The U.S. Army’s Picatinny Arsenal in northern New Jersey is working with local, state, and federal partners to obtain more information about mysterious drone activity over the facility and in the surrounding area, a spokesman told us. His comments were in response to questions we asked about reports of strange drone activity near the facility that emerged on social media overnight.
The military installation is home to several important armament development organizations, including the Joint Center of Excellence for Guns and Ammunition, the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command (DEVCOM) Armaments Center, and one of the Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center (ARDEC)’s research and development laboratories.
The reported drone activity comes in the wake of a drone incursion over Langley Air Force Base last December that we were the first to report. You can read more about that in our initial story about those incidents here. Langley is just a high-profile example of an increasingly concerning pattern of peculiar drone operations around sensitive facilities.
“We received reports of what were believed to be drones flying over Picatinny Arsenal, in addition to other locations in Morris County…on the evening of November 18, 2024,” facility spokesman Timothy Rider told us in an email Tuesday afternoon. “Picatinny Arsenal organizations were not involved in UAV flight operations on that date. We are working with several of our local, state, and federal partner organizations to obtain more information on the reported activity.”
One Twitter account claimed that drones flew over Picatinny Arsenal.
“We remind everyone that it is unlawful to fly UAVs over Picatinny Arsenal and any other federal military installation without prior authorization,” Rider warned.
Several social media accounts posted video and images Tuesday of lights seen over northern New Jersey they attribute to drones of an unknown origin. However, they are low-quality and it is impossible to discern exactly what was seen and whether they were even drones.
“Unusual activity reported over Morris County, NJ: multiple large drones spotted flying from the Somerset County border northward and back,” the @NJerzyFireAlert Twitter account reported. “Law enforcement has been advised to notify their communications centers of any sightings.”
New Jersey State Police “aviation is reported to be in the area tracking the drones,” the account, which monitors police and fire activities in the area, added. “An Army Black Hawk helicopter was also tracked on flight radar in the area. Multiple reports of the drones being spotted in Madison, Morris Township, and Mendham.”
There were several posts of the above video with differing claims.
As this was taking place, a New Jersey State Police helicopter was spotted traveling down to Picatinny Arsenal and flying several orbits over it, according to an online flight tracking website. Rider, the facility spokesman, could not immediately tell us if there was any connection to the drone incidents it is asking partner organizations about.
Sgt. Boris Sanchez with the Dover Police Department, told us that as of Tuesday afternoon, his agency has not received any reports about drones flying in the area last night or early this morning.
Meanwhile, about 25 miles to the north, drones are being used in efforts to fight a large forest fire along the New Jersey-New York border. It is unclear what, if any connection, there is between those and what was posted on social media, but that seems unlikely considering the distance involved, unless they were being confused with manned aircraft.
“New York State Police Drones continue to play a vital role in the ongoing battle against the Jennings Creek Wildfire, which has now consumed 5,300 acres along the New York-New Jersey border,” the Drone-XL website reported on Monday. “The fire, which initially challenged responders with only 10% containment, has now reached 88% containment on the New York side and 90% containment on the New Jersey side, thanks in part to advanced drone surveillance capabilities.”
New York State Police Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) pilots “remain at the forefront of the firefighting operation, using thermal imaging to identify hotspots and guide ground crews, according to Patch. “This aerial intelligence has proven especially valuable as the fire zone has expanded and conditions have evolved.”
Drones operating on the New York side of the fire did not cross into New Jersey, a New York State Police spokesman told us.
“New York State Police is the only agency authorized to operate Unmanned Aerial Systems on the New York State side of the wildfire,” Beau Duffy said. “We don’t have any evidence that our UAS have crossed into New Jersey.”
Nobody has sought information about the New Jersey drone sightings from the New York State Police, Duffy added.
The New York State Department of Military and Naval Affairs (DMNA) told us that they were flying UH-60 Black Hawk and CH-47 Chinook helicopters to help fight the fire, but they were not operating drones in that effort.
Eli Roberts, who chases storms, captured extensive video of those helicopter flights in operation, which you can see below.
We have reached out to several federal, state and local agencies for additional details and will update this story with any pertinent information provided.
It remains unclear exactly what people were seeing in the sky last evening over and near Picatinny Arsenal, however, the installation is clearly taking reports of drone activity seriously enough to contact several other partner organizations to find answers. This fits with a major change in how seriously military installations and critical infrastructure facilities are taking these kinds of events. For years they were largely seen as puzzling and action came slow, if at all. Now, with the glaring threat posed by drones of various types and their proliferation in conflicts overseas, as well as the increase in intrusion events at home and abroad, and especially after the events over Langley AFB last winter, they are being looked at with much more concern. This now includes accelerating the deployment of military capabilities to identify and defeat drone systems near these key areas, which you can read about here.
We will update you when we find out more details about this incident.
Contact the author: howard@thewarzone.com