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For seventeen consecutive days in December 2023, highly sensitive US military bases in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia were the target of a drone swarm of unknown origin, type, or purpose. The official response seems to be one of studied indifference. //
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.
If this story is true, what the military doesn't know about the drones dwarfs what it does know. No estimate is given for the number of drones that appeared over Langley AFB before decamping for a flyover of other installations. That isn't an accident. If the size, altitude, and speed of the drones are known, I'm sure someone at least tried to count them, though, in fairness to the military that Joe Biden has created, they may have been unable to do that. It is difficult to believe that after a couple of weeks of appearing at roughly the same time, no one thought about having a helicopter aloft to follow the drones home. Likewise, a 20-foot object flying at 4,000 feet should show up on one of the dozens of radars managing airspace over Hampton Roads unless it has a stealth design, in which case we can rule out a non-national actor. The idea that a rogue hobbyist dropped a few million to develop a massive drone fleet to fly over US military installations strains credulity. //
Just for context, the Shahed 131/136 drone used by the Russians in Ukraine to attack Ukrainian cities and infrastructure is 11 feet long and has a maximum speed of 115mph. It carried a 110-pound warhead. The drones spotted at Langley are roughly twice as long. Every $350 million F-22 you see parked there could be hit by a rather cheap drone before the airbase had time to decide they were an "imminent threat" and react. //
Dieter Schultz Laocoön of Troy
12 hours ago
Hmm... thanks.
I fear we're setting the stage for a Pearl Harbor-type surprise here, where we've opened ourselves up to an attack, widespread or local, that will cost us dearly.
It won't look like what happened in 1941, they'll use different methods, but it'll be about as embarrassing to the country as that was.
