Among the many thousands of things I will never understand, I am going limit this quest for truth/understanding to the drones over NJ.

1. Does RADAR not pick up drones?
2. They have to come from somewhere and then land back at that somewhere, there is NO way to track them?
3. SUV sized drones, if they exist, must be powered by more than batteries do they not? Where do they refuel?
4. If SUV sized drones are powered by battery, where do they recharge, that is a lot of electrical energy being used?
5. There are no Air Force assets that fly slowly enough to track/follow them?

It is impossible for me to believe that the US does not have RADAR that can detect and follow these objects. I have heard no one on the news even allude to RADAR tracking. What am I missing?

Battery powered. You can charge the batteries at your house. Not a big drain, even on big ones.

YellowPot_97: Howdy, OK you can change them at your house, so how many houses are there, where are they, and no one happens to ask 'Say neighbor, why do you need a drone the size of an SUV?'. They are not, joy stick controlled, so how many folks just happen to have GPS enabled software to program these things, not many individual I would suggest, sounds like a government operation, just not sure what government!

It's a total sham. The govt knows exactly what they are. We just have stupid people believing the narrative of "we can't figure it out".

JR Ewingford said:

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It's a total sham. The govt knows exactly what they are. We just have stupid people believing the narrative of "we can't figure it out".

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This

Just think about what all the govt does know about anything. But they don't know what these are?

That's a bit part of it. You are assuming that what the news or admin tells us is anything like the truth.

Of course the intel agencies were so inefficient that they didn't know if Covid was manufactured or not. We would have indeed known that at least in the 20th C with the quality of intel then.

So looking at some of those in charge now, maybe they genuinely are clueless. But doubt it.

Most likely its something we are fully aware of and even doing to test or provoke something.

Mark Fairchild said:

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YellowPot_97: Howdy, OK you can change them at your house, so how many houses are there, where are they, and no one happens to ask 'Say neighbor, why do you need a drone the size of an SUV?'. They are not, joy stick controlled, so how many folks just happen to have GPS enabled software to program these things, not many individual I would suggest, sounds like a government operation, just not sure what government!

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Everyone has access to GPS enabled software to program these things: ArduPilot

"SUV sized" needs a definition. Length? Width? Volume? Weight? You could homebuild a pretty big octocopter or fixed wing that might look SUV sized from the ground.

Even hobby drones can have a range measured in miles. You don't have to takeoff and land from your house. Just assemble your drone on a secluded area for takeoff and landing.

Mark Fairchild said:

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Among the many thousands of things I will never understand, I am going limit this quest for truth/understanding to the drones over NJ.

1. Does RADAR not pick up drones?
2. They have to come from somewhere and then land back at that somewhere, there is NO way to track them?
3. SUV sized drones, if they exist, must be powered by more than batteries do they not? Where do they refuel?
4. If SUV sized drones are powered by battery, where do they recharge, that is a lot of electrical energy being used?
5. There are no Air Force assets that fly slowly enough to track/follow them?

It is impossible for me to believe that the US does not have RADAR that can detect and follow these objects. I have heard no one on the news even allude to RADAR tracking. What am I missing?

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Most drones are small and fly low and are below ground radars making it easy to evade detection. Airborn and radars on towers have a Doppler shift (speed) filter to filter out slow moving targets so they don't track reflections from vehicles on the highway, etc. This is why the Chinese balloons weren't detected until civilians started posting pictures on social media. Turn off this filter and you probably detect the drones but can't find them in all the clutter.

You have to be watching a drone to track it. Right now our best assets are probably light helicopters but it doesn't make sense to launch a platform that costs $5000/hr every time a $200 drone violates some airspace restriction, assuming we even know it's there. Counter drone surveillance drones aren't really a thing anywhere outside of Ukraine.

Drones have also been videoed coming from the Gulf over Crystal Beach near Galveston

There are thousands of RC pilots in this country with planes at 50-60% scale, and huge drones. Y'all vastly overestimate how hard it is to scale to larger airframes..

As states above, there are several free software suites that allow GPS enabled operation. They're not hard to use.

Spend an hour on YouTube before the tinfoil hat comes out... im leaning towards some kind of testing/govt operation for other reasons, but this doesn't have to be super classified amazing techm

We sure those aren't just bait drones for shark fishing? A lot of people doing it rifht now, they'd be returning from 5-600 yds out

lb3: Howdy, OK so you say radar is not capable of tracking, I will buy that, I guess. Then you say that a light helo is all that could do it, but costs $5000 per hour. To which I have say that for all of the money the US spends on worthless crap, I will gladly ante up my share of tax dollars to send up one, or several helos to find out what in the hell these things are. Also, they are not $200 drones, we are going to have to find out what is going on, and just sit. If there is no way to track drones now, well be better be finding one fast or we are in even bigger trouble than most of us have thought.

Drones this large should be detectable by radar. And if they're this large and flying for as long as reported, they're probably gas powered

I think the issue with drones and radar is small size and low altitude. Most existing radars systems are set up for planes the size of a Suburban up to a 747 flying 1000 feet or more above the ground. Something small and low would tend to get lost in the ground clutter.

That's not to say a low-flying drone could not be tracked by radar..It would probably require a special system, and it would have limited range.

TexAgs91 said:

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Drones this large should be detectable by radar. And if they're this large and flying for as long as reported, they're probably gas powered

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Thermal imaging then?

I heard an opinion made that sounded interesting. The drones have probably been programed the destinations/routes vs. being flown by an individual. I was unable to hear the point behind this. Perhaps to avoid the communication being hijacked????

the whole drone drama is dumb. This is US government operations they don't want to acknowledge or talk about.

Question is: Is it for our safety or is it nefarious? After the shenanigans since 2016/17, my default position for all government ops is 'nefarious until proven otherwise'.

JR Ewingford said:

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It's a total sham. The govt knows exactly what they are. We just have stupid people believing the narrative of "we can't figure it out".

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Exactly right

There is one sure-fire way to find out who is doing this and make it public, but no one wants to be the person who might go to jail for it.

I've wondered if they are US drones with sensors looking for something.

Sid Farkas said:

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the whole drone drama is dumb. This is US government operations they don't want to acknowledge or talk about.

Question is: Is it for our safety or is it nefarious? After the shenanigans since 2016/17, my default position for all government ops is 'nefarious until proven otherwise'.

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Then why do government operations you want to keep secret over heavily populated areas

astros4545: Howdy, I agree with you completely. Why not test them out in the desert (Area 51 anyone) and then fly over somewhere like Jal, NM? Whatever is going on is NOT a good thing!

They are either looking for something or need the population size/density for testing.

IndividualFreedom said:

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I heard an opinion made that sounded interesting. The drones have probably been programed the destinations/routes vs. being flown by an individual. I was unable to hear the point behind this. Perhaps to avoid the communication being hijacked????

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Joey Jones talked about this on The Five (I think it was Tuesday). He said the newer tech is for AI to control the flight, with no communication between a pilot and the drone. Yes, the point is to eliminate the communication between the two from being used to take the drone out.

At least some of the drones that are being reported are undoubtedly these:



The company demoed them during Navy RIMPAC exercises this past October.

The real question is why is PteroDynamics testing them at night over populated civilian areas?

Mark Fairchild said:

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astros4545: Howdy, I agree with you completely. Why not test them out in the desert (Area 51 anyone) and then fly over somewhere like Jal, NM? Whatever is going on is NOT a good thing!

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maybe it's not a test, and there's an actual operation going on...nefarious or otherwise.

Maybe a woke person in Intel thinks they're surveilling white supremecists or anti-trans Catholics...who tf know what these nuts are up to.

astros4545 said:

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Sid Farkas said:

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the whole drone drama is dumb. This is US government operations they don't want to acknowledge or talk about.

Question is: Is it for our safety or is it nefarious? After the shenanigans since 2016/17, my default position for all government ops is 'nefarious until proven otherwise'.

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Then why do government operations you want to keep secret over heavily populated areas

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That's the part I don't get.
If it's a foreign actor why have nav lights on them? If it's our own govt, up to no good, why have lights on them?

If it's our govt testing, why are we doing it in the middle of populated areas? Go do it out in the middle of nowhere Nevada or out at Yuma.

I agree that most radar aren't configured to look for targets this size, moving at these speeds, at low altitude. FAA radar for both general aviation and commercial aviation, generally aren't using "active" radar. The planes all have transponders that broadcast information to the radar site. They CAN turn on active radar usually, but it's my understanding that they generally leave it off (no false returns/targets). The majority of smaller airports don't have radar at all, and many don't have manned towers. Pilots just work out the traffic among themselves.

Mark Fairchild said:

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astros4545: Howdy, I agree with you completely. Why not test them out in the desert (Area 51 anyone) and then fly over somewhere like Jal, NM? Whatever is going on is NOT a good thing!

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You can't test the software and processing in remote areas.

If they are from the government it would make sense at some point to fly them in dense populations to test signal stability and the software on the cameras. My guess is if someone was flying drones over a populated area there is some form of image capture and AI object ID being tested. Real time tracking of individuals and maintaining recognition. Think of the old movie Enemy of the State with Will Smith and Gene Hackman, except with drone software.

That's what we are working on in my line of work in agriculture at least. I would think the same is being applied there.

Sid Farkas said:

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the whole drone drama is dumb. This is US government operations they don't want to acknowledge or talk about.

Question is: Is it for our safety or is it nefarious? After the shenanigans since 2016/17, my default position for all government ops is 'nefarious until proven otherwise'.

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We all know the answer to this.

Andruil is developing some cool tech...

Curious about the most powerful lasers available to the public and if one could be used to damage the optics on these drones?

If they put some up around Big Bend surroundings areas we may start finding out what they are when they start getting wings clipped by hunters. There are places can think of that wouldn't show the restraint so far seeing on the east coast.

It's possible these passed all their testing out in the middle of nowhere and have graduated to more advanced testing over populated areas. The testing could be for some really interesting sensors that need the challenge of finding a needle in a haystack.

JR Ewingford said:

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It's a total sham. The govt knows exactly what they are. We just have stupid people believing the narrative of "we can't figure it out".

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Have any of these recent/New Jersey UAPs been observed "defying the laws of physics"?