Hearing / briefing · 19 November 2024 · U.S. Capitol, Washington, D.C. (Senate side)

Senate Armed Services Subcommittee hearing with AARO Director

A hearing of the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities on 19 November 2024, chaired by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand with Senator Joni Ernst as ranking member, with AARO's new director Jon Kosloski as the witness.

Kosloski presented case studies AARO had resolved, including the GoFast video, which AARO assessed with high confidence showed an object at about 13,000 feet rather than skimming the water, its apparent speed an effect of parallax, a 2018 drone video near an erupting Mount Etna, which he said showed an object "170 meters away from the plume" (AARO's written release the same day says a balloon about 170 kilometres from the caldera), and the 2013 Aguadilla, Puerto Rico video, assessed as two balloons or sky lanterns rather than a transmedium object. He added that AARO does not believe every object is a bird, a balloon or a drone: "we do have some very anomalous objects."

Sources: Senate hearing video (2024)

Facts and claims

Key moments: Oversight Hearing on AARO and UAPs/UFOs Nov 19th 2024 (UnEdited)

  1. 2:45 Kirsten Gillibrand: Gillibrand asks AARO to share what it can on the Nimitz incident, the Gimbal video and other prominent cases, and on unresolved cases, not only the ones it has resolved.
  2. 6:17 Jon T. Kosloski: Kosloski introduces himself: a researcher in mathematics, physics and engineering who spent most of his career leading advanced research at the NSA, and who arrived at AARO in August 2024.
  3. 7:00 Jon T. Kosloski: Kosloski: AARO holds over 1,600 UAP reports; many resolve to birds, balloons and unmanned systems, while others lack enough data for analysis.
  4. 7:38 Jon T. Kosloski: Kosloski: “to date AARO has not discovered any verifiable evidence of extraterrestrial beings, activity or technology.”
  5. 13:52 Jon T. Kosloski: Kosloski presents the 2013 Puerto Rico case, filmed in infrared by a Customs and Border Protection aircraft: AARO assesses the apparent dive into the water as a thermal-crossover effect, and the object as likely a pair of balloons or sky lanterns.
  6. 15:40 Jon T. Kosloski: Kosloski: AARO assesses with high confidence that the GoFast object was near 13,000 feet, not skimming the water; parallax made it look fast. AARO published its calculations so that the public can “check our math.”
  7. 16:16 Jon T. Kosloski: Kosloski on a 2018 drone video of an object that seems to fly through Mount Etna's plume: after 3D modelling and pixel-by-pixel analysis, “they assess that the object was actually 170 meters away from the plume and not flying through it”. AARO's written release the same day says a balloon about 170 kilometres from the caldera.
  8. 16:55 Jon T. Kosloski: Kosloski: “AARO does not believe every object is a bird, a balloon or a UAV. We do have some very anomalous objects.”
  9. 18:08 Jon T. Kosloski: Kosloski says AARO has met several interlocutors of people with claimed firsthand knowledge, and a couple of firsthand witnesses, who now feel comfortable coming back to the office.
  10. 18:50 Kirsten Gillibrand: Gillibrand on AARO's Historical Record Report: it shows the government took sightings extremely seriously for 75 years, with about half the cases unresolved in every decade, and its authors had no access to firsthand reporting.
  11. 20:30 Kirsten Gillibrand: Gillibrand calls UAP around military bases and nuclear sites “deeply disturbing”, a lack of domain awareness that adversaries could at minimum exploit to spy.
  12. 22:40 Jon T. Kosloski: Kosloski describes an open case: a law-enforcement officer in the West saw a large orange orb, then a “blacker than black” object the size of a Prius that tilted and shot up silently, emitting bright red and blue lights, leaving no ground disturbance.
  13. 25:40 Jon T. Kosloski: Asked by Ernst about academia, Kosloski says AARO's university partnerships are “lacking”, because data must first be declassified; it has hired declassification experts.
  14. 33:40 Jon T. Kosloski: Kosloski says AARO is well resourced, and asks the Senate to encourage witnesses to come forward for a fuller investigation of “potential historic or ongoing legacy programs.”

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