AARO Historical Record Report, Volume 1

AARO released its Report on the Historical Record of U.S. Government Involvement with Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena, Volume 1 on 8 March 2024. The cover is dated February 2024 [S1][S2]. Its central finding: "To date, AARO has not discovered any empirical evidence that any sighting of a UAP represented off-world technology or the existence a classified program that had not been properly reported to Congress" [S1]. That is AARO reporting on its own search, so it records what AARO concluded, not what exists.

Sean Kirkpatrick called signing it "one of my last acts before retiring" [S3]. Rep. Tim Burchett responded on release day: "So the people doing the cover up of #ufo #uap say they find no cover up" [S2]. Researchers charge that the report misstated witness testimony, most specifically Michael Herrera's. A promised Volume 2 had not appeared as of August 2026 [S4]. The report is the centre of The New Blue Book.

Sources

[S1] "AARO Historical Record Report Volume 1" / https://www.aaro.mil/Portals/136/PDFs/AARO_Historical_Record_Report_Vol_1_2024.pdf / Accessed 2026-09-26 / Central finding [S2] "AARO report: No evidence of officials reverse-engineering UAPs" (NewsNation, 2024-03-08) / https://www.newsnationnow.com/space/ufo/uap-aaro-report-release / Accessed 2026-09-26 / Release date; Burchett reaction [S3] "Here's What I Learned as the U.S. Government's UFO Hunter" (Scientific American) / https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/heres-what-i-learned-as-the-u-s-governments-ufo-hunter/ / Accessed 2026-09-26 / Kirkpatrick signed it [S4] "AARO Vol. II: the community-tracked August 1 window passed without a release" (UAP Logbook) / https://uaplogbook.com/aaro-historical-record-vol-ii-august-window / Accessed 2026-09-26 / Volume 2 status