The Pentagon’s Unidentified Flying Object analysis division, the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, delivered its annual report this week. AARO’s director, Jon Kosloski, also briefed the Senate on AARO’s work.
Kosloski has shown a more open-minded, less arrogant approach toward his work than his predecessor, Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick, did. Speaking to the media last week, Kosloski observed, “There are interesting cases that I, with my physics and engineering background and time in the [intelligence community], I do not understand. And I don’t know anybody else who understands them either.”
This is a hint at an important reality. One willfully rejected by many in the media and the scientific community in avoidance of professional stigma. Namely, while the vast majority of UFOs have prosaic explanations, such as balloons, birds, Steven Greer’s flares, satellites, undisclosed U.S. spy aircraft, and Chinese espionage efforts, a very small proportion of UFOs evince intelligently controlled technology under the control of something other than a nation, corporation, or Elon Musk. These stranger UFOs have been reported by credible sources and sensor systems since the 1940s and indicate interest in military activities and high-end technology.
Kosloski’s open-mindedness offers hope that AARO’s continuing analysis might improve on the somewhat disingenuous assessments provided under Kirkpatrick. Notably, however, Kirkpatrick is now a national security-related chief technology officer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. This doesn’t exactly lend credibility to government transparency on UFOs in that Oak Ridge will have the lead analysis role for any UFO material that may be recovered in the future.
Speaking of transparency, AARO also has work to do. Take its reporting on Unmanned Aerial Systems. Specifically, the observation in AARO’s 2024 report, “On August 3, 2023, the D.C. Cook Nuclear Power Plant security recovered a crashed UAS that was given to Berrien County, Michigan, local law enforcement (LLE). AARO has no further information about the crashed UAS.”
“AARO has no further information about the crashed UAS” is not a clever addendum to add here. After all, the UFO subject is one in which “no further information about the crashed UAS” constitutes catnip for conspiracy theories. In turn, AARO should provide maximum information to the public, both on strange UFOs and less strange UFOs. In this case, AARO could easily have done so. I know AARO could have done so because it took me two days to gather a lot more information about the “crashed UAS.”
A communications officer for Indiana Michigan Power, which runs the D.C. Cook plant, told me, “A drone was found lodged in a tree on our property following a storm approximately three-quarters of a mile away from the plant. Per our security protocols, our Security Team retrieved the drone and handed it over to local authorities. This was the end of our involvement in the matter.”
I then received a quick, professional response to a FOIA request I filed with the Baroda Lake Township Police Department. A Police report noted that on Aug. 30, 2023 (not Aug. 3 as AARO claims), police were dispatched to recover a drone that crashed in a tree at the D.C. Cook plant. The drone in question was identified as a 7.6 V Exo Ranger model with the serial number 34CC MAH. The police report shows that the FBI “wanted more information on this incident.” On Sept. 7, 2023, an FBI agent from the Bureau’s Detroit field office then took receipt of the drone from the Police.
What did the FBI do with the drone?
“I can confirm that in September of 2023, FBI Michigan was contacted by a local police department in Michigan regarding a drone found near an establishment. We routinely assist our law enforcement partners upon request. However, this does not necessarily result in the FBI opening an investigation. FBI policy prohibits the routine confirmation of routine investigations, the release of information on investigations, and any public reports on the closing of an investigation,” said an FBI public affairs officer.
Why is the FBI interested in this otherwise standard hobbyist drone?
Almost certainly because the drone was flying near a nuclear facility, and the FBI wanted to make sure it was not being used for hostile reconnaissance purposes. Those purposes might, for example, include targeting activity for future attacks by terrorists, China, Iran, or Russia. This is an especially significant concern in relation to China, which manufactures Exo Ranger drones and is engaged in highly active efforts to covertly infiltrate malware into U.S. critical infrastructure, such as power systems. Malware that Beijing could then activate in the event of a war with the United States over Taiwan.
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Put simply, this incident had nothing to do with the stranger kind of UFOs. However, alongside AARO’s unnecessarily inadequate reporting of the incident, the FBI’s involvement in it offers an example as to why conspiracy theories sometimes flow unnecessarily with UFOs.
In turn, even as it must investigate the truly strange UFOs with genuine analytical open-mindedness, AARO must ensure it is doing all it can to ensure public transparency as to why many things that originally were UFOs eventually can be accurately described with entirely prosaic explanations.