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sasc-kirkpatrick-aaro-hearing-2023-04-19

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Senate Armed Services Committee — Kirkpatrick AARO hearing (April 19, 2023)

Source: Senate Armed Services Committee, Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities Title: Hearing on the All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) / Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) Date: April 19, 2023 Witness: Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick, then-Director of AARO (sole witness, public session) Senate hearing transcript PDF: https://www.armed-services.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/23-31_04-19-2023.pdf YouTube (full hearing): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxLix1ns2CM Full repo transcript: sasc-kirkpatrick-aaro-hearing-2023-04-19.txt (~74 KB, 1,463 lines, timestamps) Sourced: 2026-05-19 via /code/scripts/youtube_transcript.py

The earliest public Kirkpatrick AARO primary in the modern UAP-disclosure record — predates his December 2023 departure and his Scientific American op-ed (early 2024) by 8-9 months. Includes the Middle East MQ-9 orb video declassification that became the canonical AARO-released “metallic orb” reference case.

Key load-bearing material captured

Kirkpatrick’s “most-typically-reported UAP characteristics” framework

In a slide presentation during the hearing:

“Mostly round, mostly 1 to 4 meters, white, silver, translucent, metallic, 10,000 to 30,000 ft with apparent velocities from stationary to Mach 2. No thermal exhaust usually detected. We get intermittent radar returns. We get intermittent radio returns and we get intermittent thermal signatures.”

This is the canonical AARO institutional definition of the modal UAP report. Kirkpatrick frames it as “what we’re looking for and trying to understand what that is.” The 1-4 meter size band, the 10K-30K ft altitude band, the Mach-0-to-2 velocity range, and the “intermittent” multi-sensor signature pattern is the institutional anchor for “what counts as a UAP” in modern AARO usage.

The Middle East MQ-9 orb video (declassified for this hearing)

“I’m going to walk you through two cases that we’ve uh declassified recently. Um this first one is an MQ-9 in the Middle East observing that blow up which is an apparent spherical object via EO sensors. Those are not IR.”

Kirkpatrick’s frame after playing the video:

“This is essentially all of the data we have associated with this event from some years ago. It is going to be virtually impossible to fully identify that just based off of that video. Now what we can do and what we are doing is keeping that as part of that group of 52% to see what are the similarities, what are the trends across all these.”

The orb video has its own official DoD release: https://www.dvidshub.net/video/880273/middle-east-object — DoD’s DVIDS (Defense Visual Information Distribution Service) is the canonical primary archive for the footage. Also: https://www.war.gov/Multimedia/Videos/videoid/880270/

Kirkpatrick’s framework on “anomalous” cases

“I want to underscore today that only a very small percentage of UAP reports display signatures that could reasonably be described as anomalous. The majority of unidentified objects reported to Arrow demonstrate mundane characteristics of balloons, unmanned aerial systems, clutter, natural phenomena, or other readily explainable sources.”

“While a large number of cases in our holdings remain technically unresolved, this is primarily due to a lack of data associated with those cases. Without sufficient data, we are unable to reach defendable conclusions that meet the high scientific standards we set for resolution. And I will not close a case that I cannot defend the conclusions of.”

The “will not close a case that I cannot defend” framing is the same methodological-discipline register Kirkpatrick later articulates in the Scientific American op-ed (scientific-american-kirkpatrick-op-ed-2024). It is the consistent thread across his AARO communications.

Sen. Gillibrand’s opening framing

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Chair of the Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities, opened:

“We learned that for the at least the the past eight years, military pilots frequently encountered unknown objects in controlled airspace off both the east and west coast across the continental United States in test and training areas and ranges. We don’t know where they are they come from, who made them, or how they operate.”

Quoting former Deputy Secretary of Defense David Norquist:

“Had any of these objects had the label made in China, there would be an uproar in the government and media. There would be no stone unturned and no effort spared to find out what we were dealing with. … But because of the UFO stigma the response has been irresponsibly anemic and slow.”

Gillibrand notes: “It took a letter to Secretary Austin from Senator Rubio and me and 14 other senators to get the office temporary relief for the current fiscal year.”

Why this primary matters

  1. The MQ-9 Middle East orb video has institutional canonical-source status. It is one of the most-referenced AARO-released-during-its-mission video primaries. The DVIDS page is the verifiable primary; the SASC hearing is the declassification venue. Both are now archived.

  2. Kirkpatrick’s “Mostly round, 1-4 meters, white-silver-translucent-metallic, 10K-30K ft, stationary-to-Mach-2” definition is the AARO institutional anchor. Subsequent UAP discourse benefits from precise reference to this framework.

  3. The 52% framing. Kirkpatrick references “that group of 52%” — referring to the share of AARO cases that remain technically unresolved. This contradicts the popular framing of “AARO finds no anomalous cases” — Kirkpatrick explicitly says many cases ARE unresolved, just data-limited.

  4. Methodological consistency across Kirkpatrick’s career. The “will not close a case I cannot defend” framework from April 2023 matches the “extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence” framework from his April 2024 SA op-ed and the “self-licking ice cream cone” framework from his January 2024 Bergen interview. The discipline is internally consistent.

  5. Gillibrand’s “8 years of incursions” + Norquist’s “if labeled made in China” framing. Top-tier institutional framing for the stigma problem AARO was created to address.

What this hearing does NOT establish

  • No identification of any specific UAP as non-human. Kirkpatrick: “very small percentage display anomalous signatures.”
  • No assertion of crash-retrieval program existence. The hearing predates Grusch’s June 2023 public emergence; the crash-retrieval question is not on the agenda.
  • The orb video itself is not identified. Kirkpatrick explicitly states it’s “virtually impossible to fully identify.”

Cross-references

External primary references

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