Documents / Official release

Office of the Secretary of Defense: 022_SASC_Transcript_2023

Department of Defense. Office of the Secretary of Defense. · 2023 · 50 pages · text from the file's own layer

This is a stenographic transcript of an April 19, 2023 hearing of the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities, chaired by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, on the mission and budget of the All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office. AARO released it in full in 2025. Director Sean Kirkpatrick testified that AARO has found no credible evidence of extraterrestrial activity and that most reports resolve into mundane objects. He also presented trend data and two declassified MQ-9 videos, one of which was resolved as a commuter aircraft.

Open the PDF at page 40 Original source ↗

“Works”22 pages

  • p. 3 …Kirkpatrick to 19 lean in on this issue and the work that he has accomplished 20…
  • p. 5 …in interagency coordination after 14 the NSC Working Group disbands. 15 In the fiscal year 2023…
  • p. 7 …Adversaries like China and Russia are working to 9 hold U.S. interests, including our homeland…
  • p. 9 …24 All leadership that I have had the pleasure of working 25 with, whether DOD, IC…
  • p. 12 …As such, we are 10 working with industry, academia, and the scientific 11 community which bring…
  • p. 14 …10 In the wake of the PRC HAB event the interagency is 11 working to better…
  • p. 15 …AARO is working very hard to do the 14 same. That is how science works, not…
  • p. 16 …Much remains to be done but the hard work is 11 underway. 12 Thank you for…
  • p. 18 …How are we going to get more 22 data? We are working with the joint staff…
  • p. 20 …But this is the kind of data that we have to work 19 with and the…
  • p. 26 …22 In the course of your work have you become aware of any 23 Chinese or…
  • p. 28 …They are just willing to 21 try things and see if it works. 22 Are there…
  • p. 29 …I appreciate that and that 2 is why it is so important that you are working…
  • p. 30 …24 We are also working very closely with Joint Staff and 25 the Joint Staff has…
  • p. 31 30 Scheduling@TP.One 800.FOR.DEPO www.TP.One (800.367.3376) 1 work through…
  • p. 34 …So that is actually wrapped into the 15 plan ord that we are working with Joint…
  • p. 35 …work, here is what we have seen work, here is what does not 14 work. 15…
  • p. 36 …8 DOD and DNI are working through that now. I would have 9 to refer you…
  • p. 39 …I worked with the director of Joint Staff, 11 the J2 and the J3 that night…
  • p. 40 …That is why 25 it is so important the work we are doing with Joint Staff…
  • p. 43 …11 So part of our budget is working through what does that 12 look like and…
  • p. 46 …We have a lot of work to do. So if you do not hear 17 from…
39
Scheduling@TP.One 800.FOR.DEPO
www.TP.One (800.367.3376)
1 there tends to be a push to increase size and funding. We
2 want to make sure that you are able to meet your goals.
3 But what I also need to ensure is that we are not
4 duplicating or replicating existing functions and creating
5 redundancy within DOD and the interagency.
6 So what steps are you taking right now to make sure
7 that your particular office and function is unique to any of
8 the other agencies that might be involved in these types of
9 cases?
10 Mr. Kirkpatrick: Yeah, that is a great question.
11 So I would like to lay down here is one of my -- sort
12 of my mission and my goal and my vision here. So the vision
13 is at one point -- at some point in the future you should
14 not need an AARO.
15 If I am successful in what I am doing we should be able
16 to normalize everything that we are doing into existing
17 processes, functions, agencies, and organizations and make
18 that part of their mission and their role.
19 Right now, the niche that we form is really going after
20 the unknowns. If you -- I think you articulated it early on
21 this is a hunt mission for what might somebody be doing in
22 our backyard that we do not know about.
23 All right. Well, that is what we are doing. But at
24 some point we should be able to normalize that. That is why
25 it is so important the work we are doing with Joint Staff to
Page determined to be Unclassified
Reviewed by Chief of Staff, AARO
IAW FY24 NDAA, Section 1841(a)(1)(C)
Date: 2/6/2025
022

Cases discussed

About this file

Official release, from the nara collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is under it. 50 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.