Updated on Dec. 18 with link to letter to federal Department of Homeland Security
FAIRFIELD – While Gov. Kathy Hochul has persuaded the U.S. government to send a drone detection system to New York state, Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont downplayed the reports.
Speaking at a Monday news conference, Lamont said there had been dozens and dozens of drone reports over the weekend. He said he believes “the vast majority of these drones are explainable. I think there’s more conspiracy theories than there are drones in the sky.
“One of the drone sightings had the word ‘Frontier’ on the back of it. It was an airline. But some of them are big and unexplained. We’re going to get to the bottom of this. Right now, what we do is we make sure that our security and airports are secure.”
Meanwhile, earlier in the day Monday Connecticut state Sen. Tony Hwang said he was reaching out to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for answers to the mysterious night-time drone sightings.
“We still don’t have the answers other than the reassurance that you’re safe,” Hwang said Monday during a press conference at the Fairfield train station in reaction to U.S. Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas’ comments. “OK, if you know why we’re safe, why are you not telling us why we are safe.
“The concern is two bases: One, that the government truly doesn’t know what is in our airspace over our community, and we hope that’s not the truth, not the issue. Or the possibility is the government knows and there is something happening and they are on a need-to-know basis.”
Hwang told the press gathered at the train station – the site of several drone sightings depicted on X
I saw 5 drones over the Fairfield Connecticut train station tonight at 6:45! pic.twitter.com/dl7xP99mZs
— Lucy Biggers (@LLBiggers) December 13, 2024
– that he had already reached out to Commissioner Ronnell Higgins of the state Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection about the matter.
“And we are submitting a letter today to Homeland Security,” Hwang said. That letter will ask for clarity about the drones and what the federal government is doing.
Over the weekend, Hochul announced a federal response to her request to do something about the sighting.
“Our partners are deploying a state-of-the-art drone detection system to New York state,” she said. “This system will support state and federal law enforcement in their investigations. We are grateful to the Biden Administration for their support, but ultimately we need further assistance from Congress. 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.”
Apparently one source of the mysterious drones was already ruled out, according to Hwang. That is delivery drones, such as those from Amazon Prime, the USPS, UPS, and FedEx.
“There was a federal regulation that allowed drone technology to deliver and activate in the evening (starting in November),” he said. “That was one of the rationales that was provided by the Homeland secretary. But these documentations are not simply small drones. They are a wide variety and an increased proliferation of variety and presence.”
Last week U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal from Connecticut called for the drones to be shot down.
“We should be doing some very urgent intelligence analysis and take them out of the skies, especially if they’re flying over airports or military bases,” Blumenthal said Thursday, as concerns about the drones spread across Capitol Hill.
During an on-background telephone call over the weekend, the Department of Defense reported officials from the FBI, Department of Homeland Security, FAA and the Joint Staff provided comment and answered questions from reporters about the drone sightings.
A spokesperson from the Joint Staff acknowledged that there had been sightings of drones over two military installations in New Jersey, but said such sightings are typical.
“We have had confirmed sightings at Picatinny Arsenal and Naval Weapons Station Earle,” the spokesperson said. “This is not a new issue for us. We’ve had to deal with drone incursions over our bases for quite a time now. It’s something that we routinely respond to in each and every case when reporting is cited.”
The spokesperson said military installations have means to detect and respond to such drones, and that security personnel are trained to identify, categorize and employ those tools to keep drones from flying unauthorized over U.S. military bases.
Right now, the FBI, DHS, FAA and DOD have been unable to determine who is responsible for flying the drones, and there’s no indication that there are adversary nations involved.
