23-31: 2023년 4월 19일

Transcript: Briefing to the Senate Armed Services Committee, Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities - Open Hearing: April 19, 2023

Stenographic Transcript
Before the
Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities
COMMITTEE ON
ARMED SERVICES
UNITED STATES SENATE
HEARING TO RECEIVE TESTIMONY ON
THE MISSION, ACTIVITIES, OVERSIGHT, AND BUDGET OF
THE ALL-DOMAIN ANOMALY RESOLUTION OFFICE
Wednesday, April 19, 2023
Washington, D.C.
ALDERSON COURT REPORTING
1111 14TH STREET NW
SUITE 1050
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005
(202) 289-2260
www.aldersonreporting.com

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1 HEARING TO RECEIVE TESTIMONY ON THE
2 MISSION, ACTIVITIES, OVERSIGHT, AND BUDGET OF THE
3 ALL-DOMAIN ANOMALY RESOLUTION OFFICE
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5 Wednesday, April 19, 2023
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7 U.S. Senate
8 Subcommittee on Emerging
9 Threats and Capabilities
10 Committee on Armed Services
11 Washington, D.C.
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13 The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 11:08 a.m.
14 in Room SR-232A, Russell Senate Office Building, Hon.
15 Kirsten E. Gillibrand, chairwoman of the subcommittee,
16 presiding.
17 Subcommittee Members Present: Senators Gillibrand
18 [presiding], Rosen, and Ernst.
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1 OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. KIRSTEN E. GILLIBRAND, U.S.
2 SENATOR FROM NEW YORK
3 Senator Gillibrand: The hearing will come to order.
4 I would first like to thank our witness, Dr. Sean
5 Kirkpatrick, for testifying here and in today's earlier
6 closed session, and for his long and distinguished career
7 both in the intelligence community and in the Department of
8 Defense.
9 Dr. Kirkpatrick is the director of the All-Domain
10 Anomaly Resolution Office, or AARO. Congress established
11 this office in law to get to the bottom of the very serious
12 problem of unidentified anomalous phenomena, or UAP.
13 Dr. Kirkpatrick has a very difficult mission. While we
14 have made progress there remains a stigma attached to these
15 phenomenon. There is a vast and complex citizen engagement
16 and there is also very challenging scientific and technical
17 hurdles.
18 So we appreciate the willingness of Dr. Kirkpatrick to
19 lean in on this issue and the work that he has accomplished
20 thus far and we look forward to both his opening statement
21 and his presentation of examples of the work AARO has done.
22 In late 2017 media reports surfaced about activities
23 set in motion by the late long-serving Majority Leader
24 Senator Harry Reid more than a decade ago. We learned that
25 there was strong evidence of advanced technology reflected
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1 in the features and performance characteristics of many
2 objects observed by our highly-trained service members
3 operating top of the line military equipment.
4 We learned that for at least the past eight years
5 military pilots frequently encountered unknown objects in
6 controlled airspace off both the East and West Coasts,
7 across the continental United States, in test and training
8 areas and ranges.
9 We do not know where they are -- they come from, who
10 made them, or how they operate. As former Deputy Secretary
11 of Defense David Norquist observed, had any of these objects
12 had the label made in China there would be an uproar in the
13 government and media. There would be no stone unturned and
14 no effort spared to find out what we were dealing with.
15 We can look at the recent incursion of the unidentified
16 PRC high-altitude balloon as an example and because of the
17 UFO stigma the response has been irresponsibly anemic and
18 slow.
19 Congress established AARO. We made it clear that we
20 expect vigorous action. We added very substantial initial
21 funding for the office. But despite our best efforts the
22 President's budget for fiscal years '23 and '24 requested
23 only enough funding to defray the operating expenses of
24 AARO.
25 It included almost no funds to sustain the critical
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1 research and development necessary to support a serious
2 investigation. It took a letter to Secretary Austin from
3 Senator Rubio and me and 14 other senators to get the office
4 temporary relief for the current fiscal year.
5 In this hearing I intend to probe a series of specific
6 issues. In the recent incidents where multiple objects were
7 shot down over North America it seemed that Pentagon
8 leadership did not turn to AARO office to play a leading
9 role in advising the combatant commander.
10 We need to know whether this will continue. We need to
11 know whether the leadership in DOD will bring AARO into the
12 decision-making process in a visible way and we need to know
13 what role AARO will play in interagency coordination after
14 the NSC Working Group disbands.
15 In the fiscal year 2023 National Defense and
16 Intelligence Authorization Act Congress established a direct
17 reporting chain from the AARO director to the Deputy
18 Secretary of Defense.
19 The role of the Office of the Under Secretary of
20 Defense for Intelligence and Security is limited to
21 providing administrative support. We need to know how this
22 direction is being implemented.
23 UAP are frequently observed flying in extremely high or
24 very low speeds and come in various sizes and shapes.
25 During the recent shoot downs over North America DOD
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1 disclosed that filters on radar systems were adjusted to
2 allow for detection and tracking of diverse sets of objects
3 for the first time. While opening the aperture can overload
4 the real-time analytic process we cannot keep turning a
5 blind eye to surveillance data that is critical to detecting
6 and tracking UAP.
7 We need to know whether Dr. Kirkpatrick could achieve
8 the necessary control over sensor filters and the storage
9 and access to raw surveillance data to find UAP anomalies.
10 Finally, one of the tasks Congress set for AARO is
11 serving as an open door for witnesses of UAP events or
12 participants in government activities related to UAPs to
13 come forward securely and disclose what they know without
14 fear of retribution for any possible violations of
15 previously signed nondisclosure agreements.
16 Congress mandated that AARO set up a publicly
17 discoverable and accessible process for safe disclosure.
18 While we know that AARO has already conducted a significant
19 number of interviews, many referred by Congress, we need to
20 set up a public process that -- and we need to know where
21 that effort stands.
22 With that, I would like to turn to Senator Ernst for
23 her opening statement.
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1 STATEMENT OF HON. JONI ERNST, U.S. SENATOR FROM IOWA
2 Senator Ernst: Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you,
3 Dr. Kirkpatrick, for your testimony today. I will keep
4 these remarks very brief so that we have maximum time for
5 your briefing.
6 The recent downing of the Chinese surveillance balloon
7 and three other objects underscores the need for domain
8 awareness. Adversaries like China and Russia are working to
9 hold U.S. interests, including our homeland, at risk. That
10 is why your testimony is so important and I so look forward
11 to a progress update on the establishment of your office.
12 As members know, your office evolved from the Navy-led
13 Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force to the All-Domain
14 Anomalous Resolution Office known as AARO.
15 Dr. Kirkpatrick, your extensive background in science
16 and technology, research and development, and space makes
17 you well suited to discuss these emerging challenges.
18 My priority is that we understand the full range of
19 threats posed by our adversaries in all domains. That is
20 what the joint force needs to be prepared to fight and win
21 in defense of our nation.
22 This committee needs to know about Chinese or Russian
23 advanced technology programs to exploit our vulnerabilities
24 and it needs to know whether your office, along with the IC,
25 has detected potential Chinese or Russian capabilities to
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1 surveille or attack us.
2 Finally, we need to ensure efficient interagency
3 coordination. Multiple elements of the DOD and IC own a
4 piece of this mission. To add value, AARO's efforts cannot
5 be redundant with others.
6 Thank you again. We look forward to your testimony.
7 Senator Gillibrand: Dr. Kirkpatrick, you can give your
8 testimony.
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1 STATEMENT OF DR. SEAN M. KIRKPATRICK, DIRECTOR, ALL-
2 DOMAIN ANOMALY RESOLUTION OFFICE
3 Mr. Kirkpatrick: Thank you, Chairwoman Gillibrand,
4 Ranking Member Ernst, and distinguished members of the
5 subcommittee. It is a privilege to be here today to testify
6 on the Defense -- Defense's efforts to address unidentified
7 anomalous phenomena.
8 First, I want to thank Congress for its extensive and
9 continued partnership as the department works to better
10 understand and respond to UAP in an effort to minimize
11 technical and intelligence surprise.
12 Unidentified objects in any domain pose potential risks
13 to safety and security, particularly from military personnel
14 and capabilities. Congress and DOD agree that UAP cannot
15 remain unexamined or unaddressed.
16 We are grateful for sustained congressional engagement
17 on this issue, which paved the way for the DOD's
18 establishment of the All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office in
19 July of last year.
20 Though AARO is still a young office, the spotlight on
21 UAP in recent months underscores the importance of its work
22 and the need for UAP to be taken seriously as a matter of
23 national security.
24 All leadership that I have had the pleasure of working
25 with, whether DOD, IC, DOE, civil, scientific, or industrial
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1 view Congress as a critical partner in this endeavor. AARO
2 has accomplished much in the last nine months since it was
3 established. The AARO team of more than three dozen experts
4 is organized around four functional areas: operations,
5 scientific research, integrated analysis, and strategic
6 communications.
7 In the nine months since AARO's establishment we have
8 taken important steps to involve and improve UAP data
9 collection, standardize the department's UAP internal
10 reporting requirements, and implement a framework for
11 rigorous scientific and intelligence analysis, allowing us
12 to resolve cases in a systematic and prioritized manner.
13 Meanwhile, consistent with legislative direction, AARO
14 is also carefully reviewing and researching the U.S.
15 government's UAP-related historical record. AARO is leading
16 a focused effort to better characterize, understand, and
17 attribute UAP with priority given to UAP reports by DOD and
18 IC personnel in or near areas of national security
19 importance.
20 DOD fully appreciates the eagerness from many quarters,
21 especially here in Congress and in the American public, to
22 quickly resolve every UAP encountered across the globe from
23 the distant past through today.
24 It is important to note, however, AARO is the
25 culmination of decades of DOD, intelligence community, and
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1 congressionally-directed efforts to successfully resolve UAP
2 encountered first and foremost by U.S. military personnel,
3 specifically Navy and Air Force pilots.
4 The law establishing AARO is ambitious and it will take
5 time to realize the full mission. We cannot answer decades
6 of questions about UAP all at once but we must begin
7 somewhere.
8 While I assure you that AARO will follow scientific
9 evidence wherever it leads, I ask for your patience as DOD
10 first prioritizes the safety and security of our military
11 personnel and installations in all domains.
12 After all, UAP encountered first by highly capable DOD
13 and IC platforms featuring the nation's most advanced
14 sensors are those UAP most likely to be resolved by my
15 office, assuming the data can be collected.
16 If AARO succeeds in first improving the ability of
17 military personnel to quickly and confidently resolve UAP
18 they encounter I believe that in time we will have greatly
19 advanced the capability of the entire United States
20 government, including its civilian agencies, to resolve UAP.
21 However, it would be naive to believe that the
22 resolution of all UAP can be solely accomplished by the DOD
23 and IC alone. We will need to prioritize collection and
24 leverage authorities for monitoring all domains within the
25 continental United States.
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1 AARO's ultimate success will require partnerships with
2 the interagency, industry partners, academia, and the
3 scientific community as well as the public.
4 AARO is partnering with the services, intelligence
5 community, DOE, as well as civil partners and across the
6 U.S. government to tap into the resources of the
7 interagency.
8 The UAP challenge is more an operational and scientific
9 issue than it is an intelligence issue. As such, we are
10 working with industry, academia, and the scientific
11 community which bring their own resources, ideas, and
12 expertise to this challenging problem set.
13 Robust collaboration and peer review across a broad
14 range of partners will promote greater objectivity and
15 transparency in the study of UAP.
16 I want to underscore today that only a very small
17 percentage of UAP reports display signatures that could
18 reasonably be described as anomalous. The majority of
19 unidentified objects reported to AARO demonstrate mundane
20 characteristics of balloons, unmanned aerial systems,
21 clutter, natural phenomena, or other readily explainable
22 sources.
23 While a large number of cases in our holdings remain
24 technically unresolved, this is primarily due to a lack of
25 data associated with those cases. Without sufficient data
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