Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

theguardian.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

591–600 of 943 posts

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

#591

Post by vaxman »

ZYbCRq22HbJ2y7 wrote: post #262
vaxman wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

20 years lol Off by a factor of 2.5x, but your expectation is reasonable --so is having a Defense Secretary that tells his staff when he's checking into the hospital for a serious medical condition and an airspace that doesn't allow balloons to get within range of broadcasting firmware updates to ESP32s. https://www.app.com/story/news/local/new-jersey/2024/12/11/d...

> Abichandani has no idea as of now whether the drones over New Jersey are swarming drones. Then this article goes on to speculate about scary things.

..and Abichandani is reported to be an actual academic (in drone swarming technology) at a prestigious university that is local to the observations, not an enthusiast or politician!

In next room, I have a nearly 100yo man who, in a small group of people using computers with (literal) core memory, invented the technology, satellites and delivery systems to do Reconnaissance from orbit and more importantly, to spot the first signatures of arial weapons systems, yet downvoted here in the dystopian future when I merely correct the peanut gallery for spreading obvious fiction that America's ability to spot drones does not go back further than 20 years (or that the internal proprietary code of the latest ESP32 series Chinese MCUs has the well known ability to receive firmware updates via RF, even from Chinese balloons, Chinese LEO Starlink competitors and yes, drones).

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

#592

Post by hmmm-i-wonder »

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…

While completely true, it doesn't address the fact that CIA, NSA, FBI and other gov agencies have used their control or secret ownership of 'private' companies to break federal regulations in the past. They _could_ be using some sort of cutout to confuse the ownership/control to get around regulations.

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

#593

Post by gooseus »

tsimionescu wrote: post #480
gooseus wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have had a bet going with two of my friends on this exact point for almost a week now, and the fact that it is _still_ not been resolved by any agency is insane. I also have a couple friends who work at Picatinny as well, and have heard that their civilian security have spotted some (which is strange since their airspace is always restricted), but there haven't been any internal memos regarding them. Some things I'…

> If there ARE drones being operated in a way where they would prefer not be recognized, then it doesn't seem crazy they would put lights on and move in ways that would disguise them as planes. Wouldn't it be much, much, much easier and less crazy that, if you want to fly a small object at night and hide its exact nature and position, you would just paint it a deep, non-reflective black? Adding lights to an object yo…

This is true, and we had this debate a little bit - disguising is not the same as hiding.

If you're trying to avoid any detection then you would also want to mask the sound, or else people will be hearing things in the sky and not seeing anything... until they start pointing low-light and infrared cameras at the sky. When that happens the vantablack drones are going to pop against the background and leave no doubt that there is something strange in the sky, since they def won't be looking/moving like bats.

By disguising as planes you blend in with the air traffic for most people, and create confusion and debate with anyone who does notice they are out of the ordinary (exactly what we're seeing now).

Another point is that lights on flying objects in the dark serve a purpose, and if these drones are coordinating with each other, they may be using the lights to maintain formations or avoid running into each other without relying on other communication channels that could give away more information.

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

#594

Post by HPsquared »

sethammons wrote: post #292
roflyear wrote: post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

careful, you may get an AI moon to make up for the fact you can't really get a good picture of it. https://www.samsung.com/uk/support/mobile-devices/how-galaxy...

The same probably happens with blurry small aircraft in the scene. It'll "upscale" (i.e. draw in) all kinds of objects with what it thinks is most likely from the context, from its training set.

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

#595

Post by nradov »

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…

The FBI, NSA, and all other civilian agencies must follow FAA regulations but legally speaking the military doesn't. The military operates aircraft in domestic airspace under a memorandum of understanding with the FAA which basically states that they'll follow the regulations. This makes things easier for everyone and prevents mishaps. But if the military chooses to violate that agreement then there aren't really any enforceable legal consequences.

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

#596

Post by jyounker »

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…

It's easy to say they're probably no threat. The number of ways for something to be a threat is much smaller than the number of ways of something being a not a threat, therefore the probability of them being a threat is very low.

It's always possible to make a just-so story about them being a threat, and those are the kind of stories that catch people's attention. The odds are they belong to a mapping company, or a drone construction company, or a university or something else completely innocuous.

Why don't we know? Well because it's a big world, and people dealing with actual problems have more important shit to deal with.

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

#597

Post by nradov »

potato3732842 wrote: post #570
diggan wrote: post #556

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> just follow them How exactly do you follow a fixed-wing drone? Some of the high-end/industrial drones has pretty impressive ranges.

You pay a bunch of money to someone who has a Dash 8 or similar common commercial aircraft. These drones probably don't have 1000mi range. And even if you can't follow one all the way to its destination you can still take some real good pictures with flash and plaster them all over the news and wait for someone to say "I pump fuel and sweep floors at airport X and a bunch of dickbags with black suburbans and bad atti…

A Dash 8 or other similar commercial aircraft lacks the radar necessary to track an aerial target. Most airliners have weather radar but it's not really useful for this purpose. In much of the airspace around that region a Dash 8 would also have to operate under ATC control; the pilot can't just fly wherever without getting violated.

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

#598

Post by tuyiown »

weard_beard wrote: post #578
rmbyrro wrote: post #571

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Careful who you wish on your door...

[flagged]

I don't know much about america, but after shooting down a secret drone, you really would assume that people knocking at your door really is the situation you think it is ?

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

#599

Post by KumaBear »

weard_beard wrote: post #578
rmbyrro wrote: post #571

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Careful who you wish on your door...

[flagged]

People like this talk a big game but the warrant will be written and they will comply. Always the online warriors that act tough but always fold.

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

#600

Post by tauntz »

thehappypm wrote: post #330

My father took this picture of a drone in Morris County, NJ. Anyone want to help identify what it is? https://i.imgur.com/Sfet0Ps.jpeg

Looks like a standard quadcopter. Might be a bigger one from DJI perhaps? Matrice 350 or similar
Post reply on HN