A foreign adversary or a U.S. military dark program? The origin of the mystery drones over New Jersey is drawing more intense scrutiny by the hour and has become a lingering, unanswered question.
The mystery may have piqued the interest of Pramod Abichandani more than anyone.
Abichandani is an expert on “swarming drones” who has done research for the Department of Defense and its various branches, and for defense contractors such as Lockheed Martin. The associate professor at NJIT’s School of Applied Engineering directs its Robotics and Data Lab, known as the RADLab.
Lately, Abichandani has been out in the field with his students, collecting data and waiting to spot any suspicious drones.
“We are trying our best to unlock the mystery,” Abichandani said.
New Jersey has witnessed a startling number of drones flying overhead since mid-to-late November. There have been reports of them hovering over military installations, at least one reservoir and critical infrastructure. But local, state and federal officials have no answers about their origins.
Swarming drones are designed to communicate with each other over a wireless network so they can coordinate movements and formations, Abichandani said.
“So they have like, a level of intelligence, not just individually, but as a group as well,” he said.
Abichandani has no idea as of now whether the drones over New Jersey are swarming drones. But If they turn out to be, it is highly likely that this is a U.S. government or government-funded operation, either by the military or defense contractors, he said.
“If I were to list all the options of who this could be, the very first obvious thing is it has something to do with the military, the U.S. military,” he said.
It’s also possible that civilians could be behind it.
“There’s a lot of smart people in New Jersey,” he said, adding that drone parts can easily be purchased on foreign e-commerce sites like Alibaba.
The amount of money required to back such an operation, however, makes that improbable, he said.
And money is much on the minds of officials investigating the drones.
“What concerns us is that there has to be a lot of financial backing behind the drones,” Ocean County Sheriff Michael Mastronardy told the Asbury Park Press. “That and the fact that nobody has seen them land or take off.”
Mastronardy said he’d be more disappointed than surprised if they turn out to be drones connected to the U.S. military.
“I think it would be irresponsible for a government agency to cause public alarm,” he said.
The drone unit of the sheriff’s office has been out hunting the drones since last week.
Despite weeks of investigation, New Jersey authorities still don’t know where the mystery drones are coming from, who’s operating them, or where they are taking off or landing from, state lawmakers were told at a closed-door briefing on the drones Wednesday.
Asked by a reporter Tuesday if the drones were part of a U.S. dark program, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson said. “I hope not. I don’t believe so but there’s a lot of investigation going on so we’ll find out.”
Brett Velicovich, a drone expert and a former U.S. Army special operations intelligence analyst who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, told Fox News Wednesday that what’s been happening in New Jersey is not the way the government usually operates.
“I’ve tested a ton of drones over U.S. government installations in partnership with the military and this type of secrecy is just not normal for how we do business,” he said.
He acknowledged it could be a dark program. But he has also not ruled out that they may be “adversarial drones,” he said during the interview.
“It’s nothing for China or Russia to send a drone over our air space very quickly and essentially poke a hole in our national security infrastructure,” he said, adding that a drone can pick up an enormous amount of data through sensors in just a few minutes.
NJ congressman thinks it might be Iran
Rep. Jeff Van Drew, R-N.J., turned up the drama Wednesday by blaming Iran, citing a drone “mothership.”
“There is circumstantial evidence that suggests these drones could be the work of foreign adversaries, specifically Iran,” Van Drew said in a statement. “Right now, we know that there are drones flying in from the direction of the ocean. We also know there is an Iranian drone mothership that is missing from port in Iran, with a timeline matching the emergence of these drones.”
But the Pentagon swiftly shot down Van Drew’s suggestion.
The Pentagon said the drones were not from another country and that after an initial assessment. the U.S. military deemed that they were not a threat so had not brought them down, Reuters reported Wednesday evening.
Dav Giuliano, owner of Lite Pixel Media, a drone company based in Point Pleasant, sided with Abichandani about their origin. The mystery drones, “seem to move a lot like a military-type drone,” Giuliano said. “The thing I find interesting is that they do have the same green and red lights that my drone has, so it’s likely a drone manufacturer that we know or are aware of.”
Asbury Park Press photographer Doug Hood captured images of large drones hovering over his home in the Bay Shore section of Toms River Sunday that may have been among a group said to have arrived from over the ocean.
One clearly resembled a helicopter, but made no audible noise, said Hood, who is a drone operator.
Abichandani, who also directs the NJIT’s Advanced Air Mobility Laboratory, says if they are swarming drones, which the government has acute interest in, it’s also unlikely they are being operated by private industry.
“We haven’t seen like mass adoption of drone swarms for power line management or inspection or agricultural surveying and mapping type of things,” he said.
He has all but ruled out anything malicious or foreign actors being behind the drones.
“You’d have to be incredibly stupid to expose yourself like that,” he said.
If they are swarming drones, it’s possible there is a mothership with them, a much larger drone that carries and releases smaller drones since they have limited range and flight time, he said.
An average drone can fly only a mile to a mile and a half and can stay up in the sky for no more than 30 to 45 minutes, Giuliano said.
Within the last two years, the FAA has required drones to carry a transmitter that allows for them to be identified, which many law enforcement agencies have the ability to do, “so there’s complete transparency in the air space,” Abichandani said. But there are still a lot of older drones that don’t have them, he said.
Local, state and federal law enforcement agencies reached by the Press declined to discuss whether they had the tools to identify drones.
Ken Serrano covers crime, breaking news and investigations. Reach him at 732-643-4029 or at kserrano@gannettnj.com.
