WASHINGTON — The Pentagon has not found any verifiable evidence of extraterrestrial beings among nearly 300 cases of “unidentified anomalous phenomena,” more commonly known as UFOs, analyzed this year, but at least 21 cases need further analysis, according to an annual report released Thursday.

“There are interesting cases that, 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 either,” Jon Kosloski, director of the Defense Department’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, or AARO, said of the 21 open cases.

The AARO was created in 2022 to investigate sightings of UFOs and standardize data collection. To date, the office has received 1,652 reports of unidentified anomalous phenomena, most of which occurred in the air, including 485 that were reported between May 2023 to June 2024. An additional 272 reports dating back to 2021-22 that were not previously reported were included in this year’s report.

Of the 757 cases detailed in the report, 292 have been closed or are scheduled to be closed pending review. Those cases were found to be balloons, birds, satellites, aircraft or drones.

“There are definitely anomalies. We have not been able to draw the link to extraterrestrial,” Kosloski said.

The report was released one day after the House Oversight and Accountability Committee held a hearing to examine reports of UFOs and the secrecy surrounding them.

“We know that there are objects or phenomena observed in our air space and also possibly in our oceans,” said Rep. Robert Garcia of California, the top Democrat on the committee’s national security panel. “The American people have legitimate questions and I believe it’s critical that Congress should help address them.”

The AARO’s inability to solve or identify a swath of reports of UFOs — approximately 900 cases — has fueled speculation of a coverup and fed the public’s growing interest in aliens.

Luis Elizondo, a former senior intelligence official who ran a predecessor agency to the AARO, said Wednesday that the government possessed alien technology and was in a secretive “arms race” to reverse engineer the aircraft.

“Let me be clear: UAP are real,” Elizondo said. “Advanced technologies not made by our government, or any other government, are monitoring sensitive military installations around the globe.”

On Thursday, Kosloski said he “absolutely agrees that UAPs are real” but noted more than 900 cases have not been resolved.

“Until we know what they are or who they belong to, we can’t distribute intent and understand exactly what the purpose of that phenomenon is. We, AARO, are not comfortable saying at this time whether or not the UAP are there to collect information or not,” he said.

To date, Kosloski said, the AARO has no evidence to indicate foreign enemies are collecting information on the United States.

The details of the 21 cases that merit further analysis, he said, have not been cleared to release to the public yet. But Kosloski was able to confirm several of the cases occurred in the past year and a half, occurred in multiple undisclosed locations, have multiple eyewitnesses, and — in some instances — have video evidence. The cases did not have any commonality and ranged from sightings of orbs, cylinders and triangles, he said.

“There could be some [unmanned aerial vehicle] activity in the environment that’s getting confused or conflated with the [unidentified anomalous phenomena] activity, so we are trying to tease that out right now,” Kosloski said.

The AARO is working with the Defense Department, its intelligence community and science and technology partners to facilitate additional collection and conduct analysis using advanced techniques such as modeling and simulation. The AARO report said the office will provide immediate notification to Congress should any cases involve breakthrough technology or foreign adversarial aerospace capability. Kosloski defined breakthrough technology as capabilities that the U.S. does not have and will not have within a few years.

According to this year’s report, another 444 cases lacked sufficient data and were placed in the “active archive,” where they will be held to be reexamined if additional data becomes available. Archived cases can be reopened and resolved should additional information emerge to support analysis.

Last year, the Defense Department launched a site for service members, veterans and civilian defense workers to report UFOs. The AARO is working to engage more with the services to help troops, such as aviators, understand what a UAP is and how to report it. Kosloski said there are plans to follow that up with an education campaign to show service members closed UAP cases that have been identified as clusters of satellites.

The AARO continues to analyze historical UAP cases. In accordance with a congressional directive, the office will release a report on its findings of historical cases in the coming months.

“AARO will follow the science and data wherever they lead,” Kosloski said. “We are committed to sharing as much information as possible at the unclassified level to inform the public of our activities and findings.”

Stars and Stripes reporter Svetlana Shkolnikova contributed to this report.

previous coverage

• ‘UAP are real’: Congress pushes quest for transparency on UFOs
• Patchwork approach to UFOs could endanger nation, Pentagon watchdog agency says