DoD: AARO Records Released with 95% Redactions

The Pentagon released a tranche of internal communications on September 18, 2025, following a request under freedom of information statutes submitted by The Black Vault. The inquiry sought clarification on why the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office began classifying UAP-related materials under exemption (b)(7), usually applied to criminal investigation files. Despite the specificity of the query, the resulting 23-page document release proved almost entirely unusable for understanding the policy shift.

Analysis of the disclosed materials reveals that over ninety-five percent of the material was either fully withheld or redacted. Three pages disappeared completely under exemption (b)(5), while remaining sections fell under (b)(5) and (b)(6) protections. Only fragmented references survived the censorship, including mentions of coordination calls with AARO personnel and media release preparations involving other pending cases.

The heavily redacted nature of these records obstructs public oversight of how a scientific analysis office adopted law enforcement classification protocols. This opacity persists despite approximately four dozen follow-up inquiries directed at Pentagon spokesperson Susan Gough over twenty-seven months. The disclosure pattern suggests institutional resistance to explaining the legal framework justifying increased secrecy around military UAP investigations.