Drones over East coast

[EasyMoney00]

Most have probably heard about the drones flying over Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, etc. They don't seem to be from another dimension since they comply with FAA blinking lights. They're probably not some overseas entity trying to spy on us.

What military "experts" think is it's our own drones that are being used. Speculation is they're either testing on the public by syphoning data from the sky...or what most think is they're scanning for radioactive material...aka a warhead. Of course the government would never say that, that would be stupid. Mass panic would occur. Believe it or not radioactive material does go missing. Multiple missing warheads over the decades. This isn't classified, you can Google search it. Also, why is this only happening in the cover of darkness? Drones do work during the day.

What would be the financial impact if this information was confirmed? Would people move away from the states the drones are being reported in? Financial markets would take a massive hit. Is there really any way to prepare for such a thing?

[disneysteve]

The drones have been big news here in NJ in recent weeks. I haven't personally seen them but a number of my friends have. And really more than seeing them, folks are hearing them. Drones aren't quiet. When there is suddenly a cluster of 4 or 6 of them hovering over your house, you can quite clearly hear them from inside. Of course, there have been all kinds of theories about where they are coming from. I don't personally think there is anything nefarious going on and lean toward thinking there is a government or military entity behind them. I would never expect any admission of that fact though. Local military bases have been on alert and drone busting equipment has been deployed. The FAA has also issued bans for flying over various metro areas and high profile targets.

As for financial impact, I'm not aware of anything to suggest that.

[ua_guy]

It's totally overblown media hype. Drones don't have long range, so they're basically local. The signals can be intercepted, and there's a large enough drone community that could help determine the home location of those drones, if they wanted to. If our military determined them to be a threat, they'd be gone.

No financial impact that I'm aware of, other than the allocation of too much airtime when more important things are going on.

What data can be "siphoned" from the sky, but not the ground? Is this one of those "internet is made of tubes" moments that has the low-information population concerned and confused?

[EasyMoney00]

Remember those balloons our military shot down in the Carolina's and above one of the great lakes? I believe that was China who was deploying those. You think they were testing weather patterns?

Flying over a population is easier than boots on the ground or driving around trying to pinpoint signals. I don't think our government is maliciously spying on us. Could simply be testing out new tech.

Some people have reported they are fairly large in size. It's just suspect that no one can seem to locate who is flying these things...unless such information is already known and not being disclosed.

I hope it's much ado about nothing and not something more serious.

[jenn_jenn]

It's totally overblown media hype.

This.

If it wasn’t our own military, they wouldn’t be in the sky for long. I have zero concerns about it and am so over people sensationalizing it.

[EasyMoney00]

This.

If it wasn’t our own military, they wouldn’t be in the sky for long. I have zero concerns about it and am so over people sensationalizing it.

The question is...what is the military doing?

[kork13]

I can rather confidently say it's not the US military, or any federal entity. They're not complying with FAA restrictions against flying drones around airfields, and if you've never had run-ins with the FAA, consider yourself blessed. Flight safety is paramount, and these drones are making it dangerous to even try taking off in certain areas. I'm sure you know what happens when a bird gets sucked into jet engines (think Sullenberger's "Miracle on the Hudson") .... It's much worse when it's a drone made of plastic & metal. Besides, there's no reason to test any type of new technology above civilian population centers. We have test & training ranges bigger than most states for doing exactly that. We own half of the airspace in the Gulf of Mexico for testing purposes. We own 80% of the airspace above Nevada, eastern California, and western Utah -- which is outfitted with more sensors & testing equipment that you can even imagine. We own most of the border region of southern Arizona & New Mexico. Those are just 3 of the 7-8 major test/training ranges that we have already across the US. Believe me, this isn't the US military or federal government.

My bet is that it's a group of hobbyists that are getting their rocks off by spinning up the entire country about nothing. I assume there is some form of social media/cell phone communication being used to coordinate amongst themselves, so just like any other terrorist organization, the NSA & FBI won't go long without identifying who it is & quietly pick them up. Once they're caught, it's not gonna go well for them... Recall my note about "don't screw with the FAA" ... I expect the media circus will eventually move on to a new shiny penny, at which time the public will forget about it, and it'll eventually stop when the FBI comes knocking.

[disneysteve]

The question is...what is the military doing?

And if it is the government/military, then we are all being blatantly lied to. The government/military has put out numerous statements at all levels from local, city, state, and national levels all denying knowledge, and supposedly added new equipment to local military bases to deal with the drones. If it’s actually the government/military behind it then all of that is BS just to divert attention from themselves.

Something doesn’t add up somewhere.

[ua_guy]

A lot of the “recent” drone sightings are of drones which are not being flown illegally. There is a lot of hype around the drones that actually ran afoul of the FAA.

Theres a lot the US military doesn’t tell us, the citizens. Why become all suspicious and start conspiracies about this?

[disneysteve]

Theres a lot the US military doesn’t tell us, the citizens. Why become all suspicious and start conspiracies about this?

Of course there is a lot the military doesn't, and shouldn't, tell us. This seems different though. When they are putting out official statements and having press conferences saying the military isn't involved, the FAA is issuing bans, Congress is initiating investigations, and more, it's either a tremendous government cover up or they truly don't know who is behind it.

[disneysteve]

A lot of the “recent” drone sightings are of drones which are not being flown illegally.

That's entirely possible. It may be that nothing illegal is happening at all. Maybe a whole underground group of drone operators banded together to pull off a huge prank on the mid-Atlantic states. Is there no way for law enforcement or government officials to identify where drones are coming from? This didn't start yesterday. It's been going on since last month. Surely by now they could have figured out who is behind it all. Drones have to land at some point. Can't they be tracked to see where they are returning to?

[EasyMoney00]

, it's either a tremendous government cover up or they truly don't know who is behind it.

I hope it's a government cover up. If it's not and our government can't actually figure out who is operating these, that doesn't look good for the super power of the planet. Seems like we should have the resources to get to the bottom of this and arrest whomever is doing it.

[disneysteve]

I hope it's a government cover up. If it's not and our government can't actually figure out who is operating these, that doesn't look good for the super power of the planet. Seems like we should have the resources to get to the bottom of this and arrest whomever is doing it.

Only if some law is being broken, which I don't know is the case here. If they are operating legally, that's fine. It would just be nice to know who has been doing it and why.

[kork13]

I'm trying to be as clear as I can here, though I obviously can't speak on behalf of the entirety of the military or federal government... But as a member of the military who stays pretty aware of what's happening in the world, I can assure you that the US military & federal government most assuredly has nothing to do with the drones that are flying around out there, and they likely truly don't know (yet) where they're coming from. There is no conspiracy or cover-up. If we wanted to hide something from the public, we'd do it in the middle of the desert in Nevada, not above Jersey City.

The military has been struggling for years to figure out how to track & defend against rogue drones, because in most cases we can't know their intentions until they either go away or blow up above/into something. This has been an incredible challenge for us in the middle east, and now in Ukraine because the Russians saw how successful the Iranian-supported militia groups were with them, and started buying the exact some things from Iran.

One of the biggest challenges in this case is that much of the US government & almost all (99.9%) of the US military are legally barred from using any of our extensive surveillance & intelligence gathering capabilities to gather information on US citizens unless that intelligence collection is coincident to another operation that IS legally allowed. Only the FBI, state/local police, and other law-enforcement entities have the legal authority to collect intelligence on/around US citizens. But those agencies don't have access to all of the assets, capabilities, and resources that the military has been using over the past 5 years to start combating rogue drone use. It's seriously a challenge, and we still haven't cracked that nut.

Do the capabilities theoretically exist to track any individual commercially-produced drone (let alone a group of them), from point of origin to destination then back to the operator? Probably yes. But are they accessible in the Mid-Atlantic states, with legal authority to use them, and the prioritization necessary to retask those capabilities? I'd bet no. The best otherwise available is a slew of point-defense systems that can alert you to the presence of a drone within a couple miles of the system, and it may or may not be able to force the drone to either land or return to its operator. And unless you have ground or helicopter teams in place up & down the eastern seaboard to follow these drones all across towns to find where they land, we're likely not gonna know who was operating them. They're a couple hundred bucks off Amazon... It could be literally anyone.

Can we all just calm down about the conspiracy theories? People are going crazy, and the media is just egging it on.

[EasyMoney00]

One of the biggest challenges in this case is that much of the US government & almost all (99.9%) of the US military are legally barred from using any of our extensive surveillance & intelligence gathering capabilities to gather information

How does the NSA fit into this? Snowden exposed them years ago for gathering all information on us and storing the meta data. Good thing he left the country or he would have "suicided" himself by now. Those whistleblowers are so upset with themselves for exposing their employers that they all take their own life, eventually.

And yes, lot of footage online of the suicide drones being used in Ukraine. Pretty scary.