Senator Kirsten Gillibrand said she has secured “full funding” for the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) tasked with investigating UFOs. Pic credit: NBC/YouTube
On June 23, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand revealed that she and Senator Marco Rubio secured “full funding” for the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) that investigates UFOs under the supervision of the Office of the Secretary of Defense.
Gillibrand, chair of the Senate Armed Services Emerging Threats and Capabilities Subcommittee, and Senator Marco Rubio, Vice Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, led a bipartisan group of 16 Senators to secure adequate funding for the AARO.
Senators who supported the effort included Senator Mark Warner from Virginia, Lindsey Graham from South Carolina, Martin Heinrich from New Mexico, Amy Klobuchar from Minnesota, and John Hickenlooper from Colorado.
According to Gillibrand in a June 23 press release, the senators secured the funding in the Senate Armed Services Committee markup of the FY24 National Defense Authorization Act.
UFOs pose potential national security risk
The push came in response to increasing concerns among proponents of the adversarial nation hypothesis that UFOs are a national security risk.
According to Gillibrand, the increasing aggression by U.S. geopolitical adversaries made it essential for the nation to develop the capability to monitor airborne activity with national security implications.
AARO will share intelligence with relevant departments and agencies. The office will also regularly brief Congress on activities, Gillibrand said.
The Senator from New York explained that adequate funding for AARO and the requirement to brief Congress will help remove the stigma associated with the subject of UFOs.
What is the AARO?
The AARO operates under the supervision of the Office of the Secretary of Defense.
The Department of Defense (DoD) officially announced the establishment of the AARO in July 2022 within the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security, directed by Dr. Sean M. Kirkpatrick.
The AARO emerged from expanding the scope of the Airborne Object Identification and Management Group (AOIMSG) following the enactment of the National Defense Authorization Act for the fiscal year 2022.
The AARO is responsible for coordinating interactions between the DoD and other government departments or agencies to track and identify UAPs (UFOs) that are a potential threat to national security and to take action to mitigate them.
The office also monitors similar threats on land and sea.
Recent increase in UFO sightings
The latest development comes in the wake of an increase in reports of UFO sightings.
In its 2022 Annual Report on Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP), the Office of the Directorate of National Intelligence (DNI) revealed an increase in the number of reported UAP (UFO) sightings.
The report said the DNI covered 144 reported UFO incidents in its preliminary assessment covering the preceding 17 years.
However, there have been 247 new reports and an additional 119 newly discovered after the period covered in the preliminary assessment, making a total of 510 cases as of August 30, 2022.
Congress is investigating UFO whistleblower reports
The latest development also comes amid reports that the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence is investigating recent whistleblower claims that the government secretly retrieved UFOs from crash sites and ran an alien spacecraft reverse-engineering program.
The House Oversight Committee is also investigating the explosive allegations.