Behind AARO’s Private UAP Workshop: New Records Detail Participants, Foreign Outreach and Future Plans

A newly released collection of records from the Pentagon’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office provides a substantially more detailed look at the government-sponsored UAP research workshop held outside Washington, D.C., in August 2025, including a working agenda identifying speakers and panelists, previously unreleased correspondence concerning foreign participation, and evidence that AARO was already discussing a follow-on workshop months before the first event took place. The records also document a separate Pentagon engagement with representatives of Uruguay’s official UAP investigative organization, including plans for reciprocal mission briefings, discussions about future collaboration, lunch with senior AARO personnel and a private Pentagon tour. The documents were released to The Black Vault under Freedom of Information Act case 26-F-1773. The request was filed March 17, 2026, one day after DefenseScoop senior reporter Brandi Vincent broke the story of the invitation-only workshop and obtained additional information about it from the Pentagon. Vincent’s original reporting established that approximately 40 government, academic and independent researchers had participated in the AARO-sponsored gathering and detailed its emphasis on integrating narrative UAP data and applying artificial intelligence to large datasets.

The new FOIA release does not fundamentally alter the publicly stated purpose or findings of the workshop. Instead, its significance is in filling in portions of the administrative record that AARO’s public white paper left anonymous or generalized: who delivered some of the presentations, who sat on the panels, where the workshop actually occurred, and how AARO interacted with at least one foreign government UAP organization before the event. AARO identified 89 responsive pages but withheld 19 pages in their entirety under FOIA Exemption (b)(5), which protects certain deliberative government communications. Portions of the other 70 pages were withheld under Exemptions (b)(5) and (b)(6), with the latter protecting personal privacy.

The working agenda names speakers and panelists, including AARO Director Jon Kosloski, and identifies the workshop location as Associated Universities Inc., 2650 Park Tower Drive, Suite 700, Vienna, Virginia, across from the Dunn Loring Metro station. Opening remarks were scheduled from AUI representatives Tim Spuck and Adam Cohen, AARO Director Jon Kosloski, and Gretchen Stahlman of Florida State University’s School of Information. The keynote, titled “Setting the stage: Importance of good UAP data,” was assigned to Robert Powell of the Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies and Kosloski. The agenda then names Laura Domine, at the time identified as a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Astrophysics, Harvard University, for the first session. Domine’s participation fits directly with the workshop’s technical focus. Her published research includes work on the Galileo Project’s multi-sensor systems for collecting scientific observations of aerial phenomena, including an infrared camera array designed to continuously monitor and classify objects in the sky.

AARO was also engaging Uruguay’s official UAP organization, CRIDOVNI, and proposed a meeting at the Pentagon. The AARO official proposed discussing “the types of UAP data our offices analyze, types of analysis we undertake, and ways our offices can collaborate moving forward.” The Uruguayan correspondent responded affirmatively and accepted an invitation to present CRIDOVNI’s work during the workshop. The Pentagon visit was approved through the Foreign Visit Request and Pentagon Force Protection Agency visitor systems. A July 29 email laid out the planned meeting: “1000-1030 CRIDOVNI Mission Briefing 1030-1100 AARO Mission Briefing 1100-1200 Discussion of Briefings and Future Collaboration.” AARO then planned to host the visitors for lunch and a private Pentagon tour.

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