Drones

If this was a foreign surveilance thing considering the areas observed I think the US military would have removed from the airspace by now.  Look at the press the chinese balloons got.  And it isn't a secret thing anymore so if that was the purpose they would be out of the skies by now.  US military knows what they are, I would bet they are in some sort of evaluation of hardware for the next tax increase windfall.  Local politicians jumping in are just seeking free camera time or being part of the information distraction.  

Gotta love the internet and cell cameras, no secrets out there any more.

Part 107 Certified drone pilot here. Without looking at the sectional charts I don't know if they were in restricted airspace. 
From the way you describe it, these are huge. So not hobbyiest drones. My largest drone was a 6-motor beast that still only measured about 28" tip to tip. That's a big beast, but at a mile out, it's a fly in the sky visually. 
The FAA has no balls to enforce anything, so instead of upholding laws, the decided to start selling off US airspace to companies like walmart, target, amazon, etc and pushed hobbiests out of the sky. At least the lemmings that comply lol.  Despite the FAA not having balls, I would STRONGLY urge you not to take a drone out of the sky (in most circumstances). If you think about it logically, it's a remote controlled aircraft weighing a few pounds. If it's shot from 400' up it's no longer a remote CONTROLLED aircraft, it's a falling aircraft that cannot be controlled. It could land on a person, on a highway causing an accident, and just an unsafe situation to cause. 

My guess is that this is a commercial operation doing some training/calibration.  

Then of course, there is this (my highlight):

Bay Area man arrested for allegedly flying drone over, photographing Vandenberg Space Force Base

...According to court documents, on Nov. 30, drone detection systems at Vandenberg detected a drone flying about a mile above ground level over the base for nearly an hour. The system was able to determine the drone was being operated from a nearby park and base security personnel went to investigate. They found Zhou and another person accompanying him at the park. Zhou was hiding a drone in his jacket - the same one that flew over the base....

With the, sometimes crazy crap, that is being done with drones in Ukraine, the military is well aware of the threat.

I know I mentioned before we were seeing an increase in large drones over my place and they haven't gone away. I have still not gotten any confirmation on who or what is flying them as no one seems to know anything about them.... this was from July. 

J.A. Ackley said:

2. Foreign surveillance with a chance of having some sort of payload (also don't shoot them down) ... 

Any chance this is not too far from the path of the ChiCom weather balloon flyover?

aircooled said:

Then of course, there is this (my highlight):

They found Zhou and another person accompanying him at the park. Zhou was hiding a drone in his jacket - the same one that flew over the base....

 

Zhou is an Irish name, isn't it?

J.A. Ackley said:

Wow. Thank you for sharing your accounts. The appearance of drones seems to be growing from their first sightings in New Jersey. Feds don't seem to be concerned in what I've been reading. Local officials are concerned. Weird. 

If the Feds "aren't concerned" its because they are doing it or condone who is doing it.

Edit:  The best "Occam's Razor" explanation I have read to date (17 Dec 2024) is its the US government looking for stolen radioactive material.  

They can't admit this because of the public panic it would cause plus would be a further discrediting of the alphabet agencies for not catching a major security breach.

Drone stuff is only going to get weirder and more common. Hopefully some thoughtful regulations come about soon to protect the average citizen's privacy, safety, and ability to participate in the hobby.

maschinenbau said:

Drone stuff is only going to get weirder and more common. Hopefully some thoughtful regulations come about soon to protect the average citizen's privacy, safety, and ability to participate in the hobby.

I can tell you "regulations" aren't going to get the job done.  It's going to come down to "enforcement"--which isn't going to be easy unless the govt declares drones an invasive species and puts a bounty on every dead drone carried to a game warden's office.

Apparently there is an unidentified drones of NJ fb group where people post pictures. 
 

these dudes are freaking out about regular aircraft now. 

example:  it's a state police helicopter but not there. It's a Lockheed Martin drone owned by Iran. 
https://www.reddit.com/r/UFOs/s/OxX948BeVn

There are now reports of suspicious drones seen the last couple days in Minnesota, although I kind of wonder if it's a case of mass hysteria.

This has been all over NPR recently.  At first they thought it was Iranian ships off the coast sending drones, then it was China, now it's just a self-feeding media machine like a runaway diesel with a blown turbo.  The FBI  knows about it but doesn't seem to be doing anything that news outlets have discovered.

Basically a great big question mark.

On a sidenote, special thanks to the FAA for ruining my hobby.  I went from loving my drone to needing a license and applying for permission every time I fly.  $1200 wasted.

In my opinion they are our military or a contractor testing drones.  They may be trying to keep it a secret, but not doing a good job of that.   When they were testing the stealth bombers in Nevada there were numerous reports of UFO's.

In reply to Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) :

It's not the FAA's fault. It's your fellow drone operators doing stupid stuff that makes others mad or put them in a dangerous situation. People then complain to the only agency that has jurisdiction over the commercial airspace, forcing the FAA to do something. 
 

OR it's other drone operators that want to protect their "space" (investment, special business, etc). 

Picatinney Arsenal just put up a TFR (Temporary Flight Restriction).

God bless whoever in the government has decided to keep this as vague as possible. This was an unexpected but thoroughly enjoyable early Christmas gift.  They're clearly either federal government drones or being flown with their permission.  In the 20 plus years since 9/11 everything in this area draws an overreaction from the feds. If these were even slightly questionable they would have been blown out of the air weeks ago.  Instead they've been going about their droning with halfhearted reassurances given to the NJ governor and other officials who then go on the radio and give exasperated statements that they'd love to shoot them down but aren't allowed.  Meanwhile the always level headed populace is doing what it does best, panicking and giving insane statements to the local media.  They've been described as something between a VW Beetle and city bus in size, are either silent or have a deafening roar, and rise up from under the water from numerous lakes in squadrons of up to 50 at a time. Last night I received several alerts that drones had slammed into the Empire State Building. That remains unconfirmed though the NYPD denies it occurred.  Even the normally sensible public radio programming I listen to at work as at times succumbed to the hysteria. I am almost giddy every time someone brings them up. To help keep the excitement alive I'm sharing various theories whenever I can.  

In reply to Wally (Forum Supporter) :

It's good- I needed a distraction from 
/Gestures Wildly At Everything

The only drone I believe in:

Tomcat is my Jesus .

Whatever this is, it's going to make it tough to fly my Bayraktar.

And I just got the danged thing! Thanks a lot, Obama. (That's an Irish name, isn't it?)

There have been reports of these things all over eastern MA now, and they just arrested two people the other night on one of the Boston Harbor islands for flying one too close to Logan Airport's airspace, which obviously is a BIG no-no and a quick way to get at least 4 Stars on the GTA crime scale. There was a 3rd guy with them, but he bugged out on a boat and they are still looking for him. These were locals, not foreign agents. This isn't the 1st time this happened; people are always messing with the airport. It's usually laser pointers, not drones, though. 

Some of my friends were repeating some conspiracy theories that it is the feds, looking for "something", like a lost nuke or the like, which is why largely no one is doing anything about it. I am more in the mind that it's a bunch of dweebs with drones trying to get attention and "stick it to the man". I sure hope it's the latter rather than the former. 

I think it's pretty obvious what is going on at this point:

- Drone spotted near military installation, that is apparently where they test and develop new weapons.  Drones are new weapons.

- "Internet" in it's grand stupidity, gets a hold of the idea and starts spotting drones everywhere (many of which are planes).  Proving the old maxim:  If you try hard enough, you can find or see pretty much anything eventually, even if it doesn't actually exist.

- Those with drones decide to play along and give the internet what it is looking for.

Heck, if I had a drone I would probably dress it up in a light exoskeleton and go do some flying for internet point.  Of course, if I did it, that exoskeleton would look a lot like a penis and balls, you know, just to make a point....

BTW, the comments about an Iranian drone carrier?  Yes, that exists, and is undergoing testing.... in the Persian Gulf.  This may surprise you (!?) but some politicians are quite dumb.  Here is a shot of it (I believe there are two actually).  This ship will likely disappear in many pieces and sink to the bottom about 35 seconds after it does something aggressive.

Here is a spotters guide for you.  And yes, I can identify all the aircraft below (one is way older than the others, can you guess which one?)

In reply to aircooled :

Is the way older one the DC-3 in the bottom left? I've flown in a few that were still in commercial service in the 90s. In Honduras. Nothing like a 60 year old aircraft in central America to help you feel comfortable.

In reply to dculberson :

Nope, you got it.  It's a pretty horrible rendition of a DC-3, but they have been around since the 1936!  I figured people would be thrown off by the AN-2 (biplane), which is still pretty old (1947), but not DC-3 level.  A curious number of Russian planes in the chart.

All I'll add to this is the United States shot down a balloon with an F-22.

If this wasn't sanctioned by someone it wouldn't be happening.

We deployed a lot of anti-small drone measures on FOBs in Afghanistan. The same ones exist around US military installations.

I knew it all along , I just saw one across the street this morning ..........