• Drone sightings across the US have captivated many Americans and sparked widespread speculation.
• The sightings have also put a spotlight on airspace management strategies in the US.
• Experts say the focus should be on improved regulation and countermeasures instead of hysteria.

A recent wave of mysterious drone sightings across the US has, to a certain extent, kick-started a long-overdue discussion on drone technology and airspace management.

These drone sightings have captured national attention, and the public is now paying more attention to drone activity near US military bases. Federal agencies are talking to the public about drone issues. And there's more public discussion of congressional legislation to boost federal authority as the government says it's hamstrung in its ability to respond to drone threats.

"There's a fundamental notion that drones present a very, very new expanded type of threat," Doug Birkey, executive director of the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, told Business Insider, noting that the US largely lacks "the tactics and the procedures to deal with this."

Birkey said many people are "overplaying" the mystery behind the latest drone sightings. But the resulting buzz is driving conversations about counterstrategies and systems that "should have happened a long time ago."

Officials from the White House, FBI, DHS, DoD, and the FAA have urged Congress to "enact counter-UAS legislation when it reconvenes that would help extend and expand existing counter-drone authorities to identify and mitigate any threat that may emerge." This has been a recurring topic in press briefings in recent weeks.

"The good news is that technology largely exists" to address the challenges presented by drone tech, Birkey said. "We just have to get serious about going after it and then having the procedures down to be smart about it."

The latest drone drama

In mid-November, unidentified aircraft were first seen flying over New Jersey. They drew national attention as reported sightings extended to Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and New York, among other states, this month.

It wasn't until worry and wild speculation about the drones reached a fever pitch that agencies began a more organized effort to communicate. In the initial absence, others filled the void with conspiracy theories, a major one being that the drones were launched from an Iranian drone mothership off the US East Coast.

The federal government has shot many of these assertions down, saying they're not of foreign origin and not a threat.

The White House, FBI, Homeland Security, Pentagon, and FAA have said that all the evidence available indicates the drone sightings are a mixture of "lawful commercial drones, hobbyist drones, and law enforcement drones, as well as manned fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, and stars mistakenly reported as drones."

Though not nefarious, US officials said they "recognize the concern among many communities" and the "irresponsible" nature of the drone activity near restricted airspace and infrastructure, including military bases and civilian airports.

Things have "sort of moved to a point of hysteria," said Stacie Pettyjohn, the director of the defense program at the Center for a New American Security. She said that "the public has gotten really agitated because of the perceived novelty of drones or the danger associated with them."

She said "people seeing drones everywhere" are "starting to conflate just normal air traffic and anything in the sky and assuming that something nefarious or strange is happening."

But even as the government has attempted to quell concerns, skepticism remains, leading some to push for greater clarity on this issue so that drones can be discussed rationally.

William Austin, a drone expert and president of Warren County Community College, said the federal government needs to be clear with the public in this situation.

He wrote in a recent op-ed that "the public needs clear, authoritative communication: there is no credible evidence of large drones operating over New Jersey,"

Austin argued in his article that "the drone industry has too much to offer — cutting-edge technology, job creation, and life-saving applications — to be derailed by myths." He said, "We need facts, not speculation."

Drones are becoming prolific

Surging interest and investment in new drone tech have catalyzed rapid advancements, transforming the technology at an unprecedented pace in recent years.

Increasing competition in the global market is making drones more accessible, affordable, and user-friendly, expanding their use beyond traditional military and defense applications to sectors like agriculture, logistics, and recreation.

"It's part of the changing technological landscape that extends beyond just the military," Pettyjohn said. "It's not just the realm of the government anymore to have really sophisticated capabilities. It's just part of everyday society."

Commercial and civilian drones only began to emerge in the early 2000s, leaving the general public largely unaccustomed to encountering them in their daily lives.

The high-profile Chinese spy balloon incident last year that ended with it being shot down by a US fighter jet spotlighted aerial surveillance as a potential threat to public safety and national security. Terrorist and insurgent operations, as well as the widespread use of drone warfare in Ukraine, have also heightened fears regarding their possible weaponization.

And there are real risks, regardless of whether drone activity is malicious. As drone technology proliferates further, activities around military bases and airfields are becoming a "huge problem" for the US, Mark Cancian, a defense expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and a retired US Marine Corps colonel, recently told BI.

A US military base in Ohio briefly closed its airspace after small drones were spotted in the area, and the runways at a New York airport were also briefly shut down due to nearby drone activity.

Sociologist and New York Times columnist Zeynep Tufekci wrote that the hysteria and drama of the recent drone situation aside, "unauthorized drones are a problem, and there does need to be better regulation and technology to deal with them. Let's hear about that, then, rather than this mindless dangerous panic."

• The US military has confirmed recent drone activity around bases in New Jersey.
• The Pentagon said this week that it sent counter-drone technology to two installations.
• One of these systems has been identified as the Dronebuster, a hand-held electronic warfare tool.

The Pentagon is arming two military installations in New Jersey with counter-drone technology, giving them extra tools to better defend their airspace from any unauthorized drone incursions. One of the systems the Pentagon mentioned by name is the Dronebuster.

The US military confirmed drone sightings at Picatinny Arsenal and Naval Weapons Station Earle this month, as well as multiple sightings at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, with drones at one point forcing the base to close its airspace. A spokesperson for the Joint Staff said last weekend that drone activities over bases are not a new issue but criticized some of the recent incidents as "irresponsible."

Amid recent drone drama, there have been repeated calls to shoot down unidentified aircraft, particularly those near military bases.

The Pentagon said this week that "if a determination is made that unauthorized drones are conducting any malign or malicious activity, commanders are authorized to take appropriate action to mitigate and counter these unmanned systems," but the military is not going to be engaging anything kinetically, a spokesperson added, unless it is a "clear and present danger."

Military bases have some existing capabilities to deal with drone incursions, but the Pentagon acknowledged that sending more technology will help them mitigate potential threats.

Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, the Pentagon press secretary, said that the military is providing "active and passive detection capabilities" and "counter-drone capabilities" to Picatinny Arsenal and Naval Weapons Station Earle.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Ryder identified one of these tools as the Dronebuster, a newer piece of counter-drone tech that "employs non-kinetic means to interrupt drone signals" and affects the aircraft's ability to operate. Picatinny did not confirm any of the specific systems it is obtaining but said that it is "strengthening its counter-UAS capabilities to detect and mitigate drone incursions." BI was unable to reach Naval Weapons Station Earle.

The Dronebuster device is a hand-held electronic warfare system developed by the American company Flex Force. When a user points the lightweight device that first came online in 2016 at a drone, the weapon emits a signal that cuts the connection between the drone and its operator. It's in use with various military services.

The US Army trains service members to counter drones using the Dronebuster in tandem with a Smart Shooter system — a rifle with a special optic that tracks the drone, calculates its trajectory, and tells the user when they have a good chance of hitting it with a bullet. BI observed this training firsthand at the Joint C-sUAS (Counter-small Unmanned Aircraft System) University, or JCU, which is a new US Army initiative based at Fort Sill.

Beyond the US military, security personnel and first responders can also use the Dronebuster as a portable jammer system when facing a threat. The radio frequency jammer has evolved over the years, becoming several times more powerful than the earlier models and more rugged for a range of counter-drone operations.

Ryder said that the device is "a methodology that we have that is able to essentially bring drones down non-kinetically should we need to do that."

For the military, maintaining a robust counter-drone capability is becoming essential as drone technology becomes more prolific. The low cost of these systems makes them readily available for hobbyists and malign actors alike. Terrorists and insurgencies have weaponized small drones in Middle East combat, and in the Ukraine war, cheap, off-the-shelf hobby-style drones easily bought for a few hundred dollars are engaging in everything from surveillance to precision strike.

Drone activity over and around US bases has long been an issue for the military and is not limited to the New Jersey and Ohio incidents.

In recent weeks, suspected drones have also been spotted at US bases overseas. Such activity presents a growing problem for the military, as drones can spy on its assets, like aircraft, or hazard its operations. As drone usage continues to proliferate, the Pentagon is seeking out ways to better its approach to countering unmanned systems.

"I think we've all recognized the fact that unmanned systems are here to stay," Ryder said this week. "They're a part of modern warfare, and whether it's here in the homeland or overseas, we want to make sure that we're doing due diligence to protect our forces and protect our equities from a national security standpoint."

It can be a challenge to respond stateside, though.

"When we're here in the homeland, the authorities that the US military has to detect and track these kinds of things is much different than it would be if we were in a combat zone. In other words, the intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities that we can employ outside the United States are much different, for very good reasons," Ryder said.

The drone activity at Picatinny Arsenal and Naval Weapons Station Earle comes amid a flurry of reported drone sightings across the East Coast over the past few weeks. A range of federal agencies have determined that the sightings are not nefarious, despite speculation to the contrary, and include commercial drones, hobbyist drones, law enforcement drones, manned aircraft, helicopters, and even stars.

White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters Monday that "we have not identified anything anomalous or any national security or public safety risk over the civilian airspace in New Jersey or other states in the Northeast." The FBI, Homeland Security, and Department of Defense have argued the same.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., on Wednesday rebuffed the Biden-Harris administration's response to recent drone sightings in New Jersey, decrying how federal authorities have given no clear answers to Congress on their origin. 

In a Fox News appearance, Johnson agreed that the White House, and more broadly the U.S. government, does not seem concerned about the increased sightings in New Jersey and elsewhere in the Northeast. 

"Look, I'm the speaker of the House. I have the exact same frustrations that you do and all of us do. We don't have the answers. The administration is not providing them," Johnson said. 

Johnson said he set up a meeting last week with officials from the Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security and the FBI, and "the answers are not forthcoming."

TRUMP SAYS THE GOVERNMENT 'KNOWS WHAT IS HAPPENING' WITH MYSTERIOUS DRONES

"They just say 'don't worry about it, it's not foreign entities, there's not a vessel offshore doing this, and they're not collecting any data.' OK, then what is it?" Johnson said. 

"You heard Mayorkas, who no one believes, we impeached him in the House as you know, the DHS secretary, he said in an interview a couple days ago, well because they changed the regulations to allow drones to fly at night, that's why everybody's seeing them now. They've always been there. I mean, look, people are not buying the answers," Johnson said. "We are digging in further to get the answers, and we're demanding that the administration do its job. We gotta protect Americans, protect our intelligence, of course, and our data and everything else. We're going to get down to the bottom of it, but we don't have the answers yet."

Johnson referenced how Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told ABC News on Monday that there are thousands of drones flown every day in the U.S., and that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in September 2023 "changed the rules so that drones could fly at night, and that may be one of the reasons why now people are seeing more drones than they did before, especially from dawn until dusk." 

Mayorkas also said it was "critical" for Congress to expand authorities for state and local agencies to counter drone activity "under federal supervision." 

Johnson reacted to President Biden telling reporters at the White House on Tuesday that there was "nothing nefarious" happening with the drones, and that so far, there has been "no sense of danger."

"This is why we need Donald J. Trump back in the White House to bring steady hands at the wheel and a strong commander-in-chief," Johnson said. "He would have already had the answers, he would have already delivered to the American people and certainly to members of Congress. So leadership matters. That's why he got the mandate. That's why the American people can't wait for the America First agenda to start, and we can't wait either."

Federal authorities said Monday evening that the reported drone sightings have been identified as legal commercial drones, hobbyist drones and law enforcement drones, as well as manned aircraft, helicopters and even stars. Officials said that assessment was based on technical data and tips.

The House Intelligence Committee grilled federal law enforcement and intelligence officials about the drones during a closed-door meeting on Tuesday, Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., told CNN. 

Authorities told the panel there still is no evidence of public safety or national security threats, Himes said.

Democratic New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said Monday that drone-detection equipment supplied by the federal government has yielded little new information. He declined to describe the equipment, except to say it was powerful and could even disable the drones, though he said that is not legal on U.S. soil. Murphy urged Congress to give states more authority to deal with the drones.

TRUMP TALKS MYSTERY DRONES, TIKTOK BAN, RFK JR. AND MORE IN HOUR-LONG PRESS CONFERENCE

Meanwhile, the FBI and New Jersey state police warned against pointing lasers at suspected drones, because aircraft pilots are being hit in the eyes more often. Authorities also said they are concerned people might fire weapons at manned aircraft that they have mistaken for drones.

White House national security spokesman John Kirby said Monday that the federal government has yet to identify any public safety or national security risks from any of the reported drone sightings in the northeast, saying officials believe they were lawfully flown drones, planes or stars.

"There are more than 1 million drones that are lawfully registered with the Federal Aviation Administration here in the United States," Kirby said. "And there are thousands of commercial, hobbyist and law enforcement drones that are lawfully in the sky on any given day. That is the ecosystem that we are dealing with."

The federal government has deployed personnel and advanced technology to investigate the reports in New Jersey and other states, and is evaluating each tip reported by citizens, he said.

About 100 of the more than 5,000 drone sightings reported to the FBI in recent weeks were deemed credible enough to warrant more investigation, according to a joint statement by DHS, FBI, FAA and the Department of Defense. 

Speculation has raged online, with some expressing concerns that the drones could be part of a nefarious plot by foreign agents.

Pentagon spokesperson Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said it Is unlikely the drones are engaged in intelligence gathering, given how loud and bright they are. He repeated Tuesday that the drones being reported are not being operated by the Department of Defense. When asked whether military contractors might be operating drones in the New Jersey area, Ryder rebuffed the notion, saying there are "no military operations, no military drone or experiment operations in this corridor."

Ryder said additional drone-detecting technology was being moved to some military installations, including the Picatinny Arsenal and at Naval Weapons Station Earle in New Jersey, where drones also have been reported.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

The FBI field office in Newark urged New Jersey residents this week not to shoot down drones or point lasers at manned aircraft, taking to social media to warn against the dangerous — and possibly deadly — activity, which comes amid an uptick in reported drone sightings along the U.S. East Coast.

The drone sightings have prompted a collective sense of panic among residents, who have taken to social media to share photos and videos of believed drones captured in the darkened U.S. skies. The shared sense of fear-mongering has also prompted some vigilante-like responses, with some social media users documenting efforts to take matters into their own hands, including via laser beam. 

In the statement, released by the FBI and New Jersey State Police, authorities expressly warned against such activities, citing an increase in pilots of manned aircraft in the area who have been hit in the eyes with lasers after being misidentified as a drone by someone on the ground. 

'DRONE' SIGHTINGS IN THE NORTHEAST SPARK 'UNFOUNDED' PANIC, SAYS EXPERT

Officials said there is also a concern that people on the ground could also mistakenly fire weapons at what they believe to be an Unmanned Aircraft Systems, or UAS, but is in fact a manned aircraft.

"FBI Newark, NJSP, and dozens of other agencies and law enforcement partners have been out every night for several weeks to legally track down operators acting illegally or with nefarious intent and using every available tool and piece of equipment to find the answers the public is seeking," the authorities said in the statement. "However, there could be dangerous and possibly deadly consequences if manned aircraft are targeted mistakenly as UAS."

They also noted how easy it can be for an individual on the ground to mistake a manned aircraft for a UAS. 

"Misidentification often occurs when UAS are mistaken for more familiar objects such as manned aircraft, low-orbit satellites, or celestial bodies like planets or stars," they said. 

"To improve accuracy and prevent false sightings, a variety of tools and techniques can be used to assist with the visual identification of suspected UAS. Accurate identification is critical for maintaining safety and ensuring appropriate responses to UAS activity."

MORE THAN 20 DAYS INTO PHENOMENON, PENTAGON STILL HAS NO ANSWERS ABOUT ORIGINS OF MYSTERIOUS NJ DRONES

The statement from the FBI field office and state police comes as New Jersey residents and lawmakers have voiced frustrations about the uptick in drone sightings and what they view as a lack of answers they have been given by the federal government in response.

Still, U.S. officials have sought to emphasize that the aircraft in question are not, in fact, a national security threat. Maj. Gen. Patrick S. Ryder, the Pentagon press secretary, stressed to reporters during a briefing Tuesday that the drones are any sort of government asset, and ruled out the notion that they were any part of "experimental program" being tested by the U.S.

In a joint statement Monday, the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI, the Federal Aviation Administration and the Department of Defense said that, while they "recognize the concern" from the general public, there is no evidence that the drones are "anomalous" or a threat to public safety or to U.S. national security.

Separately, senior officials from the CIA, FBI, and DOD traveled to Capitol Hill Tuesday afternoon to brief lawmakers on the House Intelligence Committee on the uptick in drone sightings.

It is unclear, however, how far these efforts have gone to thwart the rise in public concerns.

The FBI said Monday that it has received more than 5,000 reports of alleged drone sightings in the last "few weeks" — reflecting the rise in panic from some residents, including many who have taken to social media to document their sightings on social media. 

Connecticut Rep. Jim Himes, R-Conn., used an interview on "Fox News Sunday" to call on more federal agencies — including the Federal Aviation Administration — to share more information about the drone sightings with the public.

"The FAA in particular, which is the agency of jurisdiction through the domestic skies, ought to be out Saturday morning saying, ‘Let’s show you a picture at the number of aircraft, commercial and private and military, that go over New Jersey in any 24-hour period,’" Himes said.

"Just putting information out there to fill that vacuum would be helpful," he added.

The mysterious drones in New Jersey hit close to home for Mike Francesa.

The radio legend, of course, is a New York native but made his voice heard on many cars and television throughout the bordering state.

In typical Francesa fashion, a fan asked for his thoughts on the drones, and he opened up.

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"I have two thoughts on the subject. And I’m not a UFO guy. I don’t know what’s out there. Don’t pretend to know what’s out there," Francesa began. "The government has taken a very cavalier attitude. I don’t believe this stuff about ‘foreign countries have ships off our shore.’ No one has a ship off our shore. We would know it was there in two seconds. Nobody is letting any foreign country fly stuff over our country. I don’t believe that for a second. I think some of them are commercially being tested by companies that want to deliver things, like Amazon. I think part of it is our military testing stuff, and working on things at night, and they don’t want to really spend a lot of time discussing it with us.

"I think the idea that they have taken such a cavalier approach to it makes you realize that when they keep telling you that there’s nothing to worry about, that should pretty much tip you off that they know what they’re doing here," he said.

DRONE MYSTERY BEFUDDLES NEW JERSEY OFFICIALS, FRUSTRATES RESIDENTS

Well, the government says Francesa has nothing to be afraid of. In a statement penned by the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI, the Federal Aviation Administration and the Department of Defense, the agencies said while they "recognize the concern," there is no evidence that the drones are "anomalous" or a threat to national security or public safety.

"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," the statement said.

Though the agencies said they have found no risk during their investigation thus far, they have urged Congress to enact legislation when it returns that would "extend and expand existing counter-drone authorities to identify and mitigate any threat that may emerge."

Fox News' Elizabeth Pritchett contributed to this report.

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• Mysterious drones, first seen in New Jersey and now around the US, have everyone talking.
• We're probably not all about to get sucked up by a spaceship — but it's fun to wonder!
• The mystery is bringing people together from across the political spectrum in a true online moment.

Lots of people have one conspiracy theory they kind of believe in. Ideally, this is more on the mild end of things rather than something like the moon landing being faked. A little skepticism toward authority can be healthy.

Which is why the mysterious drones that have been flying over New Jersey and the Northeast — which the federal government tells us are nothing to worry about — are a perfect thread for our conspiratorial minds to pull on.

In this postelection time, the drones have united people across the political spectrum in a shared belief that something weird is going on, and these clowns in government aren't telling us the straight story.

(For the record, there is no evidence that the clowns in the government are, in fact, lying to us.)

Over on the Facebook Group "New Jersey Mystery Drones — let's solve it," which has more than 73,000 members, there's a sharp sense of disillusionment with the local and national government response. There's also a fair number of people who might not normally talk about believing in space aliens saying they think what we're seeing is space aliens.

And I think that's a beautiful thing. We needed this.

We may one day learn the Official Truth. Until then, the drones spotted over New Jersey and other places have become a perfect obsession: an unsolved mystery that has bonded communities and gotten people outside into the fresh December air.

(I would like to give a disclaimer here that I cannot say with 100% certainty that this is not a military attack from Australia as vengeance for our mockery of their Olympic breakdancer. Or that space aliens are not about to invade and harvest our organs.)

What we know about the apparent drones, so far, is that officials seem to agree that it's neither of those threats. The Pentagon has also said they're not drones from an "Iranian mothership." And other officials say what people are seeing is just regular airplanes, helicopters, or stars.

(If you want to get in on the action and check what's flying in the sky above you, flight-tracking apps can help.)

The drone mystery has been healing a wound in our divided nation. We needed something mildly silly but kind of wacky and slightly concerning to focus on collectively.

Unexplained drone activity ticks a lot of boxes of things humans love:

• Small aircraft, a favorite interest of dads.
• Being outside and staring at the night sky — activities that have bonded mankind since days of cave paintings.
• The opportunity to become an armchair expert in a field you read about in two news articles and a Wikipedia page.
• Talking to people in your medium-to-small town.
• A vague conspiracy — but mostly friendly and nice.
• Aliens????

Best of all, discussing drone sightings has been hyperlocal — and has thrived on Facebook. Outside the drone phenomenon, Facebook Groups already had become the nation's hub for suburban news. It's where people go to ask for a plumber recommendation, complain about schools, post activities — and now discuss potential extraterrestrial activity.

Getting in on the drone action

In my small town outside New York City, the local Facebook Group was buzzing about drone sightings — people were thrilled to finally get in on the action after hearing about it in New Jersey for weeks.

An offshoot group was started to discuss drone sightings in Connecticut. (It's much smaller than the New Jersey one.) A recent post showed the vibe: "No sightings yet in Norwalk." See, everyone wants in on the fun.

There's some history of silly panics in the headlines just before something big happens. A series of shark attacks — dubbed the "Summer of the Shark" — dominated the news in the late summer of 2001. Then there was the summer of clown sightings in 2016, right before Trump was elected president for the first time.

Perhaps years from now, we'll all look back at this as the funny moment where we all focused on drones right before [whatever] happened. Or, hey, maybe we'll look back on this and think: "We should've fought off the alien brainsuckers sooner!"

There's so much for middle-aged suburbanites to argue about on the internet — property taxes, politics, Luigi. But for a brief moment, we've gotten to engage in extended Fox Mulder LARP.

I hope the drones stick around a little longer.

Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., announced Monday that he will move to advance drone legislation this week that will give local officials more authority to respond to the growing concerns of drone sightings.

Reports of drones flying over New Jersey and New York, particularly near military research facilities and Trump’s Bedminster golf course, have prompted lawmakers to press the Biden administration for more transparency when it comes to who is flying the suspected unmanned aircraft and why the government is not doing anything about them.

Schumer has called on Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to "quickly deploy" any drone-detecting tools that are available to help New York and New Jersey deal with the mysterious drone sightings that started a few weeks ago.

"This week, I will also come to the floor of the Senate to seek passage of legislation that will give local officials greater authority to swiftly respond to these sightings," Schumer said while speaking on the Senate floor on Monday. "The reports of the past few weeks have ignited immense anxiety and confusion for millions of people living across the Northeast. Thankfully, there is no reason to believe these drone sightings pose a national security threat, but even so they can be disruptive if they fly over restricted airspace particularly near airports or bases."

SCHUMER REQUESTS 360-DEGREE RADAR SYSTEM FOR NY, NJ TO DETECT DRONES

He continued, saying there was no shortage of reports of possible drone activity, yet there are few answers being provided about where some of the drones originated from and who was operating them.

Local officials lack the resources and authority to find the underlying cause of the matter, Schumer added.

NJ DRONE SIGHTINGS COULD BE A ‘CLASSIFIED EXERCISE’: FORMER CIA OFFICER

Along with seeking the Senate’s help in passing the legislation, Schumer also urged the DHS to take all necessary action to deploy as many drone-detecting resources as possible.

One of those technologies is the Robin Radar System, which, according to its website, notes "bird, bat, or drone, our 360° radar systems log thousands of observations, scanning every second to track and classify with precision."

DRONE MYSTERY CONTINUES IN NEW JERSEY AS EXPERTS OFFER NEW THEORIES ABOUT SIGHTINGS

Schumer said systems like Robin would go a long way to help local officials collect real data about where these drones are coming from.

"I want to see a flock of ROBIN-like technology systems deployed across the New York City metro area," he said. "So, we need the Department of Homeland Security to spring into action."

The House Intelligence Committee will receive a classified briefing on the drone activity on Tuesday afternoon, a source familiar with the matter told Punchbowl News. The news agency also said Biden administration officials from the FBI, Department of Defense, CIA, and Office of the Director of National Intelligence will hold the briefing.

Fox News Digital's Alex Nitzberg contributed to this report.

The mysterious drone phenomenon centered in New Jersey has prompted government officials to issue fresh calls for expanded power as their counter-drone authorization is set to expire this week. 

The current drone-countering authorities — authorized as part of the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018 — grant both the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) authority to use advanced detection technologies to identify, track and intercept drones that aren’t complying with the law.

The 2018 measure exempts the agencies from other laws that prevent interference with aircraft and wiretapping without a warrant. It expires on Dec. 20, and lawmakers must attach a last-minute extension to a stopgap spending bill to fund the government this week in order to prevent a lapse. 

But government officials say the 11th hour, piecemeal approach harms their ability to counter drone threats.

"We cannot appropriately budget, we can’t strategically plan for the future," Steven Willoughby, deputy director of the Department of Homeland Security’s counter-drone office, said during a security forum last week. 

"The administration has been seeking, for several years now, additional authorities to expand the counter-UAS authorities, both of the federal government, which are themselves very limited, and also to give state and local authorities the authority to use certain C-UAS technologies with federal oversight," a senior Biden administration official told reporters on a call over the weekend. "That legislation has been pending."

DRONE MYSTERY: NEW JERSEY HOMEOWNERS THREATEN TO TAKE MATTERS INTO THEIR OWN HANDS IF GOVERNMENT DOESN'T ACT

A DHS official said that while there is "no known malicious activity in New Jersey," the sightings there "highlight a gap in our current authorities, and so we would also urge Congress to pass our important counter-UAS legislation." 

The White House-backed Counter-UAS Authority, Security and Reauthorization Act of 2024 would expand the government’s drone authorities and renew them until 2028 — and add new state and local drone authorities. 

But a separate, bipartisan House plan would scale back the proposed state and local authorities in favor of authorizing the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to take down drones, instead of just regulating their use in airspace. 

But lawmakers don’t have time to hash out their disputes over which agency should get what authority before agencies lose their powers entirely — so the narrow extension of authority attached to the stopgap measure is only expected to last a matter of months.

DRONE EXPERTS RULE OUT US GOVERNMENT EXPERIMENT, UNSURE OF OTHER NEW JERSEY DRONE PHENOMENON THEORIES

For nearly a month, New Jersey residents have alerted authorities to sightings of mysterious drones, some as wide as six feet, hovering in the sky at night. Sightings have ranged from 4 to 180, and some of them seem to be operating in a coordinated manner, and some unmanned aerial systems have been spotted near the Army's Picatinny Arsenal and Naval Weapons Station Earle.

Law enforcement has been able to offer little explanation for the phenomenon — but steered the public away from the assumption that the drones originate with a foreign adversary. 

"To date, we have no intelligence or observations that would indicate that they were aligned with a foreign actor or that they had malicious intent," a Defense Department official told reporters over the weekend. "But I just got to simply tell you we don’t know."

"We have not been able to locate or identify the operators or the points of origin. We have very limited authorities when it comes to moving off base," the official added. 

"We’re also significantly restricted, and rightfully so — in fact, prohibited — from intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance here in the homeland." 

Additional unauthorized drone sightings have been recorded near Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, where officials closed the airspace for four hours due to the sighting, and Ramstein U.S. Air Force Base in Germany in recent days. 

As unknown airborne craft traverse the night skies in parts of the United States, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called upon the Department of Homeland Security to deploy 360-degree radar systems capable of detecting drones to the New York and New Jersey region. 

"Our local people who have questions about these drones should not have to shake an eight ball to get an answer," Schumer said, holding up a magic eight ball toy in one hand and an image of a drone in another. 

"They want real answers, and the Robin can supply those answers, and that's why we want them here," Schumer said, likely referencing the Dutch company Robin Radar Systems, which produces such systems.

NJ DRONE SIGHTINGS COULD BE A ‘CLASSIFIED EXERCISE’: FORMER CIA OFFICER

The website of Robin Radar Systems notes, "Bird, bat, or drone, our 360° radar systems log thousands of observations, scanning every second to track and classify with precision."

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a statement on Sunday, "In response to my calls for additional resources, our federal partners are deploying a state-of-the-art drone detection system to New York State." 

Fox News Digital reached out to DHS, Hochul's office, and Schumer's office for comment. 

DRONE MYSTERY CONTINUES IN NEW JERSEY AS EXPERTS OFFER NEW THEORIES ABOUT SIGHTINGS

"DHS responds to Congressional inquiries directly via official channels, and the Department will continue to respond appropriately to Congressional oversight," a DHS spokesperson said in an emailed statement.

Department of Homeland Security Sec. Alejandro Mayorkas said during an appearance on ABC's "This Week" that some of the sightings have been drones while "some are manned-aircraft that are commonly mistaken for drones."

He said "we know of no foreign involvement" related to "the sightings in the north-east." 

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"Mystery Drone sightings all over the Country. Can this really be happening without our government’s knowledge. I don’t think so!" President-elect Donald Trump declared last week in a post on Truth Social. "Let the public know, and now. Otherwise, shoot them down!!!"

• Drone sightings have been reported up and down the eastern US in recent weeks.
• Officials say they're investigating the mysterious aircraft — many of which have actually been crewed aircraft.
• But federal agencies stress that they need more authority to deal with the drone threat.

Federal agencies are arguing they need more authority so they can better deal with drones amid the surge in unexplained drone sightings that have caused confusion throughout the eastern US in recent weeks.

Department of Homeland Security and FBI officials said on Saturday that they are limited right now in how they can respond to the reported drone sightings that have stretched from Maryland to Massachusetts since mid-November.

Much of the mystery has centered on New Jersey, where drones have been reported around military facilities and critical infrastructure sites. The Biden administration has stressed that these drones are not the work of a foreign adversary and do not appear to be a public safety threat. A White House spokesperson said many of the suspected drones are believed to be crewed aircraft that are operating lawfully.

"While there is no known malicious activity occurring in New Jersey right now, the reported sightings there do highlight a gap in our current authorities," a DHS official said during a weekend background call with reporters.

The official said that they urged Congress "to pass our important counter-UAS legislation that will extend and expand our existing counter-drone authorities."

That legislation would leave DHS "better equipped to identify and mitigate any potential threats at airports or other critical infrastructure" but also provide state and local authorities with" the tools that they need to respond to such threats," the official added.

An FBI official agreed with that argument and said that any investigation into the drones is "limited in scope." They said there is pending legislation that, if lawmakers passed it, would expand the agency's legal authority regarding counter-drone tools and technologies.

The official said that the legislation would "help us quickly identify or quickly mitigate some of the threats."

A bipartisan bill, the Counter-UAS Authority Security, Safety, and Reauthorization Act, sponsored by Tennessee Rep. Mark Green, would expand federal agencies' oversight of drones.

Federal law enforcement officials told House lawmakers at a hearing this week that the current legal authorities they are working with aren't enough to deal with the threat that drones pose.

These restrictions are felt by the military as well, as US Northern Command said earlier that it was aware of reports of unauthorized drone flights near two military installations in New Jersey: the Picatinny Arsenal and Naval Weapons Station Earle.

A Department of Defense official said the military is limited in what it can do off-base and needs to coordinate with local and federal law enforcement to take any action.

"We're also significantly restricted — and rightfully so, in fact, prohibited — from intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance here in the homeland," the official said during the call with reporters on Saturday.

"We don't have the same capabilities and the same methods that we would employ in other locations outside of the homeland to determine points of origin and identify very quickly where these operators are located and then respond to that location," the official added. "We just can't do that here in the homeland."

The recent sightings follow similar incidents over the past year, with drones spotted near sensitive military sites in the US and overseas. Recognizing it has a drone issue, the Pentagon recently announced a new counter-drone strategy as it looks to uncover better ways to defeat the threat.

While the ongoing East Coast "mystery drone" saga has confused civilians and officials alike, federal agencies say many of the reported sightings are just crewed aircraft that are being misidentified as drones. However, the FBI has acknowledged that while only a small percentage of the tips it received ended up warranting further investigation, there is definitely some unexplained drone activity above New Jersey.

"We're doing our best to find the origin of those drone activities," the FBI official said. "But I think there has been a slight overreaction."

• Dozens of unidentified aircraft have been spotted over military bases, airports, and cities in the US.
• The Pentagon said Monday that DoD has "no evidence" the drone sightings pose a threat.
• A White House spokesperson said the sightings include a mix of commercial, hobbyist, and law enforcement drones.

US officials said on Monday that the mystery drones flying over US military bases, airports, and cities don't pose a threat.

On Monday, White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said that more than 5,000 drone sightings have been reported in recent weeks, but only about 100 required further investigation.

He said the sightings have included a combination of lawful commercial drones, hobbyist drones, and law enforcement drones, as well as some crewed aircraft and stars mistaken for drones.

The House Intelligence Committee was expected to receive a classified briefing on Tuesday over the issue, a source familiar with the matter told CNN.

The drones have been seen flying at night over New Jersey and other East Coast states since mid-November, sparking concern and speculation from officials and citizens.

Kirby told reporters that "our assessment at this stage is that the activity is lawful and legal,"

The federal government has sent advanced technology and additional personnel to assist local authorities and state officials investigating the sightings, Kirby said.

He stressed that the government does not believe the drones represent a threat to national security.

"There are more than one million drones lawfully registered with the FAA here in the US and there are thousands of commercial hobbyists and law enforcement drones that are lawfully in the sky on any given day," Kirby said.

Kirby spoke to reporters on Monday after the Pentagon indicated, drawing an analogy to vehicles that approach the base, it wouldn't shoot at something unless it presented as a "clear and present danger."

The Department of Homeland Security echoed Kirby's statement in a post to X late on Monday.

Pentagon spokesperson Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said the Defense Department has "no evidence at this time that the reported drone sightings pose a national security or public safety threat, or have a foreign nexus."

"We'll continue to do everything possible to investigate reports of concerning activity," he told reporters Monday. "But given how many drones are lawfully in our skies every day, we need to be careful to avoid assuming malintent or malicious behavior."

President-elect Donald Trump accused the US government on Monday of withholding information about the drones.

"The government knows what is happening," he said during public remarks at Mar-a-Lago. "And for some reason, they don't want to comment. I think they'd be better off saying what it is. Our military knows, and our president knows, and for some reason, they want to keep people in suspense."

"Something strange is going on," Trump said of the recent developments. "For some reason, they don't want to tell the people."

Mayors of 21 towns in New Jersey sent a letter Monday to the state's governor, Phil Murphy, demanding more transparency.

"Despite inquiries made to relevant authorities, we have yet to receive satisfactory answers about the purpose, operators, or safety protocols governing these flights," the letter says.

Where have residents reported seeing drones and unidentified aircraft?

Residents and officials have reported spotting unidentified aircraft, believed to be drones, flying above New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Ohio in recent weeks.

Murphy, the New Jersey governor, said late Monday that he had received a briefing from FBI Newark on their investigation.

"We are ready to assist the federal government in getting to the bottom of this," he added.

Murphy told reporters on Monday that some of the suspected drones spotted over his state are "very sophisticated" and can "go dark" the "minute you get eyes on them." Others have described the flying objects as bigger than normal hobby-style drones and able to avoid detection.

"This is something we're taking deadly seriously and we've gotten good cooperation out of the feds, but we need more," Murphy said.

Drones have been spotted near Picatinny Arsenal and Naval Weapons Station Earle, both military bases in New Jersey, and an airport in New York serving the public and the military.

However, officials have stressed such sightings are not necessarily unusual.

"This is not a new issue for us. We've had to deal with drone incursions over our bases for quite a time now," the spokesperson for the Joint Staff said Saturday. "It's something that we routinely respond to in each and every case when reporting is cited."

There have also been reports of suspected drones following a US Coast Guard vessel, as well as local police statements on the presence of unidentified aircraft near critical infrastructure.

US Northern Command, which is responsible for overseeing the protection of the US homeland, said over the weekend it was "aware and monitoring the reports of unauthorized drone flights in the vicinity of military installations in New Jersey."

Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio acknowledged that drone activity near the base led officials there to close its airspace for several hours late Friday night and into Saturday.

A recording of a controller from the Wright-Patterson air traffic control tower that was shared by The War Zone, which first reported the incursions, urges an aircraft to "use extreme caution for heavy UAS movement on the base."

What are officials saying about these mystery drones?

Trump said Friday on Truth Social that there are mystery drones being sighted all over the country. "Can this really be happening without our government's knowledge," he wrote. "I don't think so!"

He suggested that they be shot down. Other officials have expressed concern about shooting them down due to the threat to local populations of falling debris. Neither kinetic nor electronic warfare methods are particularly ideal near civilian areas.

New Jersey State Assemblyman Brian Bergen told CNN News Central's Sara Sidner on Monday that "we shouldn't be shooting things down right now."

"Look, I was an attack helicopter pilot in the US Army. I flew overseas. I have seen bullets fly through the sky. It's not a great idea to do over the United States," he said. "Things should not be shot out of the sky. That is a very dangerous thing to do."

The FBI and New Jersey State Police issued a joint statement on Monday warning of "a concern with people possibly firing weapons at what they believe to be a UAS," as well as increased incidences of pilots being dazzled by lasers.

There could be "deadly consequences" of these actions, they said.

Amid the confusion on the drones, there has been a lot of speculation, including from officials.

Rep. Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey said on Fox News last Wednesday that the drones came from an Iranian "mothership" off the East Coast of the United States, citing "very high sources."

Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh rejected the congressman's claim in a press conference later that day, saying "there is no Iranian ship off the coast of the United States, and there's no so-called mothership launching drones toward the United States."

Singh said that the Pentagon has no evidence that the reported drone sightings are the work of a foreign adversary. While Iran does have vessels that can carry drones, they were spotted off its southern coast as recently as Thursday — debunking Van Drew's claims.

He doubled down on Thursday, saying the government isn't telling the truth. The congressman said it could be another ship belonging to another foe. A Department of Homeland Security official said Saturday that there is no evidence of any foreign-based involvement in sending drones ashore from vessels in the area.

"We're doing our best to find the origin of those drone activities," an FBI official told reporters Saturday. "But I think there has been a slight overreaction."

Local officials, meanwhile, have been calling for additional information.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul on Saturday called for increased federal oversight of drones and said runways at Stewart International Airport in Orange County were shut down for an hour due to unidentified drone activity. "This has gone too far," she said.

Hochul called on Congress to strengthen the Federal Aviation Administration's oversight of drones and provide counter-unmanned aircraft equipment to local law enforcement. On Sunday, she posted to social media that the federal government was sending a "drone detection system" to her state.

Previous unidentified flying objects and drone sightings

There have been a number of sightings of suspected drones and other unusual flying objects over or around military installations in recent years.

In February 2023, for example, the United States shot down three unidentified objects flying over American airspace over the course of three days. The incidents were part of a saga that followed the US takedown of a spy balloon off the coast of North Carolina the government said came from China.

As for drone activity, The Wall Street Journal reported in October that drones had been spotted over a military base in Virginia and the Energy Department's Nevada National Security Site the year prior. Retired US Air Force Gen. Mark Kelly, until March of this year the head of Air Combat Command, said that he learned about the sightings in December 2023, when officials at Langley Air Force Base in Virginia reported seeing dozens of drones flying over the base at night. It's unclear who was behind those incidents.

While the federal government says that the latest sightings are not the work of adversaries or a public security threat, multiple recent incidents near bases have raised national security concerns.

For instance, federal authorities on Monday charged a Chinese citizen residing in California, Yinpiao Zhou, with failure to register a non-transportation aircraft and violation of national defense airspace. The Justice Department accused Zhou of using a drone to photograph Vandenberg Space Force Base in Santa Barbara County on November 30.

Police arrested Zhou at the San Francisco International Airport before he boarded a China-bound flight.

And another man, Fengyun Shi, a Chinese national, was sentenced to six months in federal prison in October for photographing US Navy ships with a drone in Virginia. Fengyun, a student at the University of Minnesota, pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor counts of unauthorized use of aircraft for the unlawful photographing of a designated installation.

The FBI official who spoke to reporters on Saturday said of the most recent sightings: "We are doing everything we can, alongside our partners, to understand what is happening and whether or not there is more nefarious activity that we need to explore."

A New Jersey state Senator is calling on Gov. Phil Murphy to declare a state of emergency to ground all drones as a way of getting to the bottom of ongoing reports of unmanned craft swarming the Garden State in recent weeks. 

State Sen. Jon Bramnick, a Republican, told "Cavuto Live" on Saturday that he also wants the FAA to join in the state of emergency as the public becomes increasingly frustrated with a lack of answers as to what is going on in the skies. 

Bramnick says he has contacted Murphy about enacting a state of emergency but has not gotten a response.  

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"I've gotten silence and we met with the state police [who] have no information. Can you imagine? The Department of Defense must have some serious secret if we can't get any information on car-sized drones flying over our military bases."

A series of unidentified drone sightings near U.S. military installations and over residences have been spotted in New Jersey since mid-November, including President-elect Trump’s Bedminster golf course, which is causing alarm. Apparent drones have also been spotted in New York City, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, among other states, as well as over three US airbases in the UK.

White House national security communications adviser John Kirby has said many of the purported drone sightings are actually lawfully operated manned aircraft and that there is no evidence of a national security or public safety threat.

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Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Friday said the government doesn't have the authority to shoot down drones and believes reports of some sightings are cases of mistaken identity.

The apparent lack of transparency about the situation has fueled conspiracy theories and raised national security concerns that a foreign entity may be behind the mysterious sightings. 

The government’s dismissal of witness reports is also irking residents who believe the government's answers are insufficient. Some have threatened to take matters into their own hands and shoot them down.

"Every time someone comes out of the top secret briefing, we get the same answer," Bramnick said. "’Well, we need more information,’ but apparently it's not a threat. Now, I don't know how they're determining that. The Defense Department must be speaking to someone because they're surely not speaking to any of the residents in New Jersey."

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"The Department of Defense has to explain why they don't know what a car-sized drone is doing, where it came from, where it's going. Is it sinister? Is there some sort of threat? Don't you think the Department of Defense should have that information? The technology is there."

Bramnick says that the state does not have the proper equipment or resources to deal with drones. He notes that the Garden State only has two state helicopters, and when one of those choppers was sent up to investigate a drone, its lights turned off and it fled. 

"Now, that's an indication that the drone is not here for a good purpose, otherwise I assume somebody operating the drone would tell the state police what they're doing. That's why we have to ground all drones at this time," Bramnick added. 

An uptick in alleged drone sightings along the East Coast touched off a flurry of panicked calls for investigation on Friday from residents and state lawmakers, even as public officials stress the aircraft in question are, in fact, being flown lawfully, and a retired port authority aviation expert tells Fox News Digital that fears are overblown.

The drone complaints began pouring in last month in New Jersey, where witnesses and residents first began reporting drone sightings off of coastal areas, including off of Cape May, a scenic town located outside of Atlantic City.

More recently, lawmakers in New York, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Maryland have reported new alleged drone sightings in their home states, with some witnesses alleging the aircraft in question have been the "size of cars" or seen flying above sensitive infrastructure or in restricted airspace.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, told reporters on Friday he had written to President Biden to share his concerns about the fresh reports of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) sightings in New Jersey airspace, and called for more federal resources to investigate the issue.

"It has become apparent that more resources are needed to fully understand what is behind this activity," Murphy wrote in the letter.

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Other lawmakers in the state have gone even further, calling for the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI to join in their investigations into the unmanned aircraft, with one Garden State lawmaker urging the objects be "shot down" if necessary.

​​"We are literally being invaded by drones," Pequannock Mayor Ryan Herbwe told reporters on Wednesday night following a town hall meeting in New Jersey. 

"We have no idea who is doing [this] and where they're coming from." 

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., issued a statement on Friday citing concerns "about the potential for these unmanned aerial vehicles — many of which are as large as a car — to disrupt air traffic and, more alarmingly, to be used maliciously to threaten national security."

These remarks have added to a growing collective sense of panic — but a panic that many in the law enforcement community say is both unfounded and unnecessary. 

White House national security communications adviser John Kirby sought to assuage these fears, stressing during a press briefing Thursday that there is "no evidence at this time that the reported drone sightings pose a national security or a public safety threat, or have a foreign nexus." 

Others in the law enforcement community also echoed this sentiment. Retired Port Authority Police Detective Lt. John Ryan told Fox News Digital in an interview Friday that the uptick in activity is likely due to two things.

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The first, he said, is that drones are a fast-evolving technology that has seen a boom in both recreational and commercial use in the U.S. in the last 10 years. Federal data on drone registration reflects this sharp uptick in use, most if not all of which is legal. As of October of this year, there were more than 790,000 drones registered with the Federal Aviation Association (FAA), and nearly 400,000 registered commercial drones. 

That's "just to give you an idea" of the magnitude of the number of legal drones in the U.S., said Ryan, whose extensive police career included serving for a decade as the emergency service special operations commander at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, and then later, the chief officer of the Port Authority, whose role includes oversight of all transportation facilities, including Kennedy, LaGuardia and all other airports and ports in the area.

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The second mistake, Ryan said, is that the individuals in question are asking the wrong authorities for help.

"The mistake I see people making is that they're going to the wrong agencies and asking these questions," he added.

The FAA is the federal body tasked with registering drones and other U.S. aircraft. It’s also the one tasked with monitoring recreational and commercial drone use in the U.S.

"In New Jersey, they've been asking the FBI, they've been asking the Department of Homeland Security — they've been asking everybody except the people that they should be asking," said Ryan.

The Pentagon also reiterated this view, noting that an initial assessment had shown the drones were not from another country, and were not shot down because they were not deemed a threat to national security.

Kirby echoed this sentiment on Thursday. Asked whether the U.S. would consider banning drone use in U.S. airspace, he told reporters, "I don't know that we're at a stage right now where we're considering that" as a policy option.

A top New Jersey lawmaker is proposing legislation to form a Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in the Garden State, modeling it after the one Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Ohio entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy are forming at the federal level.

"We need it more" than Washington, Senate Minority Whip Joe Pennacchio, R-Boonton, said. 

"We're mirroring what the federal government and what those two gentlemen are doing."

Pennacchio, who also previously worked under former Republican Gov. Donald DiFrancesco on economic development, said NJDOGE would take on a state budget that has increased 60% in the past seven fiscal years.

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"A lot of those increases were one-shots, when they borrowed money during the period of COVID. You're not going to get that back. … They haven’t even spent it all. Those one-shots, they’re all gone.

"I’ve seen estimates of a budget deficit next year of maybe $4 billion. Next year is the governor’s race. We will have a new governor, and regardless of who comes in — Republican or Democrat — it would be nice to have a committee together to give them a blueprint of what we can or should not do."

He said the state does have a "red tape" commission set up by former Gov. Chris Christie to trim regulations, adding it hasn’t borne results.

"Every dollar we save is $1 less that [Trenton] has to raise taxes," Pennacchio said. 

Pennacchio’s committee, if approved, would consist of one member from the state Treasury, one from the Chamber of Commerce, the top Republican and Democrat from the Senate and General Assembly and one public member appointed by the governor.

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"[N]ot only can we start to chip away at our exacerbated affordability crisis by cutting wasteful spending and ensuring efficiency, we can also ease the financial burden for our constituents across the Garden State by lowering the onslaught of taxes and fees," Pennacchio said.

At least one other state senator is planning to endorse the idea but has not yet done so publicly. Fox News Digital also reached out to representatives of the General Assembly for their reaction to the senator’s legislation.

Despite being long viewed as a reliably "blue" state, New Jersey came within about four points of electing Donald Trump instead of Vice President Kamala Harris. Political analysts pointed to the results as evidence of a tidal shift in public opinion toward government spending, among other subjects.

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Trump twice won Morris County and flipped Passaic County in 2024, parts of which Pennacchio represents. The lawmaker said his constituents are on board with his NJDOGE proposal and that they’ve similarly recognized disparities in the funding support they receive from Trenton.

Fox News Digital reached out to the Trump Transition for comment on the plan.

"My district is a district that is getting the bills. Schools in my district are seeing cuts while schools in other districts are not seeing cuts," Pennacchio said.

"It is stuff like this that we should look at. … If the legislature sees fit that they still want to subsidize this nonsense, then that's fine. They’ll be on record.

"Let's greet the next new governor with outlines of what they can do, where there are cost savings, where things can be eliminated; that will stimulate the economy, maybe decrease taxes on the people."

The 2025 field for that governor’s race is packed, with several top names in both partisan primaries.

Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop, former Senate Leader Steve Sweeney and representatives Mikie Sherrill and Josh Gottheimer round out the Democratic choices.

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Truck driver and former state Sen. Ed Durr, Sen. Jon Bramnick, conservative journalist Bill Spadea and 2021 gubernatorial nominee Jack Ciattarelli are the top names on the Republican side.

State Sen. Robert Singer, R-Lakewood, also joined Pennacchio's call for a NJDOGE.

"With President Trump's plan to bring business back to the U.S., New Jersey has the chance to lead the charge. It's time to restore our state's manufacturing glory with high-paying jobs," Singer said.

"Let's make New Jersey the blueprint for the Make America Work Again movement, starting with a statewide DOGE."

Recently, large drones have been spotted across Pennacchio’s district, making nationwide news.

Pennacchio slammed the feds for offering Jerseyans few answers on the aircraft, saying that when terrorists attacked the World Trade Center in 2001, government officials knew right away who orchestrated it.

"We even had some face time with the Department of Homeland Security (about the drones). They were useless. … They should be ashamed of themselves. The FBI director, he checked out. [Christopher Wray] already announced that he's leaving. … So who's minding the store here?"

Drone experts have little idea what the dozens of drone sightings over New Jersey could be, but have ruled out the possibility that they might be the work of a classified government program. 

They say the lack of a clear image or any residual hardware makes it difficult to make any guesses. 

"Until something is found, it’s really difficult to say," said Brett Velicovich, Fox News contributor and CEO of Expert Drones. "We haven’t seen any clear images."

The drone sightings were first reported nearly a month ago – on Nov. 18 – and have been spotted every night from about dusk until around 11 p.m.

The drones are "six feet in diameter," fly in a coordinated way with their lights off and "appear to avoid detection by traditional methods," according to New Jersey state Rep. Dawn Fantasia, who relayed a briefing given by law enforcement. Reports have ranged from four to 180 sightings per night, throughout New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Connecticut.

With little information on their origin from law enforcement, public speculation has run wild. 

Velicovich poured cold water on the idea that the drones could be part of a classified government test – one theory circulated to explain the lack of information shared with the public. 

"I find it hard to believe," said Velicovich. "Maybe it started that way, and now people think everything they see is a drone . . . . I’ve seen a lot of images that look like planes. 

But he said that when he worked on classified drone projects, the protocol was always to inform local police. 

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"There's a reason why we test stuff in Area 51 or all these remote locations, so that you don't have to cause public hysteria. And then when we would test stuff in cities, we would always, whenever we do secret exercises in cities, we would always inform the local police." 

Stacie Pettyjohn, drone expert with the Center for New American Security, agreed. "They would be doing it on a military base or a testing facility. And you know, they're not overflying sort of sensitive industrial locations, like they have been in New Jersey." 

Both experts agreed that what could have started off as drones may now have developed into a public panic, where everything in the air is assumed to be a drone. They said it could also be photographic drones looking to pick up images of the drone phenomenon, adding to the panic. 

"People are gonna start to see what they expect to see," said Pettyjohn. 

"No one has shown me a clear photograph of a drone," said Velicovich. 

"Either it's just overblown right now, and everything in the air is a drone, or, you've got a lot of planes in the area that are probably trying to pick up, take photographs and detect stuff and see what's really going on."

The FBI, in a statement, suggested that many of the drone sightings had turned out to be planes.

"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," a joint FBI and Department of Homeland Security statement said Thursday. 

"We are supporting local law enforcement in New Jersey with numerous detection methods but have not corroborated any of the reported visual sightings with electronic detection. To the contrary, upon review of available imagery, it appears that many of the reported sightings are actually manned aircraft, operating lawfully. There are no reported or confirmed drone sightings in any restricted airspace."

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The FBI revealed this week its budget for counter-drone technology is a mere $500,000 per year. 

Earlier this week, Rep. Jeff Van Drew, R-N.J., said that the drones may be linked to an Iranian "mothership," a theory that prompted the Pentagon to say that it had seen no evidence the drones could have come from a U.S. adversary. 

Velicovich said he "isn’t sold" that the drones are foreign in origin, but U.S. adversaries would have the capability to be behind the occurrences. 

"If we go with the theory that it's foreign, China, Russia, Iran, they all have systems that can travel over large amounts of terrain, over oceans and and carry other drones with it. So that's not the difficult thing that's happening every single day right now in countries like Ukraine." 

Pettyjohn assumed that the drones would need to be operated by someone within the U.S. 

"I would assume that it's someone who's here locally, which may be a spy, which may be a nefarious actor, but that they're they're individuals on the ground, and it's just easier to blend in and difficult to identify who they are and where they are with these rather innocuous systems," she said. 

"They can be in the air probably on the order of, like, five hours or so, or less, and a lot of them, it's way less than that. And that just means that they have to be someone probably physically here, [who] is flying them." 

China expert Gordon Chang mused that the drones could be an adversary merely looking to offer a form of distraction. 

If it were intended as an attack, "you wouldn't put on this big display over the course of days . . . with these very large objects and flashing lights. You're not going to advertise a drone attack on the U.S.," Chang said. 

"I think that they're trying to attract our attention, distract us from something that's happening elsewhere," he said. "So, I worry about what is going on that we're not paying attention to because of the drones."

Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., said he is "frustrated" by the government's lack of transparency surrounding the recent drone sightings in his state and surrounding areas in the mid-Atlantic region.

On Capitol Hill on Thursday, the senator said that he has issued a letter asking for more information because Americans should be aware of what is happening in the skies.

"I’ve been a little frustrated," he told reporters. "There hasn't been enough transparency letting people know what's happening. It's allowing a lot of potentially misinformation to spread, or at least fear. We should know what's going on over our skies."

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Booker said he has been hearing from his constituents and other elected leaders, all of whom share his concerns about the mysterious drones.

"We have agencies and organizations from the government that should be able to provide a lot more information than the public has," he said, adding that the public should have "good information" on a situation that is "understandably concerning."

The senator also worries that the lack of transparency about the drones could potentially fuel misinformation.

"I've heard a lot of things about them, and again, I want to make sure that we have all the facts," he said.

NEW JERSEY RESIDENT CAPTURES VIDEO OF SUSPECTED DRONES HOVERING OUTSIDE HER HOME

When asked if he thinks the drones should be shot down, Booker had an opinion differing from fellow congressman, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., who clearly stated they should be, if necessary.

"Safety first. You're over populous neighborhoods and areas," Booker said. "I think the most important thing right now is the safety and security of our communities, but we should know what's going on."

Large drones were first spotted in New Jersey on Nov. 18, the Federal Aviation Administration confirmed earlier this month. 

The White House said in a daily press briefing on Thursday that a newly-started investigation into the drones has not revealed anything malicious, criminal or threatening to national security, thus far.

A New Jersey lawmaker says he "can't believe" how the government is wording its investigation into recent drone sightings across northeast America.

State Assemblyman Paul Kanitra joined "Fox News @ Night" on Thursday to discuss the bipartisan outrage at how the government is handling the drone sightings.

"We're a polarized society, but I can tell you when we were in ‘The Rock,’ our security building in New Jersey, and we had a hundred state legislators from across the political spectrum – upper house, lower house – everyone was equally angry at this situation," Kanitra said.

NEW JERSEY GOVERNOR RECEIVING BACKLASH FOR LACK OF CLARITY ON DRONE SIGHTINGS

The first drone sighting took place in New Jersey on Nov. 18, the Federal Aviation Administration said earlier this month, prompting the agency to issue two temporary flight restrictions.

Kanitra said he learned during an intelligence briefing for state legislators on Wednesday that there have been confirmed drone sightings "every night since then."

In a Facebook post, Kanitra said he implored the Department of Homeland Security during that briefing to "take swift and decisive action" against the drones, describing the situation as "infuriating."

NJ LAWMAKER FIRES BACK AFTER PENTAGON DISMISSES CLAIM DRONES MAY BE LINKED TO IRAN: 'WEAKNESS AND STUPIDITY'

On Thursday, the White House said an investigation is in its beginning stages, but nothing, thus far, has revealed malicious or criminal intent, or a national security threat.

"If these are foreign adversaries with these drones, and we're a month into this already and we haven't done nearly enough, I can't believe that our government is wording this the way that they are," he said on "Fox News @ Night."

Kanitra took a picture from a distance of apparent drones in the New Jersey sky on Thursday night.

He said "these are not hobbyist drones" and the military should have the technology needed to get quality photos.

A U.S. Senator from Connecticut said the mysterious drones spotted recently flying over states in the mid-Atlantic region should be "shot down, if necessary."

In an interview on Capitol Hill Thursday, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said intelligence analysis is needed on the drones and the U.S. must act "more aggressively" against the sightings that have been reported.

"We should be doing some very smart intelligence analysis and take them out of the skies, especially if they're flying over airports or military bases," the senator said. "They should be shot down, if necessary, because they're flying over sensitive areas."

Blumenthal also said the lack of information on the drones, who they belong to and where they have come from is "absolutely unacceptable."

DRONES SPOTTED OVER CONNECTICUT SKY IN LATEST PHENOMENON

His comments come as many large drones have been reported flying over New Jersey in the past few weeks. Drones were also allegedly spotted in Blumenthal's state for the first time on Thursday.

White House national security communications adviser John Kirby said Thursday that many of the alleged drones spotted recently are actually lawfully operated manned aircraft.

"We have no evidence at this time that the reported drone sightings pose a national security or a public safety threat, or have a foreign nexus," Kirby told reporters at the daily White House press briefing. "The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the FBI are investigating these sightings, and they're working closely with state and local law enforcement to provide resources using numerous detection methods to better understand their origin."

Kirby also said, thus far, the investigation into the alleged drones has not revealed "any national security or malicious intent or criminal activity," but admitted the government is in the beginning stages of the investigation. 

MORE THAN 20 DAYS INTO PHENOMENON, PENTAGON STILL HAS NO ANSWERS ABOUT ORIGINS OF MYSTERIOUS NJ DRONES

Blumenthal said his office is asking for a briefing on the drones, describing it as "absolutely necessary" for Congress and the American people as many appear to be concerned and afraid.

"I'm hearing from constituents in the metropolitan area around New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, who are really terrified by these drones flying unidentified over airports and military bases," he said.

The senator added that the drones are causing a "level of fear, even terror" because people are worried about surveillance and airplanes flying in the same airspace.

He also encouraged Americans wanting to use drones to buy ones manufactured in the USA and not China, warning that they could be "sources of surveillance data for other kinds of security threats."

"Chinese manufactured drones are real and present [a] threat to the security of this country," Blumenthal said. "We have to stop using them."

• Mysterious aircraft sightings have been reported around New Jersey lately.
• The incidents have fueled theories, including that Iran may have launched the systems from a ship.
• Iran does have drone-carrying vessels, but satellite images show they're far from the US right now.

Newly captured satellite imagery shows that Iran's drone carriers are off its southern coast, thousands of miles away from the eastern United States.

The images back up the Pentagon's refutation of a New Jersey lawmaker who suggested that one of the Iranian ships was operating nearby and responsible for the rash of reported drone sightings in the congressman's state lately.

An image captured on Thursday by Maxar Technologies, a commercial satellite-imagery operation, and obtained by Business Insider shows three Iranian vessels that were modified to carry drones in the Persian Gulf off the southern coast of Iran.

Iran's drone ships aren't anywhere near the US. There's been significant hysteria surrounding developments in New Jersey, with some misidentifying crewed aircraft as drones. That doesn't, however, mean the US doesn't have a drone problem.

The military has been increasingly concerned about the threat posed by drones, which lower the barrier to entry for surveillance and attack operations, as has been seen in global conflicts and a range of incidents in the US.

The New Jersey sightings

Since mid-November, dozens of suspected drones have been spotted at night flying over New Jersey, including near several military installations, raising concern among civilians and state officials and drawing comparisons to similar incidents in other areas.

US Northern Command said it was "aware and monitoring the reports of unauthorized drone flights in the vicinity of military installations in New Jersey," including near the Picatinny Arsenal and Naval Weapons Station Earle.

A drone swarm was also observed near a US Coast Guard vessel off the Jersey coast, and local police in the state have also detailed incidents around critical infrastructure such as water reservoirs and train stations.

The Pentagon has assessed that the drones don't appear to be the work of a foreign adversary or entity, but there doesn't yet appear to be any explanation for the mysterious incidents.

John Kirby, a White House National Security Council spokesperson, said the US had "no evidence" that the reported drone sightings were a national security or public safety threat. He added that the government hadn't been able to confirm the reported visual sightings and that some suspected drones were crewed aircraft operating lawfully.

Amid the confusion about the drones, which have been described as bigger than hobbyist drones and able to avoid detection, a theory about the reported drones emerged from Rep. Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey, who, citing "very high sources," said these drones were linked to an Iranian mothership.

"Iran launched a mothership, probably about a month ago, that contains these drones," the Republican congressman told Fox News on Wednesday, adding that "it's off the east coast of the United States of America." He said that "they've launched drones."

The Pentagon challenged that theory, saying that "there is no Iranian ship off the coast of the United States, and there's no so-called mothership launching drones towards the United States."

Iranian drone carriers

Iran has turned several container ships into militarized drone carriers in recent years. Satellite imagery disclosed that the newest of the vessels, the Shahid Bagheri, had left its berth for the first time by the end of November. There was some speculation the ship was off to sea trials.

Open-source intelligence accounts tracked these ships to Iranian coastal waters as recently as Wednesday. The new satellite images BI obtained show the vessels were still there as of Thursday, contradicting Van Drew's claims.

He doubled down on Thursday, saying drones could have been launched from hundreds of miles out at sea. The congressman stressed that the drones could be from another adversarial country such as China.

"Here's the deal," Van Drews said. "They don't know what it is. They don't know what it's about. They haven't taken one down to analyze it. They have no idea where it came from."

"We are not being told the truth," he said.

The congressman has said the drones should be shot down. There are real challenges, though, to employing some sort of kinetic or electronic-warfare countermeasures in civilian areas. The military has been grappling with this issue.

The military's drone problem

The reported New Jersey incidents aren't a new phenomenon. They follow other mysterious drone sightings, some around sensitive military sites in the US and overseas, such as Langley Air Force Base in Virginia and RAF Lakenheath in the UK, which hosts American forces and aircraft.

Gen. Gregory Guillot, the commander of Northcom and North American Aerospace Defense Command, said in October that there had been hundreds of drones reported flying over US military installations in recent years.

The general, according to reports on the roundtable discussion, said many might be hobbyists, but he also said the drone threat and the need to counter it were "growing faster" than the military could react to from a policy and procedure standpoint.

The Pentagon recently announced a new counter-drone strategy to address the growing threat posed by uncrewed systems operating over American soil and abroad to US installations and troops. The priority is figuring out better ways to defeat the threat.

"The Department is mitigating the potential negative effects of unmanned systems on US forces, assets, and installations — at home and abroad. A critical portion of our efforts, particularly in the near-term, comes from improving our defenses, with an emphasis on detection as well as active and passive defenses. The Department will ensure our forces and priority installations have protection," the Pentagon said in a fact sheet.

While US officials have said there's no clear link between the New Jersey incidents and America's adversaries right now, the developments still highlight concerns over the national security implications of drone incursions.

Just this week, for instance, federal investigators said a Chinese citizen residing in the US was arrested while preparing to board a China-bound flight after being accused of flying a drone and taking photos of Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

More than three weeks after dozens of mysterious drones began popping up in the New Jersey night sky, the public has still been offered no clear insight on what the phenomenon could be. 

Rep. Jeff Van Drew, R-N.J., suggested the swarms of unmanned aerial vehicles could be from an Iranian "mother ship." 

The Pentagon shot down his idea. 

"There is no Iranian ship off the coast of the United States, and there’s no so-called mother ship launching drones towards the United States," said Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh. She added there is "no evidence" to suggest the drones are "the work of a foreign adversary." 

"We aren’t being told the truth," Van Drew responded Thursday on Fox News. "They are dealing with the American public like we’re stupid."

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.

Asked if Americans are "at risk," Robert Wheeler, FBI assistant director of the Critical Incident Response Group, told Congress: "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."

In recent weeks, the drones have flown near sensitive sites, like a military research facility.

And if the drones aren’t foreign in origin, onlookers are left wondering why it’s taking U.S. agencies so long to figure out who is behind them. 

"What I can say is a lot of our detection systems, means of tracking and understanding, are so vastly undersized and radically out of date," Doug Birkey, executive director of the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, told Fox News Digital. 

"So it would not surprise me that we could still be out of sync with this and not understand at the level we should," he added. "After the Cold War, the notion of air defense really took a back burner." 

And Birkey remains unconvinced that the drones are not foreign in origin. 

"I don't think we can speak declaratively about the source, but obviously they seem of a certain sophistication, size and set of behaviors that would suggest high potential of being from an adversary source," he said. 

​​NEW JERSEY DRONE SIGHTINGS: MILITARY ANALYSTS BREAK DOWN NATIONAL SECURITY CONCERNS, DOUBT HOBBYISTS AT PLAY

"I think they are either using them for intel, imagery, etc., but they can also just be testing us to see what our responses are, to then help inform their strategies and their concepts of operation." 

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy has insisted the drones do not pose a threat to public safety. The FBI is assisting local law enforcement in investigating and has called on the public for assistance through its tip line. 

It’s far from the first time unidentified drones have been seen flying near U.S. military installations. Last year, drones hovered near Langley Air Force Base for over two weeks, and their origin has still not been revealed. Before that, a Chinese spy balloon traversed the U.S., traipsing near military installations, for a week before being shot down off the East Coast. 

"There are seemingly few hard consequences [for the drones], and that is causing a very dangerous risk of escalation." 

None of the New Jersey drones have been shot down or had their systems jammed by U.S. officials. The drones that hovered near Langley were not intercepted either. 

"Whoever is flying these drones does not necessarily care about their relationship with Federal Aviation Administration, the FAA, because clearly they’re breaking almost every rule the FAA has in place for safe drone flying," said Pramod Abichandani, associate professor at NJIT’s School of Applied Engineering and a drone expert. 

"These drones are flying at night, over populated areas, flying around in a group, whether they’re being programmed as a swarm of drones or not," he said. "All of those things are not permitted freely by the FAA."

In military settings, officers use "swarms" of drones to attack enemies to make it harder for them to shoot the drones down. 

The drones are "six feet in diameter," fly in a coordinated way with their lights off and "appear to avoid detection by traditional methods," according to New Jersey state Rep. Dawn Fantasia, who relayed a briefing given by law enforcement. 

MYSTERIOUS DRONE SIGHTINGS CONTINUE TO BE REPORTED IN NEW JERSEY WITHOUT ANSWERS

The drones were first spotted on Nov. 18, and have been spotted every night since, flying from dusk to about 11 p.m. Reports have ranged from four to 180 sightings per night. 

"We know nothing. Period. To state that there is no known or credible threat is incredibly misleading, and I informed all officials of that sentiment," she said. 

"At this point, I believe military intervention is the only path forward. There will be no answers in the absence of proactivity."

U.S. Northern Command, the military command center in charge of defending the U.S. homeland, said it had not yet been asked to step in and help. 

"We are aware and monitoring the reports of unauthorized drone flights in the vicinity of military installations in New Jersey, to include Picatinny Arsenal and Naval Weapons Station Earle, and we refer you to those installations for information on any efforts they may be conducting to ensure the safety and security of their personnel and operations," a U.S. Nothern Command spokesperson told Fox News Digital.