Head of Pentagon’s UAP office to testify to Senate Armed Services subcommittee

The new director of the Defense Department’s All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) is scheduled to meet with lawmakers in closed-door and open sessions Tuesday to discuss his organization’s activities investigating “unidentified anomalous phenomena” that have raised national security concerns.

The hearing with the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities comes on the heels of the release of the Pentagon’s fiscal 2024 consolidated annual report on UAP.

UAP, an acronym that refers to unidentified anomalous phenomena, is a modern term for UFOs and mysterious transmedium objects.

AARO leader Jon Kosloski told DefenseScoop and other reporters last week that his organization has received over 1,600 UAP reports to date, stating that officials have “taken meaningful steps to improve data collection and retention, bolster sensor development, effectively triage UAP reports and reduce the stigma of reporting a UAP event.”

A new AARO-related technology that could be discussed in Tuesday’s hearing is a prototype system called Gremlin that the Defense Department is deploying. The Georgia Tech Research Institute developed the Gremlin sensor architecture, according to the report that was publicly released last week. The technology has “several sensing modalities to detect, track, characterize and identify UAP in areas of interest,” officials wrote.

The document contained a diagram of an architecture that included a Gremlin “network stack” connected to long-range electro-optical/infrared sensors, 2D search radar, 3D radar and an RF spectrum monitor. It also included ADS-B, NAS, GPS, satellite communications, and cellular and copper/fiber links.

The Gremlin capability “demonstrated functionality and successfully collected data” during a test event earlier this year, per the report.

The department is now using the technology to conduct what officials are calling “pattern of life collection” at a “national security” site. Kosloski declined to identify the location during his recent meeting with reporters.

Lawmakers have raised concerns that some UAP could be advanced capabilities possessed by U.S. foes.

Kosloski told reporters that his office hasn’t confirmed that any UAP activities are attributable to foreign adversaries, or discovered any evidence of extraterrestrial beings, activity or technology.

However, there are “interesting cases that I — with my physics and engineering background and time in the [intelligence community] — I do not understand and I don’t know anybody else who understands,” he said.

Meanwhile, lawmakers are pushing to increase transparency about how the Pentagon is handling UAP reports and evidence. Members of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability held a hearing on the topic just last week.

The upcoming Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities hearing with Kosloski is expected to include an open session and a closed-door meeting. Lawmakers, particularly members of the congressional armed services committees, sometimes hold closed sessions with Defense Department officials to discuss classified information.