key facts

  • Founded: 2022
  • Type: government agency
  • Parent organisation: Office of the Secretary of Defense
  • Website: https://www.aaro.mil

Mandate and structure

AARO’s statutory mandate covers unidentified objects across all physical domains: space, airborne, submerged, and transmedium. Beyond tracking active reports, the office holds authority to review government and contractor records dating back to 1945, specifically to identify any concealed programs related to unidentified anomalous phenomena. That historical reach was codified as part of AARO’s founding legislation.

By statute, AARO is required to coordinate with a defined set of agencies: the Federal Aviation Administration, NASA, the Department of Homeland Security, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the National Science Foundation, and the Department of Energy. The office may also consult with allied nations and partner governments when appropriate. Internally, AARO is guided by an executive council called AAROEXEC, and its divisions include Analysis, Operations, a Chief Technology Officer function, and a Strategic Communications Division.

The FY2023 National Defense Authorization Act (Public Law 117-263, signed December 23, 2022) elevated AARO’s reporting chain. Under that law, the office’s director reports directly to the Deputy Secretary of Defense and, on operational and security matters, to the Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence.

Predecessor offices

AARO consolidated the functions of two predecessor bodies. The first was the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force, or UAPTF, which had operated within the Office of Naval Intelligence beginning in August 2020. The second was the Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronization Group, known as AOIMSG.

AARO reviewed the records of Project BLUE BOOK, a U.S. Air Force program, as part of its historical research. Of the 12,618 sightings catalogued by BLUE BOOK, 701 were categorized as unidentified and remained unsolved at the program’s close.

Leadership and funding

In November 2023, Timothy Phillips, a member of the Senior National Intelligence Service with nearly two decades of geospatial intelligence experience, was named deputy director of AARO. Phillips subsequently served as acting director through August 2024.

The Department of Defense requested $11 million for AARO in the fiscal year 2024 budget. Senators Kirsten Gillibrand and Marco Rubio publicly criticized that figure as insufficient for the office’s full mandate.

Public website and reporting tools

The aaro.mil public website launched on August 31, 2023, providing photos and videos of resolved UAP cases, reporting trends, and a secure mechanism for current and former government employees to submit reports. At launch, the site did not include a tool for members of the general public to file reports. That capability was added with a secure reporting tool on October 31, 2023, following a final legal compliance review conducted under four separate federal statutes.

Historical Record Report

On March 8, 2024, AARO released Volume I of its Historical Record Report, which reviewed U.S. government UAP investigations spanning from 1945 through October 31, 2023. The report examined approximately two dozen separate investigative efforts, from Project BLUE BOOK onward. The conclusion: no verifiable evidence was found that any reviewed sighting represented extraterrestrial technology.

As part of that review, AARO examined a material sample that had been alleged to originate from a crashed off-world spacecraft. Laboratory analysis concluded the sample was a manufactured terrestrial alloy composed primarily of magnesium, zinc, and bismuth.

Annual reports and case holdings

AARO’s FY2025 Consolidated Annual Report on Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena, released the week of July 21, 2026, documented 319 newly received UAP reports covering the period June 2, 2024 to May 30, 2025. That batch brought the office’s total case holdings to 1,870 since its founding.

The FY2025 report contained one maritime-domain case of particular scale: a U.S. Navy report of approximately 100 airborne UAP and two likely uncrewed surface systems observed off the coast of Virginia. AARO was actively investigating that case in coordination with the reporting unit as of the report’s release.

The same report flagged 50 incidents involving unmanned aircraft near nuclear infrastructure, weapons facilities, or launch sites, a sharp increase from the previous reporting period. AARO classified those incidents as UAS, meaning unmanned aircraft system, incidents rather than unexplained UAP.

Across all its annual reports to date, AARO has found no resolved case indicating advanced foreign adversarial aerospace capabilities or breakthrough technologies. The office has also received no verified reports of adverse health effects directly associated with UAP encounters.

Declassification and the PURSUE program

AARO operates a declassification pipeline coordinated with a release program called PURSUE. On July 10, 2026, the fourth release of declassified UAP imagery and historical files under that program was published by the Department of Defense. The materials included UAP videos and historical files dating to the 1940s.

Research methodology

In August 2025, a UAP workshop was held at Associated Universities Incorporated (AUI) headquarters. The Department of Defense subsequently released the workshop’s report, which contained actionable recommendations. Two of the primary recommendations were the development of standardized metadata templates for UAP data collection and the use of artificial intelligence with human oversight in UAP data analysis.

Did you know

  • AARO’s predecessor, the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP), operated largely in secret. AARO is the first UAP investigation office in U.S. history established under a statutory congressional mandate that requires annual unclassified public reports. (uapdisclosurereads.com)
  • Project BLUE BOOK, the U.S. Air Force program whose records AARO reviewed as part of its historical research, catalogued 12,618 total sightings. Of those, 701 were categorized as unidentified and were never solved. (en.wikisource.org)
  • When aaro.mil launched on August 31, 2023, the site had no way for members of the general public to submit UAP reports. That reporting tool went live on October 31, 2023, after a final legal compliance review covering four separate federal statutes. (globalsecurity.org)

Data sources

Data updated: 2026-10-28