Federal, state, and local authorities have not been able to corroborate any claimed visual sightings of mysterious drones over New Jersey, according to a top White House spokesperson. In addition, authorities have assessed that many of the purported uncrewed aerial systems spotted overhead are actually innocuous crewed aircraft like airliners. At the same time, the U.S. government does not appear to have collected any imagery of its own of reported drones in the skies above the state and cannot conclusively categorize all of the reported sightings.
All of this underscores The War Zone‘s previous reporting about how there may still be a credible national security issue unfolding, but the discourse around the situation has been blurred heavily by hysteria fueled by poor government messaging, as well as social media accounts and major part of the mainstream media that are propagating sightings of typical aircraft and labeling them as mysterious drones.
John Kirby, White House National Security Communications Advisor, spoke directly about the reported drone sightings over and around New Jersey at a routine press conference today.
“We have no evidence at this time that the reported drone sightings pose a national security or a public safety threat, or have a foreign nexus. The Department of Homeland Security and the FBI are investigating these sightings, and they’re working closely with state and local law enforcement to provide resources using numerous detection methods to better understand their origin,” Kirby said. “Using very sophisticated electronic detection technologies provided by federal authorities, we have not been able to – and neither have state or local law enforcement authorities – corroborate any of the reported visual sightings.”
“To the contrary, upon review of available imagery, it appears that many of the reported sightings are actually manned aircraft that are being operated lawfully,” he continued. “The United States Coast Guard is providing support to the state of New Jersey and has confirmed that there is no evidence of any foreign-based involvement from coastal vessels, and, importantly, there are no reported or confirmed drone sightings in any restricted airspace.”
“I’m not aware that we have U.S. government-produced imagery ourselves, but as I said in my opening statement, we have certainly done a thorough analysis of the existing imagery,” Kirby did add later on in the press conference in response to follow-up questions. “The analysis, thus far, in an investigation that is ongoing, has not revealed any national security or malicious intent or criminal activity.”
What other data U.S. authorities may be examining in their ongoing investigation, beyond that collected using the aforementioned “sophisticated electronic detection technologies,” is unclear. The full scope of capabilities being employed to try to detect and identify possible drones over New Jersey is unknown, as are how those assets as being specifically tasked in response to individual reports.
It’s worth noting that basic counter-drone systems use electronic surveillance measures to detect the radio emissions from drones to detect, classify and, in some instances, geolocate them. More advanced but common systems use microwave radars with the ability to also detect non emitting drones and provide better location data. All systems are often tied with an infrared/electro-optical camera system for visual identification and to help searching for drone targets, as well.
“I would remind you, we’re at the beginning here, not the end,” he acknowledged. “There’s a lot more work to be done, and we’re working closely with state and local authorities to gain more information.”
“I can also tell you that if the President, as Commander in Chief, believed, based on the information that he’d been given that there was a national security threat at play here, or even a public safety threat at play here, he would issue the appropriate directives to not only law enforcement, but perhaps even the military, if that was needed,” Kirby stressed. “I can’t tell you definitively. I cannot characterize for you definitively what these sightings are.”
The DHS and FBI also issued a joint statement, seen below, today roughly to the same effect.
Reports of possible drone sightings in the skies above various parts of New Jersey, which The War Zone was first to report on, have been coming in since November 18. However, Kirby’s comments follow a particularly fever-pitched past 48 hours that included a member of Congress claiming on national television that the drones were coming from an “Iranian mothership” offshore, as you can read in our past reporting here. The Pentagon had already shot down that particular assertion yesterday.
There has already been considerable and clear evidence, such as the picture of what is obviously an airliner in the social media post below, that the vast majority of the reporting drone ‘sightings’ have actually been people spotting commercial aircraft and other completely regular air traffic over New Jersey. An avalanche of these videos and images have been spread on social media with ridiculous claims attached to them.
Kirby’s statements, although still guarded in terms of drawing conclusions, are clearly a meant to try to add some clarity to the malestrom of information swirling around in the media and on social channels. The muddled messaging from the U.S. government to date on the New Jersey sightings has drawn public criticism and push-back from officials, especially those within the state.
As The War Zone‘s editor-in-chief Tyler Rogoway wrote on X yesterday:
“The main stream media has no clue what they are talking about on this issue, none, and most outlets largely don’t seem to care. Local officials are very poor sources in terms of quality info on this issue. This is not a dig on them at all, it’s just there is not an in-house knowledge base there that understands it, just facets of it, not anywhere near a whole picture. This is a very complex issue with many technological facets. You don’t just call in a ‘drone guy’ and get briefed. We have ran into this issue many times.”
“The U.S. gov messaging on this has been so absurdly poor and frankly dangerous … but that isn’t all that surprising. This has been the way it has been for years, but at least the denials have finally evaporated.”
“Nearly every video I have seen has pointed to mass hysteria not a drone invasion of massive scale, with airliners, private jets, and helicopters being portrayed as mysterious objects. These videos are peddled for engagement by a growing number of online accounts. This is very unfortunate, because there does seem to be something going on here, but zero critical thought, even on a most basic level of the ‘evidence’ only fuels rumors and fear. It also clogs the channels for relevant evidence to break through. This is true on a public consumption and governmental/investigative level. It also puts aircraft in danger.”
In addition, lawmakers in Washington have expressed their concern over the ongoing drone scare.
“As you know, since late November, communities in the New York City area and northern New Jersey have reported several incidents of unattributable drone sightings at night, alarming both residents and local law enforcement. According to public reports, residents have reported that some of these drones are larger in size compared to other commercially available drone technology,” Senators Cory Booker, Chuck Schumer, Kirsten Gillibrand, and Andy Kim, wrote in an open letter FBI, DHS, and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) today. The four lawmakers, who are all Democrats, collectively represent New Jersey and New York in the Senate.
“Some of these drones have been observed maneuvering near critical infrastructure and sensitive locations, including reservoirs and military installations,” that letter, which called for additional briefings on the situation, added. “In addition to potential privacy concerns raised by these aerial systems, we are also especially concerned about how these drones may harm public safety, especially given recent reports that a medevac helicopter was prevented from transporting a seriously injured patient for care because of the presence of these drones.”
Kirby said he stood by his statement, including that there have been “no reported or confirmed drone sightings in any restricted airspace,” when asked about this portion of the letter.
At his press conference today, Kirby was still quick to acknowledge that no matter what is or is not being seen in the skies over New Jersey, it highlights worrisome gaps in the U.S. government’s ability to respond to ever-growing drone threats.
“While there is no known malicious activity occurring, the reported sightings there do, however, highlight a gap in authorities,” he said. “So we urge Congress to pass important legislation that will extend and expand existing counter drone authorities so that we are better prepared to identify and mitigate any potential threats to airports or other critical infrastructure, and so that state and local authorities are provided all the tools that they need to respond to such threats, as well.”
The War Zone has written extensively about the often obtuse maze of laws, regulations, and rules that govern who can take what kind of action against uncrewed aerial threats within the U.S. homeland and when. This topic just recently came to the fore again with the roll-out of a new Pentagon-wide counter-drone strategy meant to, in part, streamline the U.S. military’s ability to act within the authorities it has already and better interface with other federal, state, and local partners.
At the same time, as The War Zone has been sounding the alarm for years, the dangers posed by ever-more capable drones are not new, and the U.S. government as a whole has been slow to acknowledge this and continues to lag in taking steps to address the threats. As we also highlight regularly there has been and continues to be substantial overlap in reported sightings of what are now often called unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) and drones. Many purported UAPs have been later assessed to likely be uncrewed aerial systems.
Overall, as already noted, the bulk of the U.S. government messaging to date on the New Jersey sightings has been, at best, muddled and has already drawn public criticism and push-back from officials, especially those within the state.
Kirby’s comments today, although brief, do offer important additional details about what is understood to have been going on over New Jersey, but many questions still remain.
Contact the author: joe@twz.com