Initially I all but ignored all the reactions to reports of numerous drones flying about. Given that at least publicly the Federal Govt. and Military sources seemed unconcerned, so was I.

Lately that has changed some because the hysteria is ramping up to insane levels and to me it looks like whatever the story is, it could be really bad.

What flipped the switch for me was a Forbes Interview with a man who went so far as to intimate that drones as large as SUVs were either Korean or Chinese, backed by Russia in bold disrespect and surreptitious spying OR our own military scanning for radiation possibly from thermonuclear bombs disassembled in Korea, hipped in parts, and reassembled near big cities.

In my view, this could an ultimate false flag to produce FUD in the populace to exceed that of 9/11 at the very lest spark uncontested limitations on private drone use or at worst to increase federal power a la Homeland Security on steroids much like the Eternal War concept in the 1984 novel.

The flipside is even worse. With so much war going on presently around the world and so much hard division in the populace of the US it seems to me any serious public statements by someone as respected as Forbes tossing around nuclear threats seems very telling and it isn't good, true or not, at least for common citizens of any country.

This seems a case where it would be quite welcome to discover it all was just irresponsible "fake news"

I'm not sure the validity, but one source said the FAA altered rules to allow drones owned by hobbyists to now fly at night.

I live inland, in a sort of rural area, no drones here.

There was never a recreational rule against flying at night but as of April 2021 as far I know your drone needs to be equipped with appropriate anti-collision lights that are visible up to a distance of three statute miles per FAA part 107. The anti-collision lights are similar to small aircraft lighting and might be confusing to some at a distance. I am sure there are many that are not aware there are FAA rules for recreational drone flying.

It does seem like something is going on with so many perceived sightings but probably also a bunch of copycat people that are flying their drones just to amplify the conspiracy theories. Those would be hard to detect and track unless you happen to be nearby.

I would expect if China or anyone else was flying UAV as big as a SUV they would be high altitude vehicles.

Methinks "hysteria" may not be an understatement.

https://www.nj.com/news/2024/12/most...-feds-say.html

In a lot of ways, it reminds me of this.

Wasn't there some story earlier this year about Chinese spy balloons flying over America? I suppose if they can do it with balloons, they can do it with drones.

I can't imagine any good reason for hobbyists to fly drones at night.

These reports show lights in the sky.

One would think if they were nefarious surveillance they'd not advertise by using lights.

A legitimate reason would be photographers. Weddings, Christmas lights, sunsets although the lights might interfere.

I've read about this fear online, that is, that the drones are searching for a stolen re-assembled nuke. Last night on Joe Rogan they had a fighter pilot(Ryan Graves) who stated categorically that according to his knowledge that this is not true. He said that there's no missing nuke.

There is a pre-emptive command sequence that can be broadcast on all of the known drone frequencies to immediately order the drone – every drone – to land. Regardless of what the operator wants to do. Drones also contain a map of restricted airspaces and won't fly into them even if you want them to. The designers of these systems were not totally stupid.

So: "Someone(!) is playing some weird kind of 'psy ops' game" with this drone story. The government isn't as ignorant nor as incapable as they are now apparently pretending to be. They're allowing rumors to grow and spread freely, without acting as we know perfectly well they could. I cannot speculate as to why someone would think that this was a clever idea. But, I'm not going to "buy in" to the stories, either. I'll just wait and see.

Like so many other such things, "this story 'materialized'" in the last few weeks. While drones have been around for years. This is all I need to know to convince me that someone out there is playing mind-games with the general public. For reasons I don't know and won't speculate. I won't add any fuel to the fire. And, as far as "where they came from," I will apply Occam's Razor.

All I know is stories like this cause us 'hobbyists' more regulation headaches. I don't fly drones, I flew R/C airplanes (yet classified as same)... at a designated field. Not like it used to be as we always kept a low profile for the above very reason. But now that an idiot with only half a brain can 'fly' a drone (or it flies itself around)... They seem to pop up everywhere. Hence the regulations that affects us all. Getting to be a crazy world we live in. The more technology the more regulations due to a few bad (ignorant, no fault of their own?) nuts in the barrel.

A guide.

https://thegunzone.com/what-is-the-b...goose-hunting/

However the drones might be out of reach so. https://milweb.net/classifieds/view_...d=108148&cat=6 might be the way to go.

Reasonable price on this. https://maxtochstore.com/products/ma...ght?ref=1LUMEN

As far as I know there isn't an FAA rule that requires all drones to have a such a kill switch. Although all drones over .55 Lbs must have an RF ID. Some drone manufactures might have builtin software to avoid restricted airspace but I don't know if that is true for all drones or a requirement for home built drones.

I agree the simplest explanation is often the best one whatever that might be.

One FAA rule that does exist and is extremely important is that any drone over a very small size (a few grams iirc) is required to have what amounts to an RFID. Absent this has already had some hobbyist's drone shot down for observing a baseball game. QED no drone can fly without being registered and tracked. Hysteria is precisely what I meant. It bears some scrutiny, not jumping to conclusions.

Another stupid theory debunked. An excerpt:

I believe that this is a legal requirement in the UK. Drones flying over airports can cause delays costing huge amounts of money.