Former US Navy F-18 fighter pilot Lt. Ryan Graves said he dismissed the involvement of commercial contractors in the project drone sightings that have been reported around New Jersey in recent days.
“Based on my analysis of the situation and the statements from the Pentagon and the Legislature, I cannot believe that this is our own government acting in such confusion. God help us if it does,” Graves told Fox News host Martha MacCallum on Thursday. “The story.”
“It’s the same for commercial contractors,” he continued. “There’s no benefit and no risk in operating these things so close to the ground, especially if it’s some sort of classified equipment.”
Graves concluded that his analysis leads the mystery to “foreign adversaries or something else.”
“We have heard directly from the Pentagon that there is no so-called ‘mothership’ off the coast of Virginia and New Jersey launching these objects,” Graves said.
“We have some of the most advanced radar systems on the East Coast. We should know with great certainty exactly where these objects are, where they are going, and where they will land when they are. have the ability to counter those technologies, or we’re just lying about what’s happening.”
A map of drone sightings around New Jersey.
Over the past week, leaders from both parties in New Jersey have expressed public concern over reports of drone sightings and frustration over the lack of clear answers.
On Monday, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy described the drones as “highly advanced” and expressed frustration at the lack of clarity about their origins.
Representative Chris Smith, RN.J., shared on “The Story” that he spent Monday evening on a beach and spoke with a U.S. Coast Guard commander who recounted an incident the previous night in which a 45-foot Coast Guard vessel was closely followed by more than a dozen drones .
On Wednesday, Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., sent a letter to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, FBI Director Christopher Wray and FAA Administrator Michael Whitaker, urging agencies to inform municipal and county officials about the drone activity and requested that all available information be shared with the public.
Rep. Jeff Van Drew, RN.J., said on “The Faulkner focus“On Wednesday, ‘highly qualified’ and ‘reliable’ sources suspected that the drones spotted over the Garden State could be connected to an Iranian ‘mothership’ stationed off the East Coast – a claim subsequently denied by the Pentagon.
State Senator Jon Bramnick, RN.J., called on the Department of Defense Wednesday afternoon to come to the state to investigate the mysterious drone activity.
The US Military Research Center denies that NJ drones are theirs
Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson announced that he received a classified briefing Thursday on the reported drone sightings in the Garden State.
Graves told McCallum that he is pushing for the “full force” of the government and the Pentagon to be deployed to determine the nature of these objects – identifying, characterizing and, if necessary, selecting a primary target to shoot down for further research.
“It doesn’t seem like the various branches of government are communicating very well about this issue,” Graves said. “And for me, it makes me believe that there is real uncertainty about what’s going on here. I find it hard to believe that the Biden administration can continue this policy of cognitive dissonance on this issue. Hundreds of people are watching these events.”
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Graves added that the reported drone sightings are “not limited to just people on the ground.”
“My nonprofit, Americans for Safe Aerospace, has been receiving reports for over a year from commercial pilots, military pilots and veterans showing how consistent and how problematic this problem is at the altitudes they fly,” Graves said. “We need a more coordinated response and actually listen to the people on the ground and in the air who are seeing things.”
Fox News Digital’s Taylor Penley and Greg Wehner contributed to this report.
