Unidentified drones over NJ/NY/DC

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you think Larry Hogan is just making it up too?

I think Hogan posted video of a couple of airplanes and a whole lot of backscatter. It's more worrisome to me that our elected officials are getting wrapped up in the hysteria. Seriously, I am the first person to jump on conspiracy theories (which most of the time turn out to be true-can we just talk about the FBI on Jan 6 please?), but this is the strangest thing I have seen in a while. I just saw another video that somebody posted at the unbelievable daytime drone sighting. It was an Osprey. Every time, it's a manned, explainable aircraft.

Are you looking at the same video I'm looking at? The moving lights are not airplanes -- they are moving erratically and changing direction quickly. Neither airplanes nor helicopters look like that. That's how drones move.

Look, I'm usually a major skeptic on this stuff but many of these videos are clearly drones. Perhaps not all of them, but many.

It looks like the camera is moving erratically.

Someone posted a picture of a parking lot light in a Target parking lot the other day, claiming it was a drone.

Just to be clear:

Your theory is that former Maryland governor Larry Hogan jerked his cell phone camera around erratically for two minutes while pointing it at static (but for some reason appearing and disappearing) lights in the night sky, and then posted the video to X claiming that it was drones that he observed over a 45 minute period?

I am not a Larry Hogan fan but I struggle to understand why he would do that and think that's an even more farfetched conspiracy theory than the idea there are drones of unknown providence flying around the Eastern seaboard for as yet to be determined reasons.

Yes, the idea that Hogan of all people is jerking his phone around to add to hysteria is extremely far-fetched.

[Anonymous]

The US military is the most advanced and powerful the world has ever seen, by an order of magnitude. We can build a burger king anywhere in the world in 24 hours. If we thought these needed to come down it would be like swatting a fly. That they're leaving them up says government incompetence, aka departments failing to coordinate with each other. Think horses not zebras etc.

Or it's aliens.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you think Larry Hogan is just making it up too?

I think Hogan posted video of a couple of airplanes and a whole lot of backscatter. It's more worrisome to me that our elected officials are getting wrapped up in the hysteria. Seriously, I am the first person to jump on conspiracy theories (which most of the time turn out to be true-can we just talk about the FBI on Jan 6 please?), but this is the strangest thing I have seen in a while. I just saw another video that somebody posted at the unbelievable daytime drone sighting. It was an Osprey. Every time, it's a manned, explainable aircraft.

Are you looking at the same video I'm looking at? The moving lights are not airplanes -- they are moving erratically and changing direction quickly. Neither airplanes nor helicopters look like that. That's how drones move.

Look, I'm usually a major skeptic on this stuff but many of these videos are clearly drones. Perhaps not all of them, but many.

It looks like the camera is moving erratically.

Someone posted a picture of a parking lot light in a Target parking lot the other day, claiming it was a drone.

This. And what's called "backscatter." 99% of the videos are airplanes, a few Ospreys, and maybe a few drones.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you think Larry Hogan is just making it up too?

I think Hogan posted video of a couple of airplanes and a whole lot of backscatter. It's more worrisome to me that our elected officials are getting wrapped up in the hysteria. Seriously, I am the first person to jump on conspiracy theories (which most of the time turn out to be true-can we just talk about the FBI on Jan 6 please?), but this is the strangest thing I have seen in a while. I just saw another video that somebody posted at the unbelievable daytime drone sighting. It was an Osprey. Every time, it's a manned, explainable aircraft.

Are you looking at the same video I'm looking at? The moving lights are not airplanes -- they are moving erratically and changing direction quickly. Neither airplanes nor helicopters look like that. That's how drones move.

Look, I'm usually a major skeptic on this stuff but many of these videos are clearly drones. Perhaps not all of them, but many.

It looks like the camera is moving erratically.

Someone posted a picture of a parking lot light in a Target parking lot the other day, claiming it was a drone.

Just to be clear:

Your theory is that former Maryland governor Larry Hogan jerked his cell phone camera around erratically for two minutes while pointing it at static (but for some reason appearing and disappearing) lights in the night sky, and then posted the video to X claiming that it was drones that he observed over a 45 minute period?

I am not a Larry Hogan fan but I struggle to understand why he would do that and think that's an even more farfetched conspiracy theory than the idea there are drones of unknown providence flying around the Eastern seaboard for as yet to be determined reasons.

You can see him panning the camera. It’s not smooth.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:These videos I'm seeing are airplanes. I'm afraid someone is going to shoot down a plane.

Like this one from a Fox News person, it's NYC planes lining up for landing.

This. This is what's happening all over the country now, but people think it's not mass hysteria. This is 100% hysteria. It just goes to show how absolutely unaware people have been of everything happening around them all their lives. How did that woman live in that apartment and never before looked out to see planes lining up to land at RFK? Now that she's heard of drones, she actually thinks it's Independence Day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you think Larry Hogan is just making it up too?

I think Hogan posted video of a couple of airplanes and a whole lot of backscatter. It's more worrisome to me that our elected officials are getting wrapped up in the hysteria. Seriously, I am the first person to jump on conspiracy theories (which most of the time turn out to be true-can we just talk about the FBI on Jan 6 please?), but this is the strangest thing I have seen in a while. I just saw another video that somebody posted at the unbelievable daytime drone sighting. It was an Osprey. Every time, it's a manned, explainable aircraft.

Are you looking at the same video I'm looking at? The moving lights are not airplanes -- they are moving erratically and changing direction quickly. Neither airplanes nor helicopters look like that. That's how drones move.

Look, I'm usually a major skeptic on this stuff but many of these videos are clearly drones. Perhaps not all of them, but many.

It looks like the camera is moving erratically.

Someone posted a picture of a parking lot light in a Target parking lot the other day, claiming it was a drone.

Just to be clear:

Your theory is that former Maryland governor Larry Hogan jerked his cell phone camera around erratically for two minutes while pointing it at static (but for some reason appearing and disappearing) lights in the night sky, and then posted the video to X claiming that it was drones that he observed over a 45 minute period?

I am not a Larry Hogan fan but I struggle to understand why he would do that and think that's an even more farfetched conspiracy theory than the idea there are drones of unknown providence flying around the Eastern seaboard for as yet to be determined reasons.

Yes, the idea that Hogan of all people is jerking his phone around to add to hysteria is extremely far-fetched.

I didn’t say that. He’s moving the camera.

It’s like people have never seen how photos and videos of lights in the darkness look on phone cameras.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you think Larry Hogan is just making it up too?

I think Hogan posted video of a couple of airplanes and a whole lot of backscatter. It's more worrisome to me that our elected officials are getting wrapped up in the hysteria. Seriously, I am the first person to jump on conspiracy theories (which most of the time turn out to be true-can we just talk about the FBI on Jan 6 please?), but this is the strangest thing I have seen in a while. I just saw another video that somebody posted at the unbelievable daytime drone sighting. It was an Osprey. Every time, it's a manned, explainable aircraft.

Are you looking at the same video I'm looking at? The moving lights are not airplanes -- they are moving erratically and changing direction quickly. Neither airplanes nor helicopters look like that. That's how drones move.

Look, I'm usually a major skeptic on this stuff but many of these videos are clearly drones. Perhaps not all of them, but many.

It looks like the camera is moving erratically.

Someone posted a picture of a parking lot light in a Target parking lot the other day, claiming it was a drone.

Just to be clear:

Your theory is that former Maryland governor Larry Hogan jerked his cell phone camera around erratically for two minutes while pointing it at static (but for some reason appearing and disappearing) lights in the night sky, and then posted the video to X claiming that it was drones that he observed over a 45 minute period?

I am not a Larry Hogan fan but I struggle to understand why he would do that and think that's an even more farfetched conspiracy theory than the idea there are drones of unknown providence flying around the Eastern seaboard for as yet to be determined reasons.

Well, he did speed up the video. Like most people, the governor never spent any time in his life looking at the night sky. When the leaves are off the trees, I have a clear view to a the line up of planes in line to land at DCA. Every now and then, when I walk into the room at night that has the view, it's a little jarring to see a line of 12-15 lighted up objects in the sky, appearing to not move. But because I have seen this view many many times, over many years, I am knowledgable enough to know what it is. Again, airplanes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:These videos I'm seeing are airplanes. I'm afraid someone is going to shoot down a plane.

Like this one from a Fox News person, it's NYC planes lining up for landing.

Sure, those don't look like drones at all.

Many of the other videos photos have been drones, though.

I think there is a real issue here that is being exacerbated by people reading about it in the news and then "seeing" drones. But I've seen enough video evidence of what are pretty obviously drones to believe that something is going on. There was also a drone that crashed in NJ neighborhood, but it turned out to be a hobby drone.

Increasingly I wonder if a hobbyist with large drones freaked some people out, it got reported in the news, more drone enthusiasts started doing weird stuff with their drones to see if they could get on the news, and it just built from there. I can easily see a group of drone enthusiasts in Maryland specifically deciding to fly drones near Larry Hogans house to see if they could freak him out and get him to say something about it, as a troll move.

I also think it's possible that there were some drones at some point that were military grade, likely part of a US project they wanted to keep secret, but that the proliferation of activity has been due to a snowball effect as people with hobby drones get in on it. And that the US government has happily encouraged the slight hysteria because as more of these are shown to be hobby drones or just manned aircraft, they can point to that and say "see, nothing to see here." And not have to reveal that they were testing some drone technology near a base in Jersey.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The US military is the most advanced and powerful the world has ever seen, by an order of magnitude. We can build a burger king anywhere in the world in 24 hours. If we thought these needed to come down it would be like swatting a fly. That they're leaving them up says government incompetence, aka departments failing to coordinate with each other. Think horses not zebras etc.

Or it's aliens.

The US military is far behind the Chinese when it comes to drones.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The US military is the most advanced and powerful the world has ever seen, by an order of magnitude. We can build a burger king anywhere in the world in 24 hours. If we thought these needed to come down it would be like swatting a fly. That they're leaving them up says government incompetence, aka departments failing to coordinate with each other. Think horses not zebras etc.

Or it's aliens.

The US military is far behind the Chinese when it comes to drones.

Yes I'm sure you know everything our military has developed. They told you, personally.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The US military is the most advanced and powerful the world has ever seen, by an order of magnitude. We can build a burger king anywhere in the world in 24 hours. If we thought these needed to come down it would be like swatting a fly. That they're leaving them up says government incompetence, aka departments failing to coordinate with each other. Think horses not zebras etc.

Or it's aliens.

The US military is far behind the Chinese when it comes to drones.

Yes I'm sure you know everything our military has developed. They told you, personally.

No, but I am pretty familiar with the supply chain for that technology. This is one area where the US is far behind across the board.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you think Larry Hogan is just making it up too?

I think Hogan posted video of a couple of airplanes and a whole lot of backscatter. It's more worrisome to me that our elected officials are getting wrapped up in the hysteria. Seriously, I am the first person to jump on conspiracy theories (which most of the time turn out to be true-can we just talk about the FBI on Jan 6 please?), but this is the strangest thing I have seen in a while. I just saw another video that somebody posted at the unbelievable daytime drone sighting. It was an Osprey. Every time, it's a manned, explainable aircraft.

Are you looking at the same video I'm looking at? The moving lights are not airplanes -- they are moving erratically and changing direction quickly. Neither airplanes nor helicopters look like that. That's how drones move.

Look, I'm usually a major skeptic on this stuff but many of these videos are clearly drones. Perhaps not all of them, but many.

It looks like the camera is moving erratically.

Someone posted a picture of a parking lot light in a Target parking lot the other day, claiming it was a drone.

Just to be clear:

Your theory is that former Maryland governor Larry Hogan jerked his cell phone camera around erratically for two minutes while pointing it at static (but for some reason appearing and disappearing) lights in the night sky, and then posted the video to X claiming that it was drones that he observed over a 45 minute period?

I am not a Larry Hogan fan but I struggle to understand why he would do that and think that's an even more farfetched conspiracy theory than the idea there are drones of unknown providence flying around the Eastern seaboard for as yet to be determined reasons.

Yes, the idea that Hogan of all people is jerking his phone around to add to hysteria is extremely far-fetched.

I didn’t say that. He’s moving the camera.

It’s like people have never seen how photos and videos of lights in the darkness look on phone cameras.

The normal movement of the camera would not account for the type of movement you see in the lights on video. I've seen planes lining up for landing in the night sky -- it doesn't look like that and airplanes and helicopters don't move in that way. Also in a two minute video, you see dozens of those lights -- that would be a bizarre amount of manned air traffic even near an airport. Those are drones.

That doesn't mean they are military drones, or foreign adversaries, or aliens. My guess would be some hobbyists having a laugh and delighting that the former governor saw them. But if you actually watch the video I think it's very hard to argue the light movements are do to the movement of the camera or that they are manned aircraft. Drones are truly the most normal and obvious answer.

Tons of people have drones. While he describes them as "large drones" I don't see how it's possible to ascertain their size without knowing their distance. My guess is these are private, hobby drones.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The US military is the most advanced and powerful the world has ever seen, by an order of magnitude. We can build a burger king anywhere in the world in 24 hours. If we thought these needed to come down it would be like swatting a fly. That they're leaving them up says government incompetence, aka departments failing to coordinate with each other. Think horses not zebras etc.

Or it's aliens.

The US military is far behind the Chinese when it comes to drones.

Yes I'm sure you know everything our military has developed. They told you, personally.

No, but I am pretty familiar with the supply chain for that technology. This is one area where the US is far behind across the board.

DP but do you think the US military is relying on public supply chains for its drone technology? It is not.

I have no idea who is further ahead on drone tech but I would not presume to know based on publicly available info, especially as the US has a strong interest in concealing it's military tech and China has reasons to flaunt theirs. For instance the recent telecom hack by China was pretty brazen and served as a way to alert the US and others to how far China has come in their hacking ability. For China that's a win. If the US did exactly the same thing and was caught in the same way, it would be viewed as an international embarrassment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The US military is the most advanced and powerful the world has ever seen, by an order of magnitude. We can build a burger king anywhere in the world in 24 hours. If we thought these needed to come down it would be like swatting a fly. That they're leaving them up says government incompetence, aka departments failing to coordinate with each other. Think horses not zebras etc.

Or it's aliens.

The US military is far behind the Chinese when it comes to drones.

Yes I'm sure you know everything our military has developed. They told you, personally.

No, but I am pretty familiar with the supply chain for that technology. This is one area where the US is far behind across the board.

DP but do you think the US military is relying on public supply chains for its drone technology? It is not.

I have no idea who is further ahead on drone tech but I would not presume to know based on publicly available info, especially as the US has a strong interest in concealing it's military tech and China has reasons to flaunt theirs. For instance the recent telecom hack by China was pretty brazen and served as a way to alert the US and others to how far China has come in their hacking ability. For China that's a win. If the US did exactly the same thing and was caught in the same way, it would be viewed as an international embarrassment.

The talent pool for people who engineer and make these things is known. And it is not in the US.

The telecom hack is different. We have that talent pool here. But we do not have the drone talent pool, we just don’t.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The US military is the most advanced and powerful the world has ever seen, by an order of magnitude. We can build a burger king anywhere in the world in 24 hours. If we thought these needed to come down it would be like swatting a fly. That they're leaving them up says government incompetence, aka departments failing to coordinate with each other. Think horses not zebras etc.

Or it's aliens.

The US military is far behind the Chinese when it comes to drones.

The US has real world experience with Predators, Reapers, Global Hawk and so on. The Russians and Ukrainians also have heaps of real world experience with drones - from simple surveillance to anti-personal and anti-armor drones to long distance drones that are effectively cruise missiles that take out arms depots and power plants a 1000 miles away.

The thing about China is that nothing they've ever developed has ever been used in a combat situation. Not their planes. Not their ships. Not their drones. And most importantly, not their soldiers. Even when they've been asked to participate in a multilateral operation - like patrolling the Red Sea while the Houthis are firing missiles at ships - the Chinese always decline. No one knows if their tech is worth anything.

And sending up a bunch of large drones that everyone can see in the most populated corner of America would be very unlike China. Particularly in the weeks leading up to a new administration.