US base targeted by flying drones over Germany as Pentagon under fire for spiraling crisis: Live updates

Senior Congressional Correspondent for Fox News Chad Pergram stated in an X post that Rep. Mike Johnson ‘received a classified briefing on the drone incursions in the Northeast’ Friday.

‘We reported yesterday that Johnson said he expected to be briefed,’ he added.

The Louisiana Republican referred to the situation as a ‘quandary’ when speaking to Pergram on Thursday.

New Jersey Senator Andy Kim took to X to share video he captured of multiple drones flying over Round Valley Reservoir Hunterdon County, New Jersey on Thursday evening.

‘Multiple’ drones have entered the airspace at Naval Weapons Station Earle, a Navy weapons station located in Colts Neck, New Jersey, officials confirmed Friday.

Representatives for the station said it was ‘aware’ of the sightings in the region and ‘continues to closely coordinate with federal and state agencies to ensure the safety of our personnel and operations.’

‘While no direct threats to the installation have been identified, we can confirm multiple instances of unidentified drones entering the airspace above Naval Weapons Station Earle,’ Bill Addison, public affairs officer for the naval station, said in a statement to ABC News.

‘The base remains prepared to respond to any potential risks, leveraging robust security measures and advanced detection capabilities.’

But officials did not confirm exactly when these incedents occurred.

Drones were spotted flying over the U.S. air base at Ramstein in Germany in early December, a spokesperson for the U.S. Air Force said on Friday.

There were ‘no impacts to base residents, facilities, or assets,’ the spokesperson said. ‘In concert with host nation authorities, we continue to monitor the airspace to ensure safety and security of the community.

A security source told Reuters that German authorities had not traced the operators of the drones, but had ruled out the possibility that the drones were operated by amateurs.

The drone sightings over Ramstein were first reported by German news magazine Spiegel, which said a report by German security authorities had flagged a number of unexplained drone sightings over the base in the evening hours of Dec. 3 and 4.

Spiegel said drones were also sighted over locations belonging to German arms manufacturer Rheinmetall and chemicals group BASF.

New Jersians are threatening to take matters into their own hands if the deferal government does not do something about the mysterious drone activity plaguing their state.

James Ward, a Jersey Shore realtor, shared a video on Facebook that he said showed ‘SUV-size drones’ above Island Beach State Park taken Sunday.

The clip showed multiple other lights hovering in the sky.

‘A good shotgun will fix that problem,’ one commenter replied.

‘Why hasn’t anyone shot one down to look for a serial number to trace it back to the operator?’ another wrote. ‘I would think that could provide a clue.’

‘Semi auto 3 inch magnum 00 buck full choke!’ yet another replied.

According to the FAA, shooting down a drone is illegal under the same federal law prohibiting the sabotage of any other aircraft.

Former Governor of Maralynd Larry Hogan took to X to share video of what he called ‘dozens of large drones’ flying above his home Thursday evening.

‘Last night, beginning at around 9:45 pm, I personally witnessed (and videoed) what appeared to be dozens of large drones in the sky above my residence in Davidsonville, Maryland (25 miles from our nation’s capital),’ he wrote.

‘I observed the activity for approximately 45 minutes.’

A video posted on Facebook around 12am Friday claims to show a drone burning up as it falls out of the sky over an unnamed location in New Jersey.

On social media, people reported 911 calls related to a ‘drone down’ incident that occurred around 9pm Friday evening in a backyard in Penquannock, New Jersey.

It is unclear whether the video is related to the Penquannock incident.

On Wednesday, right-wing influencer and member of President-elect Trump’s inner circle posted a cheeky reaction to the Pentagon’s statements about the unexplained drone activity.

Georgia State Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R) slammed the Pentagon’s statements that the drones are not operated by a foreign entity and pose no threat to the public in an X post on Thursday.

‘Well, number one, I’m gonna call it total bull**** that no one knows what these are,’ she said in a video included in the post.

‘I think it’s a slap in the face to the American people to say that they don’t know what this is.’

New Jersey residents are threatening to take matters into their own hands by shooting the drones down.

Police scanner reports in Morris County, New Jersey, stated that one of the mysterious drones crashed landed in the area Friday morning.

In the scanner report released on social media, one officer described a 911 response in which someone called in a drone crash near their house, adding that 10 additional drones appeared near the scene of the crash.

‘It was a crash, a crash. A drone fell out of the sky by the powerlines behind their house, and then 10 more showed up,’ the officer said.

The Pequannock Township Police Department, Morris County Sheriff’s Office, and Morris County Prosecutor’s Office investigated and determined the device was a hobby or toy drone, not a commercial or military-grade model, according to a statement from police.

X user Jayroo shared a timelapse video of drones flying over New Jersey on a recent night.

The White House provided an odd response to a string of reported drone sightings over New Jersey.

White House National Security spokesman John Kirby was pressed about a lawmaker’s claim the drones could be from an ‘Iranian mothership.’

But Kirby said they’re not foreign, and they may not even be drones.

‘We have no evidence at this time that the reported drone sightings pose a national security or a public safety threat or have a foreign nexus,’ Kirby told reporters Thursday.

The Department of Homeland Security and the FBI reiterated Kirby’s statements in a joint release Thursday saying that there is no national security risk.

‘We have no evidence at this time that the reported drone sightings pose a national security or public safety threat or have a foreign nexus,’ the statement reads.

But New Jersey State Representative Paul Kanitra (R) questioned this.

‘That goes directly against what the federal Department of Homeland Security told us in the briefing Wednesday,’ said Kanitra. I couldn’t possibly understand what their motivation is to try and diminish this.’

New Jersey Assemblymember Brian Bergen (R) also hit back at Kirby’s claims.

‘That guy is an idiot. That I can tell you right now,’ Bergen, a former US Army helicopter pilot, said Thursday evening in an interview on Fox News.

Retired police lieutenant and intelligence analyst Tim McMillan told DailyMail.com that the descriptions of the drones in New Jersey ‘sound exactly like Russian Orlan-10 drones’ — secretive craft that fly in packs of three to five.

What’s more, he said the recent sightings greatly resemble troubling drone flights above industrial parks surrounding Germany’s Brunsbüttel harbor from this past August.

Lt McMillan and other experts have noted that the New Jersey sightings circled around Picatinny Arsenal, home of the US Army’s CCDC Armaments Center, which is responsible for manufacturing and supplying Ukraine with artillery ammunition.

These experts suggest Russia could be carrying out an intelligence-gathering mission known as ‘ferreting’, meant to intentionally trigger and test their foreign rival’s airspace defense procedures and response time.

Or Russia could simply be spying on allies of Ukraine who are aiding the fight against Russia’s occupation of its southeastern regions, including Donetsk and Mariupol.

A Chinese man has been arrested for allegedly flying a drone over Vandenberg Space Force Base, as the FBI investigates mysterious drones in New Jersey.

Yinpiao Zhou, 39, a Chinese National now living in Brentwood, California, was charged with failure to register an aircraft not providing transportation and violation of national defense airspace.

Zhou was arrested Monday at San Francisco International Airport prior to boarding a China-bound flight and made his initial appearance Tuesday in United States District Court in San Francisco.

‘This defendant allegedly flew a drone over a military base and took photos of the base’s layout, which is against the law,’ said United States Attorney Martin Estrada.

At this time, there is no evidence to suggest that Zhou is connected to the drone activity in New Jersey and other northeastern states.

But his arrest adds to growing concerns over the ability of foreign entities to infiltrate US airspace and conduct surveillance.

During a Tuesday coongressional hearing, Robert Wheeler, assistant FBI director, said that more than 3,000 sightings had been provided to the agency’s tip line set up last week.

When asked if these drones posed a threat to public safety, he said: ‘There is nothing known that would lead me to say that, but we just don’t know and that’s the concerning part.’

The Department of Homeland Security issued a statement Thursday, saying that many of the reports are legally operated manned aircraft.

The Biden administration and the Pentagon have also pushed back against claims by Republican lawmakers that the drones are being operated by any one of America’s foreign adversaries — including claims that the flights originate from an Iranian ‘mothership’ offshore.

Republican Rep Jeff Van Drew said Wednesday that Iran launched the vessel ‘probably about a month ago’ after making a deal with China ‘to purchase drones, a mothership and other technologies.’

Pentagon press secretary Sabrina Sing said in a briefing: ‘At this time we have no evidence that these activities are coming from a foreign entity or the work of an adversary.’

DailyMail.com has recieved unverified reports from New Jersey residents stating that since the drones began flying over their communities, they have developed rhinitis and swollen runny eyes.’

Over the last several weeks, New Jersey residents have reported seeing numerous, ‘car-sized’ drones hovering throughout the state, sometimes appearing in groups and often remaining in the same place for hours at a time.

Now the sightings have spread to two more states: Pennsylvania and New York.

On Thursday evening, Pennsylvania residents took to social media to share reports of lights in the sky from the Easton area to the Slate Belt and beyond.

Multiple sightings were also reported in the Poconos. The Monroe County Office of Emergency Management said it was aware of reports throughout the county in a Facebook post.

That same night, emergency officials in Orange County, New York, stated that they were ‘aware of several reported incidents of drone sightings throughout Orange County this evening,’ in a Facebook post.

Residents of Texas, Oklahoma and California have also reported potential drone sightings, but at this time, there is no evidence to suggest they are linked to the sightings in northeastern states.

Lawmakers from New York and New Jersey are demanding a federal briefing as sightings have now been reported in the Bronx and Queens.

The New York Police Department said it’s investigating the drone activity in partnership with the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force.