Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
The buzz surrounding the mysterious flurry of drones over New Jersey and other nearby states has led some officials, including President-elect Trump, to call for the US military to shoot down the mysterious objects.
But such measures carry significant risks, experts say. The objects could be legitimate airplanes, helicopters, or other innocuous objects, and debris from drone crashes poses a threat to people and property on the ground.
“If people start shooting, things have to go down,” said Jeffrey Wells, a visiting scholar at George Mason University’s National Security Institute who focuses on technology threats.
Many of the sightings appear to be amateur aircraft or drones, and the Biden administration has stressed there is no current threat to any government facilities or military sites.
The frenzy surrounding the swarm of flying objects points to a need for the government to increase its transparency with the public about what it’s tracking, experts told The Hill this week.
Wells said he was concerned that without answers, the public would start shooting down the drones, which could lead to a fatal accident.
“There are a lot of risks involved in this,” he said. “If you damage someone’s $500 drone, that’s a big deal, but if you hit a police helicopter or a medical evacuation helicopter or a utility company drone that’s out to see where the wire is fallen, you are now creating an additional life risk.”
The drone sightings, which began in late November primarily in northern New Jersey and New York City, have now spread to several other states, mostly along the East Coast.
But over the past week, drones have become a national story, causing confusion and an air of mystery about their origins.
Members of Congress and state officials in New Jersey and New York are among those who have taken their concerns and advice to social media, calling on the government to take concrete action and stop downplaying concerns.
Trump last week asked the US to clarify what was happening and to shoot them down.
“Something strange is happening,” he added at a news conference on Monday, accusing the government of hiding information.
And Rep. Chris Smith (RN.J.) denounced the US government’s failure to protect US airspace.
“Why can’t we at least pack a drone and get to the bottom of this?” he said at a press conference. “Why can’t we even track a suspicious drone back to its origin? Do we have so little control over our airspace?”
But some Republicans join Democrats in advising a more cautious approach. New Jersey state Rep. Brian Bergen (R) pushed back on calls to shoot down the drones in one CNN interview.
“I’ve seen bullets fly through the sky. It’s not a great idea to do that in America. We shouldn’t be tearing things down right now,” he said. “Things shouldn’t be shot out of the sky. That’s a very dangerous thing to do.”
Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said drone activity near military bases has become more frequent and there is no threat that warrants a response.
“That said, if there’s a threat, there are certain measures we can take, some passive, some active in terms of detection,” he said. “It could include using our own drones to shoot down the drones, or essentially redirect them, things like that.
“They use appropriate measures in coordination with law enforcement to knock the drone out of the sky, it doesn’t necessarily have to be kinetically, or they just control it,” he added.
Ryder also said that, for good reason, the military is limited to conducting intelligence on domestic soil, preventing troops from accurately tracking drones.
If a drone is a threat, there are countless ways to take out drones besides shooting them: electronically disabling them, or using nets or even raptors, like a hawk, to attack it.
Biden administration officials have explained that there are more than 1 million drones legally registered with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and thousands of them fly legally every day.
In recent weeks, the FBI said it has received 5,000 reports of drone sightings, some of which it has investigated with advanced technology and visual experts. Even so, they have stressed that there is no threat to national security.
There are some serious concerns as drones have been spotted near two military bases in New Jersey. This is part of a pattern of unidentified drones and unmanned aircraft being seen flying near other US military installations in Virginia and even where US troops are based outside the country in the UK and Germany
Robert Pape, a political science professor at the University of Chicago and an expert on air power, said public distrust of the federal government has created a communication gap that has led to the hysteria.
“This is an issue of public trust,” he said, “and what’s happening is that the public is becoming more and more distrustful.”
Pape said the government should deploy more resources to detect drones and do a better job of communicating with state and local governments and the public about sightings. But he stressed that Americans should “resist supporting political leaders” who call for drones to be shot down.
“Obviously, it’s not a prescription for stability and success,” he said of ousting them. “We don’t want to live in this world.”
Rep. Mike Waltz (R-Fla.), Trump’s pick for national security adviser, also pointed to concerns about government transparency, saying that “Americans have a hard time believing that we can’t find out about ‘where they come from.’
“It’s pointing out gaps in our capabilities and our ability to suppress what’s going on here. And we have to get to the bottom of it,” he added. he told CBS during the weekend.
White House national security spokesman John Kirby questioned the characterization that the United States had not come forward.
“We are making a good-faith effort to be as open and direct as possible with all of you and with the American people,” he told reporters Monday. “There is absolutely no effort to be anything but as sincere as possible.”
Kirby emphasized that most drones are benign, and with the improvement of modern technology, there will only be more of them in the future.
“It’s important for people to understand the ecosystem of drones over the skies of the United States. I mean there’s a lot of activity. And again, the vast, vast, vast majority of it is legal and legal,” he said.
Congress is now stepping in to address some of the concerns.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (DN.Y.) called for the deployment of the US a special drone detection device that uses radio wave detectors attached to an aircraft to determine the origin of objects in the sky. He also said he will introduce a bill to get local police more drone detection tools.
New Jersey Rep. Mikey Sherrill (D) called for a comprehensive action plan: Deploying Reaper drones and counter-drone radars, creating an interagency task force to address the problem, and establishing a streamlined process for communicating findings to the public, among other recommendations.
Other lawmakers have called for new regulations on where drones can fly in U.S. airspace.
All flying objects, whether drones or airplanes, must transmit a transmission signal using a transponder, which lets the FAA know what’s in the airspace.
Drones have wide latitude to fly off private property. Homeowners have about 500 feet above their home as part of their property before it is considered public airspace.
George Mason University’s Wells said it was vital that the United States address critical gaps between local partners and the federal government in its efforts to monitor the skies and inform the public about what’s in the airspace .
“Doing this type of feed more directly to local government to inform citizens, that in your neighborhood these are actually airplanes, these are helicopters, these are things that are being operated by your local utility company,” he said.
“We just need to get that same level of transparency as well as clear guidance at the federal level that says this is how we engage with local law enforcement to enforce federal statutes as well as protect people.” added Wells, “so that people on the ground don’t feel like they have to panic, but also that they don’t have to take action by buying their own big nets or shotguns.”
