From mid-November through December 2024, unidentified aircraft filled the skies over New Jersey and New York. The FBI collected over 3,000 tips. Nobody could explain any of it.
White House National Security Communications Adviser John Kirby reported that there was "no evidence at this time" of a national security threat, which is a careful way of saying they had no idea what was happening.
CBS News noted that New Jersey Senator Andy Kim told reporters he wasn't "getting the kind of communication and engagement" from the FBI or Homeland Security that the public deserved. New Jersey's Governor wrote a letter to President Biden asking for help. Elected officials held closed-door briefings and emerged with nothing.
Then, in January 2025, the Trump White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, announced that the drones were FAA-authorized flights for hobbyists, researchers, and recreational flyers. Case closed. Story over.
Except it wasn't a real answer. It was a dismissal. We were told to move on.
The official explanation, cobbled together by DHS, the FBI, the FAA, and the Pentagon, concluded that the sightings were a mix of commercial drones, hobbyist flights, manned aircraft, and, remarkably, stars. That was the answer.
We still don't know who was flying drones over Picatinny Arsenal, the Army's center for armaments, munitions, weapons systems, and ammunition. We don't know why federal radar couldn't confirm thousands of sightings. We don't know why one of the most surveilled airspaces in the world left us with nothing but an FBI tip line.
Anyone dismissing this as manufactured hysteria should consider what drones have become. In Ukraine, kamikaze drones are now among the most feared weapons on the battlefield. Ukrainian naval drones forced Russia out of the western Black Sea and destroyed roughly 20 vessels.
In a story The Pennant covered this week — one still unfolding — fifteen industrial spray drones were stolen from a New Jersey logistics company in March. Each drone is capable of dispersing 40 gallons of liquid across 15 acres per flight. In the wrong hands, the drones could be programmed to disperse chemical or biological agents over populated areas. The FBI described the heist as one of the most sophisticated thefts it had seen.
The drones turned up in a Dover warehouse on Monday. Good. But the ones from 2024 were never really explained — and it feels like the government would prefer you've forgotten about that by now.
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