Saudi Press

Saudi Arabia and the world
Friday, Aug 08, 2025

0:00
0:00

Pentagon widens scope of UFO-hunting unit

US defense officials have renamed the unidentified phenomena group and expanded its mission beyond space and air
After decades of being tight-lipped or publicly dismissive about the reports of unidentified flying objects (UFOs), the Pentagon is ramping up the unit that tracks such phenomena and expanding its mission to include objects that move underwater or across multiple mediums.

Just eight months after publicly creating its UFO-tracking unit, called the Airborne Object Identification and Management Group, the US Department of Defense (DOD) has given the group a new name to reflect its broader purview: The All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO). The move, which was made earlier this month and announced on Wednesday, reflects a directive from Congress to broaden the military’s probing of unidentified moving objects that could pose security threats.

The AARO will coordinate efforts across the federal government to “detect, identify and attribute objects of interest” that appear around military installations and other sensitive areas, the Pentagon said. And as necessary, the unit will “mitigate and defeat” security threats. “This includes anomalous, unidentified space, airborne, submerged and transmedium objects.”

A transmedium object is one that can operate across multiple environments, such as a spacecraft that can also fly through the Earth’s atmosphere or underwater – or both. The AARO will be charged with trying to trace unidentified objects to their sources – whether they be extraterrestrial or an earthly foe.

“It is vital to our national security and the safety of our military personnel that we maintain awareness of anomalous objects in all domains,” Ronald Moultrie, undersecretary of defense for intelligence and security, said in a memo this week. “We must also keep pace with the development and employment of novel technology by our adversaries.”

In recent years, a new acronym has been created to replace the term ‘UFO’ – Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) – in the hope that science, academia, and the media would be more open to investigating the subject. Last month, NASA officially joined the hunt for UFOs, commissioning a scientific study to demystify the phenomena. The US space agency specifically emphasized that, so far, there has been “no evidence UAPs are extra-terrestrial in origin,” pouring cold water on the prospect of discovering alien technology, but noted that a lack of verifiable data “currently makes it difficult to draw scientific conclusions about the nature of such events.”

The Pentagon released a long-awaited report on UAPs last year, as ordered by Congress, saying that it had reviewed sightings of 144 unidentified aerial phenomena since 2004. Investigators were able to definitively explain only one of those objects, which was identified as a deflated balloon. By last May, when Congress held its first hearing on UFOs in more than 50 years, the Pentagon said it had nearly 400 reports from military personnel of mysterious encounters and sightings.

The AARO will report to Moultrie and will be headed by Sean Kirkpatrick, who most recently was chief scientist at the Defense Intelligence Agency’s missile and space intelligence center.
Newsletter

Related Articles

Saudi Press
0:00
0:00
Close
British Labour Government Utilizes Counter-Terrorism Tools for Social Media Monitoring Against Legitimate Critics
WhatsApp Deletes 6.8 Million Scam Accounts Amid Rising Global Fraud
Nine people have been hospitalized and dozens of salmonella cases have been reported after an outbreak of infections linked to certain brands of pistachios and pistachio-containing products, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada
Texas Residents Face Water Restrictions While AI Data Centers Consume Millions of Gallons
Tariffs, AI, and the Shifting U.S. Macro Landscape: Navigating a New Economic Regime
India Rejects U.S. Tariff Threat, Defends Russian Oil Purchases
United States Establishes Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and Digital Asset Stockpile
Thousands of Private ChatGPT Conversations Accidentally Indexed by Google
China Tightens Mineral Controls, Curtailing Critical Inputs for Western Defence Contractors
OpenAI’s Bold Bet: Teaching AI to Think, Not Just Chat
BP’s Largest Oil and Gas Find in 25 Years Uncovered Offshore Brazil
JPMorgan and Coinbase Unveil Partnership to Let Chase Cardholders Buy Crypto Directly
British Tourist Dies Following Hair Transplant in Turkey, Police Investigate
WhatsApp Users Targeted in New Scam Involving Account Takeovers
Trump Deploys Nuclear Submarines After Threats from Former Russian President Medvedev
Germany’s Economic Breakdown and the Return of Militarization: From Industrial Collapse to a New Offensive Strategy
IMF Upgrades Global Growth Forecast as Weaker Dollar Supports Outlook
Politics is a good business: Barack Obama’s Reported Net Worth Growth, 1990–2025
"Crazy Thing": OpenAI's Sam Altman Warns Of AI Voice Fraud Crisis In Banking
Japanese Prime Minister Vows to Stay After Coalition Loses Upper House Majority
President Trump Diagnosed with Chronic Venous Insufficiency After Leg Swelling
Man Dies After Being Pulled Into MRI Machine Due to Metal Chain in New York Clinic
FIFA Pressured to Rethink World Cup Calendar Due to Climate Change
"Can You Hit Moscow?" Trump Asked Zelensky To Make Putin "Feel The Pain"
Nvidia Becomes World’s First Four‑Trillion‑Dollar Company Amid AI Boom
Iranian President Reportedly Injured During Israeli Strike on Secret Facility
Kurdistan Workers Party Takes Symbolic Step Towards Peace in Northern Iraq
BRICS Expands Membership with Indonesia and Ten New Partner Countries
Elon Musk Founds a Party Following a Poll on X: "You Wanted It – You Got It!"
AI Raises Alarms Over Long-Term Job Security
Saudi Arabia Maintains Ties with Iran Despite Israel Conflict
Russia Formally Recognizes Taliban Government in Afghanistan
Mediators Edge Closer to Israel-Hamas Ceasefire Agreement
Emirates Airline Expands Market Share with New $20 Million Campaign
House Oversight Committee Subpoenas Former Jill Biden Aide Amid Investigation into Alleged Concealment of President Biden's Cognitive Health
Amazon Reaches Major Automation Milestone with Over One Million Robots
Meta Announces Formation of Ambitious AI Unit, Meta Superintelligence Labs
China Unveils Miniature Insect-Like Surveillance Drone
Marc Marquez Claims Victory at Dutch Grand Prix Amidst Family Misfortune
Iran Executes Alleged Israeli Spies and Arrests Hundreds Amid Post-War Crackdown
Trump Asserts Readiness for Further Strikes on Iran Amid Nuclear Tensions
Iran's Parliament Votes to Suspend Cooperation with Nuclear Watchdog
Trump Announces Upcoming US-Iran Meeting Amid Controversial Airstrikes
Trump Moves to Reshape Middle East Following Israel-Iran Conflict
NATO Leaders Endorse Plan for Increased Defence Spending
U.S. Crude Oil Prices Drop Below $65 Amid Market Volatility
Explosions Rock Doha as Iranian Missiles Target Qatar
“You Have 12 Hours to Flee”: Israeli Threat Campaign Targets Surviving Iranian Officials
Oman Set to Introduce Personal Income Tax, First in Gulf
Germany and Italy Under Pressure to Repatriate $245bn of Gold from US Vaults
×