Moultrie & Kirkpatrick provide media update on the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office

Ronald Moultrie, Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security, and Dr Sean Kirkpatrick, director of the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), gave an update and answered questions from invited media representatives on Friday 16th December 2022.

Moultrie impressed nobody during May’s congressional hearing on UAP, with Australian journalist Ross Coulthart describing the event as “a turd tied up by a bow to make it look pretty”. When Lue Elizondo - one of the few no-nonsense individuals involved with the UFO/UAP saga - heard about the appointment of Sean Kirkpatrick to head AARO, Elizondo’s facial expression showed that he was unimpressed, disappointed, or worried.

AARO has recently taken over from the UAP Task Force and is still in its early days. It would therefore be unfair to expect much progress at this stage.

In his opening statement, Moultrie emphasised that “the Department of Defense takes UAP reports seriously” - adding that UAP now stands for “unidentified anomalous phenomena”, a change from the previous “unidentified aerial phenomena” term. He went on to state:

“Dr. Kirkpatrick is a distinguished scientist and a career intelligence officer. He embodies the department's commitment to the highest standards of scientific rigor and objectivity. I'm fully confident he's the right person to lead this important work.

“Dr. Kirkpatrick is building a talented team that combines a wide array of expertise and experience in data collection, research and analysis, operations and technical expertise from across the department, the intelligence community, the interagency, and private industry.”

USD (I&S) Ronald Moultrie

Ronald Moultrie then provided these reassuring words:

“We view Congress as an important partner in this endeavour. Since its establishment, AARO has been providing regular updates to Congress on its efforts to document, analyse and resolve reports of anomalous phenomena. The department has already submitted its first congressionally-mandated quarterly reports on UAP in August and November, and we will continue to provide quarterly updates.

“I also want to emphasize that the department takes public interest in UAP seriously.  As I said to congressional leaders in May, we are fully committed to the principles of openness and accountability to the American people. We are committed to sharing as much detail with the public as we can.”

Next, Sean Kirkpatrick gave his opening statement. Again, the words sounded good - including these:

“We are bringing in outside expertise to help design and deploy ‘detect and track’ capabilities. We are executing a rigorous science and technology plan to ensure controlled calibration of sensors, patterns of life, and signature characterization development. Combined, these improvements in reporting collection and analysis will result in more factual data. More data will help build a more complete picture and support the resolution of anomalous phenomena.”

And more:

“Our team knows that the public interest in UAP is high. We are developing a plan to provide regular updates and progress reporting to the public on our work. While we're committed to declassifying and sharing information related to UAP to the greatest extent possible, we must, of course, balance the desire for transparency with the need to protect classified information, sources and methods in the interest of national security.

“Remember, AARO is just getting started. It is crucial that we are rigorous and thorough in our collection, analysis and S&T; that we apply the highest analytic and scientific standards; that we execute our mission objectively and without sensationalism; and when we do not rush to conclusions.”

Questions were then taken and answered.

We learnt that “since the May hearing, we have not seen any indications that there have been trans-medium activities”.

Moultrie said: “We have not seen anything that would lead us to believe that any of the objects that we have seen are of alien origin.” He qualified this response, adding the resolution process was still in its early phase.

Bryan Bender of Politico asked a very good question: “You said there's no evidence of trans-medium vehicles that you've seen, but can you give us some sense of whether you've seen them under sea, in the air, and either in space or from space?” Moultrie’s answer, however, wasn’t great.

Chris Sharp of the Liberation Times also probed for a straightforward answer: “Have you analysed UAP reports in the space domain that you have not been able to resolve?” Moultrie again responded, clearer than before, saying: “Our ability right now to resolve things in the space domain, and what we have in the space domain, is something that would fall under sensitive sources and methods and means.” In other words, the US military and intelligence services’ capability is a matter of secrecy. This is understandable, but he could have given a simple “Yes” or “No” without compromising national security.

Another good question was: “Have you detected UAP demonstrating technology which you are unable to explain?” Kirkpatrick answered: “There are things that appear to demonstrate interesting flight dynamics that we are fully investigating and researching right now.” Prompted by Moultrie, he added these words of qualification: “Some of that could be sensor phenomenology. Some of that could be flight dynamics of the platform. Some of that could be just an illusion. There's lots of different ways that we have to investigate all of those in order to get to that truth.”

Jeff Schogol of Task & Purpose asked: “Does the Defense Department have any evidence from previous incidents including crashed craft, or living or deceased beings from another planet or dimension, that indicate that the Earth has been visited by another form of life?” Moultrie answered first: “I have not seen anything to date that would suggest that there has been an alien visitation, an alien crash, or anything like that.” Kirkpatrick similarly added: “In the research I've been doing, I've not heard, seen, or heard of anything at this time that would support that.” If any conspiracy theorists are reading this, we should point out that it’s unreasonable to think that either man will be lying. Their answers are sufficiently clear on this specific point. To believe in a widespread government cover-up is nonsensical.

In response to a final question of the session, Kirkpatrick gave the assurance that interagency cooperation was “absolutely super supportive”.

Many have commentated that the Pentagon will obfuscate until Congress grows tired of demanding answers. Elected politicians come and go, whereas those with careers in the military and intelligence services are in it for the long haul. Power struggles exist and priorities differ. We know from history that an interest in UFOs was prematurely discouraged by government officials more than 50 years ago, so why not now?

Is AARO merely an exercise to shrug off the current spotlight on UAP - to placate those in Congress asking pertinent questions? Or will it diligently work hard to find out what’s actually going on, using the best modern technology? We must wait and see.

AARO set up an official Twitter account on 20th July 2022, announcing this with two linked tweets. Since then, there’s been nothing - not even a mention of the media event reported here.

Written by Jessica Nelson, 17th December 2022