Pentagon has ‘no credible evidence’ of aliens or UFOs that defy physics

The director of the Pentagon’s new UFO office shot down hopes that the current buzz over unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) supports claims of extraterrestrial visitation.

Sean M. Kirkpatrick, chosen as the first director of the Pentagon’s new All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), testified before members of the United States Senate Committee on Armed Services on Wednesday (April 19). The hearing had two portions, one closed to the public and one open.

During the open portion, Kirkpatrick definitively stated that, out of the hundreds of UAP cases his office has reviewed, “AARO has found no credible evidence thus far of extraterrestrial activity, off-world technology or objects that defy the known laws of physics.” The AARO director acknowledged that this conclusion might be “unsatisfying” to those who believe they have witnessed incontrovertible evidence of physics-defying craft or objects.

Still, Kirkpatrick stressed, UAP cases most often “resolve into readily explainable sources” when there is a wealth of scientific data at hand.

Related: Pentagon releases its long-awaited 2022 UFO report

“I want to underscore today that only a very small percentage of UAP reports display signatures that could reasonably be described as anomalous,” Kirkpatrick stated in Wednesday’s hearing. “The majority of unidentified objects reported to AARO demonstrate mundane characteristics of balloons, [uncrewed] aerial systems, clutter, natural phenomena or other readily explainable sources.”

The AARO director added that if anyone has any evidence of otherworldly visitation or alternative theories, they should submit that evidence for peer review in scientific journals. “AARO is working very hard to do the same,” Kirkpatrick stated. “That is how science works, not by blog or social media.”

During the opening portion of the hearing, Kirkpatrick shared a video that his office analyzed reportedly showing what appears to be a spherical object that was filmed by an MQ-9 Reaper drone somewhere in the Middle East. In the video, the object appears to soar through the air with no apparent means of propulsion.

While the footage certainly is captivating, Kirkpatrick stressed that there simply aren’t enough data collected to make an accurate assessment of what the spherical object or phenomenon in the video might be. “This is essentially all of the data we have associated with this event from some years ago,” Kirkpatrick told the Senate committee. “It is going to be virtually impossible to fully identify that just based off of that video.”

A report published in January 2023 by the Pentagon’s Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) reached similar conclusions about other incidents. Out of the over 500 UFO/UAP cases examined for that report, many of them were found to “lack enough detailed data to enable attribution of UAP with high certainty.”

In fact, 163 were attributed to balloons or “balloon-like entities,” a conclusion that took on increased significance after the wild saga of the Chinese spy balloon that was shot down by a U.S. military F-22 fighter jet after flying across the country and collecting intelligence along the way.

Following that incident, the New York Times reported that previous Chinese spy balloons over the U.S. had been misclassified as UFOs.

The term UAP previously stood for “unidentified aerial phenomena;” that was recently changed (opens in new tab) to “unidentified anomalous phenomena” in order to encompass objects or phenomena that appear in space, in water or even travel between domains.

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Brett is a science and technology journalist who is curious about emerging concepts in spaceflight and aerospace, alternative launch concepts, anti-satellite technologies, and uncrewed systems. Brett’s work has appeared on The War Zone at TheDrive.com, Popular Science, the History Channel, Science Discovery, and more. Brett has English degrees from Clemson University and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. In his free time, Brett is a working musician, a hobbyist electronics engineer and cosplayer, an avid LEGO fan, and enjoys hiking and camping throughout the Appalachian Mountains with his wife and two children.