mysterious drone who is harassing new jersey residents It may have been part of a top-secret government program for weeks, security experts told The Post on Tuesday — as lawmakers scramble to respond to the troubling incidents.
The feds have been tight-lipped about daily drone activity in Morris, Passaic, Bergen and Hunterdon counties and beyond since the gizmos were first spotted on Nov. 18.
But many experts said the U.S. government could be behind the unstable flights — which could be part of a super-secret military program to test new hardware before it hits the battlefield.
“My first guess is that these are likely government programs known as ‘Special Access Programs’ that have been deliberately put together to keep the most obvious people out – it’s really just to keep it secret. ,” said Clint Emerson, retired Navy SEAL and Owner of security company Escape the Wolf.
“That’s why the government says, ‘We don’t know.’ They’re honest,” he said, adding the circle could be as small as a dozen officers. “They don’t even know the program exists.”
Emerson said it’s impossible to know what the drones might be doing — but he suspects the secret is the technology they’re carrying, not the equipment.
“It could be different types of collection capabilities – so, different types of cameras, like high-definition, infrared or thermal,” he said.
For example, the second payload could be hardware that captures all cellphone data in a given environment.
“How much data can we collect from this? Let’s say we got 10 drones, they fly in a grid, how much cell phone traffic can we pick up? Not a real conversation. But only the signature of millions of cellphones. “What can 10 drones pick up in an area?”
“It’s a legitimate test,” he said. “They are not invading your privacy. That is valid data. And that’s f–king potential.
And what better place to do so than New Jersey, the nation’s most populous state.
“That would be my number one guess: This is a very closely organized program, and they’re doing what they need to do to make sure that their technology really works,” Emerson said.
The weirdest part?
If that’s the case, then the people running it won’t need to say a word.
“The beauty of (special access programs) is that they are in their own chaotic little world,” Emerson said. “They can do whatever they want and they don’t have to tell anyone.”
Kelly McCann, a security expert and former Marine special missions officer who works for the Office of Naval Research, echoed Emerson’s comments and said she thinks the government is testing some “operational capability.”
“It’s strange how we’re supposed to have control over the skies – but this is going on and no one is saying anything?” McCann, Fox News regular contributortold The Post.
“I don’t buy it. Tech exists to take down one or all of them, and they haven’t? Bulls-t.”
This probably isn’t much comfort to New Jersey politicians who are dealing with Bunch of complaints about low-flying equipment.
GOP Rep. Chris Smith — who represents a wide swath of South Jersey — said Monday that the state’s residents “deserve swift and bold action” by the government to investigate and resolve the situation.
“Clearly, New Jerseyans are deeply concerned by this significant and repeated incident — and the slow response so far from our state and federal agencies is completely unacceptable,” Smith said in a statement.
“As we saw with Chinese spy balloons last year, our staunchest adversaries will not desist from conducting surveillance over our homeland and threatening our national security.”
Meanwhile, State Senator John Bramnick, a Republican from the state’s 21st Legislative District, said Tuesday that New Jersey should “issue a limited state of emergency to ban all drones until the public is informed about these multiple sightings.” There is no explanation available,” According to a statement on the GOP Senate Republicans’ website.
on monday The governor told Fox News That he “doesn’t blame people for being disappointed” – but he reiterated that there appears to be no danger.
Murphy said, “We see no evidence — and this includes Homeland Security, the FBI, the Secret Service, our state police and officials at all levels of government — that the bottom line is that we have any concern for public safety.” There doesn’t seem to be any concern.” ,
“Having said that, it’s really disappointing that we don’t have more answers about where they’re coming from and why they’re doing what they’re doing,” he added Sunday. 49 drones were seen at night.
Murphy said he spoke with White House and Homeland Security officials on Sunday, and “hopefully we’ll get answers as soon as possible.”
“They’re obviously… very sophisticated,” he said of the aircraft. “As soon as you look at them, they go into darkness. We are obviously most concerned about sensitive targets and critical infrastructure.
The feds — who have said they are investigating the sightings — appear equally concerned, and the Federal Aviation Administration has banned drone flights over Picatinny Arsenal in Morris County and Trump National Golf Club in Somerset.
But no one from local or federal law enforcement has put forward any motive for the night flights – even as witness videos have flooded the Internet.
FBI spokeswoman Amy J. “Unfortunately, we don’t have many answers and we don’t want to speculate or hypothesize about what’s going on,” Thorson said. told NJ.com last week.
“We are doing everything we can to find out.”
(TagstoTranslate)US News(T)Department of Homeland Security(T)Drones(T)Future Tech(T)New Jersey(T)Phil Murphy
