A top US official is concerned that many of the unexplained encounters between military jets and unidentified flying objects that his office is investigating could be adversaries, such as China spying on the country, rather than wayward aliens.
The director of the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office on Wednesday updated the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities on what his office has been doing since it was formed last year.
“This is a hunting mission for what someone might be doing in our backyard that we don’t know about,” said AARO Director Sean M. Kirkpatrick. “That is what we do.”
The special agency was created last year to address threats to national security from “objects of interest,” including “anomalous, unidentified space, airborne, underwater, and transmedium.”
Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., is a member of the subcommittee, and he questioned Kirkpatrick during a secret portion of Wednesday’s meeting, according to his office. He was previously chairman of the committee and was involved in the creation of AARO last year.
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The military and intelligence agencies do not use the term UFOs. They use UAP for “unidentified sky phenomena.”
After violating traditional government secrecy surrounding such events two years ago, U.S. intelligence officials now report several hundred such unexplained events under investigation, usually involving U.S. pilots encountering mysterious objects, often with detection on cameras, radar, thermal sensors, and other advanced technology which is used by the military.
Kirkpatrick testified Wednesday that the office now has more than 650 unexplained cases, but was quick to note that not all of the suspects were out of this world.
“In our investigation, AARO has so far found no credible evidence of extraterrestrial activity, alien technology or objects that defy the known laws of physics,” he said.
Global adversaries have some known capabilities beyond those of the US, he said, and some UAPs may be foreign aircraft with capabilities not yet known to the US.
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Kirkpatrick has a PhD in Physics and more than two decades of experience working in places like the Central Intelligence and Defense Intelligence agencies. Prior to his current position, he was chief scientist at DIA’s Missile and Space Intelligence Center.
Part of AARO’s job is to be aware of the capabilities of countries like China and Russia and what it would look like if they were able to accelerate those capabilities and use them against the US, he said.
“The adversary doesn’t wait. They’re moving forward and they’re moving forward fast. If I were to put on some of my old hats, I’d tell you they’re less risk averse to technical advancements than we are. They’re just willing to try things and see if it works,” he said.
He said adversaries could use unknown technologies against the US, resulting in UAPs.
“Are there capabilities that can be used against us, both in ISR (intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance) and weapons? Absolutely,” he said. “Do I have proof that they do it in these cases? No, but I do have some indicators.”
Senator Mark Kelly has pushed for AARO funding
After the hearing, Kelly said she stressed the need for AARO.
“It is critical to our national security that we devote the time and resources to understanding these and any future incidents and whether they represent a technological leap forward by our adversaries,” he said.
In February, Kelly co-signed a letter to the U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense and Deputy Director of National Intelligence requesting a reallocation of funds to make up a shortfall in AARO’s budget so that it could meet the required scientific studies on UAPs.
Also signatories were Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand, D.N.Y. and Marco Rubio, R-Fla.
Kelly was among another group of senators who sent a similar letter on April 14 to members of the Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee seeking additional funding for AARO.
“More must be done to address potential violations of U.S. airspace and threats to national security and we must strengthen our capabilities in this area,” the letter said.
The specific funding requests in both letters are classified.
US opening up about close encounters
The intelligence community in the US has opened up to UAPs in recent years.
In a 2021 government report, the national intelligence director said that of 144 unexplained reports since 2004, the intelligence community could confidently identify only one. In that case, they said the object was a large, deflating balloon.
The rest of these encounters remained unexplained. The report concluded that “most reported UAPs likely represent physical objects, as a majority … were recorded through multiple sensors, including radar, infrared, electro-optical, weapon-seekers, and visual observation.”
Kirkpatrick warned Wednesday that not all of the now more than 650 UAP cases have the same priority. His office is most interested in the events happening near sensitive military sites, as well as the corresponding sensor data, such as radar, that can be examined.
For that reason, his office is unlikely to make a final decision on many of the reports anytime soon, as they do not prioritize events that, for example, involve nothing more than a pilot observation that occurred at a location far from sensitive locations.
“We can’t answer decades of questions about UAP all at once,” he said.
Whatever it is that naval pilots and others encounter, they certainly pose a threat of collision. Eleven incidents in the first report of 2021 involved aircraft near misses, something Senators questioned Kirkpatrick about on Wednesday.
Kelly’s office said the senator, a former fighter pilot and retired NASA astronaut, has spoken personally with pilots about incidents they witnessed, and discussed certain issues with Kirkpatrick on Wednesday that can only be addressed in a secret setting.
Kirkpatrick on Wednesday showed video clips of what AARO was investigating, similar to when Pentagon officials previously released classified videos of unidentified objects encountered by US military aircraft in May 2022.
Kirkpatrick showed two released video clips of surveillance drones. One was of a round object flying in the Middle East and the object remains unexplained. The other clip he showed was of an object that looked like an oval flying near US aircraft in Southeast Asia, which was later determined to be a civilian aircraft.
“Learning that a UAP is not exotic in origin, but is merely a quadcopter or a balloon, leads to the question of who is piloting that quadcopter and for what purpose,” he said, discussing how the department will pass on what it learns to other appropriate government agencies. instances when the objects are identified.
“ARRO’s mission is to turn UAP into SEP, someone else’s problem,” he said.
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Reach reporter Ryan Randazzo at [email protected] or 602-444-4331. Follow him on Twitter @UtilityReporter.
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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Senate Leaders: UFOs May Be Adversaries Spying on the United States
