Hearing
On the 19th of November 2024, the Emerging Trends and Capabilities Sub-committee of the U.S. Congress' Senate Armed Services Committee, held a hearing on UAP. Announcing this, "Closed hearing to examine the activities of the All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office, to be immediately followed by an open session." The sole witness called before the hearing was Dr. Jon Kosloski who has been the Director of AARO since August 2024. The chair for the hearing was Senator Kirsten Gillibrand.
The video of the 34-minute-long open session may be accessed here. Dr. Kosloski presented an opening statement, the text of which is as follows:
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| Dr. Jon T. Kosloski > U.S. Department of Defense > Biography |
Opening statement
"Statement for the Record Dr. Jon Kosloski, Director, All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities November 19, 2024.
Thank you, Chairwoman Gillibrand, Ranking Member Ernst, and distinguished members of the subcommittee. It is a pleasure to be here on behalf of the Department of Defense as the new Director of the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office. I appreciate the opportunity to provide a status update on AARO’s work and respond to your questions about unidentified anomalous phenomena, or UAP.
On behalf of the department and the entire AARO team, I want to say how grateful we are to Congress for its continued support. Unidentified objects in any domain may pose a threat to U.S. safety and security. Reports of UAP activity, particularly near national security sites, must be treated seriously and investigated with scientific rigor by the U.S. Government.
By way of introduction, I am Jon Kosloski. I'm a researcher at my core, with an academic background in mathematics, physics, and engineering. I have spent most of my career at the National Security Agency leading advanced research in the areas of optics, computing, and crypto mathematics. I am drawn to tough scientific problems, which is what brought me to AARO and the UAP mission.
Since I arrived in August 2024, I have been impressed by the breadth and depth of my team’s experience and the framework it has established to rigorously analyze UAP reports. AARO has taken meaningful steps to improve data collection and retention, bolster sensor development, effectively triage UAP reports, and remove the stigma of reporting a UAP event. Last year, AARO worked with DoD’s Joint Staff to issue guidance to defense personnel worldwide on how to report UAP observations and is working with the Military Services to ensure the implementation of this guidance. Additionally, AARO launched a public website that features UAP imagery, case resolutions, material analysis, archival records, and more. These are only a few examples of AARO’s recent progress – and we’re just getting started.
To date, AARO has over 1,600 UAP reports in its holdings from across the U.S. government. I’ll share a slide in just a few minutes of updated UAP analytic trends. You’ll see that many reports resolve to commonplace objects like birds, balloons, and unmanned systems, while others lack sufficient data for comprehensive analysis. Only a very small percentage of reports AARO receives are potentially anomalous; these are the cases that require significant time, resources, and a focused scientific inquiry by AARO and its wide network of partners.
It is important to underscore that, to date, AARO has discovered no verifiable evidence of extraterrestrial beings, activity, or technology. To accomplish AARO’s national security mission, I have set three priorities for the Office: building strong partnerships, promoting transparency, and scaling up the work of the office. First, AARO cannot do its work alone. Building partnerships across government, academia, industry, and with the public, is essential to the success of the office. Strong cooperation with the Military Services is particularly important. We rely on their support to implement our reporting guidance and to amplify the message that there should be zero stigma associated with UAP reporting. We also rely on partnerships with the National Labs, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, FBI, DHS, and NASA, all of which play a role in the whole-of-government effort to address UAP. Just as important, I recognize the talent and expertise that reside outside of government.
AARO will continue to explore new ways to partner with the academic and scientific communities to investigate its most complex UAP cases. Transparency is a related priority for AARO. Our ability to collaborate with key partners, including the scientific community and the public, relies on information sharing, to include downgrading and declassifying UAP-related information. In some cases, it may be unclear to the public why DoD classified a piece of information in the first place. Why are photos of seemingly benign objects, such as balloons, classified? It is often the case that an object or phenomenon itself is not a security concern, but the location, source, or method used to capture it is still sensitive.
Many cases are difficult to quickly release to the public but are reported to the appropriate committees in Congress that are authorized by the law or House and Senate leadership to receive the information. It is important to note that AARO does not unilaterally declassify information. Instead, we work with the originator of a classified record to ensure that declassifying that record does not inadvertently harm national security. This can take time. Nonetheless, the Department is committed to declassifying and publicly sharing more information on UAP, while protecting sensitive sources and methods.
I’ll be sharing some newly declassified imagery in just a few minutes. AARO is also working closely with the National Archives and Records Administration to make UAP-related documents publicly available in a digitized collection. In addition, AARO continues to review the U.S. historical record relating to UAP. We welcome any former or current government civilian, contractor, or military service member with relevant information to reach out to us at www.aaro.mil. My final priority is scaling AARO’s work to match its mission. AARO needs to bolster the quantity, quality, and diversity of data that it acquires and examines. This means tapping into existing data sources within the interagency while deploying AARO’s own organic sensor capabilities. To the extent that UAP result from domain awareness gaps, more and better data will help us fill those gaps and help us understand what is being encountered. In closing, AARO is committed to the highest standards of scientific integrity. We will not foreclose on any explanation for UAP prematurely.
We will continue to follow the science and data wherever they lead. We will continue to have open and frank dialogue with Congress in settings like these and also in classified briefings. We will continue to keep you fully and currently informed of all UAP information, active or historical. And finally, we will continue to share as much information as possible at the unclassified level to inform the public of AARO’s activities and its findings. Thank you for your continued support, and I look forward to your questions."
Presentation
Following his opening statement, Dr. Kosloski gave a slide presentation. This included three case studies.
1. The 26 April 2013 Puerto Rico object. AARO's analysis concluded that there were two objects in close proximity; the perception of high speed was due to parallax; they travelled at wind speed over land in a straight line, never entering the water. The objects did not exhibit any anomalous speeds or flight characteristics.
2. The January 2015 "Go Fast" Object. AARO's analysis concluded that the UAP was at 13,000 feet and not near the sea surface. That it was travelling at around 39 knots in speed and travelled in a relatively straight line slightly rising trajectory with a slow curving descent near the end. It did not exhibit any anomalous speeds or flight characteristics.
3. A newly released video taken in 2018 by a UAV of an eruption of Italy's Mt. Etna. AARO's conclusion was that the object in question was a balloon travelling with the wind.
Q and A
The session was then opened up for questions directed to Dr. Kosloski. These questions and responses may be viewed on the video of the open part of the session.
