The Pentagon’s failure to solve the mystery of the flight of unidentified drones over the “F-22” hangars

According to Isna, the frequent flight of several unidentified flying objects over Langley Air Force Base on the coast of Virginia in the United States, General Mark Kelly, the commander in chief of this base, which hosts the most advanced American fighter, the F-22 Raptor, and It has also surprised the officers and officials of this country.

The Wall Street Journal wrote: For several nights, military personnel at the base have reported mysterious violations of restricted airspace at the site of one of the largest national security centers in the United States. The display of these drones usually starts 45 minutes to an hour after sunset.

Officials don’t know if the drones, numbering more than 10, belong to a hostile force or smart people doing it for fun. Some suspect that Russia or China flew them to test the reaction of American forces.

Federal law prevents the military from targeting and shooting down drones near military bases in the United States unless they pose an imminent threat. Hence, the US military faces a challenge to guide drones.

The mystery of drones

Reports about these drones, which first appeared last December, reached the White House and US President Joe Biden, who held meetings for two weeks to review it. Officials from various agencies, including the Department of Defense, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Pentagon’s UFO office, joined outside experts to offer possible explanations as well as ideas on how to respond.

The invasion of drones into restricted airspace has already worried national security officials. 2 months earlier, in October 2023, several drones flew over a government site used for nuclear weapons testing.

The Department of Energy’s Nevada Nuclear Security Site outside Las Vegas detected four drones over three days, and staff spotted a fifth.

US officials said they did not know who was operating the drones in Nevada or why. Such an attack had never been reported before.

According to the Wall Street Journal, over the course of 17 days, these drones were spotted, flew, and returned at dusk.

Gen. Mark Kelly said some of them emitted small lights that made them look like constellations moving through the night sky or out of a science fiction movie. They were also almost impossible to trace and disappeared every night despite the many resources used to arrest them.

Looking for clues

Gen. Glenn Van Herk, head of the U.S. Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command, said drones have been seen flying around defense installations for years, but their night flight over Langley in a mass, he said, was like There are no other previous attacks.

Van Hark, who led the military response to China’s spy balloon last year, ordered fighter jets and other aircraft to fly close enough to pick up clues from the drones. He recommended that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin authorize a full list of wiretapping and spying to obtain more information, even though the Pentagon is limited in what it can do on US soil.

For two nights starting Dec. 6, officers chased the drones in patrol cars and on foot, relaying fleeting sightings with information about Langley over police radios. Three drones apparently landed at one point but returned to the sky before officers could reach them.

According to the now-retired General Kelly, the Pentagon also failed.

Entertainment?

Given the complexity of the operation, US officials did not believe that people were flying drones for fun. The drones flew in a pattern: one or two fixed-wing drones more than 100 feet in the air, and smaller quadcopters, about the size of 20-pound commercial drones, often flying lower and slower.

They were coming from the north to pass the base, which is located on a peninsula at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, and continues south, beyond radar range, at about 6 p.m. (6 p.m.). They would repeat this pattern usually until midnight and then disappear.

Analysts found that smaller quadcopters do not use the frequency band typically available for commercial drones. More evidence that the operators of these planes were not just doing it for fun.

Following these developments, officials at the Langley base canceled night training missions and moved the F-22 fighters to another base due to the fear of facing a drone attack.

On December 23, the drones made their last flight.

US officials have not yet determined exactly who flew the drones over Langley Air Force Base and why.

Officials recently confirmed that more unidentified drones have also been spotted near Edwards Air Force Base north of Los Angeles in recent months.

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