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The_Info_Web/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office.md

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tags category summary start location relations updated
Organization
UAP
DoD
Pentagon
USGovernment
U.S. Government The All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) is the official office within the United States Department of Defense tasked with investigating Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP). 2022 Arlington, Virginia
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funded 2024 AUI UAP Workshop 2025-08-05 2025-08-06 named sponsor of the August 5-6, 2025 workshop 'Narrative Data, Infrastructures, and Analysis' held at Associated Universities, Inc. (paper 26-P-0344) 9
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partner_of Associated Universities, Inc. 2025 the invitation letter to the 2025 workshop describes 'a new collaboration between the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), Associated Universities, Inc. (AUI), and Florida State University (FSU)' 9
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partner_of Florida State University 2025 same collaboration; Gretchen Stahlman of the FSU School of Information signed the invitation letter on behalf of the organizing committee 9
2026-10-08

The All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) is the official office within the United States Department of Defense tasked with investigating Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP). Section 1683 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022 required the Secretary of Defense to establish an office to carry out the duties of the UAP Task Force, "as in effect on the day before the date of enactment of this Act."12 The Deputy Secretary of Defense established the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office by memorandum on July 15, 2022, "to meet the DoD requirements in section 1683 of the NDAA for FY 2022," and Section 1683 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023, enacted December 23, 2022, provided that the office be "known as the 'All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office.'"34

Establishment and Mandate

The creation of AARO was a direct result of the legislative efforts of Christopher Mellon, Luis Elizondo, and a bipartisan group of senators and representatives who were concerned about the national security implications of UAP and the lack of transparency from the Pentagon. The office is mandated to synchronize efforts across the Department of Defense and other federal agencies to detect, identify, and attribute objects of interest in, on, or near military installations, operating areas, training areas, special use airspace, and other areas of interest.1

On November 23, 2021 the Deputy Secretary of Defense, Kathleen Hicks, directed the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security to establish the Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronization Group (AOIMSG) "as the successor to the U.S. Navy's Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force," with an executive council (AOIMEXEC).5

The July 15, 2022 memorandum established the office "to carry out the duties that were to be fulfilled by the AOIMSG." It directed the Secretary of the Navy to "disestablish the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force (UAPTF) no later than the date the AARO is established," and to support "the transfer of any data, analysis, or other relevant material, to the AARO."6

Section 1673 of the 2023 act directs a secure mechanism for reporting "any activity or program by a department or agency of the Federal Government or a contractor of such a department or agency relating to unidentified anomalous phenomena, including with respect to material retrieval, material analysis, reverse engineering, research and development."7

The office's March 2024 historical record report states that AOIMSG "had not achieved initial operating capability before subsequent legislation in the FY2022 NDAA resulted in it being renamed to AARO," and dates the UAP Task Force "August 2020-November 2021."8

AARO is required to provide regular briefings to Congress and to produce an annual public report on its findings. The establishment of a permanent, congressionally-mandated UAP office with a direct line of reporting to lawmakers is a significant step forward in the effort to bring transparency and scientific rigor to the study of UAP.1

Academic Workshops

The All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office is named as sponsor of a two-day workshop held August 5 and 6, 2025 at the headquarters of Associated Universities, Inc. (AUI) in Vienna, Virginia. The sponsoring office's own paper, "2025 UAP Workshop: Narrative Data, Infrastructures, and Analysis. Workshop Synthesis and Recommendations," carries the line "Workshop sponsored by: All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO)" and the document number 26-P-0344. Its executive summary states that the workshop "brought together 40 participants from government, academia, and independent research organizations," and the text adds that "Outside participation was limited due to budget constraints and institutional capacity."9

The invitation letter reproduced in the paper's Appendix A, signed by Gretchen Stahlman of Florida State University and Tim Spuck of AUI on behalf of the organizing committee, states that the event "builds upon a previous NSF-funded workshop held in 2024" and that "A new collaboration between the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), Associated Universities, Inc. (AUI), and Florida State University (FSU) has convened to host the upcoming event." The 2024 workshop was held May 15 to 17, 2024 at AUI under National Science Foundation award 2301922, via a $25,000 supplement (see 2024 AUI UAP Workshop). The 2025 letter anticipated "25-30 experts," and the final count was 40. It offered lodging and most meals and stated that the organizers were "unable to compensate you for travel costs."9

The paper's recommended next steps are standardized metadata templates for UAP reports, a hybrid of qualitative expertise and AI tools with human oversight, triage of reports by credibility and corroboration, preservation and digitization of historical reports, enhancement of public reporting portals, and further convenings to build a "community of practice." Its guidelines for conduct state that the workshop would "NOT be focused on what UAP are or their origins," and name tags could list a first name with no institutional affiliation.9

The Society for UAP Studies published a report by Greg Bishop dated September 2, 2025 stating that AARO and AUI "convened a symposium at the AUI headquarters in Vienna, Virginia," and that "AARO director Kosloski emphasized that the mission of his office is to study UAP as a potential deficit in 'domain awareness.'" The report identifies the director as Acting Director Dr. Jon Kosloski.10

On April 29, 2026 AUI's podcast "Beyond the Breakthrough" (episode "Making Sense of the Unknown," with Spuck and Stahlman) stated in its notes: "The 2025 workshop, 'Narrative Data, Infrastructures, and Analysis' was supported by the U.S. All-domain Anomaly Office."11

Footnotes

  1. Elizondo, Luis. Imminent. William Morrow, 2024. ↩︎

  2. National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022, Public Law 117-81, Sec. 1683, "Establishment of office, organizational structure, and authorities to address unidentified aerial phenomena." https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/PLAW-117publ81/html/PLAW-117publ81.htm ↩︎

  3. Deputy Secretary of Defense, memorandum, "Establishment of the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office," July 15, 2022. https://media.defense.gov/2022/Jul/20/2003039074/-1/-1/1/ESTABLISHMENT-OF-THE-ALL-DOMAIN-ANOMALY-RESOLUTION-OFFICE.PDF ↩︎

  4. National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023, Public Law 117-263, Sec. 1683, "Establishment of All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office," and Sec. 1673, "Unidentified anomalous phenomena reporting procedures." https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/PLAW-117publ263/html/PLAW-117publ263.htm ↩︎

  5. Department of Defense, "DoD Announces the Establishment of the Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronization Group (AOIMSG)," press release, November 23, 2021. https://www.defense.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/2853121/dod-announces-the-establishment-of-the-airborne-object-identification-and-manag/ ↩︎

  6. Deputy Secretary of Defense, memorandum, "Establishment of the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office," July 15, 2022. https://media.defense.gov/2022/Jul/20/2003039074/-1/-1/1/ESTABLISHMENT-OF-THE-ALL-DOMAIN-ANOMALY-RESOLUTION-OFFICE.PDF ↩︎

  7. National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023, Public Law 117-263, Sec. 1683, "Establishment of All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office," and Sec. 1673, "Unidentified anomalous phenomena reporting procedures." https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/PLAW-117publ263/html/PLAW-117publ263.htm ↩︎

  8. All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, "Report on the Historical Record of U.S. Government Involvement with Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP), Volume I," March 2024, p. 24. https://media.defense.gov/2024/Mar/08/2003409233/-1/-1/0/DOPSR-2024-0263-AARO-HISTORICAL-RECORD-REPORT-VOLUME-1-2024.PDF ↩︎

  9. All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, "2025 UAP Workshop: Narrative Data, Infrastructures, and Analysis. Workshop Synthesis and Recommendations," 26-P-0344, August 5-6, 2025, https://www.aaro.mil/Portals/136/PDFs/Information%20Papers/2025_UAP_Workshop_Paper.pdf (archived PDF: https://web.archive.org/web/20260927135859/https://www.aaro.mil/Portals/136/PDFs/Information%20Papers/2025_UAP_Workshop_Paper.pdf). ↩︎

  10. Greg Bishop, "AARO and AUI Engage Academia in UAP Symposium," Society for UAP Studies, September 2, 2025, https://www.societyforuapstudies.org/post/aaro-and-aui-engage-academia-in-uap-symposium. ↩︎

  11. "Making Sense of the Unknown," Beyond the Breakthrough (Associated Universities, Inc. podcast), April 29, 2026, https://beyondthebreakthrough.podbean.com/e/uap-data/. ↩︎