AARO functioning at full operational capability as lawmakers prep for classified UAP briefing
The Pentagon’s unexplainable phenomena-investigation hub — the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office — has officially reached full operational capability, DefenseScoop exclusively confirmed on Thursday.
This news comes as AARO’s new chief Jon Kosloski prepares to participate in a classified briefing with House Oversight and Accountability Committee members on Friday.
It also follows recent comments from Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin noting his leadership team’s recognition of the Defense Department’s need to continue to more intentionally and strategically make sense of its steadily growing caseload of reports involving unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) that could threaten U.S. national security.
“There are things that happen, that have happened, and probably will continue to happen that are difficult to explain. And so when we encounter things like that, we will go and investigate those things because — whether it’s some really unexplained phenomena or it’s just something that is explainable — we just have to get to the root cause,” Austin told DefenseScoop during a recent trip to Laos.
“We’ve organized our effort to ensure that we can methodically identify and assess these incidents. And I want to thank Congress for continuing to support us with the resources that we need to be effective,” he said.
Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks formally set up AARO in mid-2022. A little over a year after its launch, she mentioned that the office was moving swiftly to achieve the status of full operational capability in fiscal 2024. Sept. 30 marked the last day on that fiscal calendar.
“AARO reached full operational capability as of Oct. 1, 2024. In practical terms, this means AARO now has the requisite personnel, expertise, facilities and tools to carry out its core mission,” DOD spokesperson Sue Gough told DefenseScoop on Thursday.
In prior decades, the Pentagon established more secretive versions of teams to concentrate on UAP, or what is now considered multi-domain, transmedium UFOs.
But with AARO’s creation — which came largely in response to mounting public and congressional calls for explanations and transparency about increasing reports from government and military personnel who believed they encountered UAP — the Pentagon is receiving more financial backing and scrutiny associated with its investigations than perhaps ever before.
On Nov. 19, Kosloski, who previously served as a longtime physics and engineering leader at the National Security Agency, testified for the first time on the Hill as AARO’s chief at a Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities hearing.
Shortly before that, on Nov. 13, Republicans on the House Oversight and Accountability Committee led a hearing in their chamber where former DOD officials spotlighted fresh concerns about military reports of UAP and what some view as still-ongoing transparency challenges.
A committee spokesperson told DefenseScoop in an email on Thursday that “there will be a bipartisan, classified briefing on Friday” with Kosloski.
“The briefing is open to all members of the Oversight Committee. [Subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs Chairman Glenn Grothman, R-Wis.] requested the briefing. This briefing will focus on AARO’s recent annual report, and provide members of the committee the opportunity to ask AARO follow up questions from last month’s UAP hearing,” the spokesperson said.
