New Jersey
N.Y., N.J. drone mystery to be tackled by high-tech detection system. Here’s how ROBIN radar works.
NEW YORK — Federal lawmakers say they will push for new measures in Congress on Monday to track down the mysterious drones flying across the Tri-State Area and the country.
Gov. Kathy Hochul says federal partners are deploying a state-of-the-art detection system to New York state.
Here’s how the ROBIN radar detection system works
On Sunday, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said he’s requesting the Department of Homeland Security deploy a detection system like one known as ROBIN.
“Which use not a linear line of sight but 360-degree technology that has a much better chance of detecting these drones. We’re asking DHS to bring them to the New York-New Jersey area,” Schumer said.
“Would you consider banning sale of them from some of the companies that make the drones?” CBS News New York’s Lisa Rozner asked New York’s senior senator.
“There are hundreds of companies all over the globe that make drones. We don’t know which ones these are. This radar will help us find out which they are and then we can go talk to the companies,” Schumer said.
Rozner asked DHS if it would grant Schumer’s request for a new detection system. A rep responded by saying the agency only responds to congressional inquiries directly via “official channels.”
Hochul said Sunday the state needs Congress to pass the a bill which would give New York the authority to detect, track or even destroy unmanned aircraft systems. That legislation has been stuck in committees, but Schumer’s office said with him as co-sponsor now, it could pass by the end of the year.
“We need to take a hard look at our homeland defenses”
On CBS’ Face The Nation, Republican Congressman Mike Waltz of Florida said defense agencies are pointing the finger at each other and under President-elect Donald Trump.
“We need to take a hard look at our homeland defenses. President Trump has talked about an iron dome for America that needs to include drones as well, not just adversarial actions like hypersonic missiles. We need to have an all-of-the-above protection of U.S. airspace,” Waltz said.
The FBI says it has received approximately 5,000 tips on the aircraft sightings, and of those, less than 100 leads were deemed worthy of further investigation.
The DHS secretary said on ABC This Week that the agency knows of “no foreign involvement.”
The Department of Defense also said the military is “prohibited from conducting intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance operations in the U.S.”
“I believe it’s sabotage”
The South Bronx is now part of the multiple places in the Northeast where clusters of drones have been spotted.
“They’re huge, too, so I don’t know what’s going on,” resident Jeff Garcia said.
“I believe it’s sabotage because all of a sudden we getting all of these drones coming from somewhere,” resident Donna McCoy said.
“Is it like recording people? Or they just going around sitting there looking at you?” JJ Mines-Evans added.
New Jersey
Chris Christie says he saw drones above his home amid reports of strange lights in NJ, other states
‘Nobody knew anything’: Residents in the dark about mystery drones
Eyewitnesses in New Jersey and New York are seeing flying drones, some they say are the size of a school bus.
Add former Gov. Chris Christie to the list of New Jersey residents reporting mysterious “drone” sightings outside of their homes.
As reports of strange lights seen in the sky in New Jersey and other Northeast states have sparked questions and concerns across the country, Christie said during an interview Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” he believes he saw a drone outside his own home last week.
“That was a drone over my house, and I’ve never seen anything like that before and I’ve been living at that house for 30 years,” Christie said.
The sightings have raised concerns about potential public safety threats, with Christie and others saying more needs to be done to investigate. Christie said he wants the state police to have authority to “bring those drones down and find out why they’re doing what they’re doing.”
“You can see why people are concerned, and it’s a lack of communication from the government at the federal and state level that’s at fault here,” Christie said.
Federal authorities have tried to reassure Americans that the objects don’t appear to be operating nefariously. The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security have said such sightings mostly appear to be not drones at all.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Majorkas also said on ABC’s “This Week” that the federal government is helping the New Jersey State Police investigate the drone issue.
“I want to assure the American public we are on it. We are working in close coordination with state and local authorities,” Majorkas said.
Federal authorities have found no evidence of foreign involvement in the drone flights, Majorkas said.
While acknowledging concerns about the drones, Majorkas noted there are more than one million registered in the United States and thousands flying every day, implying such activity is normal and frequent. He also noted that the Federal Aviation Administration changed the rules in 2023 so drones can fly at night.
Majorkas said some of the sightings are actually manned aircraft but added “there’s no question that drones are being sighted.”
Christie noted that drones have become an important part of commerce, law enforcement and other areas, adding: “We need to be able to operate in a safe way and we’re not doing that.”
President-elect Donald Trump joined the drone conversation with a recent social media post, calling on the government needs to give more information.
“Let the public know, and now. Otherwise, shoot them down!!!” Trump wrote.
Contributing: Jeanine Santucci, USA TODAY
New Jersey
US sheriff sends drone to follow mysterious objects in New Jersey sky: Here's happened next – Times of India
A US sheriff recounted his efforts to track the swarm of mystery drones hovering over his county, only to find that they “easily” evaded his attempts, the New York Post reported.
Sheriff Michael Mastronardy of Ocean County explained that his office deployed an “industrial grade” drone on Thursday in an effort to follow one of the 50 unmanned aerial vehicles spotted by a local officer “coming off the ocean.”
The officer quickly notified state police, the FBI, and the US Coast Guard, leading to a report from Coast Guard officials of 13 drones with eight-foot wingspans trailing one of their vessels.
Sheriff Mastronardy shared with News Nation reporter Rich McHugh that these unusual drones, which don’t emit heat like standard models, were able to swiftly evade capture.
Talking about the mysterious objects, McHugh said, “If this is not our military, then it’s even more scary.” “These things look like they are fixed-wing and they have multiple lights. I’m not really sure how to process what I saw last night. Both the photographer and I were kind of stunned,” he added.
Dozens of unidentified drones were spotted flying over New Jersey, including a recent sighting of more than 50 drones emerging from the Atlantic Ocean. The unexplained incidents left both the public and law enforcement puzzled, sparking calls for immediate action from state and federal authorities.
The Ocean County sheriff’s department is investigating the drones, which are described as fixed-wing aircraft with multiple lights and wingspans between 8 to 10 feet. These drones prove difficult to track, as they don’t emit heat like typical drones, hindering detection efforts.
Tom DeLonge is offering his thoughts on the mysterious drone sightings in New Jersey.
On Saturday (Dec. 14), the Blink-182 guitarist and UFO aficionado shared a post on social media, proposing a theory about the mass drone sightings that have been reported across the Garden State in recent weeks.
“The drones that are being discussed, can hover for six hours, and then disappear once they are spotted,” DeLonge wrote on Instagram. “This is why it’s been hard to get facts from any US Agency. Some of them can even move into the ocean, and then back up to the air. Which is called ‘transmedium travel.’ A very hard thing to do.”
The drone sightings, which have also been reported in New York, Pennsylvania and Connecticut since late November, are currently under investigation by local, state and federal authorities, who remain puzzled by the flying objects.
On Friday (Dec. 13), White House National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby downplayed the sightings, suggesting that people may be misidentifying manned aircraft as drones, according to the New York Post. He also assured the public that there was no cause for concern. New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy reported nearly 50 sightings in the state alone just last week, NPR reports.
DeLonge, who has dedicated many years to researching and raising awareness about UFOs, compared the current sightings to mass UFO reports from the 1960s.
“There’s a strong possibility that these drones are ‘mimicking’ other aircraft,” the Blink-182 co-founder speculated, sharing a 1960s document about a military base that had “experienced a considerable number of reports of unidentified flying objects.”
He continued, “It’s all something to consider, and [although] we don’t have all the facts yet, we do know that UFOs play with ‘mimicry’ and that has been known for quite some time. Why? To get us to notice them without a major freak out? Who knows… but well, we are noticing nonetheless.”
Check out DeLonge’s full post about the East Coast drone sightings on Instagram here.
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