UFOs will now be tracked and traced by an official DoD office

In Unidentified flying object (UFO) news, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) has just announced the creation of an office to track unidentified objects in space and air, underwater. This even includes those that appear to travel between these disparate domains.

Unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), or UFOs as they are colloquially referred to, are currently the subject of increased government scrutiny not seen in decades. Many lawmakers have expressed concern that America's airspace may not be as safe as we think in recent hearings and classified briefings held in the halls of the U.S. Congress, as a result of the numerous sightings of unidentified flying objects that military aviators and other members of the armed forces have reported.

In light of this, the DoD has revealed the opening of this new office in a statement on Wednesday, the 20th of July, 2022. The Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security established the office, known as the "All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office", or AARO. Sean Kirkpatrick, who formerly held the position of chief scientist at the Defense Intelligence Agency's Missile and Space Intelligence Center, will serve as the director of the new office.

According to the statement, the DoD will coordinate efforts across the department and the federal government to "detect, identify and attribute objects of interest in, on or near military installations, operating areas, training areas, special use airspace and other areas of interest, and, as necessary, to mitigate any associated threats to [the] safety of operations and national security."

The office is now the "focal point for all UAP and UAP-related activities and may represent the Department for such activities," according to a separate statement from Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks. It may also act as the Department's representative in such activities.

The office's six main areas of focus are governance, science and technology, intelligence operations and analysis, mitigation and defeat, surveillance, collection, and reporting, and system capabilities and design.

According to the press release, the office will attempt to detect and identify objects of interest, including "anomalous, unidentified space, airborne, submerged and trans-medium objects." Trans-medium in this sense refers to objects or craft that can travel between domains, such as being able to transition from airborne flight to spaceflight or from underwater travel to flight.

This new organization's formation is only the most recent move the American government has made in recent months to further its understanding of UFOs. NASA appointed a subcommittee to look at UAP in June with the secondary goal of demolishing some of the taboos or stigma surrounding the subject.

"One of the things that we tangentially hope to be part of this study, simply by talking about it in the open, is to help to remove some of the stigma associated with it," Daniel Evans, assistant deputy associate administrator for research at NASA's Science Mission Directorate, said during a news conference held at the time. "That will yield, obviously, increased access to data, more reports, more sightings, et cetera. So that's another thing that we're trying to accomplish with it."