The Department of Defense is now pivoting their UFO project that had just started eight months ago. The initial role of the office was to investigate and track UFOs or any unidentified aerial phenomena, but they’re now looking to expand its reach.

The office was initially called Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronization Group (AOIMSG). In 2021, Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks, in collaboration with the Director of National Intelligence, established the office as the “successor to the US Navy’s Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force.”

The AOIMSG had a synchronous effort across the US military in detecting, identifying, and attributing unknown objects in the air and space.

“Incursions by any airborne object into our SUA pose safety of flight and operations security concerns, and may pose national security challenges. Therefore, DOD takes reports of incursions – by any airborne object, identified or unidentified – very seriously, and investigates each one.”

department of defense sign
The Department of Defense sign before incoming Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III arrives at the Pentagon after being confirmed as secretary of defense, Washington, DC, Jan. 22, 2021. (Source: Defense Visual Information Distribution Service/get archive)

But, in less than a year, they’re expanding and restructuring the office’s purpose because of the evidence the office is finding. In their press release, the DoD announced that they are now renaming the office as the “All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office” or AARO, “due to the enactment of the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2022, which included a provision to establish an office, in coordination with DNI, with responsibilities that were broader than those originally assigned to the AOIMSG.”

Hicks is still working on the project with the Director of National Intelligence (DNI). But, it was announced by USD Hon. Ronald S. Moultrie that Dr. Sean M. Kirkpatrick, the most recent chief scientist at the Defense Intelligence Agency’s Missile and Space Intelligence Center, as AARO’s newest director.

AARO will now be the central command for all coordinated efforts throughout the DoD and the federal government to “detect, identify and attribute objects of interest in, on or near military installations, operating areas, training areas, special use airspace and other areas of interest, and, as necessary, to mitigate any associated threats to the safety of operations and national security.”

In another statement, Hicks said that the office will become the “focal point for all UAP and UAP-related activities and may represent the Department for such activities.”