Mysterious drones over US military bases keep people guessing

For more than a year, unidentified drones have been observed over military bases and other highly secured US facilities, baffling the US government. This was reported by the Wall Street Journal, quoting a US fighter pilot, according to whom individual drones are six meters long and travel at speeds of over 160 km/h at altitudes of more than 1,000 meters. They were observed in December last year over Langley Air Force Base in the US state of Virginia. The devices flying one after the other sounded like a "parade of lawnmowers".

Also discussed in the White House

According to the newspaper report, the US government is largely in the dark in its search for those responsible. According to the report, complex flight maneuvers were observed that would not fit in with hobby pilots. For example, two drones with fixed wings repeatedly flew next to each other at high altitude, accompanied by small quadrocopters flying lower. In some cases, they also held their position temporarily. Various attempts to secure the devices, at least after they had landed, with the help of the local police, had failed.

After the drones appeared over the military base, the procedures even ended up on the US President's desk. Before the drones in Virginia, some were discovered in the US state of Nevada over a facility where nuclear weapons experiments are taking place. Despite the sometimes highly sensitive targets of the aircraft, there was apparently no possibility of drone defense. This would also have been made more difficult by the comparatively small size of the devices, some of which did not even appear on the radar. According to the report, various defensive measures were rejected because the legal authority to do so was lacking or the danger to the public was considered too great.

In this context, the US newspaper also refers to the case of a 26-year-old Chinese student who crashed a drone in Virginia at the beginning of January. While the young man took off for California, his drone ended up in the hands of investigating authorities, who found images of US military ships lying in dock on it. When the student tried to leave for China without a return ticket, he was arrested. He unsuccessfully claimed in court that he had taken the photos as a ship enthusiast. No connection to the Chinese government was found.

Memories of other incidents

A connection between the student and the drone sightings was apparently not discovered either. In any case, they have not stopped in recent months, with unidentified aircraft being observed over another air force base in California. The incidents are not only reminiscent of the Chinese spy balloon that caused a stir in the USA almost two years ago. At the beginning of 2020, mysterious drones sighted flying in formation at night in the sparsely populated heart of the USA caused a lot of guesswork.

(mho)