A former top US military commander warned that officials in Washington have underestimated the threat posed by drones in American airspace, despite numerous cases of mysterious drone swarms over sensitive military sites. Retired US air force general Glen VanHerck, who previously led the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and US northern command, said the country still lacks the necessary policies and laws to address these incidents.
VanHerck highlighted a concerning case in December 2023 when unidentified drones flew over Langley air force base in Virginia for 17 consecutive nights. This occurred well before the drone activity over New Jersey captured public attention late last year. Yet, authorities remain unprepared to tackle such threats.
A senior official in the Biden administration later downplayed the Langley incidents, telling 60 Minutes that the intrusions were likely the work of hobbyists. However, VanHerck strongly disagreed, saying the evidence suggested otherwise.
“It certainly could have a foreign nexus, a threat nexus,” he said.
“They could be doing anything, from surveilling critical infrastructure, just to the point of embarrassing us from the fact that they can do this on a day-to-day basis and then we’re not able to do anything about it.”
His successor, general Gregory Guillot, testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee, calling for greater authority to protect military installations from drones.
“The primary threat I see for them in the way they’ve been operating is detection and perhaps surveillance of sensitive capabilities on our installations,” Guillot said, though he did not specify who was operating the drones.
Drone activity over military sites is not a new phenomenon. In 2019, US Navy warships off the California coast were shadowed by dozens of drones for weeks. Initially, the Pentagon did little to dispel speculation that they were UFOs, even referring videos to their “UAP Task Force” for analysis. However, ships’ logs indicated they were identified as drones at the time. The Navy suspected a nearby Hong Kong-flagged freighter was responsible but was unable to prove it.
Meanwhile, The War Zone, a defense news site, has documented numerous drone intrusions at sensitive locations, including the Palo Verde nuclear plant in Arizona and an experimental weapons facility in Southern California, where defense contractors are developing the next generation of stealth bombers.
Jonathan Butner, a Virginia resident, witnessed the Langley drone swarm firsthand while at his family cabin on the James River on December 14, 2023. Butner, who is familiar with various military aircraft, described the scene as unprecedented.
“They started really coming in, almost like on a conveyor belt,” he said.
He recorded nearly 90 minutes of footage and shared it with the FBI for their investigation.
Retired four-star general Mark Kelly, the highest-ranking officer at Langley to witness the swarm, confirmed they were drones and noted their varying sizes, speeds, and altitudes.
“The smallest ones were about the size of a commercial quadcopter,” Kelly explained. “The largest were probably the size of a bass boat or a small car.”
While much of the US was fixated on the drone incidents in New Jersey, another swarm disrupted operations at a UK air base housing US nuclear weapons.
Last November, the US Army confirmed 11 drone sightings over Picatinny Arsenal in New Jersey, where advanced weapons are developed. The sightings sparked a public frenzy, with drone reports flooding in from across the region.
Before his inauguration, then-President Trump promised to get to the bottom of the sightings. However, in her first White House press briefing, press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the drones were “authorized by the FAA for research and various other reasons” and were “not the enemy.”
Senator Roger Wicker, chairman of the armed services committee, has emphasized the national security concerns surrounding the drone swarms. He told 60 Minutes that the Pentagon and national security officials remain baffled by the incidents.
There is also a new wartime reality: drones used for surveillance can also be weaponized. In conflicts like those in Ukraine and Russia, drones have been deployed to destroy advanced aircraft. The same could happen in the US, VanHerck said.
“Absolutely, it’s a concern. A small unmanned aircraft system (UAS) can carry out multiple missions,” he warned.