UNCLASSIFIED // PUBLIC RECORDPERSONNEL FILE

Jon Kosloski is a scientist who spent most of his career at the National Security Agency, where he held technical and leadership roles in its Research Directorate and led research in optics, computing and crypto-mathematics. He describes his academic background as mathematics, physics and engineering. In August 2024 the Pentagon named him director of the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), on detail from the NSA.

AARO is the Defense Department office, set up in 2022 under a congressional mandate, that investigates reports of unidentified anomalous phenomena. Kosloski succeeded its first director, Sean Kirkpatrick, who left in December 2023; Tim Phillips served as acting director in between. Kosloski took charge as the office was also working on its review of the government’s historical record on UAP.

In his first public hearing, before a Senate Armed Services subcommittee on November 19, 2024, Kosloski said AARO held over 1,600 UAP reports, many resolving to birds, balloons or drones. He said AARO ‘has not discovered any verifiable evidence of extraterrestrial beings, activity, or technology’, but added: ‘We do have some very anomalous objects.’ He said there should be no stigma attached to reporting UAP.

After President Trump directed agencies in February 2026 to identify and release government files on UAP and extraterrestrial life, the Department of War began posting records on war.gov/ufo on May 8, 2026, under a program called PURSUE. According to a department official, AARO coordinates the declassification of the department’s files and prepares them, and files from other agencies, for posting. A report dated June 5, 2026 and signed by Kosloski appeared in a later release.

The releases drew mixed reactions. Researchers quoted by DefenseScoop said much of the first batch had long been public or lacked metadata, and former Pentagon official Christopher Mellon said it released evidence without analysis. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna’s task force wrote in March 2026 that AARO’s answers to its questions had been ‘less than adequate’. AARO maintains it has found no evidence confirming extraterrestrial activity. As of mid-2026 Kosloski remained director.