FLASH
Shkruar nga Pamfleti
Drones or extraterrestrials over the US sky?
What is happening in America's skies and why is the government hiding the truth from us? The latest American fear arises from a proliferation of mysterious "sightings" that seem to signal a threat whose nature is not understood.
Are they drones? If so, who operates them? It is a proliferation of conjecture, conspiracy theories. The peak has been reached at night, because flying objects emit light and are easier to spot after dark, as they have been seen mainly in New Jersey, not far from New York. But there are also other areas of the United States. Public opinion, media, local politicians are alarmed. There are those who attribute these nocturnal "essays" to Chinese espionage, to the Russians, to the Iranians.
Even on the most unheard of hypothesis, that they are drones maneuvered by American citizens, the fear is growing that this crowd in the sky will sooner or later cause a plane crash (several small airports have already suffered closures after the alarms). The most paranoid theories cannot be missed: from extraterrestrials to the existence of a secret government plan to spy on Americans and prepare an authoritarian regime.
It was unhelpful for the Biden administration to dismiss these theories. The Department of Homeland Security and the FBI have issued a statement in which they rule out – "for now" – a threat to national security, or security tout court. They also ruled out an alien involvement behind these flights.
In the same press release, it is specified that flights by manned aircraft, possibly small but regularly authorized aircraft, are often mistaken for drones. This intervention by the authorities has multiplied suspicions, instead of reducing them.
The Biden administration has a record that does not inspire confidence. He denied or downplayed the incursion of a Chinese spy balloon in early 2023, before realizing it was a serious breach and deciding to shoot it down. The other lies on various topics are even more recent and therefore we remember them well: news about the perfect psychophysical form of the president until the eve of his withdrawal from the election campaign; Certainty that he would never, ever grant a presidential pardon to his son Hunter.
What's more, this drone crisis over America's skies isn't really new, it has troubling precedents because they reveal a surprising vulnerability. Basically, the United States has let its guard down since the Cold War, and today its hands are tied when it comes to intercepting and destroying vehicles used for aerial espionage. Current rules greatly privilege the civilian use of national airspace, for the transport of passengers and cargo. Law enforcement and even the military and intelligence are heavily restricted for fear that their interventions will endanger passenger planes. Foreign powers can enter this situation for espionage from above.
I wrote about it in this column two months ago: when it was revealed that the most important US military bases had been visited several times from the sky by a bunch of mysterious drones, possibly as part of espionage operations carried out by China and Russia. The Pentagon, which has often had success intercepting and shooting down enemy drones in the Middle East, is surprisingly unprepared for incursions at home. Investigations into repeated incidents of violations of restricted airspace for congestion have been inconclusive. Rules of engagement in national territory make it difficult, if not impossible, to capture or destroy flying objects.
At least three of the most important US military bases have been flown by unidentified drones: in Norfolk, Virginia, the largest naval base in the world (which also houses the only NATO headquarters on US soil); In Langley, Virginia, an air base that houses some of the most advanced aircraft of the US Air Force (F-35, F-22 Raptor), and finally a nuclear base in Nevada near Las Vegas. Some excessive flights were repeated, systematic and involved up to a dozen drones simultaneously: automatic, unmanned aircraft, which in these images were about seven meters long, flying at 160 kilometers per hour, at an altitude of over a thousand meters.
As already happened at the beginning of 2023 in the case of the Chinese "spy balloon" episode, the American armed forces proved unprepared. Intelligence seems unable to prevent these drone incursions. The hypothesis of using "electronic warfare" tools to interfere with the automatic piloting systems of drones is almost out of the question, due to the risk of inadvertently hitting the Wi-Fi networks on which essential services such as emergency calls for ambulances are based. and firefighters. Another option would be to use "directed energy," a recent technology that could disable and crash drones, but civil aviation rules rule it out because of the dangers it might pose to scheduled flights. Similar problems prevented the Chinese spy balloon from being intercepted and shot down for a long time, such as the fear that it would crash into a built-up area (in the end, the military had to wait for it to fly over the ocean before shooting it down). 4 February 2023).
As for the police investigation, so far only one "small fish" has ended up in the net: a Chinese university student enrolled at the University of Minnesota, Fengyun Shi, was arrested while remotely maneuvering a drone near Langley Air Force Base. During the trial, it was not possible to prove his connection with the Beijing government or Chinese espionage. He was sentenced to a light sentence, six months in federal prison. / Adapted "Pamphlet" from "Corriere Della Sera"
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