Feds, on background, on source of mysterious drone sightings: ‘We don’t know’

You normally do an on-background chat with reporters to tell them what you really know. Which makes the background chat with the FBI, Homeland Security, FAA and the Joint Staff done today on the mystery with the drones stand out.

A spokesperson from the Joint Staff, essentially, the top military brass, admitted on the call that the feds are basically Sgt. Schultz here.

“To date, we have no intelligence or observations that would indicate that they were aligned with a foreign actor or that they had malicious intent,” the spokesperson said. “But … we don’t know. We have not been able to locate or identify the operators or the points of origin.”

Well, that’s reassuring.

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The spokesperson tried to play it all down by saying sightings over military installations are typical, but in the same breath, it was acknowledged that there have been sightings over two military installations in New Jersey, Picatinny Arsenal and Naval Weapons Station Earle.

“This is not a new issue for us. We’ve had to deal with drone incursions over our bases for quite a time now. It’s something that we routinely respond to in each and every case when reporting is cited,” the spokesperson said, adding that the military has “limited authorities” when it comes to conducting investigations off of military installations in the United States, and is also prohibited from conducting intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance operations in the United States that might be used to determine the origins of who might be flying the drones.

“We have to coordinate with law enforcement to try to do that, which we are doing,” the spokesperson said. “And we do that on a routine basis at nearly all of our locations. We have good relationships and excellent coordination, and we respond quickly to try to identify them.”

The spokesperson also said the department is frustrated with the appearance of the drones.

“The main point is to deter the activity using some of our electronic means that can respond to most of these small commercial systems and deny them access to the airspace over our bases,” the spokesperson said. “We don’t know what the activity is. We don’t know … if it is criminal. But I will tell you that it is irresponsible. Here on the military side, we are just as frustrated with the irresponsible nature of this activity.”