Since the start of the 21st century, America's defense spending has soared nearly 50%, with this year's budget surpassing $841 billion. Yet, despite being the world's largest military spender, the Pentagon alarmingly struggles to protect the homeland against the rising threat of spy drones operating within US borders.
A new Wall Street Journal report said a fleet of spy drones swarmed some of America's most sensitive national-security sites, including Langley Air Force Base on Virginia's shoreline late last year.
For several nights, military personnel had reported a mysterious breach of restricted airspace over a stretch of land that has one of the largest concentrations of national-security facilities in the US. The show usually starts 45 minutes to an hour after sunset, another senior leader told Kelly.
The first drone arrived shortly. Kelly, a career fighter pilot, estimated it was roughly 20 feet long and flying at more than 100 miles an hour, at an altitude of roughly 3,000 to 4,000 feet. Other drones followed, one by one, sounding in the distance like a parade of lawn mowers.
The drones headed south, across Chesapeake Bay, toward Norfolk, Va., and over an area that includes the home base for the Navy's SEAL Team Six and Naval Station Norfolk, the world's largest naval port. -WSJ
US Air Force Gen. Mark Kelly told the Journal that he was stumped by reports of spy drones over Langley AFB. The Journal said the drones flew around the base and other highly sensitive military installations in the region at night for a little more than two weeks. Some officials suspected Russian or Chinese agents were conducting aerial spy operations.
Kelly said some drones were roughly 20 feet long and flew more than 100 mph at 3,000 to 4,000 feet altitude. None of these drones were shot down because federal law prohibits the military from dispatching F-22s, F-35s, and other fighter jets to neutralize drones for 'aerial snooping' - unless these unmanned systems posed an 'imminent threat.'
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