In recent years, mysterious “drones” have hovered with impunity above sensitive government facilities, spurring urgent briefings at the White House and at the highest levels of the British government. Not only can the objects involved in these incursions evade detection and sophisticated countermeasures, they also demonstrate an array of extraordinary flight characteristics.
To be sure, some recent drone incidents are likely espionage or intimidation operations. But until conventional drone technology is conclusively linked to the most brazen incursions, these craft must be considered UFOs — or, as Congress and the government now prefer, “unidentified anomalous phenomena.”
The UFO designation is particularly appropriate considering that several well-documented and equally perplexing incidents over sensitive nuclear facilities in the 1940s, 1950s, 1960s and 1970s bear a remarkable resemblance to the recent incidents.
For 17 nights in late 2023, for example, between one and two dozen brightly-lit objects flew at any one time over Langley Air Force Base in Virginia. Beyond forcing the cancellation of nighttime training missions and the transfer of highly advanced fighter jets to another base, the incidents left the military so perplexed that it tasked a special NASA aircraft equipped with sophisticated cameras to investigate the objects.
Somehow, despite nightly incursions stretching over weeks, no verified imagery of the “drones” has emerged beyond a video showing numerous blinking lights in the sky. According to Glen VanHerck, the recently retired commander of North American Aerospace Defense Command, “our most advanced” aircraft attempted to identify the objects with “extremely limited results.”
Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Mark Warner (D-Va.) and committee member Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) expressed “disappointment” and “shock,” respectively, at the lack of answers regarding the incidents following a year of investigation.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), a key member of both the intelligence and armed services committees, stated that the government does not know “what technology [the objects] are using.” According to Gillibrand, the craft in the Langley incursions involved a “type of technology that our radar did not detect them arriving.” Moreover, government documents indicate that all counter-drone technology deployed against the objects “failed.”
Gen. Mark Kelly, a decorated Air Force pilot and the commander of Air Combat Command, observed the incursions personally, likening the brightly illuminated objects moving across the night sky to a science fiction film: “Close Encounters at Langley.”
Would an adversary expose its ultra-stealthy technology so dramatically and consistently in full view of the U.S. military? If so, to what end?
What kind of craft, despite displaying bright flashing lights and flying in formation, can operate with complete impunity — avoiding radar and visual detection while resisting counter-drone technology — above a key military base?
Alarmingly, identical incursions occurred for several nights in November over sensitive American military bases in the U.K. According to witnesses, dozens of brightly-lit objects “hovered” and exhibited extreme performance characteristics while evading detection and multiple advanced counter-drone systems. Notably, the incidents began over RAF Lakenheath, which was the site of one of the most puzzling historical UFO incidents. The base is also slated to host U.S. nuclear weapons once again, raising an array of urgent national security concerns.
Similarly, over the course of several weeks in late 2019 and early 2020, swarms of brightly-illuminated objects alarmed residents by hovering over nuclear missile facilities and harassing livestock in Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska and Kansas.
Government documents paint an extraordinary picture of the incidents. On multiple occasions, law enforcement officers observed several smaller objects circling a large, stationary “mothership.” In one notable instance, a Nebraska sheriff’s deputy reported “observing 30 to 50 [objects] flying independently of each other with a larger ‘mothership’ hovering for hours.”
In another incident, a Kansas Highway Patrol officer observed a large object that “stayed relatively stationary” while “10 to 15 drones … flew all kinds of patterns around that stationary drone.” One of the “drones” then passed 200 feet over the officer but, somehow, “made absolutely no sound at all, even though the wind was calm.”
Several other law enforcement officials noted that the objects made no sound while flying for several hours in “adverse weather conditions,” including “hovering” in winds of “30 mph with 40+ mph gusts.” A briefing document prepared for the then-head of the Federal Aviation Administration noted that sheriffs from several Colorado counties reported that the objects flew for “several hours at a time in less than optimum flying conditions (high winds and storm-like conditions)” — unique capabilities wholly inconsistent with conventional drone technology.
Critically, an FAA spokesman who flew in from Los Angeles to assist with the investigation declined to confirm that the objects were drones. Similarly, FAA Administrator Steve Dickson noted that “Not too long ago we would have called these ‘UFO’s.’” His chief of staff responded, “Yep! Now everything is a drone!”
Earlier in 2019, dozens of unknown “drones” swarmed numerous U.S. Navy warships off the coast of Southern California. Over the course of several months, mysterious, brightly-illuminated objects hovered and maneuvered around the vessels, prompting a sweeping investigation. Some of the more perplexing incidents took place well over 100 miles off the coast of San Diego.
Imagery released publicly via the Freedom of Information Act shows indistinct, seemingly round objects. However, in July 2019, sailors aboard the USS Omaha recorded an intriguing video as nearly a dozen mysterious “drones” swarmed their ship 120 miles off the coast. In the perplexing footage, a spherical object moves against strong winds before descending slowly into the ocean.
The following day, sailors aboard the USS Paul Hamilton observed an object descending (“splashing”) into the Pacific Ocean some 160 miles off the coast. That object was part of a larger group of “drones” that subsequently departed on a heading towards Mexico’s Guadulupe Island, where local fishermen have been baffled by spheres that fly into the ocean.
Any spherical object lacking wings or visible means of propulsion — yet capable of moving against strong winds and descending slowly into the sea — is no ordinary drone.
Marik von Rennenkampff served as an analyst with the Department of State’s Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation, as well as an Obama administration appointee at the Department of Defense.
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