We need to know whether the drones over New York and New Jersey pose a threat to the homeland

Two years ago, a Chinese balloon the size of three school buses hovered 60,000 feet in the air, drifting across the continental U.S. for seven days. It passed over sensitive security areas, including Malmstrom Air Force Base in Great Falls, Montana, that’s home to stockpiles of missiles and nuclear defense infrastructure. Only after it was shot down did we learn this “civilian research airship” that President Biden claimed “was not a major security breach” was communicating with China through an American internet service provider and equipped with thousands of pounds of equipment, including a “massive surveillance payload.”

One would think the President of the United States and our nation’s federal law enforcement agencies would have learned a lesson from this blatant security breach. However, dozens of mysterious drones have been spotted in the skies across New Jersey and New York City in recent weeks, suspiciously near Picatinny Arsenal Military Base, Trump National Golf Club Bedminster and the Verrazzano Bridge in my district, which connects Brooklyn’s U.S. Army Garrison Fort Hamilton and Staten Island’s U.S. Coast Guard Station New York, the largest of its kind on the East Coast.

US MILITARY RESEARCH CENTER DENIES NJ DRONES ARE THEIRS

We know by the sheer size of these aircraft that they are not commercially available drones; some have been described as 15 feet long, “unusually large,” or similar to the size of a car. The drones are so large and prevalent that a medevac helicopter in New Jersey was blocked from picking up a seriously injured accident victim.

Despite requesting briefings from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and urging the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to impose temporary drone flight restrictions until the origins of these devices can be identified, our federal agencies tasked with keeping us safe have no idea where these drones are coming from or who may be operating them.

In a House Homeland Security Committee hearing this week, I asked officials from the FBI if these drones could potentially be our own, as there are federal programs that test unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), such as the System Assessment and Validation for Emergency Responders (SAVER) program, which supports emergency response agencies by providing assessments of commercially available equipment, including drones, to aid in purchasing decisions. SAVER’s recommendations enhance law enforcement’s capabilities in handling complex threats, hazardous material detection and protecting public safety.

The answer was: “I don’t know that to be the case, and I couldn’t really comment on that.”

This would be the best-case scenario because New Jersey has taken an active role in increasing the visibility of UAS technology. The SAVER program has been working to integrate drones into their public safety applications, such as search and rescue, disaster response and damage assessments, and the New Jersey Institute of technology also participated in a first-of-its-kind ship-to-shore drone delivery to demonstrate the capacity of UAS to provide lifesaving aid to victims of a disaster, such as a hurricane or system-wide failure of electrical or communications infrastructure. The National Urban Security Technology Laboratory (NUSTL) has also been testing UAS platforms in New York City to gain more knowledge about how these devices can overcome urban challenges, like high-rise structures, dense populations and diverse environmental conditions.

However, the NYPD and our local military bases have no knowledge of these tests occurring, either.

At the hearing, the FBI said these drones could range from “sophisticated state actors/adversaries” that want to hurt us, all the way to “counterterrorism matters” to just a “nuisance drone” that could cause harm, but they “don’t know the answer” to our questions yet.

During the same hearing, my colleague, Rep. Chris Smith of New Jersey ,suggested they just shoot one out of the sky to figure it out. In his district, an officer from the Ocean County Sheriff’s Office witnessed 50 drones come in off the water.

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The safety and security of the American people must always be our top priority, and we need to know whether these devices pose a threat to our homeland. While drones can be a tremendous tool for our law enforcement agencies, unchecked and unidentified flights near sensitive locations demand immediate action and close coordination across our federal agencies. The fact that the current administration and its agencies have neither intercepted these objects nor acted with urgency is shocking, concerning and unacceptable.

Anything less than real answers and an action plan leaves us vulnerable to threats we cannot afford to ignore.

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