The All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) is the Department of War (formerly Department of Defense) office responsible for the official U.S. investigation of unidentified anomalous phenomena across air, sea, undersea, space, and transmedium domains.
AARO was established by Section 1683 of the FY2022 National Defense Authorization Act and began operations in 2022. Its director reports to the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security. AARO's predecessors include the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force (UAPTF, 2020-2022) and the Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronization Group (AOIMSG, 2021-2022).
AARO's regular publications include annual reports to Congress, a historical record review (volumes I and II released to date), incident-specific statements, transparency notices when sensitive materials are declassified, and a public case-reporting portal. This page tracks all of them.
What you won't find here. Speculation, anonymous sourcing, and third-party news write-ups are filtered out. We list only what AARO itself has published, with its own URL.
Frequently asked
- What does AARO stand for?
- The All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office. The 'all-domain' refers to the five domains it has authority over: air, sea, undersea, space, and transmedium (objects observed transitioning between two of those).
- Who runs AARO?
- AARO's director reports to the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security. The director's name and any deputies are listed on the AARO leadership page; this hub captures every named official who has been quoted in or signed an AARO publication.
- Where can I report a UAP sighting to AARO?
- Active and former U.S. service members and government employees can use AARO's official secure reporting portal. The portal URL appears on AARO's contact page; we link to it from the most recent annual report event on this list.
- How is this different from the AARO website?
- AARO publishes its files individually as press releases or report PDFs. This page rebuilds them as a dated, sourced, cross-linked timeline so you can see the full sequence of releases at a glance — and so each one is searchable and citable.
- What's the AARO Historical Record Report?
- A multi-volume congressionally directed review of U.S. government UAP-related programs and incidents from 1945 to the present. Volume I was released in March 2024; subsequent volumes are listed below as they're published.
Looking for related material? Browse the full timeline, the on-the-record witnesses, or every topical tag.