• DOCUMENTED AARO was stood up on 20 July 2022, announced by a Deputy Secretary of Defense memorandum dated 15 July 2022. It absorbed the duties of the earlier Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronization Group (AOIMSG), which had itself replaced the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force (UAPTF).
• DOCUMENTED Its existence is required by statute, not by Pentagon discretion. The FY2022 and FY2023 National Defense Authorization Acts created the office; the governing law is codified at 50 U.S.C. § 3373, which directs the Secretary of Defense, in coordination with the Director of National Intelligence, to establish the office and specifies its duties.
• DOCUMENTED It reports high. Under § 3373 the Director reports directly to the Deputy Secretary of Defense and to the Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence — i.e. it is not buried inside a single service or agency.
• DOCUMENTED The name changed meaning along the way. "UAP" in current statute means unidentified anomalous phenomena — broadened from the earlier "unidentified aerial phenomena" to cover transmedium, space and undersea objects.

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50 U.S.C. § 3373 (NDAA FY2022 as amended by NDAA FY2023); Deputy Secretary of Defense memorandum, 15 July 2022. Statute text: law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/50/3373

• DOCUMENTED Core duties under § 3373(c) include developing standardised collection and analysis procedures across DoD and the Intelligence Community, setting timely reporting requirements, evaluating links to foreign governments or non-state actors, assessing national security threats, and coordinating with the FAA, NASA, DHS, NOAA, NSF and DOE.
• DOCUMENTED An annual report is mandatory (§ 3373(k)) and must include all reported UAP events in the year, analysis of geospatial, signals, human and measurement-and-signature intelligence, the number of incidents over restricted airspace, an assessment of adversary activity, health effects on affected individuals, and incidents involving nuclear assets.
• DOCUMENTED The historical report is also mandatory (§ 3373(j)). Congress required a report on US government records on UAP from 1 January 1945 onward — due 540 days after 23 December 2022 — explicitly including oral history interviews and documentation of "any efforts to obfuscate, manipulate public opinion, hide, or otherwise provide incorrect" information.
• DOCUMENTED Congress ordered a channel for insiders. The law requires a mechanism for authorised reporting by current and former government personnel and contractors (§ 3373b), and requires that personnel have access to procedures to report incidents directly to the office (§ 3373(f)(1)(B)).

50 U.S.C. §§ 3373, 3373a, 3373b — subsections (c), (f), (j) and (k). Historical-record deadline runs from the FY2023 NDAA enactment date, 23 Dec 2022.

• DOCUMENTED Sean M. Kirkpatrick, first director (July 2022 – 1 December 2023). A laser and materials physicist (PhD, University of Georgia, 1995) with prior service at the Air Force Research Laboratory, CIA, DIA, and US Strategic and Space Commands. His departure was announced 7 November 2023. He subsequently became chief technology officer for defense and intelligence programs at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
• DOCUMENTED Timothy A. Phillips, acting director (Dec 2023 – Aug 2024). On assignment from ODNI; served as deputy director and fronted the March 2024 rollout of the historical record report.
• DOCUMENTED Dr Jon T. Kosloski, director from 26 August 2024. Announced by DoD press release. Career largely at the National Security Agency in optics, computing and cryptographic mathematics. He testified before the Senate Armed Services Emerging Threats and Capabilities Subcommittee on 19 November 2024 and remained director through AARO's most recent publication (July 2026).
• TESTIMONY Kosloski has said some cases genuinely puzzle him. In November 2024 remarks accompanying the FY2024 report he described analysing several "true anomalies," saying there are interesting cases that he — with a physics and engineering background and time in the intelligence community — does not understand. This is a statement about his own assessment; it is not a finding that any object was non-human.
• TESTIMONY Kosloski's bottom line has not changed. In his 19 November 2024 Statement for the Record he wrote that "to date, AARO has discovered no verifiable evidence of extraterrestrial beings, activity, or technology," and noted AARO then held more than 1,600 UAP reports.

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DoD press releases 7 Nov 2023 and 26 Aug 2024; "Dr. Jon Kosloski Statement for the Record, SASC Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities," 19 Nov 2024 (aaro.mil); DoD media roundtable transcript, 14 Nov 2024.

• DOCUMENTED Full title: Report on the Historical Record of U.S. Government Involvement with Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP), Volume I, All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office. Dated February 2024, publicly released 8 March 2024 alongside a statement by Pentagon Press Secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder. 63 pages. Scope: 1945 through 31 October 2023.
• DOCUMENTED Its central conclusion, in its own words: AARO found "no empirical evidence" for claims that the US government and private companies have been reverse-engineering extraterrestrial technology, and found no evidence that any US government investigation had confirmed that any UAP sighting represented extraterrestrial technology.
• DOCUMENTED Method: roughly 30 individuals interviewed (tiered by depth of claimed knowledge and by congressional referral), plus searches of classified and unclassified IC and DoD archives, the National Archives (7,252 Project BLUE BOOK files, 65,778 digital records), and DIA, CIA, DOE, NSA, NGA and service archives.
• DOCUMENTED KONA BLUE. The report disclosed a proposed UAP recovery and reverse-engineering special access program pitched to the Department of Homeland Security. DHS never approved it. AARO recorded that its supporters never produced empirical evidence for the underlying claims. Note what this does and does not show: it is documentary proof that such a program was proposed, not that one ever ran.
• DOCUMENTED Specific claims run to ground. Among the findings: a metal sample said to come from an extraterrestrial craft was analysed as an ordinary terrestrial alloy (largely magnesium, zinc and bismuth with trace elements); an officer's account of touching an alien craft was traced to the F-117 Nighthawk stealth program; an alleged 1961 intelligence estimate was assessed as inauthentic; a named CIA official denied on the record ever managing recovered extraterrestrial technology.
• DOCUMENTED AARO's own explanatory theory: that interviewees repeatedly mistook authentic, compartmented US programs for alien activity, having not been read into those programs themselves — combined with a historic "lack of actionable, researchable data" and resource constraints.

AARO, Report on the Historical Record of U.S. Government Involvement with UAP, Volume I, Feb 2024 (aaro.mil/Portals/136/PDFs/AARO_Historical_Record_Report_Vol_1_2024.pdf); DoD press statement 8 Mar 2024; DoD media engagement transcript with acting director Tim Phillips, 8 Mar 2024.

• TESTIMONY Rear Adm. Tim Gallaudet (USN, ret.) attacked the report in sworn written testimony to Congress on 13 November 2024, telling the House Oversight Committee that AARO "needs to explain the inaccuracies and incompleteness of AARO's first historical records report," that he had been "the object of an hours-long influence operation which attempted to convince me of the validity of the severely flawed historical records report," and that AARO had attempted to "disparage several former government authorities." He added that if AARO were repeating past DoD disinformation practices, "Congress should be gravely concerned." Stake to note: Gallaudet disclosed being CEO of Ocean STL Consulting, a research affiliate of Harvard's Galileo Project, a strategic advisor to the UAP Disclosure Fund and the Sol Foundation, and a supporter of Americans for Safe Aerospace.
• DISPUTED Whether AARO's access was genuinely unrestricted. Acting director Tim Phillips stated on 8 March 2024 that AARO had "unprecedented access to classified programs," that "nobody blocked where we could go or the questions we asked," and that there were no impediments to receiving UAP information at any classification level. Critics including Christopher Mellon (former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence) and Gallaudet dispute that the review was complete, Mellon publicly characterising the report as "error-ridden" and compiling a rebuttal from other researchers. There is no public documentation either way of AARO's read-in list, which is precisely the problem: the claim of full access is itself unverifiable from outside.
• DISPUTED Who refused to talk to whom. Kirkpatrick stated publicly after the July 2023 congressional hearing that David Grusch "has refused to speak with AARO" and that details given to Congress were withheld from his office. Grusch and his supporters have maintained that the obstacles were about clearances and appropriate secure channels rather than unwillingness. Both positions are on the record; neither has been resolved by any released document.
• UNSUPPORTED The claim that AARO is itself the cover-up. Widely asserted across UAP media and by some advocacy organisations. What is missing: any produced document, program name, or identified witness statement establishing that AARO concealed a finding. Suspicion about an office that investigates its own department is reasonable and structurally sound as a critique — but the specific accusation of concealment has not been evidenced.
• DOCUMENTED Volume 2 was promised and, as of this writing, has not appeared publicly. Phillips said on 8 March 2024 that Volume 2 would incorporate relevant information acquired since 1 November 2023. AARO's own congressional/press products index carries no Volume 2 as of August 2026. Note the asymmetry: a missing volume is a documented gap in delivery, not evidence of what it would have said.
• DOCUMENTED Be precise about who criticised what. Luis Elizondo's written testimony at the same 13 November 2024 hearing criticised fragmented UAP governance ("no one seems to be in charge") and the Pentagon press office's use of a psychological operations officer as UAP point of contact — but did not name AARO. Michael Gold's written testimony referenced AARO only in neutral, structural terms and contained no criticism of it. Second-hand accounts that lump all four witnesses into a single anti-AARO bloc are wrong.

Written testimony of Dr. Tim Gallaudet, Luis Elizondo and Michael Gold, House Committee on Oversight and Accountability hearing "Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Exposing the Truth," 13 Nov 2024 (oversight.house.gov); DoD media engagement transcript, 8 Mar 2024; The Debrief reporting on Christopher Mellon's response, 2024.

• DOCUMENTED 2022 annual report (released 12 January 2023). The joint ODNI/AARO unclassified assessment covered 247 new reports plus 119 previously unexamined earlier events — 366 in total, against overall holdings of 510 reports as of 30 August 2022. Roughly half received mundane explanations; 171 remained uncharacterised.
• DOCUMENTED FY2023 report (October 2023). Covered 31 August 2022 – 30 April 2023: 291 new reports (274 in-period, 17 late submissions from 2019–2022). It stated that "a large number of cases in AARO's holdings remain technically unresolved because of a lack of data," that only "a very small percentage of UAP reports display interesting signatures, such as high-speed travel and unknown morphologies," and that no UAP report had been positively attributed to foreign activity.
• DOCUMENTED FY2024 report (14 November 2024). Covered 1 May 2023 – 1 June 2024: 757 new reports, 485 of them in-period. 118 cases resolved during the period plus 174 more finalised by publication. 444 cases lacked sufficient data and were archived. 21 cases were judged to merit further analysis by IC and science-and-technology partners. It stated flatly: "AARO has discovered no evidence of extraterrestrial beings, activity, or technology."
• DOCUMENTED FY2025 report (published 20 July 2026). Covered 2 June 2024 – 30 May 2025: 319 new reports (284 in-period, 35 out-of-period). 114 of the new reports resolved, plus 256 older cases resolved, for 370 total resolutions in the period. 191 of the 319 went to the "active archive." Nine cases were flagged for further analysis. Total holdings: 1,870 reports as of 30 May 2025.
• DOCUMENTED Timeliness is a real issue. The FY2024 report appeared roughly five months after its reporting period closed; the FY2025 report appeared about fourteen months after its period closed and roughly twenty months after the previous report. The statute requires the report annually.
• DOCUMENTED Drones near nuclear sites are counted separately — and are climbing. The FY2025 report records 50 reports from the Administrator for Nuclear Security and the Chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission concerning unmanned aerial systems near US nuclear infrastructure, weapons and launch sites — a 177.8 percent increase over the 18 in the FY2024 report. AARO notes: "None of these incidents were reported as UAP."

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ODNI/AARO 2022 Annual Report on UAP, 12 Jan 2023; AARO FY2023 Consolidated Annual Report on UAP, Oct 2023; FY2024 Consolidated Annual Report on UAP, 14 Nov 2024; FY2025 Consolidated Annual Report on UAP, 20 Jul 2026 (all at aaro.mil).

• DOCUMENTED Resolved = attributed to a prosaic object. The FY2025 report states all resolved cases are "attributable to prosaic objects such as balloons, satellites, birds, aircraft, and unmanned aerial systems (UAS)" — plus, that year, one commercial rocket launch and one manned jet pack.
• DOCUMENTED Unresolved usually means "not enough data," not "inexplicable." AARO's glossary defines the active archive as "a repository of cases lacking sufficient data to facilitate a comprehensive analysis." Cases move there and stay there pending future corroborating data. The FY2025 report attributes this directly to "a lack of timely and actionable sensor data."
• DOCUMENTED A single modelling improvement moved hundreds of cases. In FY2025 AARO attributed 44 cases to satellite flaring and reported 238 further resolutions enabled by a new satellite-flaring modelling capability — a concrete illustration that "unresolved" is partly a function of analytic tooling, not object exoticism.
• DOCUMENTED The residue is small and explicitly bounded. Nine FY2025 cases were referred for further analysis; 21 in FY2024. AARO simultaneously states that "none of the cases AARO resolved indicate advanced foreign adversarial capabilities or breakthrough technologies in any domain."
• DISPUTED Whether headline resolution rates are meaningful. Because a case can be counted as resolved in a later period than it was reported, and because archived cases are neither resolved nor rejected, the published numbers are not a clean "percent explained." AARO does not publish a per-case resolution register that would allow outside replication. AARO's position is that resolution is data-limited; critics' position is that the categories are doing unearned rhetorical work. Neither side has published a case-level dataset settling it.
• DOCUMENTED Health effects: none reported. The FY2025 report states AARO received no reports of UAP-related health effects in the period and that "to date, AARO has not received a UAP report in which a reporter described sustaining adverse health effects." FY2024 said the same for its period. This matters because the statute specifically requires health-effect reporting.

AARO FY2025 Consolidated Annual Report on UAP, 20 Jul 2026, including glossary definition of "active archive"; AARO FY2024 Consolidated Annual Report on UAP, 14 Nov 2024.

• DOCUMENTED Who may report. AARO's secure reporting mechanism is open to current or former US government employees, service members, and contractor personnel with firsthand knowledge of a US government program or activity related to UAP, going back to 1945. It exists to feed the congressionally mandated historical record work.
• DOCUMENTED The general public cannot file reports. AARO states explicitly that it is "NOT currently accepting reports of UAP sightings/encounters from the general public," while indicating eligibility may expand later.
• DOCUMENTED It is not a channel for live sightings. Military and DoD personnel are directed to report current encounters through their chain of command; civilian pilots are directed to air traffic control. The web form is explicitly unsuitable for classified or controlled unclassified information — classified accounts require secure in-person arrangements.
• DOCUMENTED Volume of use. The FY2025 report states that between 2 June 2024 and 30 May 2025, 262 individuals contacted AARO through the secure reporting mechanism on its website.
• DOCUMENTED The mechanism launched late and incomplete. AARO's public website launched 30–31 August 2023 initially without the contact route the NDAA required; reporting contemporaneously attributed the delay to Pentagon clearance processes. The full reporting portal followed.

aaro.mil "Submit A Report" eligibility page; AARO FY2025 Consolidated Annual Report on UAP, 20 Jul 2026; 50 U.S.C. § 3373b.

• DOCUMENTED His post-departure position is on the public record. In "Here's What I Learned as the U.S. Government's UFO Hunter" (Scientific American, 19 January 2024), Kirkpatrick wrote that "no record exists of any president or living DOD or intelligence community leader knowing about this alleged program," that allegations "derive from inadvertent or unauthorized disclosures of legitimate U.S. programs," and that the narrative is "a textbook example of circular reporting."
• TESTIMONY He characterised the claimants harshly. He described "a small group of interconnected believers and others with possibly less than honest intentions—none of whom have firsthand accounts," and asserted that none of the prominent whistleblowers had come to AARO with evidence. These are his characterisations, not adjudicated findings — and the second one is directly contested (see the access dispute above).
• TESTIMONY He also criticised Congress, writing that some members "prefer to opine about aliens to the press rather than get an evidence-based briefing," and urging critical thinking "instead of seeking the spotlight."
• DOCUMENTED Stakes on the skeptical side too. Kirkpatrick was the official responsible for the work he is defending — an intrinsic institutional interest in its vindication — and moved to a senior defense/intelligence technology post at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. That does not make him wrong; it means his statements are not neutral third-party assessment, and should be weighted as an interested party's account exactly as proponents' statements are.
• DOCUMENTED Independent oversight exists but is largely classified. The DoD Inspector General published Evaluation of the DoD's Actions Regarding Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena, report DODIG-2023-109, dated 15 August 2023 — classified, with only an unclassified summary released. Its existence is verifiable; its findings are, for the public, not.

Sean Kirkpatrick, "Here's What I Learned as the U.S. Government's UFO Hunter," Scientific American, 19 Jan 2024 (print version, April 2024, as "Observations from a Government UFO Hunter"); DoD Office of Inspector General, DODIG-2023-109, 15 Aug 2023.

• DOCUMENTED The structural criticism is legitimate and does not require any conspiracy. AARO is an office of the Department of Defense investigating the Department of Defense, publishing conclusions about whether the Department of Defense concealed anything. That is a real conflict-of-interest structure, independent of whether anyone acted in bad faith. It is also why the FY2024 NDAA created a separate National Archives UAP records collection with presumed disclosure — Congress built an external route on purpose.
• DOCUMENTED What Congress declined to give. The Senate's original UAP Disclosure Act language included federal eminent domain over recovered technologies and non-human biological evidence held by private entities; that was stripped in conference before the FY2024 NDAA was signed on 22 December 2023. What survived requires contractors to provide UAP material to AARO.
• DOCUMENTED AARO answers a narrow question. Its statutory job is threat characterisation and records accounting — not adjudicating the extraterrestrial hypothesis. Its reports say it found no evidence of extraterrestrial technology within what it examined. That is a meaningful negative result with a defined boundary, and it should be quoted with the boundary attached.
• DOCUMENTED A name change is now visible in the paperwork. The FY2025 annual report is issued under "Department of War" branding rather than Department of Defense, reflecting the 2025 departmental renaming. AARO's mandate and statutory citations are unchanged.

National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024, signed 22 Dec 2023, UAP records provisions; AARO FY2025 Consolidated Annual Report on UAP, 20 Jul 2026.

• 50 U.S. Code § 3373 — Establishment of All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office Cornell LII / US Code · AARO's governing statute
• 50 U.S. Code § 3373a — Science Plan Cornell LII / US Code · statutory science-plan requirement
• 50 U.S. Code § 3373b — Authorized reporting of unidentified anomalous phenomena Cornell LII / US Code · the insider reporting channel
• National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022 (Public Law 117-81) GPO govinfo, 27 Dec 2021 · law that created the office
• National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023 (Public Law 117-263) GPO govinfo, 23 Dec 2022 · ordered the historical record report
• National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024 (Public Law 118-31) GPO govinfo, 22 Dec 2023 · created the UAP records collection
• Establishment of the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (memorandum) Deputy Secretary of Defense, 15 Jul 2022 · the founding memo
• DoD Announces the Establishment of the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office Department of Defense release, 20 Jul 2022 · stand-up announcement
• Report on the Historical Record of U.S. Government Involvement with Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena, Volume I AARO, Feb 2024 · the 63-page historical review
• Historical Record Report Volume 1 — copy hosted on aaro.mil AARO, Feb 2024 · same report, issuing-office copy
• Statement by Pentagon Press Secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder on the Historical Record Report, Volume 1 Department of Defense release, 8 Mar 2024 · official release statement
• Media Engagement With Acting AARO Director Tim Phillips on the Historical Record Report Volume 1 Department of Defense transcript, Mar 2024 · the "unprecedented access" claim
• Preliminary Assessment: Unidentified Aerial Phenomena ODNI, 25 Jun 2021 · the UAPTF 144-incident assessment
• 2022 Annual Report on Unidentified Aerial Phenomena ODNI/AARO, 12 Jan 2023 · 366 reports, 171 uncharacterised
• Fiscal Year 2023 Consolidated Annual Report on Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena AARO, Oct 2023 · 291 new reports
• Statement by Pentagon Press Secretary on the Annual Report on UAP Department of Defense release, Oct 2023 · FY2023 report rollout
• Fiscal Year 2024 Consolidated Annual Report on Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena AARO, 14 Nov 2024 · 757 reports, 21 flagged
• Fiscal Year 2025 Consolidated Annual Report on Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena AARO, 20 Jul 2026 · 319 reports, satellite-flaring resolutions
• Dr. Jon Kosloski, Director, AARO, Media Roundtable on the FY24 Consolidated Annual Report on UAP Department of Defense transcript, 14 Nov 2024 · the "true anomalies" remarks
• Statement for the Record — Dr. Jon Kosloski, Director, AARO, SASC Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities AARO, 19 Nov 2024 · "no verifiable evidence" testimony
• Stenographic transcript — SASC Emerging Threats and Capabilities hearing on AARO US Senate Armed Services Committee, 19 Nov 2024 · full hearing record
• Hearing: mission, activities, oversight and budget of AARO US Senate Armed Services Committee, 19 Apr 2023 · Kirkpatrick's first SASC appearance
• Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick, Director AARO — oral remarks, SASC ETC open hearing US Senate Armed Services Committee, 19 Apr 2023 · "no credible evidence" statement
• Hearing: "Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Exposing the Truth" House Oversight Committee, 13 Nov 2024 · hearing page and witness list
• Printed hearing record, "Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Exposing the Truth" (CHRG-118hhrg57440) Congress.gov / GPO, 13 Nov 2024 · full published transcript
• Written testimony of Dr. Tim Gallaudet, Rear Admiral, U.S. Navy (Ret.) House Oversight Committee, 13 Nov 2024 · the "influence operation" allegation
• Written testimony of Luis Elizondo House Oversight Committee, 13 Nov 2024 · governance criticism, not AARO-specific
• Written testimony of Michael Gold House Oversight Committee, 13 Nov 2024 · neutral structural references only
• Christopher Mellon, "The Pentagon's New UAP Report is Seriously Flawed" The Debrief, 12 Apr 2024 · the "error-ridden" rebuttal
• Sean Kirkpatrick, "Here's What I Learned as the U.S. Government's UFO Hunter" Scientific American, 19 Jan 2024 · his post-departure account
• Evaluation of the DoD's Actions Regarding Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (DODIG-2023-109) DoD Office of Inspector General, 15 Aug 2023 · classified evaluation record
• Unclassified Summary: Evaluation of the DoD's Actions Regarding UAP DoD Office of Inspector General, Jan 2024 · the only public portion
• Department of Defense Announces the Deputy Director, All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office Department of Defense release, 8 Nov 2023 · Timothy A. Phillips appointment
• Department of Defense Announces the New Director, All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office Department of Defense release, 26 Aug 2024 · Jon Kosloski appointment
• AARO — Submit A Report (eligibility and reporting mechanism) AARO · who may and may not report
• AARO — UAP Records / Information Papers AARO · declassified records and case papers
• Records Related to UFOs and UAP at the National Archives NARA · the statutory external disclosure route
• Record Group 615 — Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Records Collection NARA · the collection created by the FY2024 NDAA
• Project BLUE BOOK — UFO Investigations records NARA · the 1947–1969 Air Force case files
• All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office — official site AARO · reports, records and case resolutions index
• DoD press release announcing Sean Kirkpatrick's departure, 7 Nov 2023 no stable public URL found — the departure was reported via a press interview and a Deputy Secretary of Defense statement not published as a standalone release
• Historical Record Report, Volume 2 no stable public URL found — promised on 8 Mar 2024, not published as of August 2026
• AARO read-in list / record of programs accessed during the Volume 1 review no stable public URL found — never released, which is the core of the access dispute
• AARO per-case resolution register no stable public URL found — AARO does not publish case-level data

Links verified August 2026. Unlinked items in this section are ones for which no stable public URL could be confirmed.

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