The strange lights in the sky are real. The panic across America is real. But is it an alien invasion? A terrorist attack? A foreign spying mission? A sick hoax? Or is the US government deliberately spreading fear among its own citizens? And could Britain be next?
There are more questions than answers as millions of Americans worry about the bright orbs and triangular objects that are increasingly swarming the night skies.
More than 3,000 UFOs, some allegedly as large as SUVs, have been reported to the FBI in recent weeks over six Eastern states, sparking widespread alarm and fevered conspiracy theories. A disturbingly large number of people believe they are alien craft, possibly on an exploratory mission before invading Earth.
Many suspect the fast-moving lights in the inky firmament are drones – but fear they could be harbingers of foreign enemies or terrorist attacks.
Yet more believe they are US government spy drones. “The government is in control of the drones and refuses to tell the American people what is going on,” claims controversial Georgia congresswoman MarjorieTaylor Greene.
A paranoid minority even suspect the drones are part of President Joe Biden’s plan to stage a fake alien invasion, provoking mass panic as a means to impose authoritarian rule and remain in the White House indefinitely.
President-elect Donald Trump had a typically brutish response to the swarming drones: “Shoot them down!”
The FBI appears bewildered. Spokeswoman Amy Thoreson admits: “Unfortunately, we don’t have many answers, and we don’t want to guess or hypothesise about what’s going on.”
In New Jersey, dozens of mystery drone sightings are being reported nightly, and congressman Chris Smith says: “Residents are very alarmed.” State Governor Phil Murphy laments: “It’s really frustrating that we don’t have more answers”.
While some of the UFOs may in reality be small private aircraft, the vast majority are thought to be drones. But their behaviour – flying over sensitive or restricted airspace, near military and strategic facilities, and often going dark whenever tracking technology targets them – has experts concerned.
LR Fox, one of America’s leading counter-drone security experts and the founder of White Fox, says: “There are more drones in the sky every day and there have been reports of foreign espionage and agents for foreign governments known to be using drone technology over sensitive or military and government facilities.
“Securing our airspace is becoming a critical priority.
“The US is one of the least prepared of all major countries for a drone attack. Britain is far better prepared, having been alerted by the 2018 drone incident that shut down Gatwick Airport for two days in 2018,costing £48million in lost business and disrupting the Christmas holidays for thousands of travellers.
“But Britain needs to do more. There’s cause for concern. Not every single light in the sky is a threat but the skies are getting busier. Drones have exponentially increased in capability and ease of use, at lower prices.
“It used to cost billions for a long-range drone to deliver a precision-targeted payload in a war zone. That can now be done for a few hundred pounds.
“Britain and America need to be vigilant to the potential threat.”
The mysterious aerial anomalies have also been witnessed by concerned residents in Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Virginia and New York states.
Runways at New York’s Stewart International airport were closed last week after an apparent sighting in restricted airspace.
The enigmatic lights in the night sky have become a Rorschach test that mirrors the troubled American psyche, reflecting uncertainty for the future under a new Trump administration, anxiety about terrorist attacks as conflicts escalate in the Middle East, concerns that a new Cold War could be brewing with Russia, and mounting distrust of the US government.
It’s like a modern-day version of Orson Welles’ famed radio broadcast dramatising HG Wells’ sci-fi drama War of the Worlds, which in 1938 spread panic across America as many believed that a real alien invasion was under way. Except this time, the lights in the sky are not fictional.
UFO expert Mitch Horowitz says of the recent tsunami of sightings: “I think we’re using the term, ‘drones’ because it’s reassuring to employ a familiar term. But I haven’t met anyone of serious intellect who can confidently explain these phenomena.
“This level of mass sighting, where responsible figures are bereft of explanations,is unique.”
US Homeland Security chief Alejandro Mayorkas, citing a recent rule change by the Federal Aviation Authority that allows more drones to fly at night, insists there is “noevidence” that the craft pose a “national security or public safety threat.”
Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh agrees: “Our initial assessment here is that these are not drones or activities coming from a foreign entity or adversary.” But that has only prompted many to suspect an otherworldly source.
Among them are Jim Ferguson, a Briton, who posted on social media: “The mysterious drones appearing across the globe are NOT of earthly origin.”
New Jersey Congressman Jeff Van Drew believes the drones may be enemy craft unleashed by an Iranian “mothership.”
Russian and Chinese spy satellites are known to watch over the US – and China sent a spy balloon across America last year.
“Our fiercest adversaries will stop at nothing to surveil our homeland and threaten our national security,” says Congressman Smith.
But mistrust of the US government is rampant. Drone expert Gregory McNeal says: “Both elected officials and citizens believe they are not getting reliable information from the government.”
New Jersey assemblyman Erik Peterson bluntly condemned the government’salleged ignorance on the drones, saying: “They’re lying.”
Mounting speculation suggests the FBI cannot say who is behind the drone armada because it is a top-secret US government programme testing experimental hardware before putting it on the battlefield.
“It could be different types of collection capabilities, so different types of cameras, like high definition, infrared or thermal,” says retired Navy SEAL Clint Emerson, owner of Escape the Wolf security.
The technology exists to jam signals guiding drones, and even to hijack their controls.
“We have the technology to track and control drones to bring them down safely, and pinpoint the controller,” says Rob D’Amico, former chief of the FBI counter-drone unit. “The problem in America is that state and local law enforcement don’t have the authority to use that technology. Only a few federal authorities have that.
“That’s why these states are seeing all these drones and can’t do anything about it.
“Shooting down a drone is a bad idea. It’s the most dangerous thing you can do over a civilian population: it’s going to fall and could kill someone, or you could miss andhit someone.”
The threat from drones could grow, warns Jeffrey Starr of counter-drone group D-Fend Solutions. “Most drones are used safely for recreation or in industries like agriculture, construction and defence,” he says.
“But as the skies get more crowded every day there could be bad actors using drones, and defence analysts are concerned about the threat of flying IEDs (improvised explosive devices). That’s why we need new generations of technology to focus on that.”
Police in Belleville, New Jersey, have been advised to call the bomb squad if they encounter a downed drone.
“We just don’t know what these things are, so we are being cautious,” says mayor Michael Melham.
Yet despite the panic and conspiracy theories and fear of a dastardly governmentpsy-op plot, some have suggested a more whimsical reason for the flurry of strange sightings: Santa Claus has swapped his sled for a high-tech drone that he is testing out before Christmas.
It makes about as much sense as any other explanation.
