The Pentagon Appoints NSA Scientist as New AARO Director

The U.S. Department of Defense has chosen a new head for the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office [AARO], appointing Dr. Jon T. Kosloski as the new director of the Pentagon’s UAP investigations team. Kosloski is replacing the office’s interim director, Tim Phillips, who took over in December 2023 after the departure of AARO’s controversial inaugural director, Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick.

Specializing in crypto-mathematics, Dr. Kosloski received his Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University, with his thesis based on “the invention of novel devices that leverage principles from quantum optics to receive very weak phase-encoded signals,” according to the DoD’s biographical entry for the new AARO Director.

Dr. Kosloski’s most recent posting was with the National Security Agency [NSA], where he was a graduate of the agency’s Cryptanalysis Development Program. Previously, Kosloski held “technical and leadership positions within the Research Directorate” of the NSA; he also served as a Free Space Optics expert and advised “various DoD agencies,” according to the Pentagon.

“Jon possesses the unique set of scientific and technical skills, policy knowledge, and proven leadership experience required to enhance AARO’s efforts to research and explain unidentified anomalous phenomena to the Department, Congress, and the American people,” Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks stated in a related DoD press release.  

The press release also states that Kosloski will direct AARO’s efforts “to examine the U.S. government historical record relating to UAP, as well as efforts to declassify and release UAP-related records to the greatest extent possible,” and will coordinate “with the Intelligence Community, to minimize technical and intelligence surprise by synchronizing scientific, intelligence, and operational detection, identification, attribution, and mitigation of unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) in the vicinity of national security areas.”

Although his predecessor stepped down from his post eight months ago, Kosloski is replacing the controversial Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick, who courted a great deal of controversy during his tenure as Director of AARO, prompting many in the UFO community to question his ability to remain objective in his role as the Pentagon’s lead UAP investigator, as AARO investigators were reportedly dismissive of witnesses to high-level incidents such as the 1966 UFO incursion at Minot Air Force Base.

Kirkpatrick capped his tenure with the release of Report on the Historical Record of U.S. Government Involvement with Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) Volume I, widely criticized for ignoring large swaths of UFO history and basic factual errors to arrive at the controversial conclusion that there was “no evidence that… UAP represented extraterrestrial technology” and that there was no “evidence for claims that the USG and private companies have been reverse-engineering extraterrestrial technology.”