Donald Trump has demanded the drones flying over multiple US states be shot down by the Biden White House after days of mysterious sightings across the sky.
Numerous ‘SUV-sized’ craft first appeared in New Jersey in mid-November, and have since spread to New York, Pennsylvania and Connecticut.
The first sightings were over the US Army’s Picatinny Arsenal and President-elect Donald Trump’s golf course in Bedminster, which raised concerns the drones are part of a spy campaign.
Trump didn’t directly address the sightings over his club but demanded action from Joe Biden and the government in a Truth Social post Friday.
He wrote: ‘Mystery Drone sightings all over the Country. Can this really be happening without our government’s knowledge. I don’t think so! Let the public know, and now. Otherwise, shoot them down!!! DJT.’
Trump joined bipartisan calls to figure out the source of the flying objects as Phil Murphy, the Democrat governor of New Jersey, wrote directly to Biden Friday.
‘I wrote to @POTUS to express my concerns about reports of unmanned aircraft systems in and around NJ airspace,’ Murphy said.
‘Since existing laws limit the ability of state and local law enforcement to counter UAS, more federal resources are needed to understand what is behind this activity.’
Donald Trump has demanded the drones flying over multiple US states be shot down by the Biden White House after days of mysterious sightings across the sky
Numerous ‘SUV-sized’ craft first appeared in New Jersey in mid-November, and have since spread to New York, Pennsylvania and Connecticut
Drone sightings have also been reported in states such as Texas, Oklahoma and California as well as foreign countries such as Germany. But it’s unclear whether these reports are related to the activity plaguing the Northeast.
In New Jersey, the drones sometimes appear in groups and often remain in the same place for hours at a time, according to eyewitnesses.
Rescue workers responded to a 911 call saying a craft went down in a nearby field outside of a Lowe’s in Hillsborough, but an overnight search found no evidence of the crash landing.
The claims of a spy campaign appeared to be corroborated this week by NJ congressman Jeff Van Drew who claimed the drones were coming from an ‘Iranian mothership’ off the east coast.
However, reports of varying levels of credibility have now spread to at least 12 counties throughout Garden State and the Pentagon has said there is ‘no evidence’ to back up Van Drew’s claims.
Two intelligence experts told DailyMail.com that the descriptions of the craft by eyewitnesses ‘sound exactly like Russian Orlan-10 drones’ — secretive craft that fly in packs of three to five.
To add further confusion, the White House has told the public that there is no evidence the sightings are drones at all, saying they appear to be simply ‘manned aircraft’ being operated lawfully.
US Army general Darryl Williams told DailyMail.com that it’s a situation that mirrors what has unfolded at American/NATO bases across Europe that are known to supply arms to Ukraine.
New Jersey residents and local officials are demanding answers as reports of mysterious drones flying over the state have climbed into the thousands
Trump joined bipartisan calls to figure out the source of the flying objects as Phil Murphy, the Democrat governor of New Jersey, wrote directly to Biden Friday
And retired police lieutenant and intelligence analyst Tim McMillan told DailyMail.com that the descriptions of the UFOs in Jersey ‘sound exactly like Russian Orlan-10 drones’ — secretive craft that fly in packs of three to five.
Lt McMillan and other experts have noted that the New Jersey sightings circled around Picatinny Arsenal, home of the US Army’s CCDC Armaments Center, which is responsible for manufacturing and supplying Ukraine with artillery ammunition.
These experts suggest that Russia could be carrying out an intelligence-gathering mission known as ‘ferreting’, meant to intentionally trigger and test their foreign rival’s airspace defense procedures and response time.
Or Russia could simply be spying on allies of Ukraine who are aiding the fight against Russia’s occupation of its southeastern regions, including Donetsk and Mariupol.
On Tuesday, Congress asked an FBI assistant director with the bureau’s Critical Incident Response Group, Robert Wheeler, if these drones posed a threat to public safety.
‘There is nothing that is known that would lead me to say that,’ Wheeler told Congress, ‘but we just don’t know. And that’s the concerning part.’
The Biden administration has also pushed back on claims by Republican lawmakers that the drones are being operated by any one of America’s foreign adversaries — including claims that the flights originate from an Iranian ‘mothership’ offshore.
‘No indication at this time that it’s a foreign adversary or a foreign actor,’ The White House’s national security communications advisor John Kirby told NewsNation’s Kellie Meyer. ‘The FBI is looking at this. DOJ is looking at this.’
The flying objects (example above) are larger than drones used by hobbyists, witnesses have noted, raising questions about their proximity to critical infrastructure and sensitive sites
‘I know the Department of Defense, when it affects or comes near a military base, they’re looking at this,’ Kirby added. ‘In some cases, the investigation has led to a revelation that it’s actually manned aircraft and not drones at all.’
‘So, I can’t tell you definitively exactly what we’re talking about here,’ he said. ‘So each one is going to be a little bit different.’
In New Jersey, the drones’ talent for evading their federal and local law enforcement pursuers has frustrated Governor Murphy and government investigators alike.
‘We’re not getting good characteristics of the drone,’ the head of the Ocean County, NJ Sheriffs Office drone unit, Sergeant Kevin Fennessy said.
And, in fact, NJ officials and residents have also seen drones that do not resemble fixed-wing aircraft deepening the mystery of the craft’s origins and intent.
‘We had one the other night that, as we’re watching it, it just shuts the lights off and it’s gone,’ Sgt Fennessy told The New York Times, ‘pure darkness.’
But the drone unit chief did tell the paper that he estimates that the mysterious drones are roughly double the size of the drones in his fleet: not too far from the Russian Orlan-10’s max capacity of 33lbs as compared to most commercial drones used by law enforcement.
Ocean County Sheriff Michael Mastronardy told Asbury Park Press on Monday that his team estimates the invading drones are three to four feet long, although another law enforcement agency has reported one drone that was as large as eight feet long.
Despite federal and state officials’ assurances, other local police, like the chief of police for the New Jersey borough of Florham Park, are convinced that the drones pose a serious threat.