Drones or UFOs? Alarming incursions demand answers

The U.S. military is confronting an unsettling phenomenon. Over the last five years, a series of bizarre — and remarkably brazen — “drone swarms” have overwhelmed key Department of Defense facilities and assets, including nuclear missile silos. Notably, some of the objects appear to exhibit unconventional technology.

As Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, stated on April 9, “We see consistent incursions around sensitive government facilities.”

Despite the U.S. government’s sweeping investigative authorities and abilities, the puzzling incidents remain a mystery. None have been decisively tied to foreign or domestic actors.

For its part, the Pentagon has been unwilling or perhaps unable to present any photographic or video evidence that conventional drones are responsible for the most perplexing encounters. Asked whether he had seen any images of the objects, Kelly responded “no.”

In December 2023, for example, large numbers of unidentified “drones” appeared regularly over Langley Air Force Base in Virginia.

According to the Air Force, the base experienced “multiple incursions throughout the month.” The incidents were so perplexing that the Air Force called in a special NASA aircraft equipped with what may be the world’s most sophisticated airborne camera to gather data on the mysterious objects.

Video recorded by a civilian observer shows numerous craft with flashing lights appearing to hover in the vicinity of the base.

In 2019, dozens of unknown “drones” stalked some of the U.S. Navy’s most advanced warships off the coast of Southern California.

Over the course of several weeks, mysterious objects hovered and maneuvered around the Navy vessels, prompting a sweeping, multi-jurisdictional investigation. Importantly, some of the more perplexing incidents took place nearly 200 miles off the coast of San Diego. The imagery released publicly shows indistinct, seemingly round objects.

In one intriguing video associated with the incursions, a spherical object descends slowly into the ocean approximately 120 miles off the California coast. In a similar incident the following day, sailors aboard a different Navy vessel observed an object “splashing” into the sea some 160 miles off the coast.

Like the Langley Air Force Base incursions, incident reports note that the unknown objects displayed flashing lights, predominantly white, red and green.

Perhaps most notably, in late 2019 and early 2020, swarms of dozens if not hundreds of unknown drone-like objects left countless residents and law enforcement officials in rural Colorado, Nebraska and Wyoming perplexed. The “creepy” incidents received significant media coverage, including in the New York Times and several national network news outlets.

Alarmingly, according to internal Air Force emails, some of the incursions were “clustered in an area that has quite a few [nuclear] missile sites.”

Because the investigation into the incursions involved so many civilian government and law enforcement agencies, freedom of information laws permit an unprecedented level of insight into the occurrences. The details are intriguing — and unsettling.

The sheriff of Washington County, Colorado, for example, was one of many law enforcement officials who observed the objects. Importantly, he “could not confirm what he saw was drone activity because he could not hear a noise from the motor.”

In another incident, internal Federal Aviation Administration emails describe an object “flying low [but] no engine-propeller noise could be heard.”

One of the unknown objects also passed just 200 feet over a Kansas Highway Patrol officer. Somehow, the brightly lit craft “made absolutely no sound at all, even though the wind was calm.”

Yet another witness, a retired meteorologist, heard “no sound” as one of the objects “hovered,” alarmingly, “over a [nuclear] missile command station within sight of his farm.”

Like the Langley Air Force Base incursions and the incidents off the Southern California coast, the objects over rural Colorado, Nebraska and Wyoming often displayed bright flashing white, red and green lights “not consistent with standard aircraft signal light patterns.”

The flashing lights, it should be noted, would be odd if the incidents involved any kind of foreign intelligence gathering operation.

In another notable parallel with the Langley and Pacific Ocean incidents, the silent, flashing objects flew only at night.

Perhaps most perplexingly, FAA emails note that “there are several reports that indicate the drones are operating in coordination with a ‘Big Drone’ that may be stationary in the area.”

This larger object, according to the emails, “also described as a ‘Mother Ship,’ is said to hover while all the others fly around in close proximity.”

In one bizarre incident, a Nebraska deputy sheriff reported “observing 30 to 50 [objects] flying independently of each other with a larger ‘mothership’ hovering for hours.”

Some of these objects also reportedly flew in “adverse weather conditions,” including “hovering” in winds of “30 mph with 40-plus mph gusts.” A briefing document prepared for the FAA administrator noted that sheriffs from several Colorado counties reported that the objects flew for “several hours at a time in less than optimum flying conditions (high winds and storm-like conditions).”

By flying against or hovering in strong winds for long durations and emitting no discernable sound, the objects exhibited unique capabilities inconsistent with conventional drone technology.

Notably, an FAA spokesman who flew in from Los Angeles to assist with the investigation declined to confirm that the objects were drones. In an email, then-FAA administrator Steve Dickson noted that “Not too long ago we would have called these ‘UFO’s.’” His chief of staff responded, “Yep! Now everything is a drone!”

A nearby Air Force base, which oversees 200 nuclear missile silos scattered throughout the region, denied any involvement in the perplexing incursions.

Following an exhaustive, multi-agency investigation, the FAA concluded “with high confidence” that the odd incidents were “not covert military activities,” which only deepens the mystery.

In an astounding historical parallel, seemingly identical incidents had occurred in the same location 55 years earlier.

Over the course of three nights in 1965, more than 140 Air Force personnel stationed at nuclear missile silos in the same areas of rural Colorado, Wyoming and Nebraska reported nearly 150 mysterious craft demonstrating the enigmatic characteristics observed during the 2019-2020 incidents.

According to Air Force documents, the 1965 observations involved unknown objects with “red and green flashing lights” that illuminated “at one to two second intervals.”

In another striking parallel between the 1965 and 2019-2020 incidents, there was “no sound reported in association with any of the objects.” Moreover, like the more recent encounters, “all reported [1965] observations occurred during darkness or near darkness.”

In 1965, the objects would also “hover” or engage in “up and down movement,” exactly as described by witnesses in 2019 and 2020.

In one notable 1965 incident, an “object moved across the sky at high speed [and] then stopped and remained in position for a considerable length of time.”

Importantly, according to the Air Force documents, many of the 1965 “sightings were verified by other observations from neighboring [nuclear missile] control centers.” The reports also noted that the military personnel involved “are accustomed to night duty and it seems hardly possible that these unusual objects would have been present previously and not been observed.”

Beyond the remarkable parallels between the 1965 and 2019-2020 incidents, no drones or other conventional aircraft capable of such flight characteristics existed 60 years ago, adding still more complexity to the mystery.

Regardless of the nature of the enigmatic objects appearing in close proximity to military installations and assets, the glaring national security vulnerabilities involved mean that Congress must demand answers on this seemingly decades-long phenomenon.

Marik von Rennenkampff served as an analyst with the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation, as well as an Obama administration appointee at the U.S. Department of Defense.