The Australian Space Agency and UAP

Introduction

Of all the Australian government Departments and Agencies which might be expected to have an interest in UAP, the main ones in my opinion would be the Department of Defence (DOD), the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), and the Australian Space Agency (ASA). 

Department of Defence

In response to any queries about the subject of UAP, the DOD has for many years consistently stated:

"Defence does not have a protocol that covers recording and reporting of UFO sightings." (June 2019.)

"Defence does not have a protocol that covers recording or reporting of unidentified aerial phenomena..." (June 2019.)

The former Chief of Air Force Air Marshal Mel Hupfield said "...he had not seen any reports of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena or UAPs - in Australian airspace." (Oct 2021.)

An internal DOD briefing paper used at Senate Estimate Committee hearings included:

"...the United States nor any other nation or ally has requested or offered to collaborate on any UAP reporting or investigation." (Early 2022.)

The CSIRO

The CSIRO is Australia's national science agency. Included in a response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request in August 2022, was a statement by the CSIRO used to respond to queries about UAP. Dated June 2021, in part it read:

"We're expecting to receive media inquiries into whether CSIRO has been researching UAPs...CSIRO doesn't investigate or research UAPs...CSIRO won't be commenting on the release of the report (KB- ODNI June 2021 UAP report.)

ASA

So, neither the DOD nor CSIRO have any official interest in the reporting, recording or investigation or research into UAP. What about the ASA? 

On 27 August 2022 I wrote an article titled "Two Freedom of Information requests and the Australian Space Agency." In that piece I reported on the response by the ASA to two FOIA requests. One by an unnamed individual in April 2019, and one by another unnamed individual in September 2021. I also submitted my own FOIA request to the ASA in August 2022, which failed to locate any relevant documents.

On 25 February 2024 I submitted a new FOIA request to the ASA after reading the results of Defence FOI 386/23/24 which contained a copy of an email dated 16 October 2023, from the Defence Space Command to the Royal Australian Air Force Ministerial Liaison Office, which in part read:

"I'm seeking information regarding details pertaining to Unidentified Aerial Phenomena that was mentioned in a Senate Estimate by Air Force. I'm unsure of how long ago. The Australian Space Agency is requesting this information for a brief."

As I had never seen or heard of the ASA having a briefing document on UAP, I submitted my second FOIA request seeking a copy of said brief.

On 15 April 2024, I received a response from the ASA which included two versions of their briefing paper. The response was signed by Christopher DeLuis, Genral Manager, Office of the Space Regulator and dated 9 April 2024. FOIA request number LEX74644. Two individual documents were located, titled "Briefing EC23-002464-Unidentified Aerial Phenomena-23 October 2023" and "Briefing EC24-00131-Unidentified Aerial Phenomena-1 February 2024." 

Comments:

1."The Office of the Space Regulator is responsible for regulating and oversight of Australian space and high power rocket activities for safety, security and national interests."

2. The EC in the document names, indicates they were both prepared for ASA individuals attending the Australian Parliament's Senate Estimates Committe. Thanks to the work of Melbourne based researcher Grant Lavac, we already have copies of similar briefing papers prepared for individuals from the Department of Defence attending Senate Estimate Committee hearings. 

What do the ASA briefing papers tell us?

Both papers are very similar. Firstly, from EC23. 

Enrico Palermo

"Lead Enrico Palermo, Head of Agency.

"The Department has noted recent United States Congressional inquiry into Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAPs), also known as Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs.) The Department has no information on this, and any queries should be directed to representatives of the United States government."

"The Department also noted that NASA recently released the final report of its independent study into UAPs. The Department or the Agency did not contribute to the study. Any inquiries should be directed to NASA."

"The Agency does not monitor UAPs, or UFOs in Australia, nor seek to resolve these issues."

 "The Agency has no records relating to UAPs or UFOs in Australia - although we have received enquiries and FOI requests relating to such."

"Military reporting on UAPs and UFOs. Questions relating to military reporting of UAPs and UFOs are a matter for the Department of Defence."

From EC24.

"The Australian Space Agency (the Agency) does not monitor Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAPs), also known as Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs), or seek to resolve these issues."

"The Agency has no records relating to UAPs or UFOs in Australia, nor does it support UAP research."

"The Agency has no information on the 2023 US Congressional hearings into UAPs and did not contribute to the 2023 NASA report on UAPs."

So, there you have the official positions of the Australian DOD, the CSIRO and the ASA.

Comments:

1. Despite saying that they have no interest in UAP, someone in the ASA had to make time to research the topic of UAP in preparing these briefs. The same within the DOD (Space Command?). 

2. As of April 2024, we still haven't located the individual from the Australian DOD who attended the May 2023 Five Eyes briefing on UAP, by former Director Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick, of the All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office, or what they did with the information that they received at said briefing. You would imagine that a report on the content of the briefing would have been reported back to the DOD in Australia. However, despite efforts to find out, Australian UAP researchers are none the wiser for certain, although a case can be made that it was an individual from the DOD's Defence Intelligence Organisation (DIO). Unfortunately for us, the DIO is one of several intelligence agencies exempt from the Australian FOIA.

3. If any reader has a suggestion as to any other area of the Australian government to look into, as regards UAP, I would be delighted to hear from you. 

DGI 2024 conference in London

DGI 2024 - London

A Worldwide Business research event, DGI 2024 will be held in London between 12-13 March 2024. The GI in the title stands for Geospatial Intelligence. Geospatial Intelligence is intelligence about human activity on Earth which comes from the analysis of imagery, signals or signatures with geospatial information. This information may be gathered from aerial images, or mobile sensors, or satellites. 

All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office

Of interest to those researching UAP is that one of the speakers at the event is from the U.S. government All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO.) On 1 March 2024, Tim Phillips, who is listed as Director of AARO, will talk on "Leveraging Geospatial Intelligence Tradecraft to Detect, Identify, Track and Manage UAP incidents." On 12 March 2024 he will participate in a workshop titled "How to work with the New All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office on upcoming Commercial Requirements."

Also speaking at the event will be Kathryn McMullan, the Director of the Australian Department of Defence's Australian Geospatial-Intelligence Organisation (AGO.) On 13 March she will talk on "The Golden Era of GEOINT," followed the same day as a participant in a panel discussion regarding European Geospatial Intelligence. AGO is one of seven Australian intelligence agencies, all of whom are exempt from the Australian Freedom of Information Act 1982. 

How I Got Here: Kathryn McMullan, Director of the Australian Geospatial-Intelligence Organisation | HerCanberra

Five Eyes briefing

Melbourne based researcher, Grant Lavac recently received responses to two FOIA requests which he had submitted to the Australian Department of Defence (DOD). He had asked about Australia's representation at an AARO UAP Five Eyes briefing held in May 2023 in Washington DC.

One document was located by the DOD which matched the requests. However, access was denied on the grounds that:

 "I am satisfied that material contained in the document requested by the applicant is material that originated with, or was received from, an exempt agency." 

Out of the seven Australian Intelligence agencies which are exempt from the Australian FOI Act 1982 only two are within the DOD. These are the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIO) and the AGO. We know that whoever attended the AARO briefing was a Defence representative as this has been stated by the DOD itself.  We do not know which agency sent this individual to the meeting, only that they were based at the Australian Embassy in Washington DC. We do not know for certain which Australian Intelligence agency originated or received the material contained in the one document which DOD located pursuant to Grant's FOIA request. However, it is reasonable to suggest that the document originated from or contained material from either the DIO or AGO. 

It will be fascinating to hear the content of Tim Phillips' speech, and whether or not Kathryn McMullan listens to it. An Internet search using keywords "Kathryn McMullan" and "UAP" located no entries.

Did Australia actually attend the May 2023 Five Eyes briefing on UAP?

Conflicting statements

Conflicting statements by the Australian Department of Defence (DOD) have not been resolved by a recent request I submitted under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA.) As outlined in a 27 December 2023 blog post; during a presentation on 31 May 2023, former U.S. All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office Director Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick stated that he had recently held a forum on UAP for the Five Eyes partners, which includes Australia.

Grant Lavac

Australian researcher Grant Lavac posed a series of questions to the Australian Minister of Defence, one of which was "What was the extent of Australia's involvement in the Five Eyes Forum on UAP and who from Australia was represented?" The answer, dated 30 June 2023, was from the acting head of Air Force Capability "Air Force did not attend the Five Eyes forum on UAP."

Senator Whish-Wilson

In July 2023 Senator Whish-Wilson posed the following question to the Australian DOD. "Did Australia attend the recent Five Eyes meeting held in May 2023? If so, did it attend the briefing on UAPs." The reply was: "Australia did not attend a United States briefing on UAPs." However, the Senator then asked another question, in November 2023, at the 2023-2024 Supplementary Budget Estimates Committe:

"Did the Australian Department of Defence receive an invitation from the U.S. All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) to attend the Five Eyes forum on UAP in May 2023 led by AARO's Director Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick?" 

The Australian DOD responded on 15 December 2023and said "Yes. A Defence representative of the Australian Embassy in Washington attended."

These conflicting statements were also highlighted by journalist Jamieson Murphy in the 10 February 2024 issue of the "Canberra Times" newspaper.

FOIA request

Defence Attaché - Head of Australian Defence Staff | Australia in the USA (embassy.gov.au)

Based on the 15 December 2023 DOD response that "A Defence representative of the Australian Embassy in Washington attended," on 30 December 2023, I submitted the following FOIA request to the Australian DOD which became Defence FOI 583/23/24:

"...copies of correspondence, including but not limited to copies of emails and relevant attachments to/from/cc'd Rear Admiral Ian Gordon Murray, Australian Defence Attached to the USA, containing the keywords "UAP" and/or "Five Eyes" and/or "All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office." The time period I would like is from 1 May 2023 to 30 June 2023."

According to the Australian Embassy Washington website, Rear Admiral Murray has been the Defence Attache to the US since January 2023. My rationale for selecting the Rear Admiral was that if anyone in the Australian Embassy in Washington would be aware of this May 2023 UAP briefing, it would be the Head of Australian Defence staff in Washington, namely the Rear Admiral.

FOIA response

On 13 February 2023 I received a response from the relevant DOD FOIA decision maker which stated "I have identified no documents as falling within the scope of the request." It went on to say:

"SP& I conducted searches of their information holdings including the Defence Record Management System, identified as 'Objective', personal and group email accounts and hard copies repositories for documents matching the scope of the request. This included searches by Defence staff at the Australian Embassy in Washington D.C. No records were found matching the applicant's scope."

SP & I is the Strategy, Policy and Industry Group of the Australian DOD.

Conclusion

So, at the moment, I am still unclear as to whether or not a representative of Australia attended the May 2023 Five Eyes briefing on UAP, in Washington D.C, and if so, exactly who attended. Other Australian researchers are conducting their own inquiries into this matter, and I hope to further report on the topic in due course. 

Update: 24 June 2024

Researcher Grant Lavac, via an FOIA request has received a copy of the agenda of the Five Eyes 24 May 2023 meeting run by AARO. The agenda shows that someone from Australia did attend and present a report.

Update: 8 May 2025

Researcher Grant Lavac was recently advised by US DOD UAP spokesperson Susan Gough, that there had been no AARO driven Five Eyes UFO causcus get together in 2024. 

US DOD Office of Inspector General's UAP related report

New project

 On 3 May 2021, the United States' Department of Defense Office of Inspector General announced a new project, "Evaluation of the DOD's Actions regarding the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena." 

"The objective of this evaluation is to determine the extent to which the DOD has taken actions regarding Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP)..."

A classified report was issued on 15 August 2023, then an unclassified summary copy of the report was issued 25 January 2024.

The 16-page 2024 document provides a brief historical background of DOD's interest in UAP since 1947. It then goes on to provide details of Congressional actions between 2019 and 2023 via various National Defense Authorization Acts.

Unclassified Summary of Report No. DODIG-2023-109, “Evaluation of the DoD’s Actions Regarding Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena,” August 15, 2023 (defense.gov)

The review

The review found, inter alia, that:

1. "The DOD does not have a comprehensive, coordinated approach to addressing UAP."

2. "The DOD hasn't issued a comprehensive UAP response Plan."

3. "DOD components have largely excluded geographic combatant commands in UAP processes."

4. "DOD components developed varying processes to detect and report UAP incidents."

5. "The DOD/s lack of a comprehensive, coordinated approach to address UAP may pose a threat to military forces and US national security."

Recommendations

A number of recommendations were made:

1. That the Under Secretary of Defense for Security and Intelligence, and the All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) coordinate to issue a DOD policy to "integrate Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena roles, responsibilities, requirements, and coordinating procedures..."

2. That while awaiting action 1 above, that the Secretary of the Army issue interim guidance for Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena.

3. Likewise, that the Secretary of the navy issue interim guidance o for Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena.

4. Likewise for the US Air Force.

5, "We recommend that the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff issue guidance to the geographic combatant commands regarding Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena detection, reporting, collection, analyzing and identification within their area of responsibility. At a minimum the guidance should include tools to help commands determine the threat posed by Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena."

Pentagon briefing

On the 25 January 2024, Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh was asked a UAP related question during her briefing. The question was:

"And then separately, on the - the DOD Inspector General report about UAP, said that there wasn't a comprehensive plan for dealing with UAP and that could pose a security threat. Any response to that?"

To which the response was:

"In terms of the UAP report, I -I'm sorry, I just have to take that question."

Which means that a response will be provided later, to the individual who asked the question.

Australia did attend the May 2023 AARO UAP Five Eyes Forum

Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick 

During his presentation to the NASA public meeting on 31 May 2023, former All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) Director, Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick, stated that he had recently held a forum on UAP for the Five Eyes partners. The Five Eyes partners are the USA, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand. A number of UAP researchers and journalists sought comment from these countries as to whether or not they attended the Five Eyes UAP Forum. In a blog dated 1 July 2023, I specifically sought evidence that a representative from the Australian government had attended.

Royal Australian Air Force

Australian researcher Grant Lavac posed a number of questions to Richard Marle M.P. Australian Minister for Defence; one of which was: 

"What was the extent of Australia's involvement in the Five Eyes Forum on UAP and who from Australia was represented?"

The response letter, dated 30 June 2023, came from B Sleeman, Acting Head of Air Force Capability. In part, it read:

"Air Force did not attend the Five Eyes Forum on UAP..."

Senator Whish-Wilson

In a July 2023 Australian Department of Defence response to question on notice number 91, of the Senate Estimates Committee, submitted on 20 June 2023, by Senator Whish-Wilson, inter alia was:

"Q: Did Australia attend the recent Five Eyes meeting held in May 2023? If so, did it attend the briefing on UAPs?"

A: Australia did not attend a United States briefing on UAPs."

However, later, Senator Whish-Wilson posed another question on notice at the 2023-2024 Supplementary Buget Estimates Committee, dated 2 November 2023.

"Did the Australian Department of Defence receive an invitation from the US All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) to attend the inaugural Five Eyes Forum on UAP in May 2023 led by AARO's Director Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick?"

The 15 December 2023 answer was "Yes. A Defence representative at the Australian Embassy in Washington attended."

Comments:

1. Which is correct? The July 2023 negative assertion or the November 2023 positive assertion?

2. If the latter, who from the Australian Embassy attended? What agency or government Department were they from? 

3. After the briefing who did this individual inform about the contents of the UAP briefing? Was there a written report? Is this available under the FOI Act?

Currently a number of Australian UAP researchers, including myself, are searching for the answers, to these and other questions.

What has the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office been doing since it was established?

 Establishment

In a blog article dated 27 July 2022, I reported on the establishment of the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO.) Its director was named as Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick. The current article aims to provide an update on the work of AARO since its establishment, drawn from open sources.

12 January 2023

The Department of Defense announced that AARO Director Sean Kirkpatrick was to speak at the Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board , in Washington DC, on 12 January 2023. The title of his talk was "The Defense Department's UAP Mission & Civil Aviation." In the talk, Kirkpatrick spoke about "What is AARO?" and how the AARO Mission was applicable to the Transportation Research Board. To see his full presentation click here. 

19 January 2023

In a Tweet dated 19 January 2023, reporter Bryan Bender stated that:

"AARO is partnering with Enigma Labs to evaluate their application, data stream and filtering capabilities to determine the utility of its open source data to augment its collection efforts focused on national security areas only. Pentagon spokesperson Susan Gough tells me."

19 February 2023

Part of AARO's remit was to hear out the narrative and sighting experiences of individuals who wanted to convey UAP related information to AARO. In a 19 February 2023 article, U.S. researcher Robert Hastings advised that AARO had been in touch with him, regarding his collection of nuclear installation UAP events, and witnesses. As a result, a number of U.S. veterans, with accounts of incidents with UAP near military nuclear weapons facilities, had spoken to AARO.

Also, in February 2023, U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and Senator Marco Rubio led a group of 16  Senators who signed a letter to Kathleen H. Hicks, Deputy Secretary of Defense, and Stacey Dixon, Principle Deputy Director of National Intelligence.

Kathleen H. Hicks > U.S. Department of Defense > Biography

This letter included:

"...we respectfully request your assistance in securing the necessary funding and organizational support for AARO's success and longevity."

 The letter went on to speak of a "...serious funding gap.." It went on to remind the two addressees, that:

 "The FY23 Intelligence Authorization Act (IAA) requires that the Director of AARO report directly to the Deputy Secretary of Defense and the Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence.."

which had not occurred as at the date of this letter. 

7 March 2023

Avi Loeb | Department of Astronomy (harvard.edu)

A draft, six page paper, coauthored by Dr. Kirkpatrick and the Galileo Project's Avi Loeb, titled "Physical Constraints on Unidentified Aerial Phenomena" was made available. Its abstract read:

"We derive physical constraints on interpretations of "highly maneuverable" Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) based on standard physics and known forms of matter and radiation. In particular, we show that the friction of UAP with the surrounding air or water is expected to generate a bright optical fireball, ionization shell and tail - implying radio signatures. The fireball luminosity scales with inferred distance to the 5th power. Radar cross-section scales similarly to meteor head echoes as the square of the effective radius of the sphere surrounding the object, while the radar cross-section of the resulting ionization tail scales linearly with the radius of the ionization cylinder. The lack of all these signatures could imply inaccurate distance measurements (and hence derived velocity) for single site sensors."

19 April 2023

Dr. Kirkpatrick was the sole presenter to the Senate Armed Services sub-committee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities. During this presentation his statement included:

"I want to underscore today that only a very small percentage of UAP reports display signatures that could reasonably be described as 'anomalous.' "

On the question of an extraterrestrial origin for some UAP, Kirkpatrick said:

"I should also state clearly for the record that in our research AARO has found no credible evidence thus far or extraterrestrial activity, off-world technology, or objects that defy the known laws of physics. In the event sufficient scientific data were ever obtained that a UAP encountered can only be explained by extraterrestrial origin, we are committed to working with our interagency partners at NASA to appropriately inform the US Government's leadership of its findings."

A video of the entire hearing is available click here.

May 2023

A vacancy notice for a Deputy Director of AARO recently appeared on an agency website. The direct link to this advert no longer works.

On 31 May 2023, NASA held a public meeting of its Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Independent Study Team. Dr. Kirkpatrick also made a presentation. In it he gave details of "UAP reporting trends" and provided examples of both identified and unknown UAP cases including some with video evidence. In closing he made several recommendations to NASA which included:

- Taking the lead on the evaluation of crowd sourced metadata from mobile phones

- Use of large-scale scientific instruments

- Use of Earth science satellites

- Reviewing archived data.

Five Eyes

During the course of that public meeting Kirkpatrick stated that he had recently held a meeting with the "Five Eyes" partners (the USA, Canada, UK, Australia and New Zealand) re UAP. The discussions included:

- What kind of analyses can they help us with?

- What kind of calibration can they help us with?

- Data sharing.

- What can we help them with?

- Kirkpatrick stated that those other countries would send their information and data to AARO to be integrated into the AARO processes. 

23 June 2023

A press release on the website of Senator Gillibrand advised that she had secured full funding for AARO in the Senate Armed Services Committee markup of the FY24 National Defense Authorization Act.

6 July 2023

The US Aerospace Corporation advised vacant positions in support of AARO. (Link not active.)

20 July 2023

In an article about a face-to-face interview with the U.S. ABC Network's, Devin Dwyer; Kirkpatrick is reported to have said that being caught off guard by intelligent or extraterrestrial technical surprise remained a top concern. Other points he made included:

- AARO had now received around 800 reports

- "We will follow the data"

- The vast majority of cases are readily explainable

- A small number of reports involved anomalies.

30 August 2023

The Defencescoop's Brandi Vincent reported , in an article dated 30 August 2023 that:

"Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks recently moved to personally oversee the Pentagon's UAP investigation formerly known as the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office....Hicks now holds regular meetings with AARO's inaugural director Sean Kirkpatrick who she has also repositioned to report directly to her...AARO is not yet at full operational capability and I look forward to AARO achieving that in fiscal year 2024."

31 August 2023

Pentagon Press Secretary Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder at a press briefing on 31 August 2023 announced the launch of the AARO website which had been long promised.  The website sets out details of the AARO Mission and Vision; defines UAP as they see it; and has sections which include UAP reporting trends:

- Reported UAP altitudes

- Typically reported UAP characteristics

- Reported UAP morphology

- Reported UAP hotspots.

Under a heading of "Coming soon" is that:

"AARO will be accepting reports from current or former US government employees, service members, or contractors with direct knowledge of US government programs or activities related to UAP dating back to 1945."

Also "coming soon" will be "Current operational UAP reporting":

- For military personnel with the recent GENADMIN process titled "Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Reporting and Material Disposition"

- For pilots, please report via the FAA.

Several UAP videos both identified, and unknown are available on the website. Following this, there is an "About us" section and "Additional information about AARO." As for reporting sightings from the general public the site states that "...we will advise when a reporting mechanism is available for others to use."

Interestingly, under "AARO Mission Overview" is a 12-slide presentation by AARO. Slide six includes a section headed "UAP object recovery" which states:

"Leads UAP recovery planning and execution, in close collaboration with AARO S & T Group.

Advises commands on the search and safe handling, storage, transport, and transfer of UAP objects and material, for AARO S&T exploitation."

 Slide eight includes "UAP Exploitation":

"Directs exploitation of recovered enigmatic technologies, leveraging cross-sector partnerships and the latest developments in theoretical and applied physics, engineering

Leads structured recording, synthesis and storage of signatures and material analyses for data consistency, across operational, analytic, and research partnerships."

Update: 2 November 2023

1. AARO published its consolidated annual report. 

2. The US DOD issued a news release on 31 October 2023, announcing AARO's secure mechanism for authorized reporting of information about UAP programs, via the aaro.mil website. 

3. On 31 October 2023 AARO director Sean Kirkpatrick held a press briefing about UAP. Here is a transcript of that session.

Update: 13 November 2023

1. On 31 October, the current Director of AARO, Sean Kirkpatrick held an off-camera media roundtable. Here is a link to the transcript of that session. The session described the new AARO reporting system which allows USG employees to confidentially report their knowledge of USG UAP related activities. 

2. On 8 November 2023, the US Department of Defense announced the appointment of a Deputy Director, AARO. The appointee was Timothy A. Phillips. 

3. Also on 8 November 2023, The US Department of Defense announced the upcoming departure of the current AARO Director, Sean Kirkpatrick. 

Update: 2 December 2023

Three Case Resolution Reports were uploaded:

Middle East and Mediterranean Sea 2022 and 2023. 

South East Asia 2017.

Western United States. 2021.

Update: 8 March 2024

AARO advertised two positions titled Chief Science and Technology Officer. Duties:

Incumbents typical work assignments may include the following:

• AARO's Chief of Science & Technology (S&T) will provide oversight and direction to the S&T function of AARO. The Chief of S&T serves as the principal subject matter expert for the Director and Deputy Director of AARO.
• Fosters and cultivates strategic alliances and professional networks with interagency partners, government agencies, national laboratories, and universities/academia, to align and integrate the enterprise's array of S&T capabilities against Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) requirements.
• Provide direction and guidance to mission managers with regards to UAP efforts and liaises within AARO as well as external partners.
• Serve as the senior member of the S&T Team and demonstrate a level of managerial experience, including the ability to develop near and long-term strategies, set goals, establish metrics, and oversee projects and initiatives. Serve as a liaison to academia, and private industry to accomplish AARO's mission.

Update: 21 March 2024

On 8 March 2024, Defense Scoop reporter Brandi Vincent reported on her attendance at an off-camera invite only media engagement with Tim Phillips, acting Director of AARO. It was revealed that AARO was developing and deploying a new surveillance system-called Gremlin. The media engagement was basically about the release of AARO's volume 1 of their report on US government engagement with UAP. The unclassified version of the AARO historical report may be read here. 

Update: 12 April 2024

It is being reported that AARO will be giving a briefing to some members of the US Congress between 1-3pm EST on 17 April 2024, in a SCIF. 

Update: 22 April 2024

The AARO website recently published information related to "Kona Blue" a program proposed for the Department of Homeland Security in 2011, which would have continued and extended the work of AAWSAP. It was never formally established and work on it wound up in December 2011. AARO itself provided details of how it had come to learn about Kona Blue.