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

theguardian.com

741–750 of 943 posts

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

#741

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…

> FBI says they're rotary and fixed-wing drones, White House says they aren't foreign adversaries, Pentagon says they aren't USA military Do you have sources for these? Not challenging the assertions, but all I see in the news articles is vague un-attributed paraphrasing of statements. For example you say that the "FBI says they're rotary and fixed-wing drones"; the latest I saw from the FBI was what this article sai…

Skip the articles, go to the source:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ETJ2d0o3Zk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MPJydlIpfs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTotPeiMjlc

(CSPAN links would be better, but I've already spent way too much time on this.)

Would have put sources in if I'd realized I'd get this many views. I also might have mixed up what the Pentagon says vs the Press Secretary, but since they both answer to Joe, it shouldn't matter much.

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

#742
I wonder if this is happening: "Hey US military drone manufacturers! You are allowed to test your drones at night. Don't say anything publicly. Start RIGHT after the Nov 2025 election. STOP right when Trump gets in office. Extra points if you put big lights on them."

Let's keep the citizens starting at the night sky and scratching their head.

It happened right after election. If they few in the day time, it would be easy to find out they are military test drones. The citizens wouldn't be as distracted.

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

#743

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I live in NJ. I've seen these drones. They are not commercial airliners or helicopters. They are loud, fly low and slow, and make abrupt turns unlike any planes I've seen. Their lights are also very different from other aircraft. You better crank out your camera and collect any proof at all,because what you are describing bears no resemblance to the sightings mentioned in the article. There is a reason why sighting…

For real, with everyone having a smartphone with high quality cameras on them there really is zero excuse for there to not be highly detailed accurate videos of this if they are legit especially with people describing them as "low and slow".

I'm not arguing that these are or aren't anything interesting, but low, relative to airplanes is still pretty far for cell phone cameras, especially in the dark.

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

#745

Earlier quoted context omitted.

F-16 seems like overkill for a drone. Send up the Apaches. Let's not forget it took how many sidewinders to take down the Chinese balloon? More than 1 makes someone look foolish.

You send in a supersonic fighter because no conventional drone is going to escape it. Dogfighting it isn't necessary, it's doubtful they'd detect you at all if your fighter is loitering at 10,000ft. Eventually the drone is going to run out of power, and you can keep sending more fighters to relieve whichever jet is on duty (if necessary). Apaches are cool and all, but if cost is your concern then it's probably cheape…

What it would come down to is that an Air National Guard unit is well prepared to intercept something in the sky (although a slow, low flying drone might be tricky). It's pretty extreme to actually do that, of course, and just observing the thing would always be an option.

An Army National Guard unit might have Apaches available, but putting one in the air in short order to perform air intercepts is not their mission.

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

#746

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some action is already being taken; supposedly the GREMLIN program is being rolled out in areas where sightings are most common: https://taskandpurpose.com/news/military-ufo-gremlin/ > If no joy on ECW, disassemble them in the sky. I disagree, for the same reason the US doesn't send an SM-6 up to greet every plane without an IFF turned on. It's an expensive exercise in endangering human lives, not a valiant defense o…

F-16 seems like overkill for a drone. Send up the Apaches. Let's not forget it took how many sidewinders to take down the Chinese balloon? More than 1 makes someone look foolish.

F-16s are commonly used as drones. They are called QF-16s. https://www.airforce-technology.com/news/boeing-delivers-las...

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

#747

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Whatever these drones are they're smart enough to vanish once we try to tail them. It's likely not simply Iranian tech. Remember China and Iran are allies, and sharing technology. If China wanted to prove something to the USA, they could easily let Iran do it, simply to cause less of an "International Incident" if the truth comes out of what's going on. My hunch is that it's a Chinese Technology Demonstration, and the "mothership" might be nothing more than a cargo container on a cargo ship. That would go totally unnoticed by our military sensor arrays.

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

#748
post #259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

High resolution film can get to the equivalent to 500 MP resolution just in 35mm.

Larger film has insanely high resolving power...

https://www.analog.cafe/r/409200000-pixels-with-adox-cms-20-...

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

#749
post #311

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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?

"He made it up" certainly seems more likely than Iran, what, retrofitting one of their old Kilo class D/E subs to be a drone mothership that's just lurking off the coast?

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

#750
post #302

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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?

Yes, he’s clearly making it all up.

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