The Pentagon has confirmed sighting of unknown drones over a key US Air Force base late last week.
During a tele-conference call Saturday, a spokesperson from the Joint Staff acknowledged that there had been sightings of drones over two military installations in New Jersey, but said such sightings are typical.
"We have had confirmed sightings at Picatinny Arsenal and Naval Weapons Station Earle," the spokesperson said. "This is not a new issue for us. We've had to deal with drone incursions over our bases for quite a time now. It's something that we routinely respond to in each and every case when reporting is cited."
The spokesperson said military installations have means to detect and respond to such drones, and that security personnel are trained to identify, categorize and employ those tools to keep drones from flying unauthorized over U.S. military bases.
Right now, the FBI, DHS, FAA and DOD have been unable to determine who is responsible for flying the drones, and there's no indication that there are adversary nations involved.
"To date, we have no intelligence or observations that would indicate that they were aligned with a foreign actor or that they had malicious intent," the spokesperson said. "But ... we don't know. We have not been able to locate or identify the operators or the points of origin."
The spokesperson also said the department is frustrated with the appearance of the drones.
Meanwhile, CNN reported quoting Bob Purtiman, chief of public affairs for the 88th Air Base Wing at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, that the airspace remained closed for approximately four hours from late Friday into early Saturday.
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