The Pentagon has opened a new Internet portal for pilots, controllers, and other related professionals to submit reports of unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP).
AARO.mil, the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office website, is still under construction. For example, a promised online form for contacting the AARO is labeled “coming soon.” But the version already presented offers eight videos showing UAPsplus archives for congressional reports and briefings, press releases, and links to other resources.
“The website will serve as a one-stop-shop for all publicly available information related to AARO and UAP,” said the Air Force Brigadier General. Patrick Ryder and press secretary for the Department of Defense, quoted by Universe Today.
The creation of the new website is just one sign that the issue of UAPs, formerly known as UFO —unidentified flying object in English— is gaining attention in the Pentagon.
That move was intended to speed up the development of AARO and the launch of the website. «I believe that transparency is a critical component of AARO’s work.and I am committed to sharing AARO’s findings with Congress and the public, consistent with our responsibility to protect critical national defense and intelligence capabilities,” Assistant Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks, who played a leading role in the AARO establishment last year.
When the website is fully operational, it will serve as a secure channel for current or former government employees, military personnel, and contractors to file UAP reports. In a press release, the Department of Defense said the secure reporting tool will launch this fall. “A mechanism for the general public to submit reports will be announced in the coming months”the Pentagon said.
Civilian pilots were encouraged to report UAP sightings to air traffic controllers. AARO said it would receive UAP-related pilot reports, known as Pirep, from the Federal Aviation Administration.
– Objects in the air that are not immediately identifiable.
– Transmedia objects or devices.
– Submerged objects or devices that are not immediately identifiable and display behavioral or performance characteristics that suggest that the objects or devices may be related to objects or devices in the first two categories.
AARO says that the Department of Defense considers UAPs to be “sources of anomalous detections in one or more domains (i.e., air, maritime, space, and/or transmedia) not yet attributable to known actors and that demonstrate behaviors that are not easily understood by users, sensors, or observers.”
The website does not explicitly mention possible extraterrestrial origins of the UAPs. One reason government officials and lawmakers are increasingly concerned about UAPs is because they may represent intrusions from countries like Russia or China, according to Universe Today.