UAP Reporting and Material Disposition Procedures Released

In a recent Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) release, the Department of Defense provided documents in response to a request by Douglas Dean Johnson. The request, filed under case number 23-F-1429, sought information about the Joint Staff’s guidance on “Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) Reporting and Material Disposition.”

The FOIA response, dated March 15, 2024, revealed that the Joint Staff conducted a search and located nine pages determined to be responsive to Johnson’s request. These documents pertain to guidance issued on May 19, 2023, which outlines procedures for reporting and handling material related to UAPs.

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On X, Johnson wrote a few “quick observations” about the document released, and highlights some key areas worth noting. With permission, that post written is republished here:

On May 19, 2023, the Joint Staff (J3, Operations; J36 Homeland Defense Division) of the Joint Chiefs of Staff disseminated to all unified military commands worldwide a set of uniform procedures to be followed for gathering data and reporting on contemporary military encounters with Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP), using a detailed standard reporting template.

I have now obtained a copy of that Pentagon message. I believe that its detailed contents are being made public here for the first time (if the GENADMIN message has previously been published, that publication has not come to my attention).

The message was designated as “GENADMIN Joint Staff J3 Washington DC 191452ZMAY23 Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Reporting and Material Disposition.” It was disseminated as “Controlled Unclassified Information,” or “CUI.”

Journalist Brandi Vincent (@BrandiVincent_) referred in passing to the existence of this message in a DefenseScoop article dated August 30, 2023 (“Hicks takes direct oversight of Pentagon’s UAP office; new reporting website to be launched”). I promptly asked Pentagon press officer Susan Gough to release a copy to me, but Gough replied, “I cannot provide a copy of the message to you, as it contains information that’s not publicly releasable.”

On August 31, 2023, I filed a FOIA request for the GENADMIN message. The Department of Defense Freedom of Information Division has now released the 9-page document to me (response letter dated March 15, 2024, received by me on March 18), with only minimal redactions. After redacting my personal information, I am now making the complete FOIA release available at the link below. (The image merely shows the first page of the document; click on the link to download the complete PDF.)

INITIAL OBSERVATIONS

Among the noteworthy aspects I see in the May 2023 Joint Staff communication:

— An introductory paragraph states: “The U.S. government has observed UAP in or near the territory and/or operating areas of the United States, of its allies, and of its adversaries, and observing, identifying, and potentially mitigating UAP has become a growing priority for US policymakers, lawmakers, and warfighters. The potentially ubiquitous presence of UAP defines the national security implications of those anomalies, which range from operational hazards and threats to technological and intelligence surprise to adversaries’ strategic miscalculations. It is imperative that DoD provide UAP incident, incursion, and engagement…reporting, data, and material for the Department’s detection and mitigation of potential threats; exploitation of advanced technologies; and informing policymaker and warfighter decisions.”

–Reports on UAP incidents are to be transmitted upwards with 96 hours, but any “UAP engagement reports” within 12 hours. A “UAP engagement is a kinetic or non-kinetic response to a UAP, intended to deny, disrupt, or destroy the phenomenon and/or its object(s).”

— The ultimate nexus of collection and analysis of these reports is the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO).

— The reporting procedures in the Joint Staff message apply only to detections or encounters “that demonstrate behaviors not readily understood by sensors or observers…[that]include but are not limited to phenomena that demonstrate apparent capabilities or material that exceed known performance envelopes.” The UAP reporting procedures described in this guidance do NOT apply to “incidents, incursions, and engagements by identifiable, non-anomalous phenomena (e.g., sUAS and other capabilities or materials that do not exceed known or predicted performance envelopes);” such incidents will instead “continue to be reported through established processes and mechanisms.”

— The reporting matrix seeks 11 categories of information– among these, any UAP-displayed “anomalous characteristics/behaviors (e.g., no apparent control surfaces, extreme acceleration/direction change, detection by certain sensors but not others),” and any “UAP effects on equipment (e.g., mechanical, electrical controls and weapons systems and whether persistent or transitory”).

— AARO will coordinate the handling of any UAP “objects and material of incidents, intrusions, and engagements,” but “recovery and transfer of identifiable, non-anomalous items of foreign origin…continue to be managed by the DoD FMP [Foreign Material Program].”

— The military commands are to “enable deployment of special sensors within the AoR [area of responsibility]for the detection, observation, and identification in sensitive areas, and during testing or deployment of special capabilities.”

ADDITIONAL CONTEXT

On its website, AARO calls the military reporting system defined in the May 2023 GENADMIN “Current Operational UAP Reporting.” In a briefing for selected journalists on March 6, 2024, AARO Acting Director Tim Phillips said that AARO is receiving “approximately…anywhere between 90 and a 100-110 a month” through such channels.

Phillips also told the journalists, “We’re trying to work out the command and control, the mechanisms on how other government entities can report UAP incidents to us. We’ve received a number of reports from Department of Homeland Security and their aircraft reporting to us that we follow up on.”

As for civilian pilots, the AARO website states, “AARO receives UAP-related Pilot Reports (PIREPs) from the Federal Aviation Administration.”

The UAP reporting system for contemporary military-associated UAP events, as set forth in the May 2023 Joint Staff message, is separate and distinct from the AARO “secure reporting” system for receiving reports “from current or former U.S. Government employees, service members, or contractor personnel with direct knowledge of U.S. Government programs or activities related to UAP dating back to 1945,” which is accessible through a portal on the AARO website.

AARO does not yet employ any system for receiving UAP observation reports from the general public.