In recent weeks, a series of formation and swarm drone sightings over New Jersey, New York, and other parts of the country has prompted concern, with thousands of calls flooding law enforcement switchboards to report the incidents.
Among the areas affected are key military installations: Picatinny Arsenal and Naval Weapons Station Earle in New Jersey and Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, which was shut down for hours over the weekend due to drones buzzing the area.
President Donald Trump said that due to the drones flying over the Bedminster, New Jersey golf resort he owns, he has changed his travel plans and will not be going to Bedminster.
“Something strange is going on. For some reason, they don’t want to tell the people, and they should,” said the incoming president.
The federal government’s official position started out with, “Don’t worry, this stuff happens all the time.”
Officials from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Department of Homeland Security, Federal Aviation Administration, and the Department of Defense addressed questions about the situation Monday, with an unidentified spokesperson from the Joint Staff confirming the sightings but advising that such occurrences are not unusual. The unidentified spokesman’s statements were posted one the Department of Defense website.
“We have had confirmed sightings at Picatinny Arsenal and Naval Weapons Station Earle,” the spokesperson said. “This is not a new issue for us. We’ve had to deal with drone incursions over our bases for quite a time now. It’s something that we routinely respond to in each and every case when reporting is cited.”
According to the statement, personnel at these facilities are trained to identify, categorize, and employ tools designed to deter drones from violating restricted airspace.
Officials acknowledged that the origins of the drones remain unknown. The FBI, DHS, FAA, and DOD have yet to identify the operators or their motives.
“To date, we have no intelligence or observations that would indicate that they were aligned with a foreign actor or that they had malicious intent,” the unnamed spokesperson said. “But … we don’t know. We have not been able to locate or identify the operators or the points of origin.”
The DOD’s investigative efforts are constrained, it said, by its limited authority to conduct operations off military installations within the United States. Federal law also prohibits the military from engaging in domestic intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance activities that could potentially track the drones’ origins. Instead, military personnel work with local law enforcement agencies to pursue leads.
“We have to coordinate with law enforcement to try to do that, which we are doing,” the anonymous spokesperson said. “And we do that on a routine basis at nearly all of our locations. We have good relationships and excellent coordination, and we respond quickly to try to identify them.”
“The main point is to deter the activity using some of our electronic means that can respond to most of these small commercial systems and deny them access to the airspace over our bases,” the unnamed spokesperson said. “We don’t know what the activity is. We don’t know … if it is criminal. But I will tell you that it is irresponsible. Here on the military side, we are just as frustrated with the irresponsible nature of this activity.”
Later on Monday, a joint statement was issued by the Department of Homeland Security, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Federal Aviation Administration and Department of Defense:
“There are more than one million drones lawfully registered with the FAA in the United States and there are thousands of commercial, hobbyist and law enforcement drones lawfully in the sky on any given day. With the technology landscape evolving, we expect that number to increase over time.
“FBI has received tips of more than 5,000 reported drone sightings in the last few weeks with approximately 100 leads generated, and the federal government is supporting state and local officials in investigating these reports. Consistent with each of our unique missions and authorities, we are quickly working to prioritize and follow these leads. We have sent advanced detection technology to the region. And we have sent trained visual observers.
“Having closely examined the technical data and tips from concerned citizens, we assess that the sightings to date include a combination of lawful commercial drones, hobbyist drones, and law enforcement drones, as well as manned fixed—wing aircraft, helicopters, and stars mistakenly reported as drones. We have not identified anything anomalous and do not assess the activity to date to present a national security or public safety risk over the civilian airspace in New Jersey or other states in the northeast,” the joint statement said.
“That said, we recognize the concern among many communities. We continue to support state and local authorities with advanced detection technology and support of law enforcement. We urge Congress to enact counter-UAS legislation when it reconvenes that would extend and expand existing counter—drone authorities to identify and mitigate any threat that may emerge,” the statement said.
“Additionally, there have been a limited number of visual sightings of drones over military facilities in New Jersey and elsewhere, including within restricted air space. Such sightings near or over DoD installations are not new. DoD takes unauthorized access over its airspace seriously and coordinates closely with federal, state, and local law enforcement authorities, as appropriate. Local commanders are actively engaged to ensure there are appropriate detection and mitigation measures in place,” the agency statement said.
Also on Monday, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said, “It is critical, as we all have said for a number of years, that we need from Congress additional authorities to address the drone situation, our authorities currently are limited and they are set to expire. We need them extended and expanded. We want state and local authorities to also have the ability to counter growing activity under federal supervision…”
Later in the day, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul called on Congress to pass the Counter-UAS Authority Security, Safety, and Reauthorization Act, strengthening the FAA’s drone oversight and give states more power to investigate the sightings.
Is it a psychological operation or a way to pressure Congress by creating fear in the pubic? Many are floating those theories, including former CIA officer Laura Ballman, who is a commentator for Fox News.
“Now, in terms of who is behind this, deducing the statements that have been made by John Kirby [National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications], who has said that these objects are not operating illegally, coupled with the several op-eds that have been out the last 24 hours about the need to look at our detection systems, makes me think, perhaps, this is actually a classified exercise to test either evasion technology or detection technology in urban areas,” she said on Saturday.
