UAP

Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (formerly Unidentified Aerial Phenomena) — the U.S. government's preferred term for what was historically called UFOs, deliberately broader to include maritime, space, and transmedium objects.

UAP has, in U.S. government usage, expanded twice in scope since the term was first formalized.

Iteration 1: Unidentified Aerial Phenomena

The 2021 ODNI Preliminary Assessment introduced “Unidentified Aerial Phenomena” as a deliberate replacement for “UFO” — the older term carrying decades of pop-culture baggage. UAP, in this initial framing, referred specifically to airborne objects of unknown origin.

Iteration 2: Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena

In 2022, with the establishment of AARO and the recognition that anomalous phenomena occurred across multiple domains (maritime, space, transmedium), the U.S. government redefined UAP as “Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena.” The acronym was preserved; the meaning broadened to encompass any anomalous phenomenon across operational domains.

Why the rebrand matters

The term’s evolution reflects two institutional shifts:

De-stigmatization. “UFO” carried cultural connotations that made serious institutional engagement difficult. UAP was deliberately neutralized.
Domain expansion. Cases like the USS Omaha encounter (Case #00088), with an object descending into the ocean, and the Aguadilla CBP video (Case #00067), with apparent transmedium behavior, did not fit the “aerial” framing.

Council usage

The Council uses UAP in its current government-standard sense (Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena) when discussing modern cases and the institutional record. We use UFO when quoting historical material that uses the older term, when the case predates the UAP rebrand, or when the cultural-historical reference is what is meant. Both terms refer to phenomena lacking a confirmed conventional explanation, not to confirmed extraterrestrial or non-human origins.

Related entries

UFO

Unidentified Flying Object — the older, original term for anomalous aerial phenomena, in U.S. government usage from approximately 1952 until replacement by 'UAP' in 2021.

AARO

All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office — the U.S. Department of Defense entity established in 2022 to detect, identify, and attribute unidentified anomalous phenomena across air, sea, space, and transmedium domains.

AATIP

Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program — the secretive U.S. Department of Defense unit that ran from 2007 to 2012, studying anomalous aerospace events for potential threat implications.

NHI

Non-Human Intelligence — a term increasingly used in U.S. government UAP discourse to refer to any intelligence not of human origin, with deliberate breadth (terrestrial-but-non-human, extraterrestrial, interdimensional, etc.).

Tic Tac

Colloquial name for the oblong, white object reported by USS Nimitz F/A-18 aircrews during the November 2004 encounter off Baja California — and, by extension, the case itself (Council Case #00041).