The UAP Task Force to AARO (2020—2022): The Pentagon's New UAP Offices.
For half a century after Project Blue Book closed, the official U.S. position was that there was no government office studying UFOs. Between 2020 and 2022, that changed three times in quick succession. A Navy task force became an awkwardly named coordination group became, at last, a standing all-domain office with a real mandate, a reporting hotline, and a legal obligation to tell Congress what it finds. The institutionalization of UAP investigation — the thing the subject's advocates had sought for decades — finally happened.
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What these offices are, in a paragraph.
Following the 2017 AATIP disclosure and the 2019–2020 official acknowledgment of the Navy UAP videos, the U.S. government created a rapid succession of offices to investigate unidentified aerial (later “anomalous”) phenomena. In August 2020, the Deputy Secretary of Defense established the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force (UAPTF), led by the Navy through the Office of Naval Intelligence, to detect, analyze, and catalog UAP that could pose a threat to U.S. military operations. The UAPTF produced the landmark June 2021 ODNI preliminary assessment. In November 2021, the Pentagon replaced the UAPTF with the Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronization Group (AOIMSG), a broader coordination body. Then, in July 2022, prompted by congressional direction in the National Defense Authorization Act, the Department of Defense and the Director of National Intelligence jointly established the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), with a significantly expanded remit covering not just airborne objects but anomalous phenomena across all domains — air, sea, space, and “transmedium” (objects moving between domains). AARO's first director was the physicist Sean Kirkpatrick (2022–2023); he was succeeded by Jon Kosloski in 2024. AARO was given responsibilities including investigating UAP reports (current and historical), establishing a secure reporting mechanism for military and government personnel, coordinating across agencies, and reporting to Congress. It launched a public website and a reporting portal, and produced a historical review of U.S. government UAP involvement (see the 2024 AARO historical report). The three-office succession in barely two years marks the institutional turn from the post-1969 policy of non-engagement to a standing, congressionally mandated UAP investigative function — even as debates continue over AARO's transparency, independence, and conclusions.
The documented record.
The UAP Task Force (2020)
The first standing office was Navy-led. Verified On August 4, 2020, the Deputy Secretary of Defense approved the establishment of the UAP Task Force, under the Department of the Navy and the Office of Naval Intelligence, to “detect, analyze and catalog” UAP that could threaten U.S. national security. The UAPTF formalized the ad hoc Navy effort that had followed the 2017–2020 disclosures and the Navy's 2019 acknowledgment of the authenticity of the FLIR videos [1][2].
The 2021 assessment
The UAPTF's principal public output was the 2021 report. Verified In June 2021, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, with the UAPTF, delivered a congressionally mandated preliminary assessment examining 144 reports, mostly from U.S. Navy sources, between 2004 and 2021. The assessment (covered in a separate file) found that only one of the 144 could be confidently explained and declined to confirm or rule out any particular origin, framing the phenomena as a genuine analytic problem [1][3].
AOIMSG (2021)
A reorganization followed. Verified In November 2021, the Deputy Secretary of Defense established the Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronization Group (AOIMSG), under the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security, to synchronize efforts across the department to detect, identify, and attribute objects in restricted airspace. AOIMSG was short-lived, superseded within months by AARO [1][4].
AARO (2022)
Congress directed a broader office. Verified In July 2022, the Department of Defense and the ODNI established the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), implementing provisions of the FY2022 and FY2023 National Defense Authorization Acts. AARO's mandate explicitly extended beyond airborne objects to anomalous phenomena across air, sea, space, and transmedium domains, and included investigation, a reporting mechanism, interagency coordination, scientific analysis, and reporting to Congress. Sean Kirkpatrick, a physicist and intelligence official, was named the first director; Jon Kosloski succeeded him in 2024 [1][4][5].
AARO's activities
AARO built out public-facing functions. Verified AARO launched a public website and a secure reporting portal for current and former U.S. government personnel and contractors to submit UAP-related information, including claims about alleged historical programs. It has produced reports to Congress, trend analyses, case resolutions (attributing many reports to balloons, drones, and sensor artifacts while leaving some unresolved), and a two-volume historical review of U.S. government UAP involvement (Volume I released in 2024). It has also publicly addressed and largely rejected claims of secret extraterrestrial reverse-engineering programs [1][5][6].
The continuing tensions
The offices' work has been contested. Disputed Advocates and some legislators have criticized AARO and its predecessors for insufficient transparency, for what they see as a debunking bias, and for the tension between AARO's skeptical historical findings and the claims of whistleblowers such as David Grusch. Disputes have also arisen over AARO's interactions with witnesses and over personnel matters. Supporters counter that AARO has brought rigor and a reporting structure to a field long starved of both. The institutional turn is real; its adequacy and good faith are argued [5][6][7].
The competing positions.
The government's position is that the UAPTF-to-AARO progression represents a responsible, increasingly rigorous institutionalization of UAP investigation: a genuine effort to detect, analyze, and resolve anomalous phenomena as a safety and security matter, with proper reporting to Congress. Claimed AARO has emphasized that the great majority of resolved cases have mundane explanations and that it has found no verifiable evidence of extraterrestrial technology [5][6].
UAP advocates, some whistleblowers, and a number of legislators argue that the offices — AARO especially — have not been transparent, have approached the subject with a predisposition to explain it away, and have not adequately pursued the most provocative claims (such as recovered-craft allegations). Disputed The tension between AARO's skeptical conclusions and the testimony of figures like Grusch is the focal point. Skeptics, conversely, regard AARO's mundane attributions as the correct result of finally applying analytic rigor. The three positions — institutional good faith, advocate distrust, and skeptical vindication — coexist around the same set of offices [5][6][7].
The unanswered questions.
The unresolved cases
AARO and its predecessors have resolved many reports but left a residue unexplained. Disputed What the genuinely unresolved cases represent — sensor artifacts, foreign technology, or something else — is the open question the offices exist to answer and have not [3][6].
The classified holdings
How much UAP-relevant information remains classified beyond what AARO has disclosed, and whether AARO has full access to all relevant compartmented programs, is itself contested. Unverified Whistleblower claims assert the existence of information AARO has not surfaced; AARO's access and the completeness of its review are not fully established to outside observers [6][7].
The durability of the institution
Whether AARO will endure as a serious, adequately resourced, and independent office — or be hollowed out as official interest wanes — is unknown. Unverified Past official UAP efforts (Blue Book) were eventually terminated; AARO's long-term trajectory is undetermined [5][7].
Primary material.
The accessible record on these offices is held principally at these locations:
- DoD and ODNI announcements establishing the UAPTF (August 2020), AOIMSG (November 2021), and AARO (July 2022).
- The National Defense Authorization Act provisions (FY2022, FY2023, and later) directing AARO's creation and mandate.
- The AARO public website and reporting portal — aaro.mil — with case statistics, reports to Congress, and the historical review.
- The June 2021 ODNI preliminary assessment and subsequent annual UAP reports.
- Congressional hearing records — the 2022 and 2023 hearings at which UAPTF/AARO officials and whistleblowers testified.
Critical individual sources include: the establishment memoranda; the NDAA statutory language; and the AARO reports to Congress and historical review.
The sequence.
- 2017–2020 The AATIP disclosure and the official acknowledgment/release of the Navy videos.
- August 4, 2020 The UAP Task Force is established under the Navy/ONI.
- June 2021 The ODNI/UAPTF preliminary assessment examines 144 reports.
- November 2021 AOIMSG replaces the UAPTF.
- July 2022 AARO is established with an all-domain mandate; Sean Kirkpatrick is the first director.
- 2023 Congressional hearings; AARO launches its reporting portal.
- 2024 AARO releases its historical review Volume I; Jon Kosloski becomes director.
Cases on this archive that connect.
AATIP (File 193) — the program whose disclosure catalyzed the creation of these offices.
The 2021 ODNI Preliminary Assessment (File 195) — the UAPTF's landmark report.
The 2024 AARO Historical Report (File 196) — AARO's review of decades of U.S. government UAP involvement.
The Grusch Testimony (File 053) — the whistleblower claims that stand in tension with AARO's findings.
The PURSUE UAP Releases (File 062) — the 2026 disclosure portal, the latest stage of the institutional process.
More related files coming as the archive grows. Planned: the 2022 and 2023 congressional UAP hearings, and Sean Kirkpatrick.
Full bibliography.
- U.S. Department of Defense, establishment announcements for the UAP Task Force (August 2020), AOIMSG (November 2021), and AARO (July 2022).
- National Defense Authorization Acts for Fiscal Years 2022 and 2023, UAP provisions establishing and defining AARO.
- All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, aaro.mil — reports to Congress, case statistics, and the reporting mechanism.
- Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Preliminary Assessment: Unidentified Aerial Phenomena, June 25, 2021, and subsequent annual reports.
- Congressional hearing records, House and Senate, 2022–2023.
- Contemporary coverage in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Politico, 2020–2024.