Hampton Roads Military Bases Swarmed By Drones

It’s not clear why we are just now learning that dozens of drones buzzed local military installations night after night for more than two weeks last December. 

Neither is it clear why military brass just stood there, sucking their thumbs and staring at the sky, while these airborne spy machines made repeated passes through restricted air space over Langley Air Force Base, Naval Station Norfolk and Dam Neck.

The news broke over the weekend in The Wall Street Journal in a story headlined “Mystery Drones Swarmed A U.S. Military Base For 17 Days. The Pentagon Is Stumped.”

For several nights, military personnel had reported a mysterious breach of restricted airspace over a stretch of land that has one of the largest concentrations of national-security facilities in the U.S. The show usually starts 45 minutes to an hour after sunset, another senior leader told (US Air Force General Mark) Kelly.

The first drone arrived shortly. Kelly, a career fighter pilot, estimated it was roughly 20 feet long and flying at more than 100 miles an hour, at an altitude of roughly 3,000 to 4,000 feet. Other drones followed, one by one, sounding in the distance like a parade of lawn mowers.

The drones headed south, across Chesapeake Bay, toward Norfolk, Va., and over an area that includes the home base for the Navy’s SEAL Team Six and Naval Station Norfolk, the world’s largest naval port.

Alarming.

Yet government officials scratched their heads, trying to decide if this was the work of mischievous drone enthusiasts or foreign enemies. (They eventually ruled out hobbyists.) The White House was briefed on the drones and a series of high level meetings were held with members of the administration, the FBI, Defense Department and the Pentagon’s UFO department.

Why didn’t the military simply shoot the drones out of the air?

According to The Journal, it’s not that easy:

“Federal law prohibits the military from shooting down drones near military bases in the U.S. unless they pose an imminent threat. Aerial snooping doesn’t qualify.”

This is a stupid law. Repeal it or ignore it next time. Err on the side of protecting America.

This is reminiscent of the Chinese spy balloon that floated unimpeded through American airspace in 2023, passing over multiple military installations while the Biden/Harris administration just gawked.

It was finally shot down over the water near Myrtle Beach, SC.

There have been smaller drone invasions over other American installations in the past year, including one in Nevada.

Oh, and a Chinese man was detained near Langley after his drone became tangled in a tree in Newport News. He’d been using the craft to photograph Naval vessels.

Fengyun Shi, a college student, was arrested in California in January as he was about to board a one-way flight to China. On Oct. 2 he was sentenced to six months in a federal prison for unlawfully photographing a restricted Naval installation.

Six months. Is this a joke?

Consider this. During FY2024 24,376 Chinese nationals were apprehended crossing our border with Mexico. That’s up 8000% from the number caught in 2021.

You don’t have to be a member of the intelligence community to connect the dots. You just have to be intelligent.

The Chinese are up to something. Weak leadership in Washington has emboldened them.

We need to get tough.