They're in the UK Too - Drones Buzzing Presumed US Nuclear Base, FBI Has Known for a Year
The need for a transparent and honest explanation about the recent surge in drone sightings is urgent—for the sake of all Americans.
Until that happens, the public will continue to speculate whether U.S. government officials are “evil liars” or simply grossly incompetent.
This past Tuesday, the Daily Mail revealed that high-speed drones were observed last month near a U.S. airbase in eastern England, believed to house nuclear weapons. Federal agencies, including the FBI, have reportedly been aware of such drone threats to U.S. military facilities for over a year.
The Daily Mail’s astonishing report includes an eye-opening account of how officials responded to the drone activity beginning on Nov. 20 at RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk, England. The account, attributed to a senior U.K. military officer who attended a briefing on the matter, is both fascinating and troubling.
“The drones were flying in with no lights. When they were close to the site, they were turning on the lights going, ‘Here I am,’ and as far as I know, not one piece of our equipment could bring it down or spot it,” the unnamed officer stated.
A police helicopter dispatched to investigate the drones made striking observations.
“They were traveling really fast, faster than anything they’d seen before. From police helicopter footage, one of the drones was tracked traveling at 170 mph,” the officer explained.
Even more unnerving, the drones seemed to “take an interest” in the helicopter, following it but evading capture with ease.
The helicopter’s infrared camera captured footage of the drones’ extraordinary movements.
“It’s very, very advanced technology. It can move very fast, and it can’t be detected on any of the systems that we’ve currently got,” the officer reported.
Alarmingly, even detection equipment used by elite Special Forces units proved ineffective.
But the revelations don’t stop there. Federal officials have known about drone threats to U.S. bases for over a year—yet seem to have done little to address the issue.
To be fair, they’ve done one thing: what they do best—write reports.
In December 2023, drones “swarmed” Langley Air Force Base in Virginia, as reported by the Daily Mail. That incident spurred a report co-authored by the Air Force, NASA, and the FBI.
Much like the events in England, the Langley incident exposed severe gaps in security protocols.
The report called for enhanced training, improved communication, a “more robust notification and reporting system among partner agencies,” and—perhaps most revealing—“better understanding of legal authorities [process] and capabilities of cUAS [anti-drone technology]/detection systems.”
In other words, those tasked with responding to drones appear unclear on both the technology and their legal authority to act.
So, what are Americans to conclude from all of this?
The FBI’s involvement does little to bolster trust. Given the Bureau’s increasingly controversial behavior in recent years, many Americans may be skeptical of any statements made by its agents.
Most importantly, the federal response to these drone sightings points to two possibilities, neither of which is reassuring.
Either officials know the drones’ origin but refuse to disclose it, or they genuinely have no idea where these drones are coming from, how to counter them, or even how to reliably detect them. Even worse, it seems they’ve taken no significant steps to address the issue since the Langley incident.
Neither scenario inspires confidence in the government—or in the ability to handle the ongoing drone threat.