Okay, so I already lied to you a little bit. There probably are drones. Or weird aircraft. Or something like that. But it's not what you think, and it's certainly not 99% of the reported sightings. It's definitely not aliens though, so sorry to burst your bubble. I'm going to start by attempting to explain this, and then move onto debunking most of the popular videos and articles that have been circulating around the internet.

What are the actual drones/unidentified aircraft?

The epicenter of these incidents appears to be in New Jersey, but they've been reported in a lot of other areas in that general region. My best guess to this is that there is testing of a new aircraft or drone used by the military. This is very common, especially in that region. Closeby in Maryland, Naval Air Station Patuxent River is a common place for the Navy or other U.S. military branches to test out new aircraft, rotorcraft, and drones.

NAS Patuxent River

NAS Patuxent River is home to NAVAIR, or the Naval Air Systems Command. They are responsible for developing, testing, and maintaining aircraft and aircraft systems for the U.S. Navy. This includes drones, helicopters, and fixed-wing aircraft. It's not uncommon for them to test new aircraft in the skies over the Chesapeake Bay, and it's not uncommon for these tests to go up and down the East Coast. While a majority of testing occurs in the Chesapeake Bay, the range actually extends a significant distance up the East Coast off-shore. The U.S. Navy says it is over 57,000 square miles.

In this video that was posted by NAWCAD, you can even see them testing drones!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9etFZjy1F9Y

W-107 and the Atlantic Test Range

Part of the Atlantic Test Range that I find signficant in these reports is W-107, or more specifically W-107A, W-107B, and W-107C. These are located right off the coast of new Jersey:

Many videos that show these drones show them flying off the coast in formation, tightly packed together. While these could very well be drones, they could also be military aircraft in formation flight. It is impossible to tell based on the quality of the videos, but the location of these sightings is very close to the Atlantic Test Range.

Then why does the government deny they are their own aircraft?

There have been multiple statements from federal agencies essentially saying that they don't know what the aircraft/drones are, but that they know they aren't a threat. This has raised a lot of red flags with concerned citizens, because how would they know it isn't a threat if they don't know the source? Well, they probably do know the source, but don't want to share for a number of reasons. Whether it be classified military testing, or just not wanting to share the details of a new aircraft, there are many reasons why the government would deny that they are their own aircraft. This has happened many times in the past.

During the Cold War, the U.S. military would often test new aircraft in secret, and when they were spotted by civilians, they would deny that they were their own aircraft. This was to keep the aircraft a secret from the Soviet Union. In fact, the CIA even started creating claims that they were UFOs to help keep the secret. Airline pilots would spot fast, high-flying aircraft and report them as UFOs, and instead of admitting that they were their own aircraft, the U.S. government would let the UFO rumors spread. It is possible that the government is employing a similar tactic now.

Conclusion... or it should be.

Since it's pretty clear to me that these are military aircraft, this should be it with this post. Except, it's 2024, and nobody can think with any braincells. Now, literally everything is a "drone" or a "UFO" spotted in New Jersey. And it's honestly really funny, so let's debunk some now.

Why would UFOs follow FAA regulations?

Many of these videos or pictures of the drones have something in common: the lights the drones/UFOs are using. Now, I find this really funny, because if this was truly intended to be some sort of secret operation - whether Aliens or an adversary like Iran - why would they follow FAA regulations to make themselves extremely visible? Here's an example of what I mean:

In this image, we can clearly see the a green light as well as a red light. The green light is on the right side of the rotorcraft, and the red light is in the back. The red light is our beacon (or anti-collision) light, and the green light is our navigation light. Not visible, but most certainly on, is another right light on the left side. This is the other navigation light. These lights are required by the FAA to be on all aircraft flying at night. If this was some sort of secret operation, why would they follow FAA regulations?

By the way, this is a helicopter. Specifically, a Guimball Cabri G2. It's probably not this exact tail number, but it's definitely a Guimball Cabri G2.

But anyways, many people are freaked out about these drones due to the lights. But the lights are just normal aircraft lights. And people just don't know that, apparently. Here's a graphic I found that I think is super helpful to anyone who is confused about aircraft lights or may be easily mislead:

Drone Heatmap

The Monmouth County Sheriff's Office posted this heatmap that shows where people have reported drones.

This heatmap was from 12/12. So I took the data from around that time, and here is a heatmap of aircraft on top of part of that heatmap.

This does not include any actual drones, military aircraft on a mission, or any low flying aircraft that may have not been picked up by ADS-B. This is just aircraft that have an ADS-B transponder. It also deos not include aircraft flying above 10,000 feet, as the heatmap included many more dots if I included that in the data. In my opinion, this shows that the areas with the most reports are also areas with airports, and that the reports are likely just aircraft. It also shows that the reports may be reporting aircraft on an arrival or on an approach. After the initial media reports, it seems there is a hyperfixation on the idea of drones, and people are reporting literally anything as a drone.

Governor Larry Hogan did what?

So, the Governor of Maryland, Larry Hogan, decided to tweet this:

I don't think I've ever seen such an embarassing video. One research on Twitter posted this as a response, and I think it very well sums up the situation:

Basically, the Governor tweeted a video of the stars, and claimed it was drones. Oh and also like 3 airliners.

New Jersey Senator Andy Kim too?

Andy Kim posted this video showcasing the "drones":

I saw a tweet that attempted to disprove this, but I also did it myself.

Here is the position Senator Kim was standing in, as well as the direction he was looking:

Here is a gif of air traffic in the timeframe he made this video:

You can literally see that the "drones" he was looking at are just planes. The "flying together", was actually these two planes flying over each other:

ABC News actually posted this????

Sorry, this is just a rant, but a local ABC Station in New Jersey actually posted this:

This is obviously a star or some kind of light that is just out of focus. There is not an orb in the sky. Obviously.

Example:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYdvjNoJXCg

Some of my favorite pictures of the "drones"

There's so many of them and it's so funny, because they're all just planes.

This appears to be a Cessna Citation X.

Literally the Goodyear Blimp.

Ironically, this is probably a helicopter owned by the New Jersey State Police. It looks like an AW139, possibly N9NJ.

According the original source of this video, this was taken in Montville, NJ.

This is actually a helicopter from Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst. According to their website, they are currently training and it is likely they were shooting practice rounds with tracers.

News Nation Making a Fool of Themselves

"What was I seeing?" he says, before showing multiple videos of commerical aircraft.

"They look like fixed-wing aircraft." Yeah, because they are.

Actual Conclusion

I had a lot of fun writing this. But unfortunately, this is having real-world implications on the aviation industry. There have been many online threaning to shoot the "drones" out of the skies themselves. Considering that most of these drones are just planes, that is not exactly ideal. I have also read that there has been a huge uptick in laser strike incidents around the New Jersey area. This is likely due to the fact that people are seeing these "drones" and are attempting to stop them using lasers. I recommend watching this video from the FAA on why laser strikes are so dangerous (and why it is a federal crime to shine a laser at an aircraft):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OI-3sQnSinE

I also think it's really sad that many of these lies about drones are being spread so easily. As someone who is passionate about aviation, it's hard to take these posts seriously, but there are genuinely people who believe everything they see, and think that what they are seeing are UFOs or drones. I hope that this post can help clear up some of the confusion.