Mysterious drones swarmed a U.S. military airbase for 17 days; officials say they don’t know who operated them

Mysterious drones swarmed a U.S. military airbase for 17 days; officials say they don’t know who operated them

By Ethan Huff

Last December, the Wall Street Journal just revealed, an unidentified fleet of drones swarmed a U.S. military airbase in Virginia after intruding restricted airspace. And according to the new report, the Pentagon was powerless to stop them

The incident occurred on Dec. 17, 2023 at Langley Air Force Base, located along Virginia's shoreline, the WSJ reported, citing dozens of U.S. officials, as well as police reports and court documents. Langley, by the way, is one of just a few select U.S. military bases where F-22 Raptor stealth fighters are parked.

After being informed about the incident, former U.S. Air Force Gen. Mark Kelly made the determination that each of the unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) was about 20 feet in length and had the ability to fly at a speed of more than 100 miles per hour (mph) at an altitude of approximately 3,000 to 4,000 feet. The drones all flew together in a pattern of one or two fixed-wing units accompanied by smaller quadcopters, each of which was about the size of a 20-pound commercial drone, usually operating at a lower altitude.

According to reports, the drones, of which there were several dozen, flew south across the Chesapeake Bay towards Norfolk where there is a base that houses the U.S. Navy's SEAL Team Six special operations unit. Naval Station Norfolk, a massive naval port, is also located in the direction where the drones were headed that day.

Because of the very small sizes of the UAVs and their quadcopter accompaniments, the U.S. military's radars were unable to detect them. These radar detection systems would have had to be recalibrated in order for them to work properly during the incident.

Reports indicate that the quadcopters were also operating on a special radio frequency that is unavailable to everyday folks who purchase store-bought drones. This left local police as the only ones to pursue and take down the drones, but this effort failed as well.

Nobody knows who owns or controlled the drones that visited the U.S. military at one of its most sensitive locales on the East Coast. For all the billions upon billions of dollars that Washington spends on defense, all of it was useless in tracking down who is responsible for the drone visitation incidents.

At the time, U.S. officials were unsure whether they should try to shoot down the drones. Federal law prohibits the military from shooting down drones near military bases unless they are deemed to pose an immediate threat, which was not the case on Dec. 17, 2023, when the drones appeared to simply be spying.

Authorities were also reluctant to try to jam the drones since doing so could have interfered with local 911 emergency systems and even Wi-Fi networks. It was also deemed to be too risky to shoot directed energy weapons (DEW) at the drones as doing so could have put commercial aircraft at risk.

The drone visitation incident began on Dec. 17, 2023, and ended on Dec. 23, 2023, just two days before Christmas. To this very day, the perpetrators remain unknown, though officials are convinced that powerful forces are behind it because the operation was simply too complex to have been pulled off by drone hobbyists.

Two months before that incident, another like it was detected over the Nevada National Security Site, a U.S. nuclear testing facility located just outside of Las Vegas. Like the Virginia incident, U.S. officials are unsure who flew these drones near the U.S. military's West Coast operations.