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We lost The ability to protect our airspace. We have a complacent and incompetent Biden administration that has set our drone industry back years. President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration can't come soon enough. We need to reform our drone defenses nationwide. Our national security infrastructure is not prepared to defend against what is coming. Or even what's already here.
Suspicious drone sightings have been reported in 10 counties across New Jersey, And also over Staten Island. The flights caused concern among residents and politicians. The mysterious plane was seen near the largest reservoir in the state.
However, White House National Security Communications Director John Kirby said on Thursday, December 12, that the government had “I couldn't confirm All visual sightings reported.” He added that the investigation is “ongoing.”
A Chinese national accused of flying a drone over a US air base raises red flags
Federal and state officials are unhelpful. The Pentagon says they are not US military drones, and the White House says the federal government does not know what drones are. But at the same time, they allegedly do not pose a serious threat. What? How do they know they're not a threat if they don't know who they are and who's controlling them?
This photo provided by Brian Glenn shows what appears to be several drones flying over Bernardsville, New Jersey, on Thursday, December 5, 2024. (Brian Glenn/TMX via AP, File)
Drones hover above Some of America's most important infrastructure. They even fly over our nuclear sites. The public can no longer separate fact from fiction, and for good reason. There is paranoia. This leads to more views. Citizens believe that everything in the air is now a drone.
Americans have every right to be concerned. Drones have become a major weapon The war in Ukraine and now in Syria. Both Russia and Ukraine are reportedly producing hundreds of thousands of combat drones. Iran or its proxies have repeatedly used drones to attack our ships from many countries, including the United States, as well as our ally Israel.
This is not the only threat. Most people don't realize how much intelligence data can be collected using sensors attached to a drone from just a short flight. They can collect data in ways you can't imagine. The biggest intelligence risk is that these drones are actually collecting our data and sending it back to a foreign adversary.
Many people think that drones are just high-powered cameras in the sky, but that's nothing. You can put all kinds of sensors and special payloads on these drones to collect data. You can collect cell phone signals or pick up IP addresses and different frequencies in the air and track nuclear radiation. All the drones have to do is fly over sensitive locations for seconds, and the damage is done.
I've been saying for a while that we're going to have a catastrophic incident in the United States if we don't solve this problem now.
Confused reactions from citizens and the government
My first concern is that some civilians might take matters into their own hands and fire shots into the air at the next potential drone they see. It could be civilian aircraft, a satellite or a legitimate drone. But what if it isn't? If a drone is flying over American cities with a bomb attached to it, there's not much officials can do about it under current law.
In fact, the law says that if anyone tries to shoot down that drone now, they will go to jail. However, the federal government refuses to shoot down these drones on its own. What should we wait for, a drone to launch an attack on our citizens?
Photos taken in the Bay Shore section of the Toms River of what appear to be large drones hovering in the area at high altitudes in New Jersey on Sunday, December 8, 2024. The drones appear to be well above the altitude allowed by Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulations ) 400 feet high. (Doug Hood/Asbury Park Press)
One theory is that these sightings are part of a secret military testing project that got out of control and now the government is afraid to admit it. If so, someone should be fired. We have tested numerous drones over US government facilities in partnership with the military before, and this kind of secrecy is not how we do business.
Even if we don't explain to locals exactly what we're testing on drones and why, there will be a great deal of coordination of those flights at all levels of law enforcement. If anything gets out of control, for example public hysteria like this, the process will be stopped immediately.
Regardless of who these alleged planes belong to, our government's lack of transparency and inability to address the problem has created a crisis. This is not acceptable.
Federal, state, and local government officials also need to stop saying there is no known threat unless they really know it. It is a disservice to the American people. Because I know first-hand the damage drones can do.
Lack of understanding from our officials
Based on my personal experience working with counter-drone technology from around the world, our law enforcement authorities lack understanding of this technology. This is not their fault. It is the fault of our national leadership.
We must give law enforcement the tools to quickly detect and stop drones, and we should have done so years ago. It's not good enough to increase funding for local law enforcement to acquire more radar technology to track and monitor drones. Law enforcement doesn't even know what to buy now. They are uneducated about the drone threats we face. American technology is not in a fit state to respond to this, foreign technology from our allies is.
What is even more troubling is that I realize from this situation more than ever now that our law enforcement agencies do not know the rules of engagement to monitor and shoot down rogue drones over the United States, and that is the biggest problem. No one knows who is responsible or who the competent authorities are.
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The FAA is certainly responsible for and responsible for this confusion. Because they have held back the US drone and drone community for years with outdated laws and the mismanagement that led to it. This must change. And those who sit at the helm of these agencies have no will to properly change budgets to address the threat.
Fire at the oil base in Proletarsk, Rostov Region (Russia), after two drone attacks on the morning of August 18, 2024. (Image courtesy of East2West)
There is no drive within the upper levels of our government to keep pace with modern-day threats, and our infrastructure is not designed to do so. We have the technical ability to detect and shoot down dangerous drones. We just have arrogant people at various levels of our government who think they understand until something like this happens.
This is easily solvable
Drones are not undetectable. It's easy to find out what's going on if the right experts are involved. This is what bothers me most. We have the technology to monitor, track and defeat this threat now. Every drone in the air has a unique fingerprint and signature. We can track it all.
There are many available countermeasures we can take, including layering various tactical and strategic anti-drone radar systems, jamming the drone's frequencies, or hijacking it in the air and controlling it. We have audio detection systems. We have the ability to have drones hit other drones in the air now. We've even directed power systems to fry a drone in the air.
Federal, state, and local government officials also need to stop saying there is no known threat unless they really know it. It is a disservice to the American people. Because I know first-hand the damage drones can do.
But these are not widely disseminated because we are not prepared for how to deal with this. Our law enforcement agencies lack the tools and understanding to protect us.
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However, our government has a lot of explaining to do. I would like to tell you that I have a hard time believing that our government doesn't really know anything about this, but from what I've seen in the drone industry, it's completely plausible that they have no idea what's going on and are embarrassed to admit it. He – she.
They should be.
