December 14, 2024 - 1:00pm
The US east coast state of New Jersey has been awash with thousands of reports of strange aerial drones over the past three weeks. Local residents have recorded dozens of videos showing strange-looking drones slowly transiting airspace before disappearing. The drones have been reported near critical infrastructure including nuclear facilities, military bases, President-elect Donald Trumpâs Bedminster golf resort, and numerous residential neighbourhoods.
Neither the US government nor New Jersey state authorities seem to know whatâs going on. This has sparked concern that a foreign adversary such as China, Iran or Russia is engaged in clandestine surveillance as part of preparation for a future Pearl Harbour-style surprise attack if war ever breaks out over Taiwan or against Nato. Some have even suggested that the drones might be UFOs of the strangest kind: that roughly 0.1% of UFOs which very likely constitute an intelligently controlled unknown technology not operated by any Earth nation.
But whatâs really happening?
The most likely answer is a few different things. One near certain explanation is that some of these sightings represent misidentification of otherwise normal aircraft. Many sightings have been reported in areas of heavy aircraft traffic. Depending on weather conditions and spatial awareness, a small or large plane can appear to look very different in varied situations. The same principle applies to astronomical phenomena such as the Starlink satellite network and stars. Mass sighting situations such as this one also tend to generate a high number of false reports as individuals seek to âjoin the clubâ of an exciting, unexplained event.
Still, this canât explain everything thatâs happening.
Itâs also likely that a large number of these drones represent classified US military property. One expert has observed that some of the stranger drones videoed at close range match the characteristics of an in-development US Navy reconnaissance and logistics drone. Intriguing comments by private contractors at SkyGear Solutions, which operates sensitive drone programmes, lend further credence to this possibility (SkyGear did not respond to a request for clarifying comment). As do related airspace notices.
Considering the US militaryâs obsessive penchant for secrecy and its concern with preparing for what it presumes will be a major war with China over Taiwan before the year 2030, the Pentagon may be desperate to avoid drawing attention to its own activities. Replenishment-at-sea is one of the Navyâs very highest development priorities. Itâs absolutely accurate to say that the US continues to operate both manned and unmanned highly classified aircraft unknown to the public.
Assuming that this is the case, however, the federal government is dancing on thin ice with public trust.
Numerous officials from the White House to the Pentagon to the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security continue to insist that they donât know whatâs going on. They simply insist drones donât appear to pose a threat. And while some of these organisations may be being kept in the dark so as to provide them with plausible public deniability, senior officials at the Pentagon must know whatâs happening.
As an extension, the White House has the responsibility to ask and find out if it does not know. The government interest in keeping classified programmes secret must now be balanced against the real fear of millions of Americans that the security of their families is at risk. The governmentâs ânothing to see hereâ narrative is not sustainable. Especially since some officials such as White House national security spokesman John Kirby (a retired Navy Admiral) have made comments that are plainly at odds with what individual military bases are reporting.
This is not to say, however, that everything can easily be explained by secret US government programmes. The increasing public outcry and associated Congressional concern over these incidents would suggest that the Pentagon would have at least temporarily suspended these drone flights. Continuing the flights now only risks their classified qualities becoming public. And if someone senior is insisting that the flights continue, they are risking their career against future Congressional inquiries and media reporting.
That said, itâs also possible that China is responsible for some of these drones. The Chinese intelligence services run a truly vast intelligence gathering operation on US soil â one far beyond the FBIâs means of stopping it. Beijing has hundreds of Chinese intelligence officers operating without diplomatic cover on US soil. Beijing also has thousands of Chinese intelligence agents serving it for varied reasons of patriotism and pressure. Moreover, drone surveillance has been a sustained and growing focus for Chinese espionage.
A rash of strange drone sightings at Virginiaâs East Coast Langley Air Force base last year, for example, were likely the result of Chinese intelligence efforts to gather radar and other electronic signature data on the highly advanced F-22 fighter jets stationed at that base. A wave of recent drone sightings at a US Air Force base in the United Kingdom might also be explained by Chinese or, more likely, Russian drone surveillance activity.
Yet, considering Chinaâs deep preparations for cyber-attacks on US civilian infrastructure in the event of war, it is possible that some of the New Jersey drone flights can be explained by a similar interest in identifying infrastructure targets that would jeopardise power and water supplies to New York City. It is equally possible that China might be operating drones to spy on the aforementioned US military drones!
That leaves us with the 0.1% UFO factor. While there is little corroborated video evidence to suggest that any of the New Jersey drones meet this criteria, it cannot be ruled out. One facet of the UFO phenomena has been its tendency to sometimes involve multi-week sightings in otherwise random locales that do not reflect the phenomenaâs tendency to fixate on nuclear facilities and other high-technology sites. And mimicking drone technology might be a good way to hide in plain sight.
Ultimately, itâs possible and perhaps even likely that a confluence of all these factors is responsible for what Garden State citizens are seeing.
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SubscribeA lot of us are old enough to remember the boom in UFO sightings in the mid to late 1980s, when people reported odd triangular UFOs that didn’t look like any airplane they had ever seen. Turns out an awful lot of them ended up being the F-117A, an aircraft with a sharp triangular profile that looked nothing like anything else previously flown by the US or anybody else, but we didn’t know that until 1992, when they were effectively deployed in the Gulf War and subsequently revealed to the public.
I have three thoughts on the drone sightings near Trump related properties, one being fairly innocent and the other two less so, one of which is mentioned directly by the author another implied, and a third he doesn’t mention. The first possibility, the innocent one, is that these are in fact Trump’s own security drones. Given that two attempts have been already to assassinate the man, a higher level of security definitely seems wise. These drones might be either Secret Service drones watching for threats that the government denies or Trump may have sensibly hired his own private security providers which might or might not be operating with Pentagon approval and again, telling people what they are would rather defeat the purpose.
The second possibility is that the author’s theory about foreign adversaries spying on the new administration is correct. The problem with this theory is that these aren’t properties that have military significance beyond Trump himself. In any open conflict, it’s doubtful that Trump would ever be residing in any of these properties that are, at the end of the day, just hotels. It wouldn’t make a lot of sense for China or Russia to place significant foreign assets into surveilling these targets. Moreover, a critical element of spying is not being noticed while doing it. There’s been so many sightings that it has been noticed, and people like this author are already questioning whether Chinese or Russian spies might be involved. If this is an attempt at spy work, it’s not a very good one.
The third possibility, the one that makes me rather ill to even consider, is that the drones come from independent sources within the military without authorization from anybody. In other words, there are elements of the military covertly acting against Trump, either to catch some illegal activity that they can then use against him politically, or even more sinister, to assess the possibility of an assassination attempt or in preparation for a military coups. This is not something we are accustomed to in the USA, but a lot of precedents have been broken lately, some by Trump and even more by the establishment’s obsessive attempts to stop him. Further, several high ranking retired military personnel have made some very strong criticisms of Trump in the media. It’s rare for high ranking military people, even retired military, to make public political comments in their capacity as former officers. If retired military personnel are willing to make such statements, it stands to reason that a lot of current military members share those sentiments without voicing them. This author mentions the possibility of the Pentagon doing things without the knowledge of the administration or Homeland Security, but I don’t think he gives the implications of that enough thought or consideration. He seems to assume it’s an innocent case of different agencies not communicating with each other. That’s plausible I suppose, but one would think that’s something that would have been resolved with a few phone calls. Surely the top brass at the Pentagon should be able to figure out what their people are doing so long as everyone is following procedure. The only way they wouldn’t is if somebody on the inside with knowledge of the inner workings was covering up their activities or the entire military command is in on it. If people at the Pentagon or the military itself is deliberately doing things that are not authorized by the administration and nobody else in the government knows about, well, that implies that the military is acting independently of the government, with its own political agency, like the military of Pakistan, Egypt, Turkey or a number of other autocratic and semi-democratic nations, where the threat of military takeover is very real. This is definitely not OK.
On the whole, I think the first possibility is both the most harmless and the most likely. The second possibility I see as highly improbable given how little sense it makes strategically speaking. The third possibility I regard as remote, but it shouldn’t be discounted out of hand or ignored because of the seriousness of the implications.
The desperation to keep Trump from taking office in January must not be underestimated.
What are the odds of Trump serving his full four years in office? 50%? Less than that maybe?
Well, the MSM seems to enjoy comparing Trump to Hitler, and Hitler survived I believe eleven assassination attempts, so I think it’s better than you’d guess. Assassination is hard and the other side hasn’t exactly got a great track record of competence. They’ve failed to stop him politically, failed to send him to jail, failed to discredit him, and probably made him more popular in the attempts. Why should they be any better at assassinations than they are at politics or persuading voters?
Might depend on how much national security forces are involved? They didn’t exactly cover themselves in glory when Trump was on the campaign trail.
I think the deep state would like JD Vance even less than Trump. I think part of the reason Trump has ideological, very focused appointees like Vivek and Elon, Tulsi, Kash and RFK Jr is an insurance policy. Basically if they kill Trump these poeple will go after them even harder. That being said – if I was Trump Iâd have private security in addition to the Secret Service.
No, much better – because killing him wouldn’t change the administration’s agenda. Trump’s choice of Vance as VP was very shrewd.
Theyâre not drones. They are mimicking them and fixed wing aircraft with strobes and nav lights ⊠but they are all wrong. They are also all over the planet right now.
Ouch! Words such as âlikelyâ and âassumeâ have to do quite a lot of work in this piece. Itâs almost as though the author knows no more about whatâs actually going on in NJ than the rest of us.
Does anyone know what’s going on in Jersey? I mean, in general, not just the drone thing.
âYou gotta problem with that?!â
( New Jersey state motto )
Aliens!
…goodfellas!
Let’s first wait till they introduce themselves and then decide! đ
These drone sightings are a handy way of generating public fear of a drone defence “gap”. A gap that can only be addressed by the renewal of soon to expire surveillance legislation and a bill to increase military drone funding. The passage of which becomes much easier when Senators and House Representatives are being hassled by concerned voters…
Surely the US military and CIA would never do such a thing? Well, they concocted a Soviet “missile gap” panic in the 60s. It became an electoral issue that possibly helped swing the Presidency for JFK. And it was a lie. There was no missile gap. The opposite was true, the US led the USSR.
In office, Kennedy became increasingly concerned about the lack of government control of the “military-industrial complex”. No less of a statesman than President and General Eisenhower had coined the phrase and prophetically warned the public of the subversion of the government by the military-industrial complex in his farewell speech in 1961. Eisenhower’s military-industrial complex is unlikely to have closed itself down in the intervening years.
Please see my post. If you witness what I witnessed last night, it becomes quite disconcerting.
Looks like your post has disappeared like a New Jersey drone.
Will check your post when it appears – hopefully soon.
Btw, I consistently recommend people whose posts have been removed to write to UnHerd about this. Usually it helps.
Their moderation system is a disaster and a big stain of their reputation. Once, my post got marinated for 16 (!) hours, which made it completely pointless.
Am not going to resume my annual subscription unless they improve the situation soon…
Anyway, am really curious to read your post – I have been enjoying your comments since the beginning of 2020.
No sign of it as yet. Iâm intrigued as to know why.
There’s no logic in the way the moderation system functions on this site.
Absolutely innocuous comments disappear for many hours on end, while some outrageous posts remain untouched.
I am subscribed to many online publications – in some cases as a paying subscriber, like here, in some cases using the free-of-charge version.
Nowhere moderation is as disastrous as in UnHerd. Actually, UnHerd is the only place when my comments are taken down – and I am a paying subscriber here, writing under my real name. Mind-boggling, indeed…
Itâs been 22 hours since you posted this, but your original post is still missing, unfortunately.
Maybe you could re-post it ? This might helpâŠ
I saw a very bright light hanging in the sky out to sea above Hermanus last night. Other people witnessed it as well, including my husband. It wasnât moving that I could see so wasnât a satellite or aircraft, or a close drone. In fact the light was big enough to indicate that it was very high and far out to sea. Very weird.
Your comment was restored – one day after you posted it.
As for phenomenon you described, some years ago I witnessed something similar. My brother was there, too. It was at daytime, so we could clearly see that it was not a plane and a satellite would hardly likely be visible in the daylight. It was fascinating, I must say.
Still donât know what it was, but definitely it was a highly unusual sight.
None of the more or less conventional explanations proffered in this article make any sense. I suggest that everyone take the time to read “In Plain Sight,” by the respected Australian investigative journalist Ross Coulthart. (Perhaps Emily J can interview him?) There is some very, very weird shit happening, and it is only going to get worse. The veil between the dimensions is tearing before our eyes.
Another possibility could be Elon Musk or another tech company testing a drone based, highly flexible and configurable communication system (a terrestrial Skylink if you like) which could be deployed post an emp attack.
Do you think that in this case Trump would call for shooting down the drones?
On the basis of that’s exactly what’s likely to happen to them in various scenarios, I’d say quite a sensible call.
I’m not saying that are, just simply positing a hypothesis.
Thank you for replying Ian. But I am afraid I didnât quite understand your point. Maybe you could elaborate on it?
Thank you in advance for this đ
Corrigendum đ
Sorry, had a rather tough day at work and didnât understand your reply.
Now itâs clear.
Btw, probably you have seen it already, DHS, FBI, FAA, and DoD issued a joint statement that these were all different kinds of drones and there is nothing to worry about.
Took them some time, I would sayâŠ.
Intriguing.