Weeks of unexplained drone sightings in New Jersey have left residents, politicians and public safety officials scratching their heads, prompting security concerns.
With residents and multiple public officials calling for a response to the drone activity and experts working to uncover exactly what’s going on, the White House’s national security communications adviser, John Kirby, sought to assure the public on Thursday there is no threat to public safety.
“We have no evidence at this time that the reported drone sightings pose a national security or a public safety threat, or have a foreign nexus,” Kirby said.
While many drone sightings have been reported, Kirby said images and videos of the drones that authorities and state and local law enforcement have reviewed appear to show that many of “the reported sightings are actually manned aircraft that are being operated lawfully.”
But many local New Jersey elected officials say the general assurances that people are safe aren’t enough for their constituents.
The FBI and the US Department of Homeland Security “have a responsibility to brief the public more thoroughly … and to make sure everyone knows what they know,” Democratic Rep. Josh Gottheimer told CNN’s Kate Bolduan Friday. “The bottom line is this: They are not providing enough information to the public.”
Gottheimer said he received a closed-door briefing on the matter and agrees that there is no reason to believe the drones pose a credible threat, but the “public has a right to know because the people are concerned.”
‘More aggressive’ response urged
The FBI, Department of Homeland Security and other federal and state agencies “continue to deploy personnel and technology to investigate this situation and confirm whether the reported drone flights are actually drones or are instead manned aircraft or otherwise inaccurate sightings,” the FBI and DHS said in a joint statement Thursday.
Federal investigators have yet to corroborate any drone sightings with electronic detection, the joint statement said. It noted that some images of reported sightings appear to show manned aircraft that are being operated legally.
US Northern Command, which oversees the Defense Department’s homeland security efforts, said in a statement Wednesday that it had “conducted a deliberate analysis of the events” regarding the drone sightings but had not been asked “to assist with these events.”
Aligned with the North American Aerospace Defense Command, USNORTHCOM is responsible for aerospace control and warning over North America.
The US intelligence community and federal law enforcement do not suspect foreign involvement in the New Jersey drone sightings, security officials told members of Congress Thursday in a private briefing.
According to a source familiar with the briefing conducted by representatives from the FBI, DHS, and FAA, authorities told key lawmakers assigned to congressional national security committees they do not believe the sightings involved an overseas connection, the use of foreign drones, nor an operator on the ground connected to a foreign government.
Officials said sighted drones have been observed with FAA-required anticollision lights and are not believed to have entered any restricted airspaces, according to the source.
Lawmakers were also told many of the recently reported sightings are believed to have been civilian aircraft mistaken for drones, the source said.
Still, several New Jersey politicians have expressed their mounting frustration with what they believe to be inaction from the federal government on the drone sightings.
Montvale, New Jersey, Mayor Mike Ghassali said he left a Wednesday law enforcement briefing on the sightings feeling “very disappointed,” and assembly members Roy Freiman and Mitchelle Drulis said in a joint news release they had been “frustrated by a lack of information and answers regarding the drones.”
The drone sightings are the subject of “an active federal investigation” led by the FBI, according to a document from the New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness distributed at Wednesday’s briefing.
US Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, who sits on the Senate’s Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, called for a “more aggressive” response to the mysterious drones recently spotted over the mid-Atlantic.
“We should be doing smart intelligence analysis and take them out of the skies, especially if they’re flying over airports or military bases,” Blumenthal said on Thursday. “They should be shot down, if necessary, because they’re flying over sensitive areas.”
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said he is also pressing the federal government for more answers. In a post on X, Murphy said he spoke with US Homeland Security Advisor Liz Sherwood-Randall “to discuss my concerns over the federal government’s response.”
A leader at a private airspace security firm shared insights on how investigators in New Jersey could track recent drone sightings.
“You can detect the radio frequency signal – RF,” said Mary-Lou Smulders, chief marketing officer at Dedrone, a private airspace security firm. “Number two, optical, a camera. It can be as simple as a $3,000 traffic or Las Vegas security camera.”
When and where have the drones been spotted?
The FAA reported sightings beginning in mid-November near Morris County. Some people have described the drones as the size of bicycles or small cars.
“We have reports from the public and law enforcement dating back several weeks,” the FBI field office in Newark said December 3.
“Our state police and DHS have confirmed that every single night since November 18, there have been confirmed drone sightings,” Republican New Jersey Assemblyman Paul Kanitra told CNN’s Sara Sidner Friday morning.
New Jersey residents have described seeing the drones flying overhead, sometimes in clusters. Drone sightings have been reported around Morris and Somerset counties, according to local officials. Both counties are in the New York metropolitan area.
But the sightings haven’t only been among concerned residents. The US Coast Guard, part of the Department of Homeland Security, said one of its assets encountered the drones.
“Multiple low-altitude aircraft were observed in the vicinity of one of our vessels near Island Beach State Park,” Coast Guard Lt. Luke Pinneo told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
The aircraft were not seen as an immediate threat and did not interfere with operations, Pinneo added. CNN has reached out to the Coast Guard but did not receive an immediate response.
After drones were spotted near the Picatinny Arsenal, a US military research facility, and over President-elect Donald Trump’s golf course in Bedminster, the FAA issued temporary flight restrictions over the properties.
The Picatinny Arsenal Police Department confirmed 11 reports of evening drone activity between November 13 and December 6 near the Wharton-based facility. A confirmed report means a police officer or security guard personally witnessed a drone after or while receiving a report about a sighting, according to Picatinny Arsenal officials.
Facility officials confirmed the sightings are not the result of activities related to Picatinny Arsenal.
“The drone sightings are taking place well outside of hours when most of our workforce is at Picatinny,” a facility spokesperson told CNN.
While visiting family in New Jersey on Saturday, Katie Caf, 29, a travel content creator, said she spotted five potential drones the size of bicycles, moving in a “zigzag pattern.”
West Milford Mayor Michele Dale reported 60 drones flying over local reservoirs.
What are officials saying?
Federal agencies have ruled out any connections of local, state, or federal governments to the sightings.
“Based on everything we know, there is no public safety risks we’re aware of,” Murphy told CNN affiliate WBGO on Wednesday.
“Is it frustrating to have no answers? Is it frustrating to not have a source for these things? Yes,” the governor told the radio station.
The lack of answers from officials is alarming, Republican Assembyman Brian Bergen told CNN’s Pamela Brown Thursday.
Bergen said local officials received little information at the Wednesday meeting with New Jersey State Police.
“There are tons of these drones flying over the state of New Jersey and we don’t know where they are coming from, where they are going to and who is flying them,” he said.
Ghassali, the Montvale mayor, said law enforcement said in the briefing the drones sometimes appear to fly in a coordinated pattern and can sometimes be in flight for up to six hours.
The drones primarily operate at night, often displaying flashing lights, but they turn off the lights and evade police helicopters when approached, Mayor Michael Melham of Belleville Township said in a Facebook video update on Wednesday.
It’s possible the drones can evade radar detection because they do not emit frequencies or possess evasion capabilities, Melham suggested.
“These drones have to come out of the air, and I think that here in New Jersey, especially in the United States of America, I think we have the capability to take drones out of the air if we wanted to,” Melham told CNN Thursday.
Pentagon officials immediately refuted claims by US Rep. Jeff Van Drew, a New Jersey Republican, that the drones were from an Iranian “mothership” off the East Coast of the US.
“There is not any truth to that,” deputy Pentagon press secretary Sabrina Singh said. “There is no Iranian ship off the coast of the United States, and there’s no so-called mothership launching drones towards the United States.”
The sightings come as the US Department of Defense in a news release last week said drones present a “significant threat” to the US homeland.
The release, dated December 5, marked the signing by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin of a classified “Strategy for Countering Unmanned Systems,” which would unify DOD’s “approach to countering these systems … ”
“Unmanned aerial systems, most commonly known as drones, pose the most significant threat at this time and increasingly in the US homeland,” the release said.
And despite reassurances from state and federal officials that there is no known threat to New Jersey residents, several local leaders said they are concerned.
“Until you know the origin and what these drones’ intent is, how can you tell me there’s no imminent threat?” Mayor Tony Perry of Middletown, New Jersey, told CNN Thursday.
What to do if you see a drone
Local officials from New Jersey’s Morris and Somerset counties acknowledged the “recurring reports of drone activity” and the public’s concerns in a joint press release Thursday.
Officials have directed the public to share tips, sightings and video of potential drone sightings.
“The FBI-Newark and the NJ State Police are asking for the public to report any information related to the recent sightings of possible drones. Anyone with relevant information is asked to call the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-800-225-5324) or submit it online at tips.fbi.gov. Citizens can also upload videos through the latter website,” the release said.
The chief executive of a company that tracks unauthorized drone flights said they’ve recorded more than a million flight violations, and he believes changes need to be made.
“The laws that regulate aircraft are not built to empower police to deal with the drones,” Axon CEO Rick Smith told CNN News Central Friday, “so if your local state fair has a drone coming towards it that police believe might be dangerous, right now there’s nothing they can do about it.
“It’s good that this is drawing attention to a bigger problem,” Smith said.
This story has been updated with additional information.
CNN’s Brynn Gingras, Samantha Waldenberg, Ted Barrett, Holmes Lybrand, Maria Aguilar Prieto, Polo Sandoval, Andy Rose and David J. Lopez contributed to this report.
