AARO case-resolution categories — how the contemporary US framework classifies its caseload

One of the substantively distinctive methodological contributions of the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office is its development of a structured case-resolution-categorisation framework that applies across the office's contemporary case-handling work. The framework allows AARO to systematically classify the disposition of cases it has investigated and to report aggregate caseload distributions in its annual reports to Congress. Understanding the substantive content of the categorisation framework is essential to interpreting the AARO public reporting and the broader institutional analytical engagement with the contemporary UAP caseload.

The principal resolution categories

The AARO case-resolution framework operates with several principal categorical distinctions. The most fundamental distinction is between cases that AARO has resolved (with an attribution to a specific cause or category of cause) and cases that remain unresolved (for which the available evidence has not permitted clean attribution). Within the resolved subset, further distinctions are made between cases resolved through positive identification of a specific source (a definite aircraft, satellite, or other identified cause) and cases resolved through exclusion of conventional candidates without specific positive identification.

Within the unresolved subset, further distinctions reflect the substantive reason the case remains unresolved: cases with insufficient evidence to support any clean attribution, cases where conventional candidates have been considered and have not produced satisfactory attribution, and cases that require additional analytical work that AARO has not yet been able to complete within the relevant reporting cycle.

The framework's substantive significance

The substantive significance of the framework operates at several levels. At the aggregate-reporting level, the framework allows AARO to characterise the structure of its caseload in ways that support meaningful public-record understanding of what the institutional engagement is actually producing. The distribution of cases across the categorical structure provides substantial information about the broader patterns the institutional engagement is encountering, even without case-by-case disclosure of individual case-level material.

At the case-by-case level, the framework provides structured analytical discipline for the AARO investigative work. Each case is classified through systematic application of the categorical framework, which produces consistent treatment across cases and across the AARO institutional staff handling them. This methodological consistency is one of the substantive structural improvements that the contemporary AARO framework provides over the less methodologically disciplined Project Blue Book-era institutional approach.

The framework's continuing development

The AARO case-resolution categorisation framework has substantively evolved across the office's reporting cycles. The FY2025 reporting cycle introduced sharper distinctions between positive-identification and exclusion-based resolutions, reflecting institutional refinement of the categorical structure based on the office's accumulated case-handling experience. Continued refinement across subsequent reporting cycles is expected as the framework continues to mature.

The framework operates as one of the substantively distinctive features of the contemporary US institutional UAP engagement and as a reference point for the broader international institutional landscape. The French GEIPAN A/B/C/D categorisation framework operates with broadly comparable structural logic, and the AARO framework can be productively read alongside the GEIPAN framework as one of the contemporary international approaches to systematic UAP-case categorisation. For the broader AARO institutional context, see the SkyLens UAP files page.

Editorial note: Independent SkyLens analysis of an AARO institutional process, methodology, or public-record framework component. The broader case index is on the SkyLens UAP files page.