US defense officials have renamed the group Unidentified Phenomena and expanded its mission beyond space and air
After decades of silence or public disregard for the existence of unidentified flying objects (UFOs), the Pentagon is strengthening the unit that tracks these phenomena and expanding its mission to include objects that travel underwater or on multiple mediums.
Just eight months after the public establishment of its UFO tracking unit, called the Airborne Object Identification and Management Group, the US Department of Defense (DOD) gave the group a new name to reflect its broader jurisdiction: the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO). The move, which was made earlier this month and announced Wednesday, reflects a congressional directive to expand military investigations into unidentified moving objects that may pose security threats.
DASS will coordinate efforts across the federal government to « detect, identify and assign objects of interest » that appear around military installations and other sensitive areas, the Pentagon said. And if necessary, the unit « mitigate and overcome » security threats. « This includes anomalous, unidentified, airborne, submerged, and transmedium space objects. »
Read more
NASA joins UFO hunt
A transmedium object is an object that can operate in multiple environments, such as a spacecraft that can also fly in Earth’s atmosphere or underwater – or both. The AARO will be tasked with trying to trace unidentified objects back to their sources – whether extraterrestrial or a terrestrial enemy.
“It is vital to our national security and the safety of our military personnel that we remain aware of anomalous objects in all areas,” Ronald Moultrie, undersecretary of defense for intelligence and security, said in a note this week. « We must also keep pace with the development and use of new technologies by our adversaries. »
In recent years, a new acronym has been created to replace the term « UFO » – Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) – in the hope that science, academia and the media would be more open to investigating the subject. Last month, NASA officially joined the hunt for UFOs, commissioning a scientific study to debunk the phenomenon. The US space agency specifically pointed out that, so far, there have been « no evidence that UAPs are of extraterrestrial origin », pour cold water on the prospect of discovering extraterrestrial technology, but noted that a lack of verifiable data « It is currently difficult to draw scientific conclusions about the nature of such events. »
Read more
« UFO whistleblowers » offered protections
The Pentagon released a long-awaited UAP report last year, as ordered by Congress, saying it had reviewed sightings of 144 unidentified aerial phenomena since 2004. Investigators could not definitively explain that only one of these objects, which has been identified as a deflated object. ball. Last May, when Congress held its first hearing on UFOs in more than 50 years, the Pentagon said it had nearly 400 military reports of mysterious encounters and sightings.
The AARO will report to Moultrie and be led by Sean Kirkpatrick, who was most recently chief scientist at the Defense Intelligence Agency’s Center for Missile and Space Intelligence.
