Definitions are plain-language summaries of what the official record says. Where a term comes from a specific document, the entry says so. Nothing here is invented — if a term isn’t in the record, it isn’t on this page.
- AARO — All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office
- The Pentagon’s UAP office, established in July 2022. It investigates UAP reports across every domain — air, sea, space, and underwater — and reports to Congress. Its March 2024 Historical Record Report reviewed eight decades of U.S. government UAP work.
- AAWSAP — Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program
- A DIA program, roughly 2008–2012, contracted to Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies for about $22 million. It studied advanced aerospace technologies and, in practice, investigated UAP. Its files reached the public through PURSUE and DIA’s FOIA reading room.
- AATIP — Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program
- A DIA effort that ran alongside AAWSAP, later run by Luis Elizondo. It was the program behind the 2017 public disclosures of the Navy videos.
- AOIMSG — Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronization Group
- The Pentagon group that preceded AARO, established in late 2021. It was the third version of the UAP task force, after the UAP Task Force.
- Blue Book — Project Blue Book
- The Air Force program that investigated UFO reports from 1952 to 1969. It investigated 12,618 sightings and left 701 unidentified. Its records — 94 rolls of microfilm — sit with the National Archives, Record Group 341.
- Condon Report
- The 1968 University of Colorado study, Scientific Study of Unidentified Flying Objects, led by physicist Edward Condon. It concluded that further study of UFOs was unlikely to advance science. The Air Force cited it when it closed Blue Book in 1969.
- DIRD — Defense Intelligence Reference Document
- One of 38 exploratory technical papers DIA commissioned under AAWSAP — warp drives, wormholes, invisibility cloaks, advanced materials. They are thought experiments by physicists, not engineering reports on a recovered object.
- FOIA — Freedom of Information Act
- The 1966 law that lets anyone request federal records. Most declassified UFO files reached the public this way — including the NSA’s UMBRA release and the DIA’s DIRDs.
- (b)(1)
- A FOIA exemption code, printed in the margin next to a redaction. It means the withheld material is still classified under an executive order.
- (b)(3)
- A FOIA exemption code. It means the material is protected by another law — for example, the statute that protects NSA organization and methods.
- (b)(6)
- A FOIA exemption code. It means the material is someone’s personal privacy — a name, an address, a personnel detail.
- (b)(7)
- A FOIA exemption code. It means the material comes from law-enforcement records.
- KONA BLUE
- A prospective special access program proposed to the Department of Homeland Security in 2011 by people from the cancelled DIA AAWSAP effort. It was disapproved about six months later. AARO found it was never approved, never funded, and never received any material.
- MUFON — Mutual UFO Network
- A civilian UFO-investigation organization. Not a government body — its reports are not official records, though agencies have sometimes received them.
- NARA — National Archives and Records Administration
- The keeper of the federal government’s records. It holds the Blue Book files (Record Group 341) and the UAP Records Collection (RG 615).
- NICAP — National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena
- A civilian UFO research group, active 1956–1980. Its files — correspondence, clippings, and reports — are in the FBI Vault.
- NUFORC — National UFO Reporting Center
- A civilian hotline and database for sighting reports. Not a government body.
- Portion marking
- The (U), (C), or (S) label on an individual paragraph of a classified document, showing that paragraph’s classification: Unclassified, Confidential, or Secret. The banner at the top and bottom of the page is the document’s overall classification.
- PURSUE — Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters
- The Pentagon’s public release portal for declassified UAP files, at war.gov/ufo. Latest release: 07, October 23, 2026 — 478 files in total.
- Record group (RG)
- How the National Archives organizes records — by the agency that created them. RG 341 is the Air Force, RG 263 is the CIA, RG 615 is the UAP Records Collection.
- SAP / USAP — (Unacknowledged) Special Access Program
- A classified program with access controls beyond normal clearances. “Unacknowledged” means its existence is itself classified. The Immaculate Constellation document discussed at the November 2024 hearing describes itself as a USAP; the Department of Defense says it holds no record of any such program.
- SETI — Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence
- The scientific search for technosignatures — radio signals, laser flashes, and other traces that technology, not nature, would leave behind — using telescopes. SETI listens for signals. It does not investigate sightings, and it has found no confirmed extraterrestrial signal.
- Technosignature
- A sign of technology that nature alone would not produce — a narrowband radio signal, a laser pulse, a structure. What SETI looks for.
- Transmedium
- Able to move between domains: air, space, and water. AARO uses the term for objects reported crossing from one medium to another — for example, an object seen in the air and then in the water.
- UAP — Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena
- The current official term for what used to be called UFOs. “Anomalous” replaced “aerial” to cover reports from space and underwater as well as the air.
- UAPTF — Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force
- The Navy-led task force, 2020–2022, that preceded AARO. It produced the June 2021 Preliminary Assessment: 144 reports, one identified with high confidence.
- UMBRA
- A codeword compartment for the most sensitive signals-intelligence material. The NSA’s UAP records were held at the Top Secret UMBRA level until their release in May 2026.