New York: Amid mounting fears over mysterious drones, the Pentagon has said that it is “frustrated” by their flights over military facilities, and state officials and legislators have called on President Joe Biden’s administration to act.
A spokesperson for the Joint Chiefs of Staff confirmed on Saturday night reports that drones have been sighted over two military installations in New Jersey, but said, “We don’t know what the activity is. We don’t know … if it is criminal. But I will tell you that it is irresponsible. Here on the military side, we are just as frustrated with the irresponsible nature of this activity.”
The drones which have been plaguing parts of the northeast for over a month have shown the vulnerabilities of the US – and other countries – to the UAS, which can not only spy but can be used by terrorists.
A government with extensive spying capabilities that claims to know about communications by officials and business people in distant places apparently cannot crack the mystery of the drones in an area 325 kilometres from its capital.
President-Elect Donald Trump posted on Truth Social, “Mystery Drone sightings all over the Country. Can this really be happening without our government’s knowledge. I don’t think so! Let the public know, and now. Otherwise, shoot them down!!!”
Phil Murphy, the Democrat New Jersey Governor, wrote to Biden that his state’s “residents deserve more concrete information about these UAS sightings and what is causing them.”
Echoing earlier statements by National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and other officials, the Joint Chiefs spokesperson asserted that they had “no intelligence or observations” that would tie them to a “foreign actor” or show that “they had malicious intent.”
“But,” the spokesperson like other officials candidly admitted, “we don’t know. We have not been able to locate or identify the operators or the points of origin.”
“This has gone too far”, New York’s Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul, frustrated by the federal inaction said.
Under current laws, only the federal government can take action against drones, and Hochul and others from both parties are demanding similar authorisation for state and local law enforcement agencies.
Chris Smith, a Republican member of the House of Representatives from New Jersey, which has reported most of the sightings, announced that he was introducing legislation for that.
Hochul disclosed that drones also shut down for about an hour Friday night the runways at Stewart Airport, the base where giant C-17 Globemaster military aircraft are based were shut down.
Members of his party and Republicans called for drastic action against the drones.
A Democrat Senator from Connecticut, Richard Blumenthal said, “They should be shot down, if necessary, because they’re flying over sensitive areas.”
The surge of drones brought back memories of a Chinese spy balloon that was allowed last year to meander across the US over sensitive facilities for a week before the Biden administration brought it down over the ocean.
The huge balloon carried what Biden said was spy equipment as big as two railway coaches.
Another Republican member of the House, Jeff Van Drew, claimed that the drones were coming from an Iranian “mother ship” off the New Jersey coast.
But Deputy Pentagon Spokesperson Sabrina Singh said, “There is no Iranian ship off the coast of the United States”, and added that there was no evidence a foreign power or adversary was behind the drones.
For over a month people in New Jersey, New York and Connecticut reported seeing drones flying low, some of them as big as a car.
In New Jersey, the Ocean County sheriff’s office said that its drone spotted a mysterious UAS traveling at about 100 kph, a speed faster than that of most commercially available drones.
New Jersey Republican Assembly woman Dawn Fantasia said on X the UAS were six feet in diameter and sometimes traveled with their lights off.
(IANS)
