Under one provision of the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act, the Pentagon’s UFO (or UAP) investigative office was ordered to produce a report on their activities to Congress, presumably with an unclassified version for the public by Halloween of this year. It turns out that the trick was on us because that particular treat still hasn’t shown up nearly two months later. That office, currently known as the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), may have noticed that people were beginning to speculate as to what was causing the delay, so they held a conference call yesterday to take questions from the press. They attempted to assure everyone that they weren’t stalling on purpose or engaging in yet another coverup when it comes to the subject of UFOs. The office has only barely gotten on its feet and they’re trying to get up to speed as quickly as they can. But they still revealed a few interesting tidbits during the call. One of those was an admission that they have received literally hundreds of new UFO reports from both military and civilian witnesses since opening their doors. (Washington Examiner)

A new Pentagon office set up to track reports of unidentified flying objects has received “several hundreds” of new reports, but no evidence so far of alien life, the agency’s leadership told reporters Friday.

The All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) was set up in July and is responsible for not only tracking unidentified objects in the sky, but also underwater or in space — or potentially an object that has the ability to move from one domain to the next.

The office was established following more than a year of attention on unidentified flying objects that military pilots have observed but have sometimes been reluctant to report due to fear of stigma.

You can read a full transcript of the call from the Defense Department here.

One surprise from the call showed up as soon as it began. The moderator for the call was none other than Pentagon spokeswoman (and former Army intelligence officer) Susan Gough. She is the point person for the Pentagon on the subject of UFOs and is typically the only one allowed to answer questions from the press on the subject. But she almost never makes any public appearances or speaks. Also on the call were Ronald Moultrie, the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence, as well as Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick, the director of AARO.

In addition to revealing that they have received hundreds of new UFO sighting reports, most of which they haven’t had time to investigate, a few other details emerged. For one thing, the reason they changed the name of the office to remove the words “aerial phenomena” and instead use “all-domain anomaly” was that sightings have been reported not just in the skies, but also in space and even underwater. (Unidentified Submerged Objects or “USOs” are also referred to as “fast movers.”) Some objects have been reported moving from the air into the water or into space and back again. These are referred to as “transmedium objects.” But Moultrie said while reminding everyone that they are still in the very early stages of the process, that they have not yet identified any reports where an object appeared to demonstrate transmedium capabilities.

One reporter from the AP asked about the latest generation of military hardware – both ours and that of our adversaries – and wondered if any of the sightings could be those sorts of terrestrial vehicles being mistaken for something else. Kirkpatrick said that this is a definitely possibility and AARO is setting up “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.” (“Blue activity” refers to the testing of military hardware, sometimes covertly, so the observer might not be aware that terrestrial military equipment is involved.)

One last thing that will surely delight any of the skeptics listening in was the question of aliens or extraterrestrial involvement with the UFOs. One reporter asked that question directly. Moultrie responded by saying they have not found anything “that would lead us to believe that any of the objects that we have seen are of alien origin.” But he couched that answer with yet another reminder that they are “certainly very early on.” He then went further, saying, “if we find something like that, we will look at it and analyze it and take the appropriate actions.”

There’s plenty more in the linked transcript, but those were the highlights I wanted to pick out today. But that last answer that I highlighted from Moultrie left me with one seemingly obvious question that the reporter failed to follow up on. What exactly does the Pentagon feel the “appropriate action” will be if they do come across an alien? Has anyone constructed a plan for that scenario? It’s widely believed that the government is already in possession of extraterrestrial technology and possibly even bodies. But if that’s true, AARO is either covering it up or nobody has told them yet. Both possibilities are believable as far as I’m concerned.