UNCLASSIFIED // PUBLIC RECORDPERSONNEL FILE
Sean Kirkpatrick
First director of AARO
Sean Kirkpatrick is a physicist with a PhD from the University of Georgia. He spent nearly three decades in defense and intelligence science roles, including posts at the Naval Research Laboratory, the Air Force Research Laboratory, the CIA, the Defense Intelligence Agency, the National Security Council and U.S. Space Command. In July 2022 he became the first director of the Pentagon’s new All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO).
At a Senate Armed Services subcommittee hearing on April 19, 2023, he testified that AARO had ‘found no credible evidence thus far of extraterrestrial activity, off world technology, or objects that defy the known laws of physics.’ He said many cases remained technically unresolved ‘primarily due to a lack of data’, and described AARO’s job as turning UAP into ‘somebody else’s problem’ by identifying objects and handing them to the right agencies.
Kirkpatrick left AARO in December 2023. In a Scientific American op-ed published on January 19, 2024, he wrote that the story of a hidden alien program was ‘a textbook example of circular reporting’, told by ‘a small group of interconnected believers’. He also wrote: ‘Some members of Congress prefer to opine about aliens to the press rather than get an evidence-based briefing.’
AARO’s Historical Record Report, Volume 1, released in March 2024 and covering research up to October 2023, found no evidence that any government investigation had confirmed a UAP sighting as extraterrestrial technology. Former Pentagon official Christopher Mellon published a detailed critique, arguing that the report contained errors, overlooked records and misstated the history of official investigations.
After retiring from government, Kirkpatrick joined Oak Ridge National Laboratory as chief technology officer for defense and intelligence programs, and he is listed as a senior adviser at the consultancy WestExec Advisors. He remains a public critic of disclosure claims: in July 2026 he told the Associated Press that Avi Loeb, picked to lead a new UAP science advisory council, is ‘not viewed favorably’ in the scientific community.
Sean Kirkpatrick at NASA’s UAP study meeting, May 31, 2023. Photo: NASA / Joel Kowsky (cropped) · Public domain · source
