Federal authorities are finally stepping up efforts to probe the rash of mysterious drone sightings in New Jersey and beyond — after a wave of bipartisan criticism for dragging their feet and dismissing concerns for weeks.
The Department of Homeland Security and the FBI are belatedly bringing their investigatory resources to bear, deploying drone detection technology and infrared cameras to determine what if any threat the unidentified flying objects pose, according to ABC News.
The Biden administration has been criticized for downplaying the unusual sightings by lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, who have called on federal authorities to do more, including shooting down a drone to ascertain its origin.
Do you have footage of drones over the skies of New Jersey or New York? Send it to The Post at drones@nypost.com.
“What the drone issue points out are kind of gaps in our agencies, gaps in our authorities between the Department of Homeland Security, local law enforcement, the Defense Department,” said Rep. Mike Waltz (R-Fla.), who has been tapped by President-elect Donald Trump to take over as national security adviser.
“President Trump has talked about an Iron Dome for America,” Waltz said in a reference to Israel’s homeland missile defense system. “That needs to include drones as well, not just adversarial actions like hypersonic missiles.”
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) pressed the Democratic administration to brief lawmakers in the upper chamber about “what’s going on here” and called for “more transparency” about any ongoing investigations and their findings.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Sunday had stood by the Biden administration’s tepid response to the crescendo of drone reports in recent weeks.
“If there is any reason for concern, if we identify any foreign involvement or criminal activity, we will communicate with the American public accordingly,” he claimed.
“Right now we are not aware of any.”
White House national security communications adviser John Kirby said last week it’s believed that “many” of the rogue aircraft seem to be ordinary and lawfully operated, saying there was “no evidence at this time that the reported drone sightings pose a national security or public safety threat, or have a foreign nexus.” He did not say how authorities were tracking the devices and knew that to be the case.
In a follow-up call with reporters Monday, Kirby was more explicit about the findings made during the administration’s apparent monitoring of the situation, attempting to reassure the public by chalking up the sightings primarily to misidentification of illuminated objects in the night sky.
Here’s what we know about the mystery drones hovering over the East Coast
“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 even stars that were mistakenly reported as drones,” he said.
“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 work continues.”
The drones were first reported as appearing in New Jersey night skies Nov. 18, hovering in airspace not far from President-elect Donald Trump’s golf club in Bedminster and the Picatinny Arsenal military facility in Wharton.
There have since been nearly 1,000 reported sightings in the Garden State alone, but unexplained drone clusters have also been spotted over a growing swath of the Eastern Seaboard including New York, Massachusetts and Maryland and also even Oregon.
