UFOs (UAPs): Explanations?

TheVat said:
I would guess drones have advantages over satellites, aside from the obvious "they get lots closer" reason. An operator can control their path meandering and doubling back and sinking behind covering vegetation as needed, and they are massively cheaper, and if the telemetry signal gets jammed or natural interference there is still hope of recovering it physically and extracting images from its onboard chip. But as Dawgzilla notes, such spy craft would not have navigation lights, as these Jersey/NY/MD ones do.
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OTOH, it's beginning to appear that maybe the best camouflage for a spy craft is to portray it as a law-abiding drone. The latter perception seems to confer no advantage to authorities in terms of identifying owner and purpose. Whereas a detected "dark drone" breaking the rules would at least instantly garner negative associations, as well as surely stimulating a little backbone to trace the offending object to a source that can be penalized.

Fun to speculate about spies out on acreages, retrofitting commercial drones or larger hobby drones in barns or sheds, but it might take some shotgun vigilante knocking one down before there are answers.
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In the end there will probably be a far less than spectacular explanation or motive for the activity. Or not -- perhaps yet another "heightened period of public frenzy" that simply fades unsolved into obscurity. Due to no negative consequences ensuing or any that can be successfully traced back to this weeks long span.
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Gawdzilla Sama said:
The drones wouldn't be flying way up there if they were hauling drugs. "Down in the grass" is where they'd be.
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That might be true in a sparsely-populated area - a low latitude desert, plains, jungle - but I'm not sure it applies in a very well populated area like New Jersey and New York. The dangers to interception are very different.

In a sparsely populated area, you might be more worried about radar and about aircraft interception. In a heavily-populated near-urban area, most of the dangers would likely be coming from the ground.
 
And you listed those dangers. Well done.

However, "down in the grass" in this case is roof top level or lower for the terrain. If they're flying black few would notice and most of those would, I believe, say "damn kids!"
 
Biden official offers reason for mystery drone sightings in New Jersey
https://www.yahoo.com/news/biden-official-offers-reason-mystery-222311985.html

EXCERPTS: Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas offered a possible explanation for the recent uptick of drone encounters along the eastern seaboard...

[...] “In September of 2023, the Federal Aviation Administration, the FAA, changed the rules so that drones could fly at night,” Mayorkas told ABC News' This Week. “And that may be one of the reasons why now people are seeing more drones than they did before, especially from dawn to dusk.”

[...] Despite a number of false alarms, the Homeland Security secretary acknowledged that “there’s no question that drones are being sighted.” According to him, “thousands” of the pilot-free aircraft are flying in the U.S. every day, and “more than one million drones” are registered nationwide.

[...Mayorkas reiterated on Sunday the...] joint statement Thursday that 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...” (MORE - missing details)

 
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Well, at least this occurred amply more than a day prior to the reassuring comments from the Establishment, in the post above. Could be construed as mildly embarrassing from the perspective of some observers, otherwise. Oh -- have I got that backwards in terms of order relevance, or does it even matter either way? ;)

Consciously stimulated by the ongoing news trend, it sounds like drone owners may be participating so as to feed it, by flying into areas they never have before.
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Drones spotted over Air Force base in southwest Ohio
https://www.cleveland.com/nation/2024/12/drones-spotted-over-air-force-base-in-southwest-ohio.html

EXCERPTS: Wright Patterson Air Force Base had to close its airspace late Friday night and early Saturday morning because of drones flying in the area, reports say. [...] The incident comes as concerns build over repeated sightings of drones in New Jersey and New York.

“To date, installation leadership has determined none of the incursions impacted base residents, facilities or assets...” Purtiman tells the Mercer County Outlook the drones “ranged in sizes and configurations. Our units are working with local authorities to ensure the safety of base personnel, facilities, and assets.”

WCPO reports Purtiman said this is the first time drones have been seen in the base’s airspace...


(Dec 15) As drone sightings spread across East Coast, federal officials still don't know much
https://www.npr.org/2024/12/15/nx-s1-5229628/drones-congress-new-jersey-east-coast-sightings

EXCERPT: During a call with reporters on Saturday, a Pentagon spokesperson acknowledged that there had also been sightings of drones over two military installations in New Jersey, at Picatinny Arsenal and Naval Weapons Station Earle, but said such sightings are typical.

"This is not a new issue for us," the Joint Staff spokesperson said, according to the Pentagon's news service. "We've had to deal with drone incursions over our bases for quite a time now. It's something that we routinely respond to in each and every case when reporting is cited."
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Reached the point where the "drone epidemic" seems to indisputably range from being a frenzied public fad to an infectious thought-virus (affecting perceptual interpretation and behavior). Respectively akin to vintage phonebooth stuffing and the dancing plague of 1518. ;)
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Pennsylvania Republican mistakes 'Star Wars' prop for downed drone
https://www.newsweek.com/doug-mastriano-pennsylvania-senator-drone-star-wars-2002188

INTRO: A Republican Pennsylvania state senator posted on social media about the federal government's mishandling of unidentified drones, sharing a photo of a supposedly downed drone—but failed to recognize that it was actually a spacecraft from Star Wars.

Doug Mastriano is now facing questions about his competence for office as people are making fun of his post on X, formerly Twitter. The photo Mastriano posted has a caption that indicates that a "crashed drone" was retrieved from the water at Orange Beach.

However, the "drone" being hauled on the back of a truck is a TIE fighter from the Star Wars films. It is unclear when and where the photo was taken... (MORE - details)

Meme and image: https://ibb.co/VTchW0t
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This will not end well for the drone slobs. Then there will recriminations between the "keep the sport clean" and "I can do any damn thing I want to!" crowds.
 
Pentagon says ‘mystery drones’ are common unmanned aerial systems and misidentifications, pose no security threat
https://thedebrief.org/pentagon-say...d-misidentifications-pose-no-security-threat/

“Flying drones is not illegal,” Ryder said during a press briefing at the Pentagon [yesterday]. “There are thousands of drones flown around the US on a daily basis. So, as a result, it’s not that unusual to see drones in the sky, nor is it an indication of malicious activity or any public safety threat,” he added....

 
New Jersey Drones would make a great name for a sports team. Stadium would have four giant propellers in a square configuration above the bleachers...
 
There's a psychological phenomenon called mass hysteria, and I think the focus on drones in the US is currently analogous to that. I.e. it's genuine sightings of mundane drones, mixed with plenty of misidentification and amplification by the media. Drones are more widespread. The way that aidrcraft became more widespread back in the day. More sightings are to be expected. Add into that the obvious misidentifications (some were identified as the belt of Orion, for pete's sake), and the media (social or otherwise) hyping up everything to the point where anything that could possibly look like a drone is being identified as one, even if its not.

Until you see the US military take action, though, I think you can be confident that there's nothing untoward about what you're seeing. The same way that if the police aren't busting down your door you should be fairly confident that they're not aware of your pot-growing antics in your attic! ;)
 
Have to admit, I have a drone, but I also have a couple of electric Cubs, an SE5 and a Dr1. Been flying rc for years, still use the old style analog radios.
 
(Q) said:
Have to admit, I have a drone, but I also have a couple of electric Cubs, an SE5 and a Dr1. Been flying rc for years, still use the old style analog radios.
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Mr. Oberhaltzer, my drafting teacher in high school (Class of '69) used to fly RC planes. Some times one of the guys would swap the batteries around so the remote was useless. "Obie" would get the plane going and then reach for the remote. He got to see the planes heading for the horizon. He learned not to trust us.
 
The mystery of the drones over New Jersey has been solved!

tDvNWT0.jpeg
 
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