Senior US officials demand swift response over mystery drones

American authorities need more powers to deal with unmanned aircraft and to deploy specific detection technology in response to the proliferation of mysterious drones sighted across the East Coast, senior officials have said.

Sightings of unidentified aircraft have been reported in New York City, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, according to US media. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who represents the state hosting the biggest city in the country, expressed frustration on Sunday with not knowing more about the drones despite their apparent large numbers.

“If the technology exists for a drone to make it up into the sky, there certainly is technology that can track the craft with precision and determine what the heck is going on,” the lawmaker said.

Schumer has asked the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for the deployment of a specific system produced by Robin Radar Systems. The recently declassified equipment could produce better answers, he told reporters. He also urged support for a bill submitted earlier this year to the Senate, which would authorize state and local authorities to use counter-drone technology currently restricted to federal level.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul has made similar appeals for more federal resources to be allocated to dealing with the situation, and promoted a separate piece of legislation which would renew and expand federal authority to respond to unmanned aircraft systems (UAS). The bill being deliberated by the US House “will give New York and our peers the authority and resources required to respond to circumstances like we face today,” she said in a statement on Sunday.

Senior FBI and Department of Justice (DOJ) officials expressed their support for the same proposal during a hearing of the House Committee on Homeland Security on Tuesday. The bureau’s assistant director, Robert W. Wheeler Jr., said his agency backs the pursuit of “expanded counter-UAS authorities for state, local, tribal, and territorial partners as robustly and swiftly.”

Alejandro Mayorkas, the DHS head, has assured the public in multiple interviews that the drones did not pose any imminent threat and appeared to be domestic in origin.

“There are thousands of drones flown every day in the United States, recreational drones, commercial drones,” he told ABC News on Sunday. “Our authorities currently are limited, and they are set to expire. We need them extended and expanded.”