AARO Historical Record Report Volume I (2024-02)

The Volume I AARO UAP Historical Record Report is a report published in 2024-02 by the All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), reviewing the record of the United States Government on unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) from 1945 onwards.¹ It was prepared in response to a requirement in the Fiscal Year 2023 (FY2023) National Defense Authorization Act, Section 6802(j), which directed submission of a written historical record report no later than 540 days after enactment of the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023.⁴ Volume I covers findings from 1945 through 2023-10-31.³ AARO conducted approximately 30 interviews, reviewed classified and unclassified archives, and partnered with Intelligence Community and Department of Defense (DoD) officials responsible for controlled and Special Access Programme oversight in completing the report.² Research was organised around six complementary lines of effort: open-source research, classified programme research, historical interviews, partnership with the National Archives, engagement with commercial entities, and partnership with archives of key intelligence and national security agencies including the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), CIA, Department of Energy, National Security Agency, and National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency.⁵

AARO identified approximately two dozen separate USG investigative efforts since 1945.⁶ These included Project SAUCER, Project GRUDGE Original, Project GRUDGE Reestablishment, Project TWINKLE, the CIA Special Study Group 1952, the Robertson Panel, Project Blue Book, the CIA UAP Evaluation 1964, the O’Brien Committee 1964, the Condon Report, the Carter Administration NASA UAP Tasking 1977, the Roswell Investigations 1992-2001, the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program (AAWSAP) and Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP), the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force (UAPTF), the DNI UAP Preliminary Assessment 2021-06, the Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronization Group (AOIMSG), and AARO itself, which was established on 2022-07-15.⁶ The report also reviewed seven foreign and academic investigatory efforts — including the UK Flying Saucer Working Party, Project Magnet, Project Second Storey, the GEPAN French UAP Programme, the Sturrock Panel, the NASA UAP Independent Study 2022, and the Canada Sky Project 2023 — none of which found evidence of extraterrestrial visitations.¹⁹ The report also covers classified national security programmes assessed to account for some portion of historical UAP sightings, including the Manhattan Project, Project MOGUL, Project Aquatone, the WS-117L Satellite Reconnaissance Program, the VZ-9AV Avrocar and Project Silver Bug, the OXCART A-12 Program, the HAVE Blue Program, the B-2 Spirit, the Strategic Defense Initiative, and various unmanned aerial vehicle programmes including the MQ-1 Predator, MQ-9 Reaper, RQ-3 Dark Star, P-175 Polecat, RQ-170 Sentinel, and RQ-4 Global Hawk.

The report’s executive summary states that AARO found no evidence that any USG investigation, academic-sponsored research, or official review panel confirmed that any UAP sighting represented extraterrestrial technology,⁷ and that all USG investigative efforts at all levels of classification concluded that most UAP sightings were ordinary objects and phenomena resulting from misidentification.⁸ AARO found no empirical evidence that the USG or private companies had been reverse-engineering extraterrestrial technology.⁹ The report further states that none of the approximately 30 interviewees had firsthand knowledge of the alleged UAP reverse-engineering programmes — none were approved for access to nor worked on such efforts — which AARO assessed likely resulted in misinterpretation of the programmes’ origins and purpose.¹⁰ Interviewees were categorised into three tiers based on how they came to AARO’s attention: those referred by congressional staff, those referred by other interviewees, and those identified by AARO itself with a corroborating link to the principal narrative.

The report examines in detail several specific claims brought by interviewees. The KONA BLUE Prospective Special Access Program Request is identified as a proposed Department of Homeland Security programme whose supporters — many linked to the cancelled AAWSAP/AATIP — believed the USG was concealing off-world technology; it was never approved and no empirical evidence was provided to support its premises.¹¹ In 2021, an IC Controlled Access Program UAP Expansion was unnecessarily broadened to include a UAP reverse-engineering mission without justification; it was subsequently disestablished for inactivity and lack of merit.¹² An All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) Interviewee UAP Metal Sample — material claimed to originate from a crashed off-world spacecraft — was analysed and found to be a manufactured, terrestrial alloy composed primarily of magnesium, zinc, and bismuth with trace elements including lead.¹³ An alleged 1961 Special National Intelligence Estimate on UFOs, circulated online as evidence of UAP crashes, was assessed by AARO to be inauthentic following consultations with the CIA Center for the Study of Intelligence and the NSA Scientific Advisory Board.¹⁴ AARO also found no evidence of any authentic UAP-related non-disclosure agreement containing UAP-specific threats. The report assesses that claims of hidden programmes largely originate from a consistent group of individuals with ties to AAWSAP/AATIP active since at least 2009,¹⁵ and that the inaccurate narrative of USG extraterrestrial technology concealment is, in large part, the result of circular reporting within that group.

Project Blue Book, the longest-running USG UAP investigation based at Wright Patterson Air Force Base near Ohio Dayton and led successively by several officers including Edward Ruppelt and Hector Quintanilla, recorded 12,618 UFO sightings between 1947 and 1969, of which 701 were never resolved.¹⁷ AARO’s review of Project Blue Book records, held across 7,252 files totalling 65,778 digital records at the National Archives, identified spikes in reported sightings from 1952 to 1957 and in 1960, which the report attributes most likely to misidentification of then-novel technologies. The report notes an approximately 40-year gap in formal UAP investigation between the termination of Project Blue Book in 1969 and the establishment of AAWSAP/AATIP in 2009,¹⁸ and highlights that resources and staffing for UAP investigatory programmes have historically been irregular and sporadic, hindering effective knowledge transfer. Contributing factors assessed by AARO to influence UAP reporting and belief include the classification of prior investigations, decreased public trust in government, the proliferation of UAP content in popular media and social media, and the role of Confirmation Bias as a cognitive factor affecting both observers and investigators.

The report’s overall conclusion is that AARO has not discovered any empirical evidence that any UAP sighting represented off-world technology, or the existence of a classified programme not properly reported to Congress. AARO assessed that if more and better quality data were available, most unresolved cases could also be explained as ordinary objects or phenomena. A Volume II, covering findings from 2023-11-01 to 2024-04-15, was planned for subsequent publication in accordance with the Fiscal Year 2023 (FY2023) National Defense Authorization Act mandate.²⁰