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Mysterious New Jersey drone sightings prompt call for 'state of emergency'

theguardian.com

91–100 of 943 posts

Re: Mysterious New Jersey drone sightings prompt call for 'state of emergency'

#91
post #4

Bit concerning that no government agencies have figured out what’s going on, but hardly seems like there is a reason for a limited state of emergency given there is no known threat at all. My guess is a US company is gathering data and hasn’t admitted to do so without some type of licensing/etc

> Bit concerning that no government agencies have figured out what’s going on

I wouldn't be betting against this being a government agency. Anywhere between local cops and black/budgetless agencies you'd go to jail for even having heard of.

That, or maybe organised crime. A friend of mine used to have what turned out to be a high level drug dealer living/working a few doors up the street. They'd fly DJI drones off the balcony and hover them where they could monitor the roads leading in and out of the area, presumably watching for cops. One night an unexpectedly large amount of unmarked cars all converged on that property, followed about 90 seconds later by about a dozen fully lit up and sirening cop cars. The occupants of the first batch of unmarked cars swept up about 8 people running away when the lit up marked cars turned into the street.

Re: Mysterious New Jersey drone sightings prompt call for 'state of emergency'

#92

Those floating balloon things we saw previously, the ones which were shot down, I had a thought they could be used as floating drone platforms. Like the carrier in Starcraft. The whole thing can silently float for days, the drones can awake and deploy, surveil, return, then float away silently. It could then scuttle itself in the ocean where a waiting ship can salvage it.

It'd be a lot more subtle to just have a spy on the ground operating a drone from nearby, looking like just another careless hobbyist flying where they shouldn't be.

Small drones don't have much range, and balloons could have ended up hundreds of miles off target.

Re: Mysterious New Jersey drone sightings prompt call for 'state of emergency'

#93
post #4

Bit concerning that no government agencies have figured out what’s going on, but hardly seems like there is a reason for a limited state of emergency given there is no known threat at all. My guess is a US company is gathering data and hasn’t admitted to do so without some type of licensing/etc

[deleted]

Re: Mysterious New Jersey drone sightings prompt call for 'state of emergency'

#96
post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh, very much so some elements of mass hysteria. It took the better part of two weeks for authorities to recognize it, then it was "nothing to see here", then FBI is investigating. It sucks that one of our state representatives is out their claiming it's Iran and stoking further tensions. My personal feeling is if it was enemy drones, our military would have already taken them down. It's hard to imagine we'd let this…

> My personal feeling is if it was enemy drones, our military would have already taken them down I think you overestimate a few things here… the military isn’t constantly monitoring all airspace across the country for drone-sized objects and shooting things down if they don’t recognize them. Perhaps they should be as we enter this brave new world of drone-everything, but they don’t right now.

NJ has some of the leading research centers for the US military, our new president's second estate, and critical infrastructure for telecommunications. Reportedly drones were flying close to all of these spots. I would fully expect our military to be monitoring these parts of the country for drone-sized objects given how effective they have been in waging our wars the past 20 years. So yeah, it's a massive intelligence failure if these are combatant drones.

Re: Mysterious New Jersey drone sightings prompt call for 'state of emergency'

#97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If Ukraine is any indication you shoot them down with other drones.

Ukraine's capabilities in that domain are plausibly far more advanced that America's. Also - costs, casualties, & collateral damage may be far more acceptable in an active war zone, and against drones which are busy killing people & destroying valuables whenever they are not shot down.

Ukraine's capabilities mostly consist of ramming a cheap drone into an expensive one.

This is one of those times when the US has a Maginot Military - massively overpowered against traditional threats, inexperienced when dealing with something like this.

This is not a trivial problem. A cheap drone with a relatively small explosive payload flown into an air intake can take down a military aircraft and cause serious problems for an airliner or private jet.

An airfield is the ideal place to do that, because aircraft are most vulnerable during takeoff and landing.

A few people and a hundred drones launched from a few km away can significantly delay incoming and outgoing flights.

Equip the drones with weapons - or larger explosives - and it's potentially Pearl Harbour.

Re: Mysterious New Jersey drone sightings prompt call for 'state of emergency'

#98
post #86
post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you look at who is claiming espionage, I don’t think it’s intended to be a plausible explanation - just an excuse to further agitate.

[flagged]

The Guardian is publication reporting the information. If you click the link at the top, open the website, and read the article, you will see who is quoted as making the claims.

Re: Mysterious New Jersey drone sightings prompt call for 'state of emergency'

#99

The idea that mystery nefarious drone operators would be sending up things with blinking red and green navigation lights on them is patently absurd. As others have pointed out in this thread, there's a lot of more mundane explanations.

What if the lights are how they are controlled and pass data, rather than an RF link?

Re: Mysterious New Jersey drone sightings prompt call for 'state of emergency'

#100
post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

The Guardian is publication reporting the information. If you click the link at the top, open the website, and read the article, you will see who is quoted as making the claims.

[flagged]
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