The FOIA response, dated March 15, 2024, revealed that the Joint Staff conducted a search and located nine pages determined to be responsive to Johnson’s request. These documents pertain to  guidance issued on May 19, 2023, which outlines procedures for reporting and handling material related to UAPs.

On X, Johnson wrote a few “quick observations” about the document released, and highlights some key areas worth noting. With permission, that post written is republished here:

On May 19, 2023, the Joint Staff (J3, Operations; J36 Homeland Defense Division) of the Joint Chiefs of Staff disseminated to all unified military commands worldwide a set of uniform procedures to be followed for gathering data and reporting on contemporary military encounters with Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP), using a detailed standard reporting template.

I have now obtained a copy of that Pentagon message. I believe that its detailed contents are being made public here for the first time (if the GENADMIN message has previously been published, that publication has not come to my attention).

The message was designated as “GENADMIN Joint Staff J3 Washington DC 191452ZMAY23 Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Reporting and Material Disposition.” It was disseminated as “Controlled Unclassified Information,” or “CUI.”

Journalist Brandi Vincent (@BrandiVincent_) referred in passing to the existence of this message in a DefenseScoop article dated August 30, 2023 (“Hicks takes direct oversight of Pentagon’s UAP office; new reporting website to be launched”). I promptly asked Pentagon press officer Susan Gough to release a copy to me, but Gough replied, “I cannot provide a copy of the message to you, as it contains information that’s not publicly releasable.”

On August 31, 2023, I filed a FOIA request for the GENADMIN message. The Department of Defense Freedom of Information Division has now released the 9-page document to me (response letter dated March 15, 2024, received by me on March 18), with only minimal redactions. After redacting my personal information, I am now making the complete FOIA release available at the link below. (The image merely shows the first page of the document; click on the link to download the complete PDF.)

INITIAL OBSERVATIONS

Among the noteworthy aspects I see in the May 2023 Joint Staff communication:

— An introductory paragraph states: “The U.S. government has observed UAP in or near the territory and/or operating areas of the United States, of its allies, and of its adversaries, and observing, identifying, and potentially mitigating UAP has become a growing priority for US policymakers, lawmakers, and warfighters. The potentially ubiquitous presence of UAP defines the national security implications of those anomalies, which range from operational hazards and threats to technological and intelligence surprise to adversaries’ strategic miscalculations. It is imperative that DoD provide UAP incident, incursion, and engagement…reporting, data, and material for the Department’s detection and mitigation of potential threats; exploitation of advanced technologies; and informing policymaker and warfighter decisions.”

–Reports on UAP incidents are to be transmitted upwards with 96 hours, but any “UAP engagement reports” within 12 hours. A “UAP engagement is a kinetic or non-kinetic response to a UAP, intended to deny, disrupt, or destroy the phenomenon and/or its object(s).”

— The ultimate nexus of collection and analysis of these reports is the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO).

— The reporting procedures in the Joint Staff message apply only to detections or encounters “that demonstrate behaviors not readily understood by sensors or observers…[that]include but are not limited to phenomena that demonstrate apparent capabilities or material that exceed known performance envelopes.” The UAP reporting procedures described in this guidance do NOT apply to “incidents, incursions, and engagements by identifiable, non-anomalous phenomena (e.g., sUAS and other capabilities or materials that do not exceed known or predicted performance envelopes);” such incidents will instead “continue to be reported through established processes and mechanisms.”

— The reporting matrix seeks 11 categories of information– among these, any UAP-displayed “anomalous characteristics/behaviors (e.g., no apparent control surfaces, extreme acceleration/direction change, detection by certain sensors but not others),” and any “UAP effects on equipment (e.g., mechanical, electrical controls and weapons systems and whether persistent or transitory”).

— AARO will coordinate the handling of any UAP “objects and material of incidents, intrusions, and engagements,” but “recovery and transfer of identifiable, non-anomalous items of foreign origin…continue to be managed by the DoD FMP [Foreign Material Program].”

— The military commands are to “enable deployment of special sensors within the AoR [area of responsibility]for the detection, observation, and identification in sensitive areas, and during testing or deployment of special capabilities.”

ADDITIONAL CONTEXT

On its website, AARO calls the military reporting system defined in the May 2023 GENADMIN “Current Operational UAP Reporting.” In a briefing for selected journalists on March 6, 2024, AARO Acting Director Tim Phillips said that AARO is receiving “approximately…anywhere between 90 and a 100-110 a month” through such channels.

Phillips also told the journalists, “We’re trying to work out the command and control, the mechanisms on how other government entities can report UAP incidents to us. We’ve received a number of reports from Department of Homeland Security and their aircraft reporting to us that we follow up on.”

As for civilian pilots, the AARO website states, “AARO receives UAP-related Pilot Reports (PIREPs) from the Federal Aviation Administration.”

The UAP reporting system for contemporary military-associated UAP events, as set forth in the May 2023 Joint Staff message, is separate and distinct from the AARO “secure reporting” system for receiving reports “from current or former U.S. Government employees, service members, or contractor personnel with direct knowledge of U.S. Government programs or activities related to UAP dating back to 1945,” which is accessible through a portal on the AARO website.

AARO does not yet employ any system for receiving UAP observation reports from the general public.

###

Document Archive

UAP Reporting and Material Disposition Reporting Procedures Released [13 Pages, 5.2MB]

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The post UAP Reporting and Material Disposition Procedures Released first appeared on The Black Vault.

The following documents pertain to reporting UFOs by the U.S. Military, Government and Commercial installations. Below, you will also find Canadian records to show that UFOs are still, of interest.

United States Regulations

United States Air Force – Air Force Instruction 10-206

 Air Force Instruction 10-206. 2008 Revision with UFO references [87 Pages] – Up until 2011, the Air Force had this publication active, and UFOs remained in it to be reported.  When The Huffington Post profiled The Black Vault, and this discovery, the publication was changed within days. Reference: Air Force UFO Rules Vanish After Huffington Post Inquiry.

 Air Force Instruction 10-206. 2011 Revision without UFO references [40 Pages, 0.4MB]

 Change log to AFI 10-206 [19 Pages, 0.3MB]

United States Air Force

 Air Force Regulation 200-2 [8 Pages, 4.76MB] – This Regulation establishes procedures for information and evidence material pertaining to unidentified flying objects and sets forth the responsibility of Air Force activities in this regard. It applies to all Air Force Activities. (Archived for reference. Rescinded.)

 Alaskan Air Command AAC Regulation 200-5 [6 Pages, 4.76MB] – This regulation outlines the AAC requirements and reporting procedures for information and material pertaining to UFOs.

United States Air Force – UFOB

 UFOB – History of the 4602nd Air Intelligence Service Squadron, 1 Jan to 30 June 1955 [74 Pages, 3.76mb] – (Archived for reference. Rescinded.)

Department of Defense

 DoD 5040.6-M-1, October 21, 2002, Decision Logic Table Instructions for Recording and Handling Visual Information Material [64 Pages, 0.3 MB] – This DOD manual referenced what military personnel should do given they take a photograph of a UFO. However, it was rescinded and replaced with the below version — which the UFO reference is now taken out.

 DoD 5040.6-M-2, April 2005, Instructions for Handling Visual Information (VI) Material [46 Pages, 0.8 MB] – This was the next version of 5040.6, as published in 2005. Also now obsolete and rescinded, it is archived here for reference.

 DAA-0330-2013-0014, January 21, 2015, DOD Visual Information Records Schedule [24 Pages, 0.4 MB] – The above instructions for Visual Information (VI) have all been rescinded. According to the Defense Imagery Management Operations Center (DIMOC): “The Archivist of the United States has signed the new DoD Visual Information Records Schedule DAA-0330-2013-0014. DoD 5040.6-M-1, DoD 5040.6-M-2 and DoD 5040.06-V3 are obsolete and will be rescinded. Refer to this records schedule for all VI Records disposition instructions for the Department of Defense.”

Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)

 ALL “UFO” References in FAA Manuals / Regulations, 2016 Release [7 Pages, 0.7MB] – In 2016, I requested all manuals and regulations that the FAA had that referenced UFOs. These are the pages I received, which do not amount to anything more than recommendations to submit UFO reports to the National UFO Reporting Center or law enforcement.

Joint Army Navy Air Force Publication (JANAP) 146(E)

 JANAP 146(E) [33 Pages]

Canadian Regulations

 Department of National Defence – Flight Planning and Procedures, Canada and North Atlantic, 22 June 2017 [248 Pages, 6.2MB]

See Also: Canadian UFO Reports

The post UFO Reporting Procedures & Regulations first appeared on The Black Vault.

Referenced within the U.S. Department of Labor 2011 Chief FOIA Officer Report, located at: https://www.dol.gov/sol/foia/2011ChiefFOIAOfficerRpt.htm, there was a reference to a Internal FOIA Desk Reference Guide.

Seemingly never published publicly before, I requested the record in November of 2016.

In March of 2017 — I received the document, no available for download below.

According to the document’s introduction:

The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) provides that any person has a right, enforceable in court, to obtain access to federal agency records, except to the extent that records or portions of them are protected from public disclosure based upon one of nine exemptions. The FOIA encourages accountability through transparency.

Within the Department of Labor (DOL), day-to-day FOIA operations are largely decentralized. The Chief FOIA Officer and Office of Information Services (OIS) are within DOL’s Office of the Solicitor (SOL) and provide overall guidance and department-level administration of FOIA. However, individual DOL component agencies continue to be responsible for directly answering FOIA requests and providing requesters with documents from their agency. Each agency has the flexibility to design a FOIA program that meets its needs, while adhering to the provisions of the statute and DOL’s implementing FOIA regulations. Most agencies have delegated their disclosure responsibilities to officials at the Office Director or Division Chief level in the National Office, as well as to their regional offices. Others have delegated their field FOIA responsibilities to district or area offices while some small agencies handle all of their FOIA requests centrally in Washington, DC. When requests involve particularly sensitive matters or involve records maintained by multiple agency components, the Office of the Solicitor may make a consolidated response on behalf of the Department.

Document Archive

 Internal FOIA Desk Reference Guide, September 2010 [21 Pages, 2.9MB]

https://documents.theblackvault.com/documents/foia/DOL-InternalFOIA-Sept2010.pdf

The post Department of Labor Internal FOIA Desk Reference Guide, September 2010 first appeared on The Black Vault.