Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand chaired the open session, with Sen. Joni Ernst as ranking member. Gillibrand opened with the drone incursions over Langley Air Force Base and other bases, and asked how AARO would handle cases it had parked in its archive for lack of data.
Dr. Jon Kosloski said AARO now held more than 1,600 UAP reports. He showed charts of what they turn out to be: mostly balloons and drones, with a growing number of satellite flares from big constellations such as Starlink. Most reports come from between 15,000 and 25,000 feet, which he said is mainly because that is where the military's sensors are.
He walked through example cases on slides, including one where an object seemed to fly through a volcanic plume until 3D modelling showed it was 170 metres away. He also said the office had found no verifiable evidence of anything extraterrestrial, and that some objects remain unexplained.
To date, AARO has not discovered any verifiable evidence of extraterrestrial beings, activity, or technology.
AARO does not believe every object is a bird, a balloon, or a UAV. We do have some very anomalous objects.