More than a year after its establishment, the federal UFO task force AARO (All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office) has finally launched its much-anticipated website. But while the website promises interesting details in the future, its current iteration is missing key elements, including not having any method for reporting UAP sightings.
However, interestingly enough, there is a section for reporting government-run UAP programs in the future, which seems related to UFO whistleblower David Grusch’s allegations. Although he’s not mentioned by name on the site, Grusch has alleged that the U.S. has a secret UAP retrieval and reverse-engineering program, and his thinktank launched its own website shortly before AARO’s. Now AARO seems to be requesting information about UAP programs too.
Here’s a look at the best and worst elements of the new AARO website. (Note that AARO.mil is periodically crashing after its launch, so if you have trouble reaching the website, try again later.)
To review a comprehensive, in-depth breakdown of all of UFO whistleblower Grusch’s claims, with citations, see our story here.
The Site Lacks Public UAP Reporting, but Promises a Future Section for Disclosing Government-Run UAP Programs
The new AARO website — which was officially announced by Pentagon Press Secretary Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder in a press conference on August 31 — has some interesting features. It has a simplistic design, consisting mostly of a single webpage with some dropdown pages, along with links to a few videos hosted on DVIDSHub.net. (DVIDS stands for Defense Visual Information Distribution Service.)
But despite the fanfare around the new website, there’s still no way to report UAP sightings.
One major criticism leveled against AARO since its inception in July 2022 has been the absence of an official portal for reporting UAP and UFO sightings. During the Pentagon’s press briefing on August 31, Ryder noted that they plan to add a portal soon where servicemembers and military civilians can report UAPs. However, he did not give a date when this will be made available.
As for the public, although there are tentative plans to allow them to report UAP sightings too, that ability is even farther off. (Based on a recent NASA press conference where they proposed a crowdsourced UFO platform, I wouldn’t be surprised if NASA hosted the portal where the public reports UAPs, while AARO’s portal will be only accessible to military civilians and servicepeople.)
Notably, however, the website features a “Coming Soon” that seems specifically tailored for servicemembers to report government-run UAP programs, not UFO sightings.
The website reads: “AARO will be accepting reports from current or former U.S. Government employees, service members, or contractors with direct knowledge of U.S. Government programs or activities related to UAP dating back to 1945*. These reports will be used to inform AARO’s congressionally directed Historical Record Report. We will announce when a reporting mechanism is available for others to use.”
Intriguingly, the portal isn’t designed for reporting UAP sightings, but for gathering “direct knowledge” of U.S. government programs related to UAPs—dating as far back as 1945, predating even the famed Roswell incident of 1947. This is described as being related to the Historical Record report, which Post Apocalyptic Media reported on in-depth in our story here.
David Grusch was the first to allege under oath that the the government has a secret UAP retrieval and reverse engineering program, and he has said that 40 witnesses spoke to him with firsthand information about these programs.
The website clarifies that the form is not intended for classified data. However, it also states that under the authority of HR 7776 (the NDDA for 2023), AARO is permitted to receive “all UAP-related information, including any classified national security information involving military, intelligence, and intelligence-related activities, at all levels of classification regardless of any restrictive access controls, special access programs, or compartmented access programs.”
This seems to run counter to a statement Kirkpatrick made during the SASC Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities Hearing four months ago, when he told Sen. Rosen: “There are some authorities we need. We are currently operating under Title 10 authority… but having additional authorities for collection, tasking, counterintelligence – those are all things that would be helpful, yes.”
The webpage notes that military personnel can currently report UAPs through their command or service, and civilian pilots should report sightings to air traffic control, which will be later shared with AARO.
AARO’s Mission Includes UAP Recovery & a Secure Method of Reporting UAP Retrievals
Interestingly, AARO has another page you can reach under its About Us section where it has a PDF discussing AARO’s mission. It notes that AARO’s integrated operations include “UAP Object Recovery” where it will lead “UAP recovery planning and execution, in close collaboration with AARO S&T Group.”
Two more pages into the PDF, and there is more information about UAP exploitation.
It reads: “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 sharing of signature and material analyses for data consistency across operational, analytic, and research partnership.”
A later section goes on to note that AARO’s official plans for 2023 include to “Establish secure mechanism for reporting of any event related to UAP and any event of the U.S. government related to UAP retrieval, analysis, engineering.”
This portion of the site also mentions a press event involving the Transportation Research Board in December, along with a DOD UAP Press Event in December, and a NASA public meeting in May 2023 (which we previously reported about.)
AARO’s Website Contains Declassified Cases, But It Focuses on the Debunked Cases
The inclusion of a section where declassified UAP cases will eventually be hosted is a key element of this new website. However, the current selection is sparse and leaves a lot to be desired, including a focus on debunked cases over the ones that still remain a mystery.
The AARO site begins by defining exactly what UAP and “anomalous detections” mean. Anomalous detections “include but are not limited to phenomena that demonstrate apparent capabilities or material that exceed known performance envelopes. A UAP may consist of one or more unidentified anomalous objects and may persist over an extended period of time.”
One of the best sections on the website is called “UAP Reporting Trends,” which takes you to a separate AARO.mil webpage that’s a PDF of a PowerPoint presentation.
Although the PowerPoint presentation is not new (it was previously shared in a press conference by Kirkpatrick), it’s still interesting to view. It talks about how the most typically reported UAP is a round silver or white sphere with signatures at 1-3 GHz and 8-12 GHz.
The presentation also notes typical UAP altitudes, along with reported UAP morphology (47% are a round, orb sphere and 2% are cylinders, while 1% are TicTacs.) There’s also a map of the UAP hotspots around the world. In the United States, this appears to be the East and West coasts, although this might be simply a result of AARO focusing on military reports. At this time, many military reports have come from Navy pilots, which would explain the location of the hotspots.
The new website also has a Cases section with official UAP videos. It begins, however, by showcasing two debunked cases, which each have separate pages created on DVIDS. Next is a Middle East object that is unidentified but not anomalous. Sparse information is given, including an “undisclosed location.”
Of interesting note is that the Cases section lists the Pentagon-released FLIR, GIMBAL, and GOFAST videos as still being unresolved. However, unlike the other preceding cases, AARO has not created separate DVIDS pages with additional information for these objects. Instead, it just links to the official videos with little additional information. (It’s also interesting to note that these are listed as unresolved, since Kirkpatrick seemed to indicate in a May press conference that GOFAST had been debunked.)
The Cases section could end up being the most interesting section on this new website, but at the moment, the cases there are ones we have all heard about before.
You can watch the full press conference about AARO’s new website, which was part of a general Pentagon briefing, in the video below.
This work by Stephanie Dwilson is licensed under CC BY-ND 4.0
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