Sean Kirkpatrick
Director, Pentagon’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office
Sean M. Kirkpatrick was born in Columbia, Georgia. He earned an undergraduate degree and Ph.D. in physics from the University of Georgia, where he is currently an adjunct professor. He began his career in defense and intelligence-related sciences, taking a postdoctoral position at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign investigating laser-induced molecular vibrations of high explosives. He received a National Research Council fellowship at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C. He was recruited by the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratories to build an ultrafast laser physics lab.
He became a program manager at the National Reconnaissance Office which was later converted into the CIA. He was assigned the position of Chief Technology Officer in a joint CIA-DIA program office where he later became division chief. He served as the space control portfolio manager for the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense, Space and Intelligence Office of the Secretary of Defense.
He returned to the DIA and served as the Defense Intelligence Officer for Scientific and Technical Intelligence, serving as the Department of Defense’s counterpart to the National Intelligence Director.
Dr. Kirkpatrick served on special assignment at the office of the Principal Deputy Director for National Intelligence with the Joint Interagency Combined Space Operations Command. He has held a number of roles with SPACECOM. His most recent role has been as the lead scientist at DIA’s Missile and Space Intelligence Center.
In the News…
A Senate Armed Services subcommittee heard from members of the Pentagon regarding more than 650 potential cases of so-called “unidentified aerial phenomenon,” more often called UFOs.
Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick, who directs the Pentagon’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, told the senators the number of cases was up from a reported 350 incidents the year before.
“Of those over 650, we’ve prioritized about half of them to be of anomalous interesting value, and now we have to go through those and go ‘How much of those do I have actual data for?’” he said.
He showed new, recently declassified videos to the senators. When asked by legislators to explain the unresolved sightings, Director Kirkpatrick said, “In our research, AARO has found no credible evidence thus far of extraterrestrial activity, off-world technology, or objects that defy the known laws of physics.”
He does not credit foreign countries like Russia and China with having the emerging technologies to be responsible for the sightings and said the intelligence community must investigate further.
“They are less risk averse at technical advancement than we are. They are just willing to try things and see if it works,” he said. “Are there capabilities that could be employed against us in both ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance) and a weapons fashion? Absolutely. Do I have evidence they’re doing it in these cases? No, but I have concerning indicators.”
