The sightings of mysterious drones in the United States have been documented back to 2019, according to a new report.
A few months ago, the sighting of a drone resembling the East Coast has been linked to stalking naval warships from the California coast. CBS's “60 minutes” reported.
Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS) showed drones swarming over Langley to hold Bill Whitaker.
“I know the best-level classification briefings. I think the Pentagon and national security advisors are still mystical,” he said in an interview in December that it aired on Sunday night.
“Obviously, this has an aspect of military intelligence,” said Wicker, who chairs the Armed Services Committee, which oversees the Pentagon.
While in the family's cabin on Virginia's James River in December 2023, witness Jonathan Batner recorded nearly 90 minutes of footage showing a “more than 40 upwards” drone on the direct road to Langley.
“I'm very familiar with the different types of military craft. I have the Blackhawks, the F-22s. And these were things I've never seen before,” he told the outlet.
Butner wasn't the only one to see unidentified aircraft swarming around major military facilities.
“The report was made with 20 to 30 sightings at the same time every night, 30 to 45 minutes after sunset,” said four-star General Mark Kelly, who witnessed the drone with his own eyes in Langley.
“What you saw was the different sizes of aircraft invasions. You saw different altitudes, different air velocities. Some were pretty loud. He shared, noting that the drone ran from small to surprisingly large, he shared.
“The smallest thing, you know you're talking about commercially sized quadcopters, and the biggest one is probably the size of what I call a base boat or a small car,” he said.
According to the outlet, the army was discovered in 17 days when the army moved part of the F-22 Raptor to another nearby air base after suddenly vanishing from the night sky.
Retired General Glenn Vanhelk rattled a laundry list of potential threats, including the ability to use drones to bomb or disable stealth jets, and the ability to equip drones to “take countless missions.”
He dismissed the idea that the drone was piloted by enthusiasts due to its size and duration of the flight, but did not rule out anything more ominous.
“It certainly could have a foreign ties, a threatening nexus. They could be doing anything, from monitoring critical infrastructure to the fact that they can do this on a daily basis and can't do anything about it, to the point of embarrassing us,” he said.
General Gregory Guillott – a combat veteran who oversaw the 90-day operational assessment at Norad and Northcom – said drone flights via Langley became a central focus of the investigation.
He says the investigation is still ongoing, but addressing the security gap is a top priority for Northcom.
“That's amazing. And you'll say our hair is burning in a controlled way here in Northcom. And we're off very quickly.”
The White House in January struggled to reassure Americans that the waves of drones seen in New Jersey in the winter “not the enemy,” and President Trump choked them up to “lovers” or “studying.”
However, these claims raised only more questions among elected officials and former military leaders.
When asked how such an invasion occurs through US Air Force Bases, Van Helck pointed out a “capacity gap” as the Noradrader system cannot detect low-flight drones.
“It's true that they can go back and forth from any direction. The FBI is considering potential options. But they don't have the answer right now.”
That gap was also why the military didn't simply shoot aircraft that had invaded from the air.
“Well, first of all, you need to have the ability to detect, track, identify and confirm that it's not a civilian plane flying around. If you can do that, then Bill, that's a safety issue for the American people. Fire missiles in your hometown is not underestimated,” the retired general said.
General Gilot said that updated radar systems that can detect drones are installed on some strategic sites and are expected to run “in a year.”
Guillot's predecessor Van Helck said the US government (from the pentagon to the White House and Congress) has not dealt with obvious security vulnerabilities with the severity it deserves.
“It's been a year since Langley broke into the drone, and you don't have any policies or laws in place to address this? That's not an urgent feeling,” he said.
“There's a perception that this is fortress America. There are two seas in the east and west, and there are friendly nations in the north and south, and no one is going to attack our hometown. It's time for us to move beyond that assumption.
