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Very sorry to hear about Kathy’s current health issues. But very glad to hear she is on the mend. I have a family member currently battling the big “C” so I know how rough it can be.
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It is worth knowing some background on the drone issue before dismissing it.
This is a global issue, so if the US military are testing drones, it is enacting incursions in other Countries, so risks starting wars with several Countries at the same time.
This has been going on for over a month and nobody can stop it.
The first incursions of the US military bases was 3 airbases in the UK, where it is seen as serious enough to bring in the SAS and SBS to hunt for potential operators.
Drones were seen hovering over sensitive areas of the bases including the pilots quarters.
Jets have even been used to chase some of the drones, so the US military obviously don’t want them over their bases in the UK.
Official statements tell us that multiple anti-drone systems have been deployed, but no drones have been taken down (officially).
However, firing high powered microwave ECM systems near civilian populations leads to serious problems so they have been cautious where and when to use it.
It does look like it has been causing it’s own set of problems if this is the result.
MrMBB333 does spaceweather and phenomena, so lots of people send footage for analysis.
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The idea that this is a test and the US military would place a warhead in NY just so they can find it is absurd.
They have all the space they need in the remote deserts to do all the sniffer-drone testing with hazardous materials they want.
There are now several pilots audio logs available to hear, and what they see is below them, so it isn’t starlink or other planes which would be on radar and be using transponders.
The coastguard did indeed get followed by a fleet of drones, and a police officer witnessed an estimated 50 drones flying in from the sea.
Police in several places have themselves been out chasing the drones and even used their own to try and get closer.
They start arriving as the sun goes down, so many have been seen in enough light to recognise a quadcopter or other common drone configuration. With some the size of a car and not far above the roof tops of single level buildings, they are hard to mistake for a satellite, plane or helicopter.
It’s a shame so many people that don’t know what they are looking at are muddying the water.
These drones are not compliant with restrictions other drone operators face. They can fly into geo-fenced areas at will, civilian or military including the US capital buildings, and cannot be brought down.
Take it from a US veteran with many years of experience as a Gov. contractor, and an in-depth knowledge of drone warfare and modern military tactics.
The takeaway is: The USA does not have air superiority in it’s own land, and there is nothing it can do about it, without risking the populace and infrastructure.
This is theatre however that is for sure, whoever is responsible.
No spy drones would be so obvious for 1 moment, let alone a whole month.
I found it really strange, listening to the long argument about the drones. There is a huge cultural gulf between the US and Europe. Here, we just shrug and say, “so what?”. If it was illegal flights, the police and air force would be busy dealing with it, we let them get on with it and wait for the results of the investigation, we don’t, generally, waste time trying to come up with conspiracy theories.
But we also spend a lot of time outside, looking at the sky, we used to go out and watch the ISS fly past, for instance, I was taught the star constellations by my father, I can’t remember them all, but the important ones are still in my noggin and I know how they see. When the Starlink satellites started making new constellations, that was very annoying, it makes it much harder to navigate at night that it used to be, because we have all of these additional, brighter, nearer “stars” that mess up the real constellations (some are so bright and just in the “wrong” place, that they block the real constellations).
But we get, maybe 2 or 3 helicopters a month fly over the town and, even though there is a local private aerodrome (one engined light aircraft and gliders), there are relatively few aircraft flying over the town, and none after dark.
We do get the odd flyover from military helicopters or transport aircraft on manoeuvres - that happens maybe once every couple of years.
It is illegal to fly drones over built up areas, so if we hear or see drones flying over the town, the first reaction of most people is to call the police.
But given the wide spread of what the lights might be - stars, satellites, helicopters, drones, military aircraft or “something else”, it is hardly surprising that it takes time to get an answer. If they were planned flights from helicopters or light aircraft, the FAA should have the flight plans and be able to give a relatively quick answer.
If it was military, they need to talk to the various armed forced and find out if they were on manoeuvres in area. If it was a top secret project, they would probably get the runaround.
If it was illegal drone flights, drug couriers “flying under the radar” or private plane operators flying illegally without a flight plan, it would be difficult track, if they didn’t have active transponders. The only thing they can really do is send out investigators and wait for the next time they appear…
Maybe they will have more luck than the police, when drones were flying around Gatwick Airport a couple of years back, shutting down all flights to and from the airport for 33 hours. The operator was probably lucky they were never caught, they’d have faced a bill for millions of pounds in damages!
The incidents at Rammstein USAF Airbase and BASF and Rheinmetall have hardly made the news over here. The German government has set up an investigation.
But the problem is, these are generally small objects flying under radar height, so unless you have a real eye witness (i.e. a security investigator, as opposed to a member of the public with a smartphone making blurry videos that just show some lights) and can track the actual flight in real time, it is hard after the fact to track down what it was and where it came from.
People have become so used to fake news and the instant news cycle, they want these things explained within minutes, when, in reality, it will probably take days or weeks of investigation to find out what actually happened.
I found the discussion on Tik Tok and the First Amendment annoying. We have a legal expert talking about how the Amendment works and laws can’t legally be made without breaking the First Amendment and how this would destroy free speech in the USA.
Yet Mike was trying to shoot her down with Tik Tok being a tool of the Chinese government and it seemed he was really not listening to what she was saying.
I find it absolutely incredible that forcing ByteDance to sell Tik Tok to a US company is even a thing. Just imagine that, because of GDPR, the EU said that Apple. Meta, Microsoft, Google and Amazon all had to sell their companies to EU investors, what an outrage that would cause!
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Emily Forlini was a wonderful breath of fresh air and a standout on am already awesome panel.
Indeed and if these are AI programmed there is no link to an operator so you can find a signal source or use certain ECM measures to make it drop or return home.
However it has been noted that the infrared spy satellites should easily be capable of tracking them (especially the big cargo-carrying sized ones).
Radar tracking over the sea also has less obstruction, so they should be reasonably easy to track arriving and leaving from the sea.
More is known about the origin than being said, unless NATO has invested in all the wrong tech (which could be closer to the truth).
One Youtuber (Combat veteran, in the vid above) raised more money for anti-drone kit in Ukraine than the US has spent on it’s own anti-drone systems.
I am starting to worry that little is being said simply due to embarrassment.
Every military base where this is happening is being made to look ineffectual.
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Very refreshing to hear Emily pressing the issue of needing to know what is going on with the drones and not just putting blind faith in that the government knows best (or knows anything) as the rest of the panel seemed to indicate.
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Trying not to be nasty here, but now that an unelected tech billionaire successfully scuttled a bipartisan CR to keep the government open, can we finally put to rest the idea that having these rapacious freaks run around unrestrained in DC will somehow be a good thing?
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Same here. Same issue Cathy’s dealing with and it’s been brutal. Hope your family member and Cathy both pull through.
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I completely agree. One can argue that they want TikTok to be sold, but arguing with a lawyer that it isn’t a first amendment issue is weird.
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Because that’s not accurate. There are many instances where the Government absolutely can and does regulate speech. Leo could attest to several things he was never allowed to say on the radio. Did that infringe on his rights? This is not uncharted territory, we just live in a world where people can’t comprehend the ability to speak without an app. Her argument was more based on the ‘slippery slope’ idea than why TikTok itself isn’t allowed to be banned.
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24 hour news cycle causes this crap
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