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Argentine Air Force Centro de Identificación Aeroespacial (CIAE)

Air Force

Argentine Air Force office identifying aerospace phenomena and publishing annual resolutions of public sighting reports.

The Centro de Identificación Aeroespacial (CIAE) is the Argentine Air Force office that investigates, analyzes and identifies events, activities or objects present in, or originating from, the aerospace domain of interest.1 It inherited the public case-resolution work of the Comisión de Estudio de Fenómenos Aeroespaciales (CEFAE), the earlier Air Force body created in 2011.1

  Origin and Mandate

CEFAE was created on 6 May 2011, establishing an official Argentine Air Force channel for documented aerospace-phenomena reports from the public.1 On 4 April 2019, Air Force Chief of Staff Resolution No. 364/2019 restructured CEFAE into CIAE, elevating its organizational level and adapting its capabilities to a broader identification task.12

CIAE's formal mission is to organize, coordinate and execute investigation and analysis of aerospace-domain events, identify their causes, and report conclusions to competent bodies that request them.12 The office is oriented toward technical or operational information for higher organizations, while continuing citizen sighting resolution as a secondary public service.34

The official CIAE page says the center was formed with the same personnel as CEFAE, including internal and external advisers, and continues annual publication of resolved public sighting cases.1

  Public Reporting Channel

CIAE asks witnesses to provide both a reliable testimony and evidence, such as digital photos, video or recovered material.1 Its annual reports use the same intake threshold: cases are normally accepted for analysis only when both testimony and evidence are available.345

The office publishes annual case-resolution reports from 2015 onward, first under CEFAE and later under CIAE.16 The earliest public CEFAE report presented cases sent through its website, combined visual comparison, aerospace-domain checks, specialist review, astronomical and satellite software, and then published concise conclusions.6

  Method and Classification

CIAE's recent reports describe a deliberately prosaic-first method: analysts compare each report with known visual stimuli, apply Occam's razor, and then use compositional, qualitative and technical analysis according to the evidence type.345

The center classifies resolved cases using the two-category model it attributes to France's GEIPAN: Type A for definitively explained cases and Type B for well-founded explanations supported by key evidence.345 The reports emphasize that Type B is not treated as mere conjecture; it requires real elements supporting a plausible explanation and coincidence with the proposed cause.4

CIAE also frames publication as a form of public audit. The 2024 report says resolved cases are not posted as strictly closed, and that stronger contrary evidence can trigger a complete review.4

  Annual Report Record

Report yearAccepted casesNot acceptedPublic result or scope
201510 listedNot statedCEFAE reported all analyzed cases as compatible with known causes.6
20226839CIAE reported all analyzed cases as known-origin events.7
20238216CIAE reported all analyzed cases as known-origin events and noted its first manually altered photo case retaining metadata.3
2024369CIAE reported every analyzed case as resolved by known causes.4
20252811The report expanded the scope to sightings and space-debris identifications, including two field investigations.5

This record makes CIAE unusual among official UAP-related offices: its public output is less a catalog of unexplained anomalies than a running archive of identifications, explanations and methodology.1345

  Personnel and Advisers

As of 1 September 2024, CIAE listed retired Commodore Rubén Lianza as director, assisted by Captain Jorge Gimenez and Carolina Gisel Melia in desk and field investigation roles.8 Its advisory roster combined Air Force specialists in aerospace systems, air-control surveillance, aeronautical engineering, accident investigation, electronic warfare and radiological safety with external experts in astrobiology, electronics, bioinformatics, communications and biology.8

The same roster also named foreign collaborators with experience in digital image and video analysis, orbital analysis, aerospace engineering and UAP case review, including François Louange, Antoine Cousyn, Geoff Quick, Vicente-Juan Ballester Olmos, Milton Hourcade, James Oberg, Ted Molczan, Jonathan McDowell and Mick West.8

  Training, Requests and Space Debris

CIAE's activity logs show steady case intake alongside training and technical support. The 2024 log records monthly reception and analysis of citizen images, responses to access-to-information requests, a Curso de Identificación Aeroespacial, visits to the Argentine-German Geodetic Observatory, coordination with the Comando Aeroespacial, and work around a proposed Falcon telescope for satellite tracking.9

By 2025 the office's public activity had expanded further into space-debris management. That year's log records field investigations at Armstrong and Puerto Tirol, material-analysis requests for recovered space debris, lectures on space situational awareness, and submission of a protocol for space debris falling on Argentine territory.10

  Name Note

The official Argentina.gob.ar page still presents the office as the Centro de Identificación Aeroespacial.1 The 2025 report, however, introduces it as the Centro de Investigación Aeroespacial and notes that this was formerly called the Centro de Identificación Aeroespacial.5 This entry keeps the official page title and requested historical CIAE/CEFAE framing while noting the newer report language.

  References

  References

  1. Argentina.gob.ar - Fuerza Aérea Argentina, "Centro de Identificación Aeroespacial" https://www.argentina.gob.ar/fuerzaaerea/centro-de-identificacion-aeroespacial ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10

  2. Argentina.gob.ar - Fuerza Aérea Argentina, "Historial de actividades 2019" https://www.argentina.gob.ar/fuerzaaerea/centro-de-identificacion-aeroespacial/historial-de-actividades-2019 ↩ ↩2

  3. Argentina.gob.ar - CIAE, "Informe resolución de casos 2023" https://www.argentina.gob.ar/sites/default/files/2018/11/informe-ciae-2023.pdf ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  4. Argentina.gob.ar - CIAE, "Informe resolución de casos 2024" https://www.argentina.gob.ar/sites/default/files/2018/11/informe-ciae-2024.pdf ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8

  5. Argentina.gob.ar - CIAE, "Informe resolución de casos 2025" https://www.argentina.gob.ar/sites/default/files/2018/11/informe_ciae_2025.pdf ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  6. Argentina.gob.ar - CEFAE, "Informe de resoluciones casos 2015" https://www.argentina.gob.ar/sites/default/files/informe_cefae_2015.pdf ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  7. Argentina.gob.ar - CIAE, "Informe resolución de casos 2022" https://www.argentina.gob.ar/sites/default/files/2018/11/informe_ciae_2022.pdf ↩

  8. Argentina.gob.ar - CIAE, "Nómina de integrantes y asesores de CIAE, al 1 de septiembre de 2024" https://www.argentina.gob.ar/sites/default/files/2018/11/2024-09_lista_de_integrantes_y_asesores_del_ciae.pdf ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  9. Argentina.gob.ar - CIAE, "Historial de Actividades 2024" https://www.argentina.gob.ar/centro-de-identificacion-aeroespacial/historial-de-actividades-2024 ↩

  10. Argentina.gob.ar - CIAE, "Historial de Actividades 2025" https://www.argentina.gob.ar/fuerzaaerea/centro-de-identificacion-aeroespacial/historial-de-actividades-2025 ↩

Published on April 4, 2019

5 min read