My daughter sent me the above blurry photo her husband took of drones over their neighborhood, and they don’t live anywhere near New Jersey or New York. Apparently, the mystery drones garnering media attention and citizen concern really are all over.
I told her it isn’t the drones with lights on that are following FAA regulations you have to worry about; it’s the blacked out, stealth drones you never see. I guess you could argue that a drone with night vision or thermal vision might be a concern from a privacy perspective, but there’s nothing she could do about it in any case.
In a way, it is funny I am writing about drones when I hope to get one for Christmas. Not a drone the size of a car, of course, but one the size of my hand that can be flown with no special license. I’d like to see how a lightweight drone does in our windy conditions and what kind of advantage it gives me from a scouting or patrolling perspective. Can I fly it down the road to check out the vehicle noise I heard and then navigate back home? Will our forested area be a challenge? My nearest neighbor is about a quarter of a mile away. Can I sit on my deck, fly the drone to his place, scout around for a few minutes, and fly back? And if I do, will he hear it buzzing or whining?
Funny, you never hear about the drones in New Jersey making noise, just visual sightings and almost always at night. I’ve only worked with drones twice—both small, although one cost $1,200—and they both made a high-pitch noise. It was also hard to see them when they were a couple hundred feet up. Even when we knew it was there, they could get lost in the sky.
Nefarious or Benign?
It is clear from the multiple sightings and many photos and videos that there are indeed drones flying over the New Jersey and New York area. It is less clear what these drones are doing and if they represent a danger to citizens.
While it is unlikely there is an Iranian “mother ship” off the coast that is launching drones, it is within the realm of possibilities that some of the illegal immigrants who crossed the border are using drones to scout targets or collecting data for themselves or for their home nation. After the “weather balloon” incident, China might consider drones a less visible way to take aerial photos and vacuum up cellular and other data. Iran or its terrorist proxies, which has far fewer spy satellites than China, could use drones to gather information and plan an attack on Trump when he goes to his Bedminster golf course in New Jersey. That theory would at least explain why New Jersey is attracting so much drone attention.
There could also be benign reasons for the drones, such as package delivery, land mapping, law enforcement, filming, or preparing for some art display. Unless they seem to be targeting you, your house, or your place of work, I don’t think your personal safety is at risk.
My issue is not simply that there are lots of unexplained drones, but the Biden Administration appears to be stonewalling us about why there are drones, what they are doing, and who owns them. That’s more concerning than the idea of Iranian spies getting a closer look at a golf course or even an airport. Worse, it fuels speculation and gives credibility to the conspiracy theories. Just another example of the Biden Administration being its own worst enemy.
No Drones out Here in the Hinterlands
When she texted me, my daughter asked, “Have you had drones out there yet?” Nope. Nothing to see out here and very little information to suck up. Houses are far apart, there’s not much wealth, and the only drones we know of are used for real estate or wedding photography and search and rescue during the daylight. Plus, the valleys, ridges and swirling wind make it a challenging environment for drones. Does that make us immune? No, but it pushes us well down the list.
It could be just a local legend, but I understand the state police fly over once or twice a year looking for pot growers in the woods. I know it is not just a rumor that there is moonshining in the area, although I suspect it is in a barn, not the woods. I guess drones might be used to search for these activities. If they can sniff for nuclear radiation, maybe they could be set up a drone to sniff for meth cookers. That would be more useful.
I’m not worried about drones, at least not out here. We don’t have any terrorist targets. I’m not on the run from authorities. Nor do I shoot deer after sunset or cook meth in an outbuilding. (Sadly, I don’t even have an outbuilding.) Assuming the drones are not armed, about the worst a drone could do is snap a picture of me pissing in the woods, and that won’t happen until it warms up.
I’d still like to see a law passed allowing you to shoot down drones using a 12-gauge. That would at least create some standoff distance and stop people from using them to snoop and look in your windows. If they’d do that, I’d buy a couple boxes of 3-inch BBB loads, just in case.
