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

theguardian.com

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

#581

Post by hilbert42 »

curt15 wrote: post #549
selfmodruntime wrote: post #526

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How can anyone know these aren't a threat without knowing whose they are They are - obviously - lying. This screams secrecy to me. All 3 know that these drones are not a threat. They aren't US military because they are a 3 letter agency program. They know there's nothing to worry about it, but they won't tell you any more details. Which has been the modus operandi for secret services for decades, so I'm surprised i…

Shoot one down and see who comes knocking?

Ha, with all this publicity someone will likely take up the challenge and possibly succeed. The hunting instinct in some is just too strong.

One wonders how they'd keep tracking it down a secret especially if the perpetrator was smart and gave them a decent run for their money.

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

#582

Post by gregw2 »

j_timberlake wrote: post #501

Quick summary after following this for a few days: FBI says they're rotary and fixed-wing drones, White House says they aren't foreign adversaries, Pentagon says they aren't USA military, all 3 insist that there's no indication of a real threat despite the drones being bigger and higher tech than retail drones. Politicians are PO'd that something about this doesn't add up: How can anyone know these aren't a threat wi…

"How can anyone know these aren't a threat without knowing whose they are?"

Easy. They didn't say they don't know whose they are. They could belong to a private contractor who is paid by the military but the military doesn't own the drones nor company (plausible deniability /outsourcing.) Or they could be a friendly country (e.g. UK) red-teaming the US with our consent.

I've never heard anyone apply the Five Eyes horse trading to inter-country UFO-related dynamics of operation but its fairly conceivable and has a bit of precedent, right?

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

#583

Post by ZenRiots »

toofy wrote: post #259
paranoidrobot wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"large drones" How large is "large"? Some of the articles are claiming "SUV sized" drones, but their photos are either of commercial aircraft, or of something that looks to be a DJI Phantom 4, or something much like it. Have you managed to capture any videos of images of these large, low flying, slow moving drones?

it’s amazing how so many people have seen these truck sized drones but they’ve all somehow failed to get pictures. i can go outside right now in the dark with this phone i’m typing on and get a solid picture of stuff but somehow they keep showing us pictures that look like 1940s era ufo photo blur.

In my experience the majority of that 1940s photo blur comes when you crop and zoom what otherwise looks like a beautiful digital photograph. I experienced this quite often when utilizing security cameras to try and read license plates.

Any movement of the vehicle whose plate you are attempting to track creates pixelization requiring you sometimes to stitch together multiple frames where individual characters on the plate have become clear in order to read the entire license plate.

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

#584

Post by ComplexSystems »

otikik wrote: post #547
j_timberlake wrote: post #501

Quick summary after following this for a few days: FBI says they're rotary and fixed-wing drones, White House says they aren't foreign adversaries, Pentagon says they aren't USA military, all 3 insist that there's no indication of a real threat despite the drones being bigger and higher tech than retail drones. Politicians are PO'd that something about this doesn't add up: How can anyone know these aren't a threat wi…

> How can anyone know these aren't a threat without knowing whose they are? Because they are theirs, obviously. They just won't say it.

Why don't they just say it then? Who cares?

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

#585

Post by genewitch »

05 wrote: post #500
genewitch wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The videos i saw ostensibly showed what looked like rear fixed wing aircraft, like a small f-16 or something. But you could only make out that detail from the lights, which can be configured however you want to configure them to look, so, technically, it could be a large quadcopter (or octa, or hex) with lights affixed that make it look like a fixed wing aircraft. none of the videos i saw had sound from the drone to…

> FLIR would work better for certain things at night ;-) At those distances and with typical thermal imager resolutions, the zoom lens required would cost more than a cheap car..

when i say FLIR i mean the things that militaries use, not the little doodad you plug into a cellphone or a handheld device with a screen and a camera. I was under the impression these things loitered much longer than any commercial quadcopter or normal battery powered aircraft. if my understanding is correct, that leaves two options - a glider, which is weight constrained so probably just a gopro or two, or a fueled aircraft, in which case, FLIR makes sense because that's a decent platform.

the reports were "flying around for hours" but that could be exaggeration and it flew a pattern several times over a couple of hours but was landing to swap batteries or whatever. IDK. I think this is all much ado about nothing.

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

#587

Post by guerrilla »

ptero wrote: post #579
otikik wrote: post #547

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How can anyone know these aren't a threat without knowing whose they are? Because they are theirs, obviously. They just won't say it.

Neither FBI nor Pentagon have ability to fly drones in the US airspace at will. On the contrary, they, like everyone else, have to get FAA approvals and those always leak. And usually in fact published by the FAA who needs to warn pilots of potential threats -- one could go to the official FAA website and search those NOTAMs. Ignoring FAA by the FBI or the military just doesn't happen, the price to pay is WAY too hig…

> Neither FBI nor Pentagon have ability to fly drones in the US airspace at will.

And neither of those agencies ever did anything they're not "able" to do... regularly...

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

#588

Post by theodric »

karamanolev wrote: post #475
roflyear wrote: post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No you can't - try it. Take a picture of the moon.

Probably not with a phone, but "affordable" full-frame MILC/DSLR cameras with 100-400mm or 600mm lenses exist and people have them. Much better chances.

I did find it odd when this news reporter said of the craft "it's really difficult to show you with our camera, so we have to show you with our phones." You'd think a broadcast-grade camera rig would be better than a smartphone at this.

At the 11-second mark: https://youtu.be/M186uZ1RCxU?t=11

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

#589

Post by tomrod »

ptero wrote: post #579
otikik wrote: post #547

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How can anyone know these aren't a threat without knowing whose they are? Because they are theirs, obviously. They just won't say it.

Neither FBI nor Pentagon have ability to fly drones in the US airspace at will. On the contrary, they, like everyone else, have to get FAA approvals and those always leak. And usually in fact published by the FAA who needs to warn pilots of potential threats -- one could go to the official FAA website and search those NOTAMs. Ignoring FAA by the FBI or the military just doesn't happen, the price to pay is WAY too hig…

Attracting attention in one direction can be misdirection. I have no idea if that is the case here, simply felt like it's an avenue not considered.

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

#590

Post by HPsquared »

DaiPlusPlus wrote: post #551
jahnu wrote: post #521

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even taking a picture of the moon with a typical phone results in a white mushy blob.

Unless you have a Samsung phone… https://www.theverge.com/2023/3/13/23637401/samsung-fake-moo...

This technology may well "fill in the blanks" with small flying objects too. Make them look like the most common i.e. airliner or helicopter.
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