A photo of drones flying over Langley base, provided by an eyewitness. (Source: Wall Street Journal)
For 17 consecutive nights, a squadron of mysterious drones breached the airspace over Langley Air Force Base, home to some of America’s most advanced military assets.
Despite the base’s state-of-the-art defenses, military personnel were left perplexed and concerned, watching each night as the drones crossed Virginia’s restricted airspace without deterrent.
According to a Wall Street Journal report, the bizarre drone activity has left military commanders, including U.S. Air Force General Mark Kelly, scratching their heads. Kelly watched in disbelief as drones zoomed across the night sky at more than 100 miles per hour.
U.S. Air Force Maj. Gen. Mark Kelly, 9th Air Force commander, addresses a group of Airmen, community leaders, retired general officers and friends and family during a ceremony at Shaw Air Force Base, S.C. July 31, 2015. Kelly assumed command of 9th Air Force from Maj. Gen. H. D. Polumbo Jr. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Diana Cossaboom/Released)
These aircraft flew over restricted zones, even passing near Navy SEAL Team Six’s home base and Naval Station Norfolk, the largest naval port in the world. Yet, despite their frequency and proximity to these high-value targets, no action was taken.
Wall Street Journal reported:
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 U.S. 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.
Officials didn’t know if the drone fleet, which numbered as many as a dozen or more over the following nights, belonged to clever hobbyists or hostile forces. Some suspected that Russia or China deployed them to test the response of American forces.
Federal law prohibits the military from shooting down drones near military bases in the U.S. unless they pose an imminent threat. Aerial snooping doesn’t qualify, though some lawmakers hope to give the military greater leeway.
An aerial photograph of Langley Air Force Base and the Hampton Roads area during Airpower Over Hampton Roads Airshow at Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Virginia, May 20, 2018. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Anthony Nin Leclerec)
The breaches come less than a year after the infamous Chinese spy balloon incident, where Biden’s Pentagon allowed a surveillance balloon to float across the entire continental U.S. before finally shooting it down.
The drone swarm over Langley is yet another embarrassing display of indecision by the Biden-Harris administration.
Instead of a decisive military response, the drones were allowed to carry out their nightly missions unimpeded for 17 days.
Even more concerning, local law enforcement in Hampton, VA, chased the drones on foot, as if this were a low-stakes game rather than a potential national security crisis.
For two nights, starting on Dec. 6, Hampton, Va., officers chased the drones, by patrol car and on foot, relaying momentary sightings along with information from Langley over police radios: One was seen in the area of Marshall Street or Gosnold’s Hope Park.
Three more appeared to land but returned to the air before officers could reach them. Another looked like it landed offshore. Police finally gave up.
Gen. Kelly, now retired, said the Pentagon was stumped, too.
What would the U.S. do, he asked, “if this happens over the National Mall?”
This account is based on interviews with more than two dozen government officials and other people familiar with the events, as well as police records, court documents and photographs of the drones.
It wasn’t until December 23rd, 17 days after the incursions began, that the drone activity stopped—likely only because whoever was behind it gathered all the intelligence they needed.
In January, a Chinese national, Fengyun Shi, was arrested and charged with flying a drone near classified naval installations in Virginia. Yet, the Biden administration and Pentagon officials have remained tight-lipped on whether Shi had any involvement with the Langley drone swarm.
Instead, Shi argued that he was a “ship enthusiast” and hadn’t realized his drone crossed into restricted airspace. The judge handed down a slap-on-the-wrist six-month sentence.
According to Fox News, just two months before the drone fleet appeared in Virginia, five mysterious drones reportedly breached restricted airspace over a government nuclear weapons testing site in Nevada.
Four of the drones were detected by the Energy Department’s Nevada National Security Site, located outside of Las Vegas, while the fifth was spotted by employees on the ground.
Since the breach, the facility has reportedly upgraded its detection systems, but officials still have not identified who was responsible for the incursion.
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