Drones spotted across Northeast likely coming from 'inside the US,' military expert says
Suspicious drone sightings in states across the Northeast in recent weeks may be coming from inside the United States, according to a military expert.
Civilians and lawmakers have reported drone sightings in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, Ohio and other states, with local and federal law enforcement offering little information about the aerial activity, most of which has been spotted at night. Some of the drones are as large as 6 feet in diameter, according to New Jersey state Rep. Dawn Fantasia, who was briefed on the matter last week.
"The concern is definitely valid. One thing I do believe, I believe the government knows the source of these drones, and I believe the source of these drones is from inside the U.S., especially the larger drones," Col. William Dunn, president of Strategic Resilience Group, a government consulting group, told Fox News Digital. "It's very difficult to fly an airplane the size of a vehicle into the United States without being detected, so I believe the drones originate from inside the U.S."
Dunn, an attack helicopter pilot who spent 33 years in the Marine Corps, added that "a large drone has got to be refueled," so the drones flying over New Jersey that are 6 feet in diameter would have to be refueled somewhere within the United States.
"We have – especially on the East Coast – I'm very familiar with our air defense identification zone. … It's very difficult to fly anything into the United States. It's not impossible, but it's very difficult," Dunn said, recalling a time when he was flying a Cobra helicopter on an offshore route that he "forgot to appropriately acknowledge and call the watchers."
"They found me pretty quickly," Dunn said.
Smaller drones are a different story, according to the Marine Corps veteran.
"We're probably having U.S. drones, as well as some of these smaller drones, that are being flown in to do a specific purpose. Now, the question is, what are those drones doing? My belief is they're surveilling something," Dunn said. "They're looking for something, either a chemical weapon, biological weapon or maybe radiation. … You know, there's been a lot of talk about having an open southern border and a lot of talk that there's an imminent terrorist threat."
Another issue with the recent drone sightings, Dunn said, is that they are highlighting U.S. defense weaknesses.
"We are telegraphing right now that we do not know where these drones are. We're telegraphing that we can fly these drones over U.S. bases and we can't do anything about it. Now, our adversaries hear that, and they see that now they can take a drone and fly over [a] base and do something terrible," Dunn said, adding later that the "Iranian drone threat" is "enormous."
Officials could technically shoot down a suspicious drone, but doing so puts civilians at risk because the remnants of those drones have to fall from the sky. There is, however, a way to neutralize drones by "zapping" them, Dunn said.
"You could zap it with a non-kinetic means," the government consulting expert said. "It wipes out their electricity. Everything needs … electricity to fly up there. And you can bring it down that way."
Raj Goyle, CEO of intelligence firm Bodhala and a former Democrat Kansas state representative, told Fox News Digital it is encouraging to see members of both the Democrat and Republican parties come together to try and determine the source of these drones. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., for example, recently called upon the Department of Homeland Security to deploy 360-degree radar systems that can detect drone activity.
"We should never let an issue go to waste. … And I think there's no reason to think otherwise that everything is safe and sound, but let this be a catalyst for having a discussion around that issue raised. Who has jurisdiction? Does local law enforcement? Does the FAA? Does the federal government?" Goyle said. "What are the interstate boundaries on these issues? It's only going to grow from here."
He added that "the sooner that the policymaking world figures this out, the better off will all be from a safety perspective and from an economic growth perspective."
WATCH:
Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, D-Pa., and Rep. Andrew Garbarino, R-N.Y., sent a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., urging them to craft counter-unmanned aircraft systems legislation that would give local law enforcement certain permissions to protect their communities from drones.
On Saturday, Biden administration officials hosted a press call regarding concerns surrounding the recent drone citing.
Representatives from the FBI, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the National Security Council, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of Defense (DOD) attended the call. An FBI official said his agency has received 5,000 tips since the first mysterious drone was seen flying above the Garden State in November. Of those 5,000 tips, fewer than 100 warranted further investigation, the official said.
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The FBI official added that investigators have found no evidence of large-scale unmanned drone activity despite the recent uptick in drone activity in recent weeks.
"We're doing our best to find the origin of that specific … those drone activities," the official said. "But I think there has been a slight overreaction."
Echoing comments from the FBI representative, a DHS official noted that, while his agency is not dismissing all tips about the drones as non-credible, "the amount of actual drone activity is likely less than what's being reported."
A DOD official added that the agency has gathered "no intelligence or observations that would indicate that [the drones] were aligned with a foreign actor or that they had malicious intent."
"But, you know, just to simply tell you, we don't know," the representative said. "We have not been able to locate or identify the operators or the points of origin."
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While the Pentagon maintains that the drones are not foreign, the FBI has admitted it is "concerned" about how little the agency knows about them.
Robert Wheeler, FBI assistant director of the Critical Incident Response Group, told Congress on Dec. 10, "There is nothing that is known that would lead me to say that, but we just don't know. And that's the concerning part," when asked if the drone sightings pose a risk to Americans.
Asked on Thursday if they'd learned anything since then, the FBI suggested to Fox News Digital the phenomenon might not actually be drones.
"We have no evidence at this time that the reported drone sightings pose a national security or public safety threat or have a foreign nexus. The FBI, DHS and our federal partners, in close coordination with the New Jersey State Police, continue to deploy personnel and technology to investigate this situation and confirm whether the reported drone flights are actually drones or are instead manned aircraft or otherwise inaccurate sightings," a spokesperson said.
Lawmakers and experts alike are urging federal officials to release more information about the suspected drone activity to ease Americans' concerns and quash any unfounded conspiracies.
Fox News' Morgan Phillips, Andrea Margolis and Alex Nitzberg contributed to this report.