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

theguardian.com

371–380 of 943 posts

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

#371

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This release just links Iranian technology to UAVs used against Ukraine; they are nowhere near the capabilities of top military powers. The only country that can claim the #2 spot on the list is China. To give you an idea of the comparison, Iranian drones are not even close capability wise to a Reaper. The Reaper is damn near EOL as it was developed in 2007(!) and is basically caveman technology compared to what we a…

they are nowhere near the capabilities of top military powers Russia is a top military power, and they use Iranian drones. BTW, I didn't say they were number 2, I said they were battle tested unlike other top programs, like China'. Iran's drones are currently actively being used in two wars (vs Ukraine, vs Israel). I don't think there are Iranian drones in NJ, but it isn't because they don't have a capable program. I…

Russia is not a top military power when it comes to technology, and probably not manpower after bleeding out in Ukraine.

There are plenty of advanced drone programs that are "battle tested." They are successful and so you do not hear about them :)

I maintain the Iranian drone program is incapable. They are very similar to the Ukrainian drones, botched together and little more than big model airplanes with explosives inside. They neither have the capability to get a ship onto our shores, nor to launch drones undetected, nor to pilot them undetected, nor to evade our defenses and intelligence network.

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

#372

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At times like this it's helpful to use a simple, three point framework: [1] What do we know? [2] What is noise? [3] What is the boring explanation? For [1], we know there are likely _some_ drones. We know drones are a very hot topic for defense at the moment and that countries are heavily investing in this area. We know that these systems need very heavy testing for coordination, surveillance, etc. and we know that o…

I feel like you already have decided that this is safe and then are using "boring" explanations to back that narrative. This is easy cause nothing bad has happened in a while so it's less cognitive dissonance to go with that narrative. Have you even tried coming up with boring explanations on how this could be not safe? Also why specifically boring explanations? Plenty of incidents have dramatic explanations. How do…

If the military proclaimed these drones safe and are not shooting them down like crazy, these drones are likely reasonably safe, and are not an enemy that the US military, arguably the top one in the world, would fight.

A possible bad explanation: the US military actually would love to shoot down these drones, but cannot, because e.g. they are known to contain smallpox virus, dangerous radioactive contaminants, etc. These would be released at the slightest attempt to sound alarms or interfere. Someone caught them unawares and is now enjoying impunity.

A worse version: the US military and/or government is complicit, actually overrun by aliens / reptiloids / crackpots, and is allowing an invasion.

Etc.

Which version looks more plausible, any of these, or that the US military is testing something that can fly, but keeps the lips tight?

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

#373

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At times like this it's helpful to use a simple, three point framework: [1] What do we know? [2] What is noise? [3] What is the boring explanation? For [1], we know there are likely _some_ drones. We know drones are a very hot topic for defense at the moment and that countries are heavily investing in this area. We know that these systems need very heavy testing for coordination, surveillance, etc. and we know that o…

> An entire ocean away. Ever heard of submarines and ships. the Congressman said he heard from a good source there was an Iranian "mothership" on the East Coast. I guess you claim he's being lied to, or making it all up?

if you trust congressman's word (purchased by AIPAC for 30 shekels), you are lost

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

#374
post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

What if the moon were made of cheese?

https://lifi.co/lifi-applications/aerospace/ The technology is real, and the application is plausible, why the down votes?

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

#376

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At times like this it's helpful to use a simple, three point framework: [1] What do we know? [2] What is noise? [3] What is the boring explanation? For [1], we know there are likely _some_ drones. We know drones are a very hot topic for defense at the moment and that countries are heavily investing in this area. We know that these systems need very heavy testing for coordination, surveillance, etc. and we know that o…

The problem with the "secret testing over civilian areas" idea is that it's self-contradicting. So you think the military and intelligence has technology that is so secret they won't admit to it, but they're so uninterested in protecting that they're testing them willy nilly over populated areas?? The other contradiction is risk: so you have an aerial technology test and you do it over US civilian populations and mil…

> So you think the military and intelligence has technology that is so secret they won't admit to it, but they're so uninterested in protecting that they're testing them willy nilly over populated areas??

The explicit purpose of most advances in drone technology over the last ~20 years is not to be the biggest baddest weapon in the sky, but to be a hard to catch camera that sees everything and knows everything. That is also the biggest drone program that I am aware of and the explicit purpose of Maven.

> The other contradiction is risk: so you have an aerial technology test and you do it over US civilian populations and military bases over long periods in large numbers, not caring about risk of an object crashing, nor of triggering a mistaken response or misinterpretation by US or another nation, and without a NOTAM to protect aircraft?

The latter part of your question is the answer to the former. If we conduct tests abroad, we risk a response or the tech getting stolen. We need somewhere to test it, so we test it here. There is pretty low risk of these crashing, and civilians would not have the technology needed to down these drones (this capability would be pretty thoroughly tested in unpopulated areas).

We do issue NOTAMs when drones are in airspace, these are low flying and so do not warrant any notice.

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

#377
post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Under what circumstances and motivations, exactly, do you think that unlicensed and illegal (clearly not FAA Part 107 compliant) drone operators would be motivated to put blinking white, red and green lights on their mystery drones? Why would they do that? If you're doing to build a drone to fly at night and do clearly illegal things you're going to make the thing matte black and have no lights on it whatsoever.

What’s not part 107 compliant? All the activity I’ve heard was fully legal.

For starters, you need special waivers from the faa to fly at night. If any such waivers existed, I am sure the FAA would have told the news media who are hyping up this story.

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

#378

[flagged]

What 'commercially available' aircraft can operate for at least 6 - 7 hours, sized up to 6 feet, not always detectable by FLIR, evade detection by helicopters, don't always use lights, have a range of at least 15 miles, are not obeying FAA line of sight regulations for night flights (all per the statewide briefing provided to NJ legislators yesterday: https://x.com/DawnFantasia_NJ/status/1866896860578717994 ) , and a…

> are assessed by the Pentagon yesterday to not originate in the US or any other nation

To be clear, they stated that “these are not US military drones”, and that they have no evidence that they are from a foreign entity or adversary, which is very different from what I interpreted you as saying.

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

#379

[flagged]

A decent percentage of the population thinks that the president of the US can control the weather.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/government-not-controlling-the-...

The fact of the matter is that a lot of people have rotten, worm-riddled cabbage for brains.

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

#380
post #244
post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>people don't seem to realize that there is no USGOV tracking of drone-sized objects Anything 250g or heavier has to have Remote ID now. Now that doesn't exclude the possibility of illegal drones without it, but it isn't true that there is "no drone tracking". https://www.faa.gov/uas/getting_started/remote_id https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-14/chapter-I/subchapter-F...

What do you think Drone ID is? It’s basically Bluetooth transmissions. Very localized reception and basically impossible to monitor over a wide area without many, many receivers spread out evenly all over the place.

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