The Skies Appear to be Filled with Drones, And People are Freaking Out
“If you see a drone in your air over your home, you should not have to shake an eight ball to see what it is. There ought to be better technology.”
“While the benefits of drone technology are widely recognized when used responsibly and transparently, the lack of information and clarity regarding these operations has caused fear and frustration among our constituents.”
“I remain deeply concerned that [my state] has consistently sought information from federal partners, and to date, the information shared with the [state] has been insufficient.”
The first quote is from U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer (NY-D), who held up a Magic 8-Ball toy for dramatic effect.
The second quote is from a letter signed by 21 New Jersey mayors demanding investigation and answers.
And as for the third quote—that is Governor Glenn Youngkin and the state is the Commonwealth of Virginia.
Clearly something is going on. People are getting upset, and they are letting their elected officials know about it. But some are not just calling for an investigation, some want action. A U.S. senator from Connecticut wants the federal government to not just investigate, but also to “take them out of the skies.”
And then there’s U.S. Representative Chris Smith (NJ-R), who shows how when an explanation is absent, the alarmism is ripe to swell quickly: “The elusive maneuvering of these drones suggests a major military power sophistication that begs the question whether they have been deployed to test our defense capabilities—or worse—by violent dictatorships, perhaps maybe Russia, or China, or Iran, or North Korea.”
To be clear: there is no indication that the mysterious sightings pose a danger of harm to individuals, much less that they are the coordinated actions by nation states to perform espionage or otherwise attack the United States. However, there is growing concern about the real risks drones can present, as demonstrated by their use in the war in Ukraine and other areas, as well as the fact that countermeasures do not appear to be keeping pace with destructive capabilities.
The first news stories of heavy drone reports in the New York and New Jersey areas began in mid-November and have persisted since then. The FBI, U.S. Defense Department, and U.S. Department of Homeland Security began investigating. On Monday, National Security Council (NSC) spokesperson John Kirby echoed what federal sources had been saying, that most of the reported sightings were of commercial aircraft, while some were of smaller manned aircraft flying lawfully. He also said hobbyist drones and law enforcement drones had been reported. He even speculated that people were mistaking stars for drones. Of the more than 5,000 tips that law enforcement had received concerning drone sightings during recent weeks, only 100 were incidents that required additional inquiry, according to Kirby.
But none of these explanations would seem to address two oddities about the drone reports of the last month. First, it does not explain the sheer number of sightings, though it is possible that initial news reports made more people look up into the night skies who could then mistake commercial aircraft for additional sightings. Second, some of the objects in the sky have been larger than what is typical for an off-the-shelf hobby drone, plus they have not been far enough away to be a mistaken commercial flight.
And when you have incomplete explanations, you get supposition, such as Representative Smith’s theory of an adversary testing defense capabilities. And you get entire articles on news sites providing speculation, such as “What’s in the sky? Experts speculate on mysterious drones flying over NJ” from the New York Fox affiliate. In that article, one expert explains the size, the increase of sightings, and the maneuverability by suggesting a company is experimenting with flying cars.
While there are regularly news reports of illegal drone activity—two men were arrested for flying hobby drones too close to Boston’s Logan Airport during the past weekend as one example, while another example was the weekend closure of airspace due to drone activity around Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio—so far, federal sources have said there is no evidence of any illegal activity with the mystery reports along the East Coast.
Kirby said there were more than one million drones registered with the Federal Aviation Administration. “That is the ecosystem we are dealing with and it is legal and proper,” he said. “With the technology landscape evolving as it is, we have every expectation that the number of drones over the United States will increase over time.”
Last spring, the ASIS Foundation released a report that looked at the global evolution of autonomous vehicles—including drones—assessing their uses and capabilities and the limited regulatory framework that exists.
