AARO FY2024: 757 UAP reports, 49 resolved – the official report from the Pentagon

The All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office — AARO — was created in July 2022 by the US Secretary of Defense, pursuant to the NDAA 2022 (National Defense Authorization Act). It is the first official Pentagon organization exclusively dedicated to the collection, analysis and resolution of reports of unidentified aerial phenomena.

Its mandate covers the entire domain – air, space, sea and submarine – hence the term “all-domain”. AARO receives reports from military pilots, radar operators, naval crews and ground personnel. It publishes semi-annual and annual reports to the US Congress.

The very existence of the AARO represents a major institutional change: the U.S. government now has a formal mechanism for military pilots to report unusual sightings without risk to their careers. Before 2021, a driver who reported a UAP could be ridiculed or ignored.

The volume of reports is up sharply compared to previous years, not because the phenomena are increasing, but because the reporting mechanism is now formalized and encouraged. In 2021, when the first publications were made, around 144 cases had been identified over 17 years. In FY2024 alone, 757 new cases.

Out of 757 reports, 49 were resolved with formal identification. This means that 708 cases — or more than 93% — remain “unresolved” at the close of the report. This figure is regularly cited out of context to suggest that there are 708 inexplicable phenomena. That's not what the report says.

The most common reasons a case remains "unsolved": insufficient sensor data (single viewing angle, insufficient resolution), lack of secondary reporting to enable triangulation, or simply limited investigative resources given the volume of incoming reports.

Without revealing classified operational details, the FY2024 report identifies several categories of incidents that required further investigation:

• Observations in active conflict zones — Phenomena have been reported by crews operating in Iraq and other theaters. These reports are particularly sensitive because they concern ongoing military operations.
• Radar detections without visual counterpart — Several cases where persistent radar signatures could not be correlated to any object visually observed by crews present in the area.
• Glowing orbs at high altitude — Continuity with observations documented since 2021 by the US Navy: luminous spheres moving at unusual altitudes and speeds.

The PURSUE program, launched in 2025 and the first files of which were published in May 2026, is intended to complement the work of the AARO with historical archives which could provide additional context to certain types of current observations.

AARO and PURSUE are two distinct mechanisms that complement each other. AARO processes reports current and in real time. PURSUE takes care of historical archives. As of May 2026, the 161 PURSUE files released include documents that, according to sources familiar with the matter, may overlap with types of sightings similar to those recorded by AARO — including orbs and anomalous radar signatures.

The value of this cross-referenced approach is scientific: if similar observations are repeated over 50 years in very different geographical and technological contexts, this reinforces the probability that it is a real phenomenon requiring investigation — whatever its nature.

AARO's FY2024 report is an institutional document produced by a government agency with legal, budgetary, and operational constraints. It should be read accordingly.

Furthermore, the resolution rate of 6.5% (49/757) is low but consistent with the resources allocated to the AARO. The agency has limited staff and budgets. It primarily investigates cases for which data of sufficient quality are available — which mechanically excludes the majority of verbal reports without sensor support.

Finally, the classified portions of the report are not publicly available. Independent analysts say the cases of greatest national security interest — particularly those involving potentially foreign state systems — are in the classified version sent to Congress in closed session.

AARO's FY2024 report confirms several important things. First, the reporting mechanism works: 757 cases in one year is real data, produced by trained and equipped professionals. Second, the vast majority of identifiable phenomena are banal: balloons, drones, debris. This is reassuring and expected.

What remains open is the small fraction — difficult to quantify precisely — of cases for which the data are sufficient, the investigation serious, and the identification still absent. These are the cases that motivate the existence of AARO and the PURSUE program.

This is not some inexplicable mystery. These are phenomena not yet explained, for which the scientific and institutional tools are now in place. That's the difference between a problem and a fundamental anomaly — and at this point, AARO is treating this as a data and method problem, not a revelation.