‘Several Hundreds’ of UAP Reports Received by Pentagon Office, but None Evidence of ’Space Alien’

The Pentagon building in Washington on Dec. 26, 2011. AFP via Getty Images

Officials at the Pentagon told reporters on Dec. 16 that they have received “several hundreds” of reports of unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) since 2021, but none would lead them to conclude the phenomena are of alien origin.

The All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) was established in mid-July to “detect, identify and attribute objects of interest” in all domains, including air, ground, sea, or space, to help address “any associated threats to safety of operations and national security.”

Unidentified flying objects (UFOs), and collectively UAP—a term that refers to an unidentified object in any medium—have gained renewed public attention after congressional lawmakers on May 17 held the first public hearing on the matter in more than 50 years.

It occurred after the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) released a preliminary assessment in June 2021 (pdf) that said the Navy-led UAP Task Force identified 144 UFO sightings from 2004–2021, 80 of which were captured on multiple sensors. Scott Bray, deputy director of Naval Intelligence, later told lawmakers at the May 17 hearing that the UAP Task Force database from the Navy “has now grown to contain approximately 400 reports.”

‘Several Hundreds’ of UAP Reports

AARO Director Sean Kirkpatrick said on Dec. 16 at a media roundtable that there’s been “several hundreds” of reports of UAP sightings since the June 2021 DNI preliminary report. However, he noted that the figure isn’t significantly higher than the roughly 400 figure that Bray reported in May.

An updated DNI report that will clarify the specific number of UAP reports received since 2021 is expected by the end of the year, officials said.

Kirkpatrick described how his office has since replaced the former Navy-led UAP Task Force.

“We’ve transferred the data and responsibilities from the previous Navy-led UAP task force, and disestablished it,” he said. “During that transition, we’ve taken the opportunity to expand and standardize and integrate UAP reporting and reevaluate the data we’ve collected.”

No Alien Origin

When asked about whether any of the reports are evidence that the UAP “is a space alien,” Kirkpatrick and Ronald Moultrie, the undersecretary of defense for intelligence and security, replied in the negative.

“At this time, the answer’s no, we have nothing,” Moultrie said. “We have not seen anything that would ... lead us to believe that any of the objects that we have seen are of alien origin, if you will. If we find something like that, we will look at it and analyze it and take the appropriate actions.”

The two officials were asked later about whether the Pentagon has any evidence from previous incidents that would indicate that Earth “has been visited by another form of life.”

“I have not seen anything ... to date that would suggest that there has been an alien visitation, an alien crash, or anything like that,” Moultrie responded.

Meanwhile, Kirkpatrick said that he will “will follow that data and science wherever it goes.”

Office to Distinguish UAP From Govt. Technology

Kirkpatrick said that AARO is working with the U.S. military and the U.S. intelligence services to make sure that new technology from the U.S. government—such as drones, stealth bombers, and hypersonic missiles—don’t get reported and logged as a UAP.

“We are setting up very clear mechanisms with our ‘blue’ programs, both our [Department of Defense] and [intelligence community] programs, to deconflict any observations that come in with ‘blue’ activity to ensure that we weed those out and we can identify those fairly early on,” Kirkpatrick said.

The “blue” being referred to are aircraft programs operated by the Pentagon or intelligence agencies.

Moultrie said that AARO is obligated to keep lawmakers in Congress updated with regular reports.

“Since establishment, AARO has been providing regular updates to Congress on its efforts to document, analyze, and resolve reports of anomalous phenomena,” Moultrie said. “The department has already submitted its first congressionally-mandated quarterly reports on UAP in August and November, and we will continue to provide quarterly updates.”