--- alias: - Sean Kirkpatrick - Sean M. Kirkpatrick - Dr. Sean M. Kirkpatrick - Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick - Sean Michael Kirkpatrick category: UFO & Anomalous Phenomena created: 2026-10-01 location: Columbus, Georgia (born) relations: - end: 2023-12-01 fn: 2 role: first director start: 2022-07-20 type: head_of with: '[[All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office]]' - end: 2023-12-01 fn: 5 role: Deputy Secretary of Defense, to whom the AARO director reports on operational and security matters under 50 U.S.C. 3373 start: 2022-12-23 type: reported_to with: '[[Kathleen Hicks]]' - fn: 3 role: program manager, Advanced Technologies program start: 2003 type: employed_by with: '[[National Reconnaissance Office]]' - fn: 3 role: staff scientist, Directorate of Science and Technology start: 2005 type: employed_by with: '[[Central Intelligence Agency]]' - fn: 3 role: chief technology officer in a joint CIA and DIA program office, later division chief; Defense Intelligence Officer for Scientific and Technical Intelligence 2012 to 2016 start: 2007 type: employed_by with: '[[Defense Intelligence Agency]]' - end: 2017 fn: 3 role: Deputy Director of Intelligence start: 2016 type: employed_by with: '[[United States Strategic Command]]' - fn: 3 role: Director, National Security Strategy start: 2017 type: employed_by with: '[[National Security Council]]' - fn: 3 role: deputy director of intelligence and Director of National Intelligence representative type: employed_by with: '[[United States Space Command]]' - fn: 10 role: chief technology officer for national security programs, per his own biography type: employed_by with: '[[Oak Ridge National Laboratory]]' - fn: 10 role: chief executive, per his own biography type: head_of with: '[[Nonlinear Solutions]]' - fn: 17 role: partner, as listed on the firm's website type: member_of with: '[[Elara Nova]]' - fn: 7 role: AARO director whose emails and interview state that the Pentagon and AARO convinced Congress not to enact the review board type: participant_in with: '[[Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Disclosure Act]]' summary: Physicist and intelligence officer, first director of the Pentagon's All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office from July 2022 to December 2023, who later said the Pentagon and AARO convinced Congress not to enact a review board. tags: - Person - UAP - AARO - DIA - NRO - Physicist - IntelligenceOfficer updated: 2026-10-01 --- Sean M. Kirkpatrick is an American physicist and intelligence officer who was the first director of the [All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office](/organizations/all-domain-anomaly-resolution-office/) (AARO) of the [Department of Defense](/organizations/department-of-defense/), from its establishment in July 2022 until December 1, 2023.[^1][^2] A biography released by the Defense Department traces service in the Air Force Research Laboratory, the [National Reconnaissance Office](/organizations/national-reconnaissance-office/), the [Central Intelligence Agency](/organizations/central-intelligence-agency/), the [Defense Intelligence Agency](/organizations/defense-intelligence-agency/), the [National Security Council](/organizations/national-security-council/) and two combatant commands.[^3] As director he testified to the Senate that AARO had found "no credible evidence" of extraterrestrial activity, wrote after his departure that claims of hidden recovered craft come from "a small group of interconnected believers," and told an interviewer in 2024 that AARO and the Defense Department had convinced Congress not to adopt the review board in the [Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Disclosure Act](/concepts/unidentified-anomalous-phenomena-disclosure-act/).[^4][^5][^6][^7] ### Career before AARO The Defense Department biography, released with the announcement of AARO, states that he was born in Columbus, Georgia, "to an Army family," studied physics at the University of Georgia, took a doctorate there in 1995 and is an adjunct professor at the university. It states that he held a postdoctoral position at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign under an Air Force Office of Scientific Research program, a National Research Council fellowship at the Naval Research Laboratory in 1996, and in 1997 a position at the Air Force Research Laboratory building an ultrafast laser physics laboratory. In 2003 he was offered a program manager position at the National Reconnaissance Office, "and converted to CIA in 2005"; in 2007 he was assigned as chief technology officer of a joint CIA and DIA program office, "where he later became division chief as a DIA officer"; and in 2010 he became space control portfolio manager for the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space and Intelligence in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. A biography prepared for a conference of the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association places the 2007 assignment "within the Advanced Systems Division."[^3][^8] From 2012 to 2016 he was the Defense Intelligence Officer for Scientific and Technical Intelligence, the Defense Department's counterpart to the National Intelligence Manager for Science and Technology, and near the end of that period was on special assignment to the Principal Deputy [Director of National Intelligence](/organizations/director-of-national-intelligence/) leading the intelligence community's support to the Joint Interagency Combined Space Operations Center. He was Deputy Director of Intelligence of United States Strategic Command from 2016 to 2017 and, in 2017, Director for National Security Strategy at the National Security Council. In August 2018 he was appointed senior intelligence advisor to the commander of Air Force Space Command and the Joint Force Space Component Command, and then deputy director of intelligence and Director of National Intelligence representative at United States Space Command, the fifth organization for which the biography says he was the intelligence community lead for establishment. The Defense Department announcement of AARO described him as "most recently the chief scientist at the Defense Intelligence Agency's Missile and Space Intelligence Center."[^2][^3][^8] In the same years the Defense Intelligence Agency administered the contract of [Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies](/organizations/bigelow-aerospace-advanced-space-studies/) under the [Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program](/programs/advanced-aerospace-threat-identification-program/). Documents of the agency record that DIA awarded the contract in September 2008, that it received 26 technical reports by July 31, 2009, and that the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence recommended in 2009 against Senator [Harry Reid](/people/harry-reid/)'s request for a special access program. The biography places Kirkpatrick in a joint CIA and DIA program office from 2007, as a DIA division chief afterwards, and in the Office of the Secretary of Defense from 2010; the released agency documents redact the names of the DIA program manager and the reviewers.[^3][^9] ### Appointment to AARO On July 20, 2022 the Defense Department announced that Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks, in coordination with the Director of National Intelligence, had on July 15, 2022 renamed and expanded the Airborne Object Identification and Management Group as AARO under the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security, [Ronald Moultrie](/people/ronald-moultrie/), who "named Dr. Sean M. Kirkpatrick" as director. The released biography states that he "was asked by USD(I&S) to stand-up and lead AARO in early 2022," and the announcement stated that an AARO Executive Council led by Moultrie would provide oversight along six lines of effort: surveillance, collection and reporting; system capabilities and design; intelligence operations and analysis; mitigation and defeat; governance; and science and technology.[^2][^3] Under 50 U.S.C. 3373, as amended by the fiscal 2023 defense authorization, the AARO director is appointed by the Secretary of Defense in consultation with the Director of National Intelligence, reports to the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security on administrative matters, and reports "to the Deputy Secretary of Defense and the Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence on all operational and security matters of the Office."[^5] A biography on an advisory board page states that as director he "reported to the Deputy Secretary of Defense and the Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence."[^10] ### The Loeb draft and the Senate testimony A draft paper dated March 7, 2023, "Physical Constraints on Unidentified Aerial Phenomena," lists Kirkpatrick as "Director of All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office" and Avi Loeb as head of the Galileo Project at [Harvard University](/organizations/harvard-university/). It derives constraints on the interpretation of highly maneuverable UAP from "standard physics and known forms of matter and radiation," and raises the possibility of an artificial interstellar object as "a parent craft that releases many small probes." Its acknowledgements state that the work "was supported in part by Galileo Project at Harvard University and conducted in partnership with the Department of Defense, All-domain, Anomaly Resolution Office."[^11] On April 19, 2023 Kirkpatrick was the sole witness before the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities, presided over by [Kirsten Gillibrand](/people/kirsten-gillibrand/), with Senators Jacky Rosen and Joni Ernst present. In her opening remarks Gillibrand referred to the 2017 media reports about activities "set in motion by the late long-serving Majority Leader Senator Harry Reid more than a decade ago." In his opening statement Kirkpatrick said the AARO team "of more than three dozen experts" was organized around four functional areas (operations, scientific research, integrated analysis and strategic communications), that "only a very small percentage of UAP reports display signatures that could reasonably be described as anomalous," that "I will not close a case that I cannot defend the conclusions of," and that "AARO's mission is to turn UAP into SEP, somebody else's problem." He said: "I should also state clearly for the record that in our research AARO has found no credible evidence thus far of extraterrestrial activity, off world technology, or objects that defy the known laws of physics." He told the subcommittee that AARO was tracking "a total of 650 cases," that those showing "some sort of advanced technical signature" were "single percentages of the entire population of cases we have," that he had "indicators that some are related to foreign capabilities," and that people with alternative theories should submit their research to credible peer-reviewed journals: "That is how science works, not by blog or social media."[^4] ### The dispute with David Grusch At the House Oversight subcommittee hearing of July 26, 2023, Representative Virginia Foxx quoted Kirkpatrick's statement of "no credible evidence" and asked [David Grusch](/people/david-grusch/) whether it was correct. Grusch, who had been sworn, answered: "It is not accurate. I believe Dr. Kirkpatrick mentioned he had about 30 individuals that have come to AARO thus far. A few of those individuals have also come to AARO that I also interviewed." After Foxx said "OK," he added: "And I know what they provided Dr. Kirkpatrick and their team." Representative Anna Paulina Luna asked whether the information Grusch had given Kirkpatrick was pertinent to national security. Grusch replied: "Yes. Him and I had a classified conversation in April 2022 before he took over AARO in July 2022 and I provided him some concerns I had."[^12] Kirkpatrick wrote in January 2024 that "as of the time of my departure, none, let me repeat, none of the conspiracy-minded 'whistleblowers' in the public eye had elected to come to AARO to provide their 'evidence' and statement for the record despite numerous invitations."[^6] ### Statements on the Disclosure Act On July 17, 2024, in an interview by Marik von Rennenkampff quoted by Douglas Dean Johnson, Kirkpatrick said of the 2023 Disclosure Act: "We convinced Congress last year not to go down that road." He said AARO and the department had written a request for reconsideration noting that the language duplicated the historical report required by the 2022 defense authorization. He also said: "We found no evidence of any of these allegations. None. And I had access to everything there was to have access to," and that he had briefed members of Congress "with the SAPCO director and the CAPCO director from ODNI." He told Johnson by email on July 23, 2024 that the Defense Department's 33-page redline of the bill reflected "many of the objections I tried to articulate," that no one in the [White House](/places/white-house/), the National Security Council or Congress pressed him to soften his position, and that the department had proposed keeping an eminent domain provision under AARO's authority because "since we know nothing exists, we didn't feel it made our job harder." The review board was removed in conference and the enacted law, Public Law 118-31, carried no eminent domain provision.[^7][^13] ### The Scientific American column On January 19, 2024 Scientific American published Kirkpatrick's column "Here's What I Learned as the U.S. Government's UFO Hunter." He wrote that the story told by "conspiracists" involves hiding and attempting to reverse engineer as many as 12 craft, abandonment of the effort to private contractors, an attempted return to government control stopped by the CIA, and "all of this is without substantiating evidence." He wrote that "no record exists of any president or living DOD or intelligence community leader knowing about this alleged program"; that the narrative was "largely an outgrowth" of AATIP, "heavily influenced by a group of individuals associated with businessman and longtime ufologist [Robert Bigelow](/people/robert-bigelow/)"; that after the Secretary of Defense declined Reid's 2009 request for a special access program, the DIA concluded "that not only did no such material exist, but taxpayer money was being inappropriately spent on paranormal research at [Skinwalker Ranch](/places/skinwalker-ranch/) in Utah," and Reid enlisted Lieberman to ask the [Department of Homeland Security](/organizations/department-of-homeland-security/) for one; that AARO had located the proposal "complete with the participants"; and that in the early 2000s members of the same group took part in a study on disclosing the existence of extraterrestrials, erroneously described by them as White House sponsored, by a "futures" think tank. He described the promoters as "a small group of interconnected believers and others with possibly less than honest intentions," and wrote that his signing of AARO's Historical Record Report, Volume I, was among his last acts.[^6] The DHS proposal he referred to is [KONA BLUE](/programs/kona-blue/). The Department of Homeland Security file, which carries declassification stamps of July 18, 2023, records a meeting in October 2011 between the DHS under secretary for science and technology and Senator Reid, then majority leader, and Senator Joseph Lieberman, chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, on the program's funding.[^14] AARO's report, which he signed, states that its investigators were "granted full access to all pertinent sensitive USG programs," that the originators of modern hidden-craft claims share ties to the cancelled AAWSAP and AATIP program, and that none have provided empirical evidence to AARO.[^15] ### Departure and later positions On November 30, 2023 DefenseScoop reported that his last day in the office would be December 1, that he had a 27-year federal tenure, that his AARO team included more than 40 Defense Department personnel investigating more than 800 reports, and that in an interview with [Politico](/organizations/politico/) he said his exit was based on having reached his personal and professional goals for AARO rather than on controversies; the deputy director Tim Phillips, on assignment from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, became acting director. The Defense Department spokesperson Sue Gough said that he "assembled a very talented and dedicated team."[^1] A biography on the advisory board page of the company Expeditionary states that "Immediately following retirement, he served as the Chief Technology Officer for National Security Programs at Oakridge National Laboratory," that he is chief executive of Nonlinear Solutions, LLC, and that he serves on the Army Science Board, the Air Force S&T Roundtable at the National Academies of Science, AFCEA's Intel Committee and the National Security Space Association Board.[^10] A podcast listing of April 23, 2024 describes him as owner of Nonlinear Solutions, "an advisory group that provides strategic scientific and intelligence consulting services" to clients in the defense and intelligence communities.[^16] The website of the firm Elara Nova lists him as a partner and states that he served as the intelligence community or Defense Department lead in establishing six "new-start" organizations, including the Space Command intelligence enterprise and AARO.[^17] The Oak Ridge National Laboratory website states that the laboratory "is managed by UT-Battelle LLC for the US Department of Energy."[^18] ### Statements about him In written testimony to the [House Oversight Committee](/organizations/house-committee-on-oversight-and-government-reform/) on November 13, 2024, Michael Shellenberger wrote that the former director "has repeatedly dismissed and ridiculed the topic" and quoted [Christopher Mellon](/people/christopher-mellon/)'s assessment of the Historical Record Report that "this is the most error-ridden and unsatisfactory government report I can recall reading during or after decades of government service."[^19] At the same hearing [Luis Elizondo](/people/luis-elizondo/) said of AARO: "we established AARO for that very purpose. And, unfortunately, under its previous leadership, it failed."[^20] Matthew Ford, a journalist and host of The Good Trouble Show podcast, wrote in a statement dated November 18, 2024 and hosted on congress.gov with the hearing materials that he had "revealed that Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick, the former Director of AARO, had assembled a secret technical advisory group to counsel AARO," that Kirkpatrick "confirmed the existence of this committee to members of Congress but refused to disclose the members' identities," and that "multiple sources" had told him that a former head of the CIA's Directorate of Science and Technology had been "hand-picked" for the group; Ford did not name his sources.[^21] [^1]: Vincent, Brandi. "Pentagon's UAP investigation chief to depart Dec. 1," DefenseScoop, November 30, 2023. https://defensescoop.com/2023/11/30/pentagons-uap-investigation-chief-to-depart-dec-1/ [^2]: "DoD Announces the Establishment of the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office," July 20, 2022 (text of the Defense Department release with the establishment memoranda, as reproduced by The Black Vault). https://www.theblackvault.com/documentarchive/dod-announces-the-establishment-of-the-all-domain-anomaly-resolution-office-july-20-2022/ [^3]: "Dr. Sean M. Kirkpatrick's Biography, Released by DoD," with "DoD Announces the Establishment of the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office," July 20, 2022 (as reproduced by The Black Vault). https://www.theblackvault.com/documentarchive/dod-announces-the-establishment-of-the-all-domain-anomaly-resolution-office-july-20-2022/ [^4]: U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services, Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities, "Hearing to Receive Testimony on the Mission, Activities, Oversight, and Budget of the All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office," April 19, 2023, stenographic transcript, pp. 2 to 3, 13 to 14. https://www.armed-services.senate.gov/download/transcript-4-19-2023 [^5]: 50 U.S.C. 3373(b) (establishment of the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, appointment of the Director and reporting lines), text of the Legal Information Institute. https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/50/3373 [^6]: Kirkpatrick, Sean. "Here's What I Learned as the U.S. Government's UFO Hunter," Scientific American, January 19, 2024. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/heres-what-i-learned-as-the-u-s-governments-ufo-hunter/ [^7]: Johnson, Douglas Dean. "The UAP Disclosure Act: The proposed Pentagon/AARO re-write of November 2023," July 24, 2024, quoting Kirkpatrick's interview by Marik von Rennenkampff of July 17, 2024 and his emails of July 23, 2024. https://douglasjohnson.ghost.io/uap-disclosure-act-pentagon-rewrite-nov-2023/ [^8]: "Dr. Sean M. Kirkpatrick, Deputy Director of Intelligence and DNI Representative, USSPACECOM," biography, Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association. https://www.afcea.org/event/sites/default/files/files/Kirkpatrick_Sean%20DR%20Bio.pdf [^9]: Defense Intelligence Agency, packet presented to the Deputy Secretary of Defense on Senator Harry Reid's request of June 24, 2009 (talking points of November 17, 2009; memorandum of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence, James R. Clapper Jr.), released from the DIA FOIA Electronic Reading Room; Lt. Gen. Ronald L. Burgess Jr., Info Memo U-10-2552/CE, in the Department of Homeland Security KONA BLUE records, pp. 55 to 56. https://documents2.theblackvault.com/documents/dia/AAWSAP/09117-Final_Packet_Presented_to_DepSecDef.pdf and https://static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/06/AARO_DHS_Kona_Blue.pdf [^10]: Expeditionary, "Advisory Board: Sean Kirkpatrick," biography (self-published). https://www.expeditionary.ai/about/seankirkpatrick [^11]: Loeb, Abraham, and Sean M. Kirkpatrick. "Physical Constraints on Unidentified Aerial Phenomena," draft version of March 7, 2023. https://lweb.cfa.harvard.edu/~loeb/LK1.pdf [^12]: House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, Subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs, "Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Implications on National Security, Public Safety, and Government Transparency," July 26, 2023, Serial No. 118-53, transcript (questions of Reps. Foxx and Luna). https://www.congress.gov/118/meeting/house/116282/documents/HHRG-118-GO06-Transcript-20230726.pdf [^13]: Public Law 118-31, National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024, December 22, 2023, Title XVIII, Subtitle C. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/PLAW-118publ31/pdf/PLAW-118publ31.pdf [^14]: Department of Homeland Security, KONA BLUE records (56 pp.), pp. 37 to 38, 46 to 47. https://static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/06/AARO_DHS_Kona_Blue.pdf [^15]: Department of Defense, All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, Report on the Historical Record of U.S. Government Involvement with Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP), Volume I, February 2024, Section VI, pp. 34 to 35. https://media.defense.gov/2024/Mar/08/2003409233/-1/-1/0/DOPSR-2024-0263-AARO-HISTORICAL-RECORD-REPORT-VOLUME-1-2024.PDF. [^16]: "Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick, Ph.D. - Nonlinear Solutions LLC - Science And Technology For Emerging National Security Threats," Progress, Potential, and Possibilities podcast, April 23, 2024. https://www.buzzsprout.com/1531799/episodes/14943834-dr-sean-kirkpatrick-ph-d-nonlinear-solutions-llc-science-and-technology-for-emerging-national-security-threats [^17]: Elara Nova, "Sean Kirkpatrick, Partner," team biography (self-published, undated). https://elaranova.com/team-members/sean-kirkpatrick/ [^18]: Oak Ridge National Laboratory, home page footer. https://www.ornl.gov/ [^19]: Shellenberger, Michael. "The United States Department Of Defense And The Intelligence Community Are Withholding Information About Anomalous Phenomena From Congress," written testimony, House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, November 13, 2024, p. 3. https://docs.house.gov/meetings/GO/GO12/20241113/117721/HHRG-118-GO12-Wstate-ShellenbergerM-20241113.pdf [^20]: House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, "Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Exposing the Truth," joint hearing, November 13, 2024, Serial No. 118-135, transcript p. 39 (answer of Mr. Elizondo to Rep. Burlison). https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-118hhrg57440/html/CHRG-118hhrg57440.htm [^21]: Ford, Matthew. "Written Statement of Matthew Ford," for the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, "Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Exposing the Truth," dated November 18, 2024 on its face (the hearing was held November 13, 2024); names of the alleged participants are redacted in the posted copy. https://www.congress.gov/118/meeting/house/117722/witnesses/HHRG-118-GO06-Wstate-ElizondoL-20241113-SD001.pdf