Fleets of dozens of mysterious UFO drones are surveilling America’s most sensitive military sites, and the Pentagon admits it can’t do much to stop the aerial intruders, according to a new report.
Drones of unknown origin have been spotted flying over military bases in Virginia and Nevada over the past year, including the secret base for the Navy’s elite SEAL Team Six commando unit and Naval Station Norfolk, the world’s largest naval port, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Federal laws, however, prohibit the military from shooting down the drones over the potential risks to troops and civilians.
Jamming their signals was also ruled out in high level White House meetings, according to the Journal — over concerns that it could interfere with 911 systems, WiFi network and commercial airliners.
The result is that the Pentagon has little recourse to halt the potential surveillance from foreign adversaries.
Former US Air Force Gen. Mark Kelly was first made aware of the drone sightings in December 2023, where officials at the Langley Air Force Base along the Virginia coast reported seeing dozens of drones flying over the base at night, according to the WSJ.
The base is home to the F-22 Raptor fighter jets — one of the American military’s most advanced stealth warplanes.
The drones continued to appear over the course of 17 days, with officials suspecting that they might have been deployed by Russian or Chinese agents to spy on American military assets.
Because snooping does not constitute an imminent threat, the military is prohibited by law from shooting down the drones.
A directed jamming attack also had the potential to interfere with commercial aircraft near the peak of the holiday travel season, one FAA official warned.
Analog tactics were also unsuccessful as local police aiding in the investigation would lose sight of the drones during the midnight chases, the WSJ reports.
The drone sightings ended on Dec. 23, with officials still unsure as to where they came from and who was operating them.
Given the complexity of the operation and number of drones flying in coordination, authorities had ruled out the possibility that amateur drone pilots were behind the sightings.
A clue, however, arrived the following month when a Chinese student studying at the University of Minnesota was caught flying a drone near the Langley base on Jan. 6.
The student, Fengyun Shi, 26, had gotten his drone stuck in a tree, which he appeared to abandon when he flew to California the following day.
The drone fell from the tree the same day, finding its way to the FBI, who found the drone had photographed Navy ships docked at the base.
Shi was arrested a week later as he was about to board a one-way flight trip to China, with prosecutors charging him with unlawfully taking photos of classified naval installations, the first such case involving a drone, according to the WSJ.
Magistrate Judge Lawrence Leonard dismissed Shi’s claim that he was just a student on vacation flying a drone for fun, with Shi pleading guilty to the espionage charges on Oct. 2.
“If he was a foreign agent, he would be the worst spy ever known,” Shi’s attorney, Shaoming Cheng, told the WSJ.
Along with the incidents in Virginia, US officials have confirmed that similar swarms of drones had been recently spotted near the Edwards Air Force Base, in Nevada.
The Defense Department has yet to publicly state who is behind these apparent surveillance drones.
