To ask if anyone wants to talk about "the drones" ?

[MistressoftheDarkSide]

Distracting myself from my rather hideous real life, I've been poking around YouTube and am quite interested in all the apparent drone sightings mainly in the US but also apparently over here to a lesser to degree.

Obviously some of the pictures and alleged video footage are misidentified aircraft, but NJ in the US are having quite the conniption over some of what they're seeing.

I'm an open minded sceptic, but the amount if traction this is getting is intriguing.

Theories are that it's military testing of new tech, or even civilian testing, but official statements imply that TPTB don't actually know what's going on. I find that weird, given all the sophisticated tech we have for surveillance and tracking, especially given how busy airspace is in general.

Anyway just wondered if anybody else was curious about it all - or have you seen anything weird? I haven't - I'm under the flight path of our local airport and we seem to be "drone free" lol. Always wondered about "aliens" but not obsessed or anything.

Given the current state of the world, maybe I should add alien invasion to my "you couldn't make this shit up" bingo card - I have about three spots left to call "house" after some of the stuff I've been dealing with.

Anyway, have at it :

YABU - you're a tinfoil hat wearing nutter and should get out more.

YANBU - there are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio......

Something crazy is going on which is not being reported by mainstream media. My sister in law lives in Bergen County in the US and has seen 40+ drones over the last several nights. Drones the size of cars apparently. Her neighbours theorise they are military aircraft. She initially thought it was some sort of exercise but is now unsure.

YABU.

They're planes. With lights on.

See this thread

x.com/andykimnj/status/1868034879931433387?s=46

Nothing is going on.

Some sightings will of course be false. But my SIL has had drones in suspended animation above her house. It set off her ring camera app which kept notifying her.

@Kurain of course she did, was it Russia?

Its trump and musk and far right troublemaking to justify the passing of a lot of very dodgy legislation in the US in January...curtailing right to protest, privacy, mass deportations etc

It's idiots in the US who want everything to be a conspiracy. There's a reason it's not being reported on international news.

If you really want to go down a rabbit hole apparently a nuclear weapon is missing from a US sub and everyone is searching for it. The drones are supposedly searching for any signs of radiation to pin point the location. Can't remember exactly who mentioned it as it was one of 2 conspiracy nuts and I never really listen to them but have spoken to both in the last 24 hours.

So, unidentified aircraft appear over the country with most advanced military on the planet, no fighter jets seemingly scrambled and no clue to where they come from or go to.

And in the country where 9/11 happened?

My money is on a psy op, possibly to create the pretext for starting the hot phase of WW3. It's simply not believable that US officials are saying they don't have a clue but they know it's nothing to worry about.

A frightened population is much easier to control and more likely to be receptive to restrictions which promise to increase their safety.

Its trump and musk and far right troublemaking to justify the passing of a lot of very dodgy legislation in the US in January...curtailing right to protest, privacy, mass deportations etc

If this had any credibility the Biden administration would not be keeping the US public in the dark, they would use anything to undermine Trump.

This is actually hysterical.

Missing nukes, scaring people about the start of WW3, or just some planes with lights on

I know which one I'll believe

Not sure why you find it so hard to believe.

Remember the weapons of mass destruction? It was a lie and our government knew if was a lie but they needed public support to invade Iraq so they told us Sadam Hussein had WMD's which could reach London in 45 minutes.

It's not us and I don't think it's the US either, we live near 2 US airforce baises and one UK one and they have been having trouble for a while now with drones. I'm surprised it's been kept of the main news so long. They have increased security and been flying more 'training' flights as a result.

@FOJN and what are they gearing up for?

I get the impression you think its conspiracy madness but for those who don't I'd like to point out that this is absolute and utter bollocks.

This! Some posts on this thread are nothing other than scaremongering nonsense.

The latest fun to be had on the more specialist aviation sites /spotting sites is matching the images used by the networks with actual aircraft, fixed wing or helicopters.

It’s a sad but true fact that if you’ve spent enough time looking at aircraft at night, either for work or pleasure, you can quite often ID an aircraft just by noting the configuration/position of some of lights, the specific phasing of the flashing strobes and anti-collision beacons.

There’s now been at least one case where the news agency left enough info about the image in the published/broadcast piece to allow somebody very keen to tie the image they used with an actual aircraft (civilian helicopter) enroute somewhere that showed up right spot and time on one of the flight tracking sites…

Oh the news agency involved was probably the one you’d expect..

Now if the geeks (who shall inherit the earth if they can ever get their voices heard on this) can do this sort of digging one might wonder why the pros at the news agencies aren’t bothering…

There is lots of counter-drone technology available, so I think the main issue must be time being spent investigating where they come from, who the controllers are etc - rather than anyone needing to worry about the actual drones. If they contained explosives then they would be stopped.

Most certainly some helicopters/planes are falsely being identified as drones. There is no denying that.

But there most certainly are drones being deployed over large parts of NJ and other parts of the US.

Two things can be true at once.

And what are these drones being deployed for?

I had one outside my bedroom window while DH and I were having sex (I live high up and no one would usually be able to see).

Those pesky Russians and their penchant for voyeurism…

I mean that is literally the question everyone is asking. I have no idea.

The Pentagon have confirmed that the drones are not military assets and the FBI, Dept of Homeland Security, Dept of Defense and FAA have issued a joint statement to say that they have identified nothing anomalous and that "Having closely examined the technical data and tips from concerned citizens, we assess that the sightings to date include a combination of lawful commercial drones hobbyist drones, and law enforcement drones, as well as manned fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, and stars mistakenly reported as drones,"

How would I know?

I just don't believe that the US don't know what they are. If they didn't want the public to worry they could just say it's routine military exercises, they are being seen over military bases so it would be plausible. They are not doing that which I find quite interesting and suggests to me that they want the public to be concerned.

As other posters have said there are undoubtedly identifiable air craft which are being mis-identified and I suspect that the number of those will grow as people become more panicked about what is going on.

What is more "hysterical" than my curiosity is your apparent faith that our governments don't try to manipulate us to pursue an agenda that may not be in our best interests.

But they aren't military drones so there's nothing for them to come out and say.

I'm not sure how much clearer than the joint statement they can be, clearly folk are still looking for a conspiracy where there isn't one so no sensible statement is going to satisfy them.

Originally they claimed they didn't know what they were which as I said I found implausible. Telling the public they were military would have calmed people's fears, it didn't have to be the truth.