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AARO Historical Record Report Volume 1

All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office · 2024-03 · 63 pages · text from the file's own layer

The Department of Defense All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office issued Volume I of its Historical Record Report in February 2024. It reviews U.S. Government UAP investigations since 1945, drawing on classified and unclassified archives and about 30 interviews. AARO found no evidence that any sighting represented extraterrestrial technology and no empirical evidence of reverse-engineering programs, attributing such claims to misidentified sensitive programs, the unapproved KONA BLUE proposal and circular reporting. It also found an alleged crash sample to be an ordinary terrestrial alloy.

  • p. 2 …Accounts of USG UAP Investigatory Programs Since 1945 ............................................. 13 Summary ................................................................................................................................... 13 Project SAUCER (1946/1947–January…
  • p. 3 …Assessment of Interviewee Claims of USG Involvement in Hidden UAP Programs ......... 28 Summary ................................................................................................................................... 28 Primary Narrative…
  • p. 6 …In completing this report, AARO reviewed all official USG investigatory efforts since 1945, researched classified and…
  • p. 7 …Executive Summary AARO found no evidence that any USG investigation, academic-sponsored research, or official review…
  • p. 8 …the testing of extraterrestrial technology at a USG facility almost certainly was an observation of an…
  • p. 9 …AARO assesses that the inaccurate claim that the USG is reverse-engineering extraterrestrial technology and is…
  • p. 10 10 • The aggregate findings of all USG investigations to date have not found even one case…
  • p. 11 …AARO interviewed approximately 30 people who claimed to have insight into alleged USG involvement in off…
  • p. 12 …These LOEs were to: • Conduct open-source research on claims (through historical interviews) about USG investigations…
  • p. 13 …Accounts of USG UAP Investigatory Programs Since 1945 Summary AARO reviewed official USG efforts involving UFOs…
  • p. 17 …They recommended the USG use various channels to debunk UFO reports and suggested monitoring domestic UFO…
  • p. 20 …scientific research in terms of academic or USG-sponsored research and in secondary schools. The panel…
  • p. 21 …Advisor Sandy Berger to determine if the USG held aliens or alien technology. President Clinton said…
  • p. 22 22 up” by the USG. Rather, the materials recovered near Roswell were consistent with a balloon…
  • p. 24 …national security; and (5) consistent consolidation of reports from across the USG, standardized reporting, increased collection…
  • p. 25 …Simons Foundation and included members from the USG, academia, and the private sector.74 Results: NASA…
  • p. 27 …Key Findings • None of these investigations (including USG, foreign, and U.S. academic efforts) reached the…
  • p. 28 …Assessment of Interviewee Claims of USG Involvement in Hidden UAP Programs Summary As of September 17…
  • p. 31 …possession of the resultant material by the USG and the private sector, and the attempt to…
  • p. 32 …off-world technology in possession of the USG, a private contractor, or any other foreign or…
  • p. 33 …Investigation into Named USG Sensitive Programs Summary AARO investigated numerous named, and described, but unnamed programs…
  • p. 34 …Findings One Private Program Mistaken for USG Program AARO determined that the following alleged USG program…
  • p. 35 …KONA BLUE’s advocates were convinced that the USG was hiding UAP technologies. They believed that…
  • p. 36 …It has determined that modern allegations that the USG is hiding off-world technology and beings…
  • p. 37 …Secrecy The USG’s need to maintain secrecy to protect classified information about intelligence sources and…
  • p. 38 …Perceived Deception There is a conviction among some Americans that the USG has conducted a deception…
  • p. 39 …population that the USG has not been truthful regarding knowledge of extraterrestrial craft.128 Popular Culture…
  • p. 41 …USAF took over the project in 1958 when Avro offered it to the USG, when it…
  • p. 43 …The USG acquired and operated a number of systems for a range of missions including intelligence…
17
reports. The Study Group also believed that the Soviets could use reports of UFOs to create
hysteria in the United States or overload the U.S. early-warning system.27
• In December 1952, H. Marshall Chadwell, Assistant Director of OSI, briefed the
Director of Central Intelligence (DCI), Walter Bedell Smith, on the subject of UFOs.
Chadwell urged action because he was convinced that “something was going on that
must have immediate attention,” and that “sightings of unexplained objects at great
altitudes and traveling at high speeds in the vicinity of major U.S. defense
installations are of such nature that they are not attributable to natural phenomena or
known types of aerial vehicles.”28
• The source material does not suggest that Smith believed that these sightings were of
extraterrestrial origin only that he believed they were not natural phenomena or
known competitor technology. It is not clear from the source material why Chadwell
seemed to hold a different view than that of the Study Group. It is possible that he
suspected that UFO reports represented unknown Soviet technology and therefore
posed a national security threat. His concerns about and interest in the topic led to the
establishment of the Robertson Panel.
The Robertson Panel (January 1953)
Background: H. Marshall Chadwell clandestinely sponsored the establishment of a
UFO scientific review panel led by California Institute of Technology physicist, H.P. Robertson.
This action followed a recommendation from CIA’s Intelligence Advisory Committee to enlist
the services of selected “scientists to review and appraise the available evidence in light of
pertinent scientific theories.”29 The panelists had expertise in a range of fields, including nuclear
physics, high-energy physics, radar, electronics, and geophysics.30
Results: The panel reviewed all USAF data and concluded that most reports had
ordinary explanations. The panel unanimously concluded that there was no evidence of a direct
threat to U.S. national security from UFOs or that they were of extraterrestrial origin.
• The panel was, however, concerned with the outbreak of mass hysteria and how the
Soviets could exploit it. They recommended the USG use various channels to debunk
UFO reports and suggested monitoring domestic UFO enthusiast organizations. 31
• The Robertson Panel discussed the complete lack of the recovery of any “hardware”
resulting from “unexplained UFO sightings” which contributed to its assessment that
the reported UFOs were neither a foreign threat nor of extraterrestrial origin.32
The Durant Report (February 1953)
Background: CIA officer Frederick Durant drafted a report for CIA’s Assistant Director
of OSI on the Robertson Panel’s work and findings. Durant’s memorandum provided a brief
history of the panel and an unofficial supplement that provided comments and suggestions from
members which they had not included in the final report.33

Cases discussed

About this file

Report, cited by the archive. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is under it. 63 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.