What governments, legislatures, militaries, space agencies and courts have done about unidentified aerial phenomena, in date order, each entry resting on its document. Every nation that has acted. Newest first.100 entries since 1946.
2020s
USHearingHouse Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets
On 9 September 2025 the Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, chaired by Representative Anna Paulina Luna, held a hearing titled "Restoring Public Trust through UAP Transparency and Whistleblower Protection". It heard Air Force veteran Jeffrey Nuccetelli, Navy Chief Alexandro Wiggins, journalist George Knapp, Air Force veteran Dylan Borland and, as minority witness, Joe Spielberger of the Project on Government Oversight. Nuccetelli told the task force that AARO had informed him the relevant Air Force records had been destroyed. Representative Burlison played a video he said showed an MQ-9 tracking an object off Yemen on 30 October 2024. Members called for passage of whistleblower and disclosure legislation.
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The hearing was Serial No. 119-44 of the 119th Congress, held in Room HVC-210 of the Capitol Visitor Center and adjourned at 12:38 p.m. (p. 1, p. 50)
Mr Nuccetelli said AARO told him it could not locate records and that the Air Force destroys police records on a three-year schedule. (pp. 26-27)
Mr Borland said that after his inspector general complaint over retaliation he understood he was "determined credible, not urgent". (p. 27)
Representative Burlison described a video taken on 30 October 2024 of an MQ-9 drone tracking an object off the coast of Yemen, with another MQ-9 launching a Hellfire missile. (p. 28)
Mr Spielberger said national security whistleblowers must rely on internal processes through agency inspectors general. (p. 27)
On 19 November 2024 Dr Jon Kosloski, Director of the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), submitted a statement for the record to the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities at an open hearing. He told the subcommittee that AARO held over 1,600 UAP reports from across the U.S. government, that many resolved to commonplace objects such as birds, balloons and unmanned systems, and that only a very small percentage were potentially anomalous. He stated that AARO had discovered no verifiable evidence of extraterrestrial beings, activity or technology, and set out three priorities: building partnerships, promoting transparency, including declassification, and scaling up the office's work.
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Kosloski said he arrived at AARO in August 2024 after most of a career at the National Security Agency.
AARO had over 1,600 UAP reports in its holdings from across the U.S. government.
"To date, AARO has discovered no verifiable evidence of extraterrestrial beings, activity, or technology."
He named three priorities: building strong partnerships, promoting transparency, and scaling up the work of the office.
AARO said it was working with the National Archives and Records Administration to make UAP-related documents publicly available in a digitised collection.
On 13 November 2024 the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability's Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Information Technology, and Government Innovation and its Subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs held a joint hearing, Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Exposing the Truth, chaired by Nancy Mace. The witnesses were Tim Gallaudet, Luis Elizondo, Michael Shellenberger and Michael Gold. Members criticised the transparency of AARO and the Pentagon, and a 12 page document on a programme called Immaculate Constellation, delivered to Congress by Mr Shellenberger, was entered into the record. Mr Elizondo told the committee he was convinced UAP were especially common near nuclear sites, and Dr Gallaudet told it that UAP threatened Navy pilots during a 2015 exercise.
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The hearing was a joint session of two Oversight subcommittees, Serial No. 118 to 135, held in room 2154 of the Rayburn House Office Building from 11:37 a.m. to 1:45 p.m. (p. 1)
Rep. Mace said a 12 page document on Immaculate Constellation, described as an unacknowledged special access program, was delivered by Michael Shellenberger and entered into the record. (p. 3)
Rep. Grothman said the agencies briefed since the 2023 hearing had not been able to substantiate the claims made by David Grusch. (p. 6)
Mr Elizondo told the committee that Oak Ridge, Savannah River Site and Los Alamos appeared to be under some sort of surveillance and monitoring. (p. 47)
Dr Gallaudet told the committee that UAP were threatening Navy pilots during a 2015 exercise and called the issue one that is being hid from Congress. (pp. 47 to 48)
On 26 July 2023 the Subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability held a hearing on unidentified anomalous phenomena, chaired by Glenn Grothman. It heard Ryan Graves of Americans for Safe Aerospace, David Grusch, a former National Reconnaissance Office representative to the UAP Task Force, and retired Navy Commander David Fravor. Members raised concerns about transparency, AARO's classified budget and stigma around reporting. Graves told the subcommittee that a pilot in his unit had passed within about 50 feet of an object he described as a dark cube inside a clear sphere. Grusch urged others to come forward through inspectors general. The chairman said he expected legislation to follow.
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The subcommittee met at 10:06 a.m. in room 2154 of the Rayburn Office Building, with Glenn Grothman presiding, and adjourned at 12:22 p.m. (p. 1, p. 50)
Anna Paulina Luna said members had been denied access to a classified briefing in a SCIF before the hearing because of the steps needed to grant witness Grusch temporary clearance. (p. 5)
Ranking Member Robert Garcia noted that AARO Director Sean Kirkpatrick had told the Senate his unit found no evidence of extraterrestrial activity. (p. 7)
Graves testified that two aircraft flew within about 50 feet of a stationary object, "a dark gray or a black cube inside of a clear sphere," at the entrance to their working area. (p. 46-47)
Tim Burchett entered statements by George Knapp and Jeremy Corbell and the Defense Intelligence Reference Document "Advanced Space Propulsion Based on Vacuum (Spacetime Metric) Engineering" into the record. (p. 3)
On 19 April 2023 the Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities of the Senate Committee on Armed Services, chaired by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, held an open hearing with Dr Sean M. Kirkpatrick, Director of the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), following a closed session earlier that day. Gillibrand raised AARO's funding, its reporting chain, sensor filters and a public process for witnesses. Kirkpatrick told the subcommittee that AARO was tracking a total of 650 cases, that most reports showed mundane characteristics, and that AARO had found no credible evidence thus far of extraterrestrial activity, off-world technology, or objects that defy the known laws of physics.
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Gillibrand said the President's budget for fiscal years 2023 and 2024 requested only enough funding to defray AARO's operating expenses, and that a letter from 16 senators secured temporary relief (p. 2).
Kirkpatrick said AARO's team of more than three dozen experts was organised around operations, scientific research, integrated analysis and strategic communications (p. 8).
He testified that AARO has found no credible evidence thus far of extraterrestrial activity, off-world technology, or objects that defy the known laws of physics (p. 10).
He said that as of that week AARO was tracking a total of 650 cases, and that the roughly 150 likely balloons in the January report were not thereby resolved (p. 10).
He said reported objects are typically 1 to 4 meters in size, smaller than the resolution of many civil climate satellites (p. 20).
On 17 May 2022 the Subcommittee on Counterterrorism, Counterintelligence, and Counterproliferation of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, chaired by Andre Carson, held an open hearing on unidentified aerial phenomena with Under Secretary Moultrie and Mr. Bray. Carson said the last congressional hearing on the subject had been half a century earlier and pressed for an update on the Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronization Group. Bray told the subcommittee that the UAP Task Force held no material and had detected no emanations suggesting anything nonterrestrial, and that there had been at least 11 near misses. Moultrie said he knew of no official programme between Project Blue Book and AATIP. The session recessed at 10:28 a.m. for a closed session.
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Carson said Congress had rewritten the charter of the organisation now called the Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronization Group, or AOIMSG, and that it did not yet have a named director (pp. 2 to 3).
Bray said: "When it comes to material that we have, we have no material," and that the task force had detected no emanations suggesting anything nonterrestrial in origin (p. 34).
Moultrie said he was "Not aware of anything that is official" done between Project Blue Book and AATIP (p. 35).
Bray told the subcommittee there had been no collision but "at least 11 near misses", and that no attempt had been made to communicate with the objects (p. 40).
Gallagher asked about a reported Malmstrom Air Force Base incident and entered the so-called Admiral Wilson memo into the record; Bray said that data was not within the task force's holdings (pp. 36 to 39).
On 29 July 1968 the House Committee on Science and Astronautics held a Symposium on Unidentified Flying Objects, chaired in session by Mr. Roush. Dr. Robert M. L. Baker, Jr., of Computer Sciences Corporation and UCLA, told the committee that substantial evidence supported the existence of unexplained phenomena near the earth, which he called anomalistic observational phenomena, based on his analyses of films from Utah, Montana, Florida and Venezuela. He argued that existing radar and optical sensors were not designed to detect such phenomena and recommended a well funded, long term interdisciplinary research programme. In later discussion Dr. Hynek and others said that ridicule discouraged witnesses from reporting sightings.
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Dr. Baker said that since 1954 he had found substantial evidence that an unexplained phenomenon was present in the environs of the earth, preferring the term "anomalistic observational phenomena" (p. 125).
He said he had analysed Utah and Montana films supplied by ATIC and concluded that neither birds nor airplane reflections explained them (p. 126).
He told the committee that on July 28, 1968 he had confirmed at Colorado Springs that a partially classified sensor system had recorded anomalistic alarms not explained by natural phenomena, malfunction or manmade objects (p. 130).
He said it was premature to give overriding attention to the extraterrestrial hypothesis but strongly advocated a long term interdisciplinary research programme (p. 131).
Dr. Hynek cited a poll of 5 million Americans reporting unexplained sightings against some 12,000 Air Force reports in 20 years, asking "who is holding out on the other 4,988,000 reports?" (p. 193).
On 5 April 1966 the House Committee on Armed Services, chaired by L. Mendel Rivers, heard Secretary of the Air Force Harold Brown, Dr J. Allen Hynek of Project Blue Book and Maj. Hector Quintanilla, Jr. on unidentified flying objects, following sightings in Michigan. Brown read a letter stating that the Air Force had identified 9,501 of 10,147 reports from 1947 through 1965 and had found no threat to national security and no evidence of extraterrestrial vehicles. The record included an Air Force statement on the Dexter and Hillsdale sightings and a letter from Gerald R. Ford urging a committee investigation. Hynek told the committee that the Exeter case was listed as unidentified.
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Brown stated that the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board had concluded that the UFO phenomena presented no threat to United States security and that its recommendations were under study (p. 5992).
Of 10,147 reported sightings from 1947 through 1965, the Air Force said it had identified 9,501, leaving 646 (p. 5992).
The Air Force statement on Dexter and Hillsdale, Mich., said young men had played pranks with flares at Hillsdale and that a released photograph showed the crescent moon and Venus (p. 5993).
In a letter of March 28, 1966, Gerald R. Ford proposed hearings and wrote that he did not agree that all the Michigan reports could be so easily explained away (p. 6046).
Hynek told the committee he had seen no evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence but that the possibility should be kept open as a hypothesis (p. 6046).
The register here is the record's: what a body did, when, with the document. The archive's stories carry the longer reads, and the Latest feed carries this week's official news before it is entered here. Entries from the United Kingdom rest on material under the Open Government Licence v3.