Document · 8 March 2024
AARO Historical Record Report, Volume 1
Also known as Historical Record Report, AARO HRR, AARO historical report
AARO's Historical Record Report, Volume 1 (March 2024), mandated by the FY2022 and FY2023 NDAAs, reviews U.S. government involvement with UAP since 1945, covering about two dozen investigative efforts from Project Blue Book to the present, and interviews with people who claimed knowledge of secret programmes.
Its central finding: "AARO found no evidence that any USG investigation, academic-sponsored research, or official review panel has confirmed that any sighting of a UAP represented extraterrestrial technology." It found no empirical evidence that the government or private companies have reverse-engineered extraterrestrial technology, no authentic UAP non-disclosure agreements threatening violence, and that executives of companies named by interviewees denied the claims on the record. It attributes many claims to misidentified authentic programmes and circular reporting among a small group of people. It also explains episodes such as the KONA BLUE proposal.
The report never uses the phrase "legacy program". Prepared under Sean Kirkpatrick and published after he left, it was criticised by Grusch's supporters and several members of Congress for not engaging with the classified testimony given to the Inspector General and to Congress.
Sources: AARO Historical Record Report, Vol. 1 (2024)
Facts and claims
- documented A review of U.S. government involvement with UAP since 1945, covering about two dozen investigative efforts from Project Blue Book to the present, mandated by the FY2022 and FY2023 NDAAs. Source: doc-aaro-historical-record-report-v1.pdf
- documented “AARO found no evidence that any USG investigation, academic-sponsored research, or official review panel has confirmed that any sighting of a UAP represented extraterrestrial technology.” Source: doc-aaro-historical-record-report-v1.pdf
- documented It found no empirical evidence of reverse-engineering of extraterrestrial technology by the U.S. government or private companies, and no evidence of UAP non-disclosure agreements threatening violence. Many reported claims, it concluded, came from misidentified authentic programs and circular reporting among a small group of proponents. Source: doc-aaro-historical-record-report-v1.pdf
- documented The report never uses the phrase “legacy program”. It addresses the same allegations as claims that the U.S. government recovered off-world craft and biological remains and runs “a program or programs to reverse engineer the recovered technology”. Source: doc-aaro-historical-record-report-v1.pdf
Connected files
Claims
- The U.S. government's official UAP investigations have found no verifiable evidence of extraterrestrial or non-human technology (evidence for claim) — AARO “found no evidence that any USG investigation, academic-sponsored research, or official review panel has confirmed that any sighting of a UAP represented extraterrestrial technology”
- The U.S. has recovered the bodies of non-human beings from crashed craft (evidence against claim) — AARO: “no extraterrestrial craft or bodies were ever collected”
- The U.S. holds recovered craft of non-human origin and runs a secret program to reverse-engineer them (evidence against claim) — AARO “found no empirical evidence” of reverse-engineering of extraterrestrial technology by the government or private companies
Concepts
- Crash retrieval & reverse engineering (disputes) — AARO's 2024 historical review found no empirical evidence that the government or private companies have reverse-engineered extraterrestrial technology
- Bismuth–magnesium “Roswell” sample (Art's Parts) (assesses)
- Government UFO disinformation (documents)
Programs
- All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (produced by)
- KONA BLUE (documents)
- Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program (about)
- Project Blue Book (about)
News
- WSJ: Pentagon disinformation fueled UFO myths, from doctored Area 51 photos to a fake “Yankee Blue” briefing (subject of)
People
- Kirsten Gillibrand (comments by) — She read the report as showing the government took sightings “extremely seriously” for 75 years
- Sean Kirkpatrick (overseen by) — Prepared under his leadership; released in March 2024 after he left
Videos
- Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Exposing the Truth (discussed in)
- Oversight Hearing on AARO and UAPs/UFOs Nov 19th 2024 (UnEdited) (discussed in)
- Christopher Mellon on UFOs, secrecy and what the public still doesn't know (The Chris Cuomo Project, 2025) (discussed in)
- Joe Rogan Experience #2314: Hal Puthoff (discussed in)
Mentioned in this file
- Legacy program (Program)
- David Grusch (Person)
- Intelligence Community Inspector General (Organization)
Mentioned in documents and records
- Inside the U.S. Government Covert UFO Program: Future Visions
- Inside the U.S. Government Covert UFO Program: New Insights
- Imminent: Inside the Pentagon's Hunt for UFOs
- Inside the US Government Covert UFO Program: Initial Revelations
- Skinwalkers at the Pentagon: An Insiders' Account of the Secret Government UFO Program
- UFO Crash/Retrievals: Status Reports I–VII
- Non-human intelligence
- David Grusch — written opening statement, House Oversight hearing (July 26, 2023)
- Hearing transcript: UAP — Implications on National Security, Public Safety, and Government Transparency (House Oversight, July 26, 2023)
- Bigelow Aerospace
- Boeing
- Department of Homeland Security
- Defense Intelligence Agency
- Lockheed Martin
- National Air and Space Intelligence Center
- Northrop Grumman
- RTX (formerly Raytheon)
- Skinwalker Ranch
- Wright-Patterson Air Force Base
- Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program
More documents
- Defense Intelligence Reference Documents (DIRDs)
- DIA FOIA response FOIA-00159-2018: release of 37 AAWSAP DIRDs (March 25, 2022)
- FBI file: Majestic 12
- Warp Drive, Dark Energy, and the Manipulation of Extra Dimensions
- FBI “Guy Hottel” memo
- DOPSR case 22-SB-0151: prepublication clearance of Lacatski, Kelleher & Knapp's “Book 2” (April 24, 2023)
Links
- Wayback Machine snapshot of the original release URL (March 8, 2024)
- aaro.mil (official PDF)
- Department of Defense (PDF)