“I must also state clearly for the record,” said Sean M. Kirkpatrick, director of the Pentagon’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), “that in our research, AARO has found no reliable evidence so far of extraterrestrial activity, off-world technology or objects that defy the known laws of physics.”
Referring to the Pentagon-speak term “unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP)” that is now used to replace the term UFO in the public lexicon, Kirkpatrick added that “if significant scientific data has been obtained since an encounter with UAP can only be explained by extraterrestrial origin, we are committed to work with our interagency partners at NASA to accurately inform the leadership of the US government of its findings.
Committee Vice Chair Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) Kirkpatrick if there are “any technical developments by China or Russia to monitor or attack US interests.”
“Part of what we need to do as we go through this – especially those that show signatures of advanced technical capabilities – is to determine if there is an alien connection,” Kirkpatrick testified. “That’s difficult when what we’re observing doesn’t have a Chinese or Russian flag on its side.”
However, “in cases that show you some kind of enhanced technical signature – where we’re talking about a percentage of the entire population of cases that we have – I’m concerned about what that connection is, and there are indications that some are related to foreign capabilities. We have to investigate that with our IC (intelligence community) partners. And as we get evidence to support that, that will be turned over to the appropriate IC agency to investigate.
Ernst pushed Kirkpatrick further on the issue, asking him “if advanced Chinese or Russian technologies could be causing some of this anomalous behavior.”
Kirkpatrick doesn’t rule that out, saying Beijing is notably faster at testing tech breakthroughs than the U.S.
The Chinese in particular “are less at risk of technical development than we are. They’re just willing to try things and see if it works. Are there capabilities that can be used against us in an ISR [intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance] and weapon fashion? Absolutely. Do I have evidence that they did this in these cases? No, but I have my share of clues. “
While Kirkpatrick has no evidence that Chinese or Russian technology is responsible for some of these sightings, The War Zone spent the last few years suggesting that many of these observations are actually alien adversaries using advances in low-end unmanned aerial vehicle technology, and even simpler platforms, to to gather intelligence on the overwhelming loyalty of some of America’s most sensitive war capabilities. You can read more about that in our deep dive here.
The Chinese balloon shooting in particular is the latest demonstration of that capability.
And even AARO’s own numbers show that balloons or balloon-like objects make up the majority of these sightings.
In January, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) issued a 12-page report saying that AARO had investigated 510 incidents and that the “initial analysis and -identified” of the 366 newly identified reports showed that more than half exhibited “unremarkable. characteristics.”
Of these, 26 are described as Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) or UAS-like entities; 163 are described as balloons or balloon-like entities; and six were attributed to “clutter,” which the ODNI identified as “birds, weather events, or airborne debris such as plastic bags.”
Kirkpatrick told senators Wednesday that AARO is currently investigating about 650 finds, of which about half are “anomalous, interesting amounts.”
AARO’s next quarterly report “will be out here soon,” he said. The next annual report will be released in June or July. There are about 20 to 30 new UAP sighting reports that are “about halfway through the analytical process” while “a handful” have been completed, along with several case closure reports that have been made.
Kirkpatrick also shared the data AARO has collected about the most common characteristics of observed UAPs.
“What you’ll notice is that there’s a heavy what we call a collection bias in altitude and in geographic location,” he said. “That’s where all of our sensors are. That’s where our training range is. That’s where our operational range is. That’s where all of our platforms are.”
The UAPs, he said, are “usually round, usually one to four meters, white, silver, translucent metallic.” It was observed “between 10,000 and 30,000 feet with an apparent speed from the station up to Mach 2 (about 1,535mph). No thermal exhausts were normally visible. We got constant radar returns. We got intermittent radio returns and we get their thermal signatures. That’s what we’re looking for. And trying to understand what that is.”
He also provides two case studies – one of an unsolved incident in the Middle East and one of southern Asia that turned into a commercial airliner – to show the challenges of investigating these views.
That work involves time-consuming frame-by-frame analysis of videos taken by US drones.
“It’s the kind of data that we need to do, the type of analysis that we need to do that can be overwhelming if you have to break it down, frame by frame,” Kirkpatrick testified. “Also, we’ve paired them all with models of all the imaging sensors so I can show how their sensors respond. All of these sensors don’t necessarily respond the way you think they do. Especially already in the world and in the field.”
The issue of funding for AARO, as well as its role in investigating the balloon and other objects seen in February, was also addressed on Wednesday. Concerns about AARO being out of control during the balloon saga is something we raised in February, which you can read more about here.
“It requires a letter to Secretary Austin from the Senator [Marco] Rubio and me and 14 other senators to get the office temporary relief for the current fiscal year,” said subcommittee chairwoman Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) in her opening remarks.
“This year, I want to examine a series of specific issues and the recent incidents where many things have been shot down in North America. It seems that the leadership of the Pentagon did not turn to the AARO office to play a leading role advisory role to the combatant commander. We need to know if that will continue. We need to know if DOD leadership will bring AARO into decision-making processes and we need to know what role that will play. of AARO on interagency coordination after the NSC Working Group disbanded.
Kirkpatrick explained that when “things first came to light I got a call from the Joint Staff leadership to come one night to review the events as they unfolded and give them an assessment based on what we know at that time.”
He said he worked with the director of the Joint Staff, as well as the heads of its intelligence and operations directors “that night and the next few days on what types of things we tracked from a unknown object view” and “what databases do we use” to track known objects.
Kirkpatrick said the senators should approach the White House “for a decision on how they’re going to respond. We’re not playing a role…other than the initial advice on what we’re seeing and how we’re seeing it.”
In addition to the existing classified web portal, AARO is also working on a public-facing portal for people to use to contact it about UAPs.
“So I first want to thank everybody for talking about the witnesses that you’ve had so far with us,” Kirkpatrick said. “I appreciate that. We’ve brought in about two dozen so far. It’s been very helpful. I’d like you to keep it up until a plan is approved.”
The process, however, is still ongoing, he added.
“We have a multi-phase method for doing that, which we socialize and submit for approval. If that happens, then we have to push everything and get it more automated. What I ask though, as you all continue to refer us and refer witnesses to us, please try to prioritize what you want to do because we are doing research staff on that.
And while Kirkpatrick on Wednesday downplayed any link between these objects and extraterrestrial technology, it’s not like he’s a complete UFO denier.
Last month, he and Abraham Loeb, head of the Galileo Project, Department of Astronomy, Harvard University, co-authored a draft of a paper suggesting that “an artificial interstellar object could be ‘g is a parent craft that releases many small probes during its near-Earth orbit, an operational construct not too dissimilar to NASA’s missions.
They were inspired to write the paper by the 2017 appearance of a mysterious space object called “Oumuamua.”
Land in particular could be an attractive option for foreign travelers, they added.
“Within close range of a star, extraterrestrial technology probes can use the star’s light to charge their batteries and liquid water as their fuel. This would explain why they would target the habitable region around stars, where liquid water may exist on the surface of rocky planets with atmospheres, such as Earth. Habitable planets are particularly attractive to trans-medium probes, which able to move between space, air and water. From a great distance, Venus, Earth or Mars are equally attractive for probes. But on closer inspection, Earth shows unique signatures of liquid water (by reflecting blue light) and plants (by its red edge) that attract selective attention.”
Whether future reports will shed more light on this remains to be seen. We will definitely let you know when it is made public.
Contact the author: howard@thewarzone.com