Unauthorized drones have been zipping across US military bases at speeds of up to 170mph, easily dodging radar and signal-jamming systems.
But contrary to the non-answers intelligence officials have been dishing out as New Jersey residents panic about ‘car-sized’ drones flying over their homes for the past month, the government has been aware of this threat for over a year, DailyMail.com can exclusively reveal.
Exclusively obtained images show one craft photographed by specialist military units over a US airbase in England last month. DailyMail.com also obtained excerpts from a joint US Air Force, NASA and FBI report on previous airbase incursions, and an account from a senior officer briefed on the incidents.
And a public outcry over the swarms prompted a stunning admission from FBI chiefs to Congress - they don't know where these craft are coming from.
DailyMail.com obtained an internal government report showing federal agencies knew about incursions from apparent advanced drones over a year ago but have failed to put a stop to them.
Langley Air Force Base in Virginia was swarmed with dozens of drones for weeks in December 2023, creating a security panic. The incident was kept secret until it was revealed by defense magazine The Warzone in March this year.
A report authored by the Air Force, FBI and NASA – which has a facility next to Langley air base – said that their 'detection equipment' and 'signal jamming' had 'failed', in a presentation slide titled 'lessons learned,' DailyMail.com can reveal.
The apparent bungled security response was due to the drone incursions being 'not initially viewed as a crisis', with a 'delay in external resources being deployed' and a 'delay in setting up [a] Unified Command Post'.
The report calls for 'more training/equipment needed for Ground Intercept Teams', 'better form[s] of communication for field personnel', a 'more robust notification and reporting system among partner agencies' and a 'better understanding of legal authorities (process) and capabilities of cUAS [anti-drone technology] / detection systems.'
It listed 'over-reliance on RF [radio frequency] -based detection equipment (failed)' and 'over-reliance on signal jamming mitigation technology (failed)'.
But despite the warnings in the report, a UK military source told DailyMail.com that when drones started swarming a US airbase in eastern England last month, security personnel were unprepared to deal with the advanced foreign technology
The source, a senior officer, was briefed in detail on the drone incursions at RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk, England, which began on November 20.
The officer told DailyMail.com that drones were recorded flying at up to 170mph near the base, chased a police helicopter, and appeared to be controlled remotely using radio frequencies outside of the normal bands used for military or civilian drones.
'The drones were flying in with no lights. When they were close to the site, they were turning on the lights going, "Here I am," and as far as I know not one piece of our equipment could bring it down or spot it,' the source said.
'Long range UAVs [drones] that the US military use, there's a couple of seconds lag in the system. A report from the pilot said it must have been controlled by a controller within the UK, as there was no lag in the response.
'When the police helicopter climbed, the drones climbed with it. When the police helicopter tried to leave the area, the drones followed it.
'They were traveling really fast, faster than anything they'd seen before. From police helicopter footage, one of the drones was tracked traveling at 170mph.'
The officer said one helicopter even caught the advanced drone on an infrared camera in a video which is now classified.
There is a 30-minute video of the incident,' they said. 'The camera on the helicopter was in IR mode, infrared. There is approximately one minute of footage when you can see a craft which looks like a fixed wing craft, and the maneuver that it does on the screen is like a very fast banking maneuver.
'It's very, very advanced technology. It can move very fast, and it can't be detected on any of the systems that we've currently got.
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