Current official Pentagon UAP investigation office; successor to UAPTF and AOIMSG. Stood up under the FY2022 NDAA.
Notable findings
- 2024 ORNL synopsis on layered Mg-Bi specimen: terrestrial origin, no exotic isotopic signatures
- Revealed Kona Blue code name
Role in PURSUE
Assesses the PURSUE video material for sensor provenance and likely origin, stating where footage probably came from and when it was uploaded. For Release 02 it issues the chain-of-custody caveat: many files lack a substantiated provenance, and uploader-assigned titles are AARO assessments of origin only, not findings about the objects.
In PURSUE Release 07 its record is a memorandum for record of a joint witness debrief, DOW-UAP-D176 (Triangle over the Ridge 2026): three pages on a triangular craft that federal law enforcement agents reported over a ridge line in 2026, under the letterhead of the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense, Intelligence and Security, with the Department of Defense seal and an AARO seal, while the line under its heading names AARO and the Department of War. It states no conclusion and no recommendation, and its names and the day and month of the sighting lie under black bars carrying 1843 labels.
The 2024 historical report
The office’s AARO Historical Record Report 2024 of 8 March 2024 is its fullest statement on the recovered-technology claim: no confirmed evidence that any UAP sighting represented extraterrestrial technology, the alleged reverse-engineering programmes either non-existent or misidentified, and the narrative attributed to circular reporting. The same report confirms AAWSAP’s $22 million and its contractor. The office and its first director are parties to the dispute they report on, and the report’s methods have been contested by the people it describes.
Connections
UAPTF · AATIP · ORNL · Mg-Bi · Kona Blue · Luis Elizondo · PURSUE · Department of War · AARO Historical Record Report 2024 · ODNI Preliminary Assessment 2021 · Section 1673 · Colorado Orb Sighting 2023 · May 2022 CENTCOM Sightings · Triangle over the Ridge 2026