After weeks of mystery, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer broke his silence over the drone sightings in New Jersey — but he didn’t go nearly as far as President-elect Donald Trump.
The New York senator called Sunday for deployment of recently declassified radar technology to identify the mysterious drone swarms alarming the tri-state region, as officials struggle to explain the thousands of sightings.
“New Yorkers have tremendous questions about [the drones]. We are going to get the answers,” Schumer said. “You should not have to shake an eight ball to see what it is. There ought to be better technology — and there is. We need it here in New York.”
Schumer specifically requested the Department of Homeland Security deploy the ROBIN system, a 360-degree radar that can track drones to their landing zones.
“Because it’s 360 degrees, it has a much better chance of detecting” the objects, he explained. “There are hundreds of companies all over the globe that make drones. We don’t know which ones these are.”
Governor Kathy Hochul announced that federal partners are “deploying a state-of-the-art drone detection system to New York State” but provided no specifics. Critics have claimed the federal government knows more than they’ve announced about the mystery sightings.
DHS has already sent New Jersey State Police “drone-specific radar” with infrared camera capabilities.
Meanwhile, Trump has called for much more serious action and said the U.S. military should shoot down the unidentified aircraft.
The mysterious aircraft, reported to be six feet in diameter and operating in coordination, have generated over 3,000 sightings in New Jersey this December alone. A New York airport temporarily closed runways Friday night after a drone report.
White House National Security Adviser John Kirby suggested many of the sightings are actually misidentified, lawfully manned aircraft, but local officials dispute this explanation. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said Sunday the drones don’t appear linked to foreign governments, though his department has the authority to “incapacitate” them.
“We, in the federal government, have deployed additional resources, personnel, technology, to assist the New Jersey State Police in addressing the drone sightings,” Mayorkas told ABC News.
Schumer said he’s confident they aren’t U.S. military drones because “the military would have told us that.” While no laws appear broken unless drones near military bases or airports, Schumer and Hochul are pushing legislation requiring all drone registration.
“Passing the Counter-UAS Authority Security, Safety, and Reauthorization Act will give New York and our peers the authority and resources required to respond to circumstances like we face today,” Hochul said.
Over the weekend, however, former Trump administration officials blamed the Biden administration, and said there’s more to the story than the federal government is telling the public.
Take a look —
KT McFarland on unidentified drones: "The fact that they don't tell us, you have to assume they're hiding something, which is even worse than telling us the truth."@realKTMcFarland @EmmaRechenberg @ShaunKraisman pic.twitter.com/9UcPJjEV5c
— NEWSMAX (@NEWSMAX) December 16, 2024