AARO FY2024 Consolidated Annual Report

Brief

As of October 24, 2024, AARO holds 1,652 total UAP reports across all reporting periods; 757 were received during the FY2024 window, of which 392 originated from the FAA's backlog since 2021. Of cases analyzed, 49 were formally closed as of the June 1, 2024 data cutoff (all attributed to balloons, birds, or UAS), while 21 cases displaying anomalous characteristics were escalated to IC and S&T partners and 444 were archived due to insufficient sensor data. AARO states unambiguously that it has discovered no evidence of extraterrestrial beings, activity, or technology, and identifies the absence of adequate sensor collection, not analytical capacity, as the primary barrier to resolution. The GREMLIN prototype sensor system, developed by Georgia Tech Research Institute, completed a functional test in March 2024 and is slated for a 90-day deployment to a national-security site in Q1 FY2025.

Metadata

Agency

DoD / All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO)

Release

2024-11-14

Type

PDF • .pdf

Length

18 pages

Classification

UNCLASSIFIED

Programs

GREMLIN

Tags

orb/sphere, unidentified lights, cylindrical object, UAS, balloon, nuclear-site, East Asian Seas, Middle East, FY2024, GREMLIN, Starlink misidentification

Key points

• As of October 24, 2024, AARO holds 1,652 total UAP reports across all reporting periods.p.5
• 757 UAP reports received during the FY2024 window (May 1, 2023 – June 1, 2024); 272 of these described incidents from 2021–2022 that had not been previously submitted to AARO.p.3
• 392 of the 757 reports, more than half, originated from the FAA, representing the agency's full UAP log since June 2021.p.6
• 49 cases formally closed as of June 1, 2024 (all prosaic); the executive summary separately characterizes 118 cases as resolved 'during the reporting period,' with 174 additional cases queued for director approval, a figure discrepancy the document does not explain.p.3
• 21 cases were flagged for further IC and S&T analysis based on anomalous reported characteristics or behaviors; none of the resolved cases indicated a foreign adversarial breakthrough capability.p.6
• 444 cases were placed in Active Archive due to insufficient data; they remain eligible for reopening if new information emerges.p.6
• AARO received zero reports collected via national GEOINT, SIGINT, or MASINT platforms during the reporting period, all 757 reports came through military operational channels or FAA civil aviation logs.p.7
• 18 reports from the Administrator for Nuclear Security and the NRC concerned UAP near nuclear infrastructure; all were categorized by those agencies as UAS, including six consecutive nights of flyovers at the BWXT Fuel Cycle Facility in Lynchburg, Virginia, October 10–15, 2023.p.12
• The sole FAA flight safety incident among 392 FAA reports was a commercial aircrew near miss with a cylindrical object over the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of New York; the case remains open.p.12
• The GREMLIN sensor system demonstrated functionality in a March 2024 test and is scheduled for a 90-day pattern-of-life collection at a site of national security.p.13

Verbatim

• It is important to underscore that, to date, AARO has discovered no evidence of extraterrestrial beings, activity, or technology.

  p.3

• AARO's ability to resolve cases remains constrained by a lack of timely and actionable sensor data.

  p.3

• AARO determined 21 cases merit further analysis by its IC and science and technology (S&T) partners.

  p.6

• Objects within the "other" category include unique descriptions such as "green fire ball," "a jelly fish with [multicolored] flashing lights," and a "silver rocket approximately six feet long."

  p.8

• In this instance, a commercial aircrew reported a near miss with a "cylindrical object" while over the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of New York.

  p.12

Most interesting

• All 49 space-domain reports were filed by pilots or ground observers estimating altitude above 100 km, not one originated from an actual space-based sensor, despite falling under U.S. Space Command's astrographic area of responsibility.
• Oak Ridge National Laboratory analyzed a physical material sample claimed to be from a UAP; the report notes ORNL 'will continue to assist with any future physics-relevant case analysis' but discloses no finding on the sample itself.
• A UAS crashed at the D.C. Cook Nuclear Power Plant on August 3, 2023, was recovered by on-site security and handed to Berrien County, Michigan, local law enforcement; AARO states it has no further information about it.
• MIT Lincoln Laboratory is building prototype data-processing systems for FAA and National Weather Service radar feeds specifically to surface objects that current filtering algorithms remove from the data stream.
• Birds are identified as a systematic misidentification driver: EO/IR sensor compression renders them as amorphous orbs, and flapping wings appear as 'flickering' in full-motion video, a signature AARO now uses diagnostically to close cases.
• The Starlink mega-constellation is an emerging resolution category; AARO matched one commercial pilot sighting to a Starlink launch from Cape Canaveral the same evening, on the known orbital path of the satellites.
• The reporting period produced two military aircrew flight safety flags and three reports of pilots being 'trailed or shadowed' by UAP; AARO has no attribution to foreign adversaries for any of these.