A US Army special operations veteran and drone expert says it’s “difficult to believe” the government knows nothing about the mysterious drones that have been troubling New Jersey residents for weeks, noting that his gut instinct points to a foreign adversary being behind them.
“Whether it’s friendly or foe, our government has a lot of explaining to do,” Fox News contributor Brett Velicovich said on “America Reports” earlier this week.
“I find it very difficult to believe that our government doesn’t really know anything about this,” he added.
“My gut, frankly, tells me it’s an adversary that’s doing this because if it was some secret military testing, the government would have put an end to it because of the hysteria,” said Velicovich, a former special operations intel analyst and drone expert.
However, Department of Defense officials have outright said they do not believe the flying objects have originated from “a foreign entity or adversary,” deputy Pentagon press secretary Sabrina Singh told reporters Wednesday.
“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,” Singh said.
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While authorities have stressed that the massive unmanned craft spotted darting across Garden State skies each night are not a threat to public safety, Velicovich remained more cautious, warning that foreign adversaries may be using the time before President-elect Donald Trump takes office as a window for spying.
“Right now our adversaries see an opening in our national security infrastructure because at the highest echelons of our government, there is a security vacuum taking place because of the transition between administrations,” Velicovich said. “The timing is such a key indicator here.”
Velicovich noted he feels current US infrastructure and national security systems are not equipped to combat such threats.
“We have arcane infrastructure. We’ve been telling them to fix it for years, the FAA doesn’t listen. Their policies have completely destroyed our domestic drone industries,” Velicovich said. “We’re set back 10 years behind China, behind Russia, and now our public is at risk.”
Frustration reached a tipping point Wednesday after officials brushed off New Jersey residents’ concerns over the enigmatic drones, which have been filmed numerous times around the state in recent weeks.
Authorities — from Gov. Phil Murphy to the FBI — continue to insist that there is no danger from the drones, but also claim they have no idea what the mysterious objects are.
Officials have said the aircraft have particularly sophisticated capabilities, like becoming undetectable once a police drone or helicopter pursues them, and hovering in place for hours, much longer than the normal battery life of a civilian unmanned aircraft would allow.
The sightings began around Nov. 18, with incidents being reported every night since, with as many as 180 sightings overall, officials said Wednesday.