A retired, senior Pentagon official has confirmed that UFO ‘mother ships’ were spotted ‘releasing swarms of smaller craft’ — adding further mystery to the still-unexplained intrusions over multiple US military bases.
His statements come amid the release of 50 pages of Air Force records related to provocative ‘drone’ incursions, that one general calls ‘Close Encounters at Langley.’
For at least 17 nights last December, swarms of noisy, small UFOs were seen at dusk ‘moving at rapid speeds’ and displaying ‘flashing red, green, and white lights’ penetrating the highly restricted airspace above Langley Air Force Base in Virginia.
Senior ex-Pentagon security official Chris Mellon told DailyMail.com that the episode was ‘part of a much larger pattern affecting numerous national security installations.’
‘Two of the notable aspects,’ he said, ‘are the fact our drone signal-jamming devices have proven ineffective and these craft are making no effort to remain concealed.’
‘In fact, in some instances,’ as Mellon took pains to emphasize, ‘it is clear they want to be seen as though taunting us.’
For at least 17 nights in December 2023, swarms of small ‘drones’ were seen penetrating the highly restricted airspace above Langley Air Force Base in Virginia. Above, a photo taken by an eyewitness of one (or more) of these drones as provided to the Wall Street Journal and others
Mellon, who served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence under both Presidents Clinton and George W. Bush, told DailyMail.com that since last year’s Langley events ‘a similar series of intrusions has also occurred over Palmdale, CA.’
An hour’s drive north of Los Angeles, Palmdale is home to defense contractor Lockheed Martin’s classified ‘Skunk Works,’ makers of the F-22 Raptor stealth fighter.
A spokesperson for Edwards Air Force Base near Palmdale told The War Zone this August that investigators were ‘monitoring’ that situation to ‘determine if there is any ill intent and, even if not, we are trying to find out why or who is doing it.’
Similar efforts are still underway on the east coast at Langley, but the commander of its Air Combat Command, General Mark Kelly, said the government is stumped.
The bizarre craft above Langley — home to at least half the Air Force’s fleet of F-22 Raptors — led to two weeks of emergency White House meetings.
And over the past 10 months, Air Force investigators, local police and even NASA analysts operating the space agency’s high-tech WB-57F research plane have all taken a crack at trying to identify the mysterious craft — with no answers in sight.
What would the US do, as General Kelly put it to the Wall Street Journal, ‘if this happens over the National Mall?’
The bizarre craft above Langley – which is home to at least half the Air Force’s fleet of stealth F-22 Raptor fighter jets – lead to two weeks of emergency White House meetings. Above, a USAF F-22 Raptor soaring above the United Arab Emirates on March 16, 2022
Above, a military witness testifies to the drones displaying ‘flashing red, green, and white lights.’ This testimony was released via the US Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), along with 50 pages of Air Force records on the December wave of ‘drone swarms’ over Langley
General Kelly said the unidentified craft appeared to be 20-ft long and were capable of flying over 100 miles-per-hour at an altitude between 3,000 and 4,000 feet.
The Journal noted an overlapping incident in which a University of Minnesota student and Chinese national, Fengyun Shi, was caught photographing US Navy vessels under construction in nearby Norfolk, Virginia, via commercial drone.
But the amateurish incident, for which Shi was sentenced to six months in federal prison, appears to be unrelated to the sophisticated squadrons of mystery craft.
‘I make no claims regarding their origin, perhaps many are Chinese drones,’ Mellon told DailyMail.com.
‘But their brazenness, range, flight duration, reliability, resistance to countermeasures and indifference to detection are confounding.’
‘In some cases “mother ships” have been reported,’ according to Mellon, who also managed security and information operations for part of his time at the Pentagon.
These ‘mother ships,’ Mellon clarified, were ‘extremely fast larger vehicles that have been observed collecting or releasing swarm of smaller craft.’
One such ‘mother ship’ case was investigated by Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Special Agent Michael Bumberger over Nebraska, government records show.
Local sheriff’s reported seeing 30 to 50 unusual craft flying independently of one another, with a larger ‘mother ship’ hovering nearby for hours.
At Langley last December, Air Force personnel equipped with ‘dronebusters’ — signal-jamming weaponry designed to counter remotely piloted enemy drones — reported that these mysterious craft ‘failed to register’ on their anti-drone devices.
One witness reported being unable to use their dronebuster ‘due to not having a visual.’
Their testimony was released via the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), first published by the Liberation Times on Monday.
In one December 6, 2023 encounter detailed in the FOIA documents, a Langley witness described serious aerial penetrations above a parking and servicing area for base aircraft, known as the Flight Line.
‘I spotted nine (09) drones in diamond formation flying over [redacted] heading towards the flight line,’ the witness stated.
‘[Redacted] and I followed the swarm onto the flight line where we lost visual of the swarm over the bay.’
Amid this frenzy of activity, NASA’s Langley Research Center was also conscripted to aid in the effort to hunt down and identify these mystery drones.
NASA’s WB-57F, according a research center spokesperson, ‘provided additional imaging support‘ as it circled the base on December 18 and 19, 2023.
‘The activation of a specialized NASA aircraft, equipped with what may be the most sophisticated airborne camera system in the world, suggests that the US government was truly baffled by these incidents,’ said former Obama-era Pentagon appointee and frequent columnist at The Hill, Marik Von Rennenkampff.
Amid this frenzy of activity, NASA’s Langley Research Center in Virginia was also conscripted to aid in the effort to hunt down and identify these mystery drones. NASA’s WB-57F (pictured), according a research center spokesperson, ‘provided additional imaging support’
NASA’s high altitude WB-57F (above) can climb to an altitude of 50,000 feet above sea level. There are four cameras total on the nose of NASA’s WB-57F jets, each tailored to pick up specific ‘colors’ or wavelengths from the electromagnetic spectrum
Typically, there are four cameras total on the nose of NASA’s WB-57F jets, each tailored to pick up specific ‘colors’ or wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum.
Some of those wavelengths, like mid-wave infrared, cannot be measured from the ground, because much of it is absorbed by gases and particles in the atmosphere.
Von Rennenkampff expressed skepticism that the objects will prove to be foreign espionage platforms, given the ostentatious, showy nature of their flights.
‘The multiple, consistent reports of bright, flashing lights and formation flying suggest that some actor — be it a drone operator or otherwise — was putting on a show of impunity, at considerable risk, over a key military facility,’ he noted.
‘If this was a foreign intelligence gathering operation,’ he continued, ‘the brazen nature of the incursions makes it some of the worst collection tradecraft imaginable.’
While still remaining agnostic about the solution to these alarming national security mysteries, some of America’s most scientifically minded UFO investigators told DailyMail.com that they suspect culprits closer to home.
Electrical engineer John Tedesco, who runs a mobile lab affiliated with Harvard’s Galileo Project, told DailyMail.com: ‘I would tend to agree with Marik Von Rennenkampff that these are not from a foreign entity.’
‘Some obvious telling signs, such as the engine noise generated, altitude, and travel velocity, make me believe this is some locally staged activity,’ Tedesco advised.
Richard Hoffman, an information technology specialist at the Army’s Redstone Arsenal who has worked on projects to counter drone incursions at US military bases noted that solving the mystery poses major technical and bureaucratic hurdles.
‘We are in the process of fielding countermeasures at sensitive DoD [Department of Defense] locations, but it requires coordination with the [Federal Communications Commission] FCC, FAA and others to deploy them,’ Hoffman told DailyMail.com.
‘Concerns about frequencies that could interfere with public and commercial uses has been an issue,’ he noted. ‘There are documented cases where GPS on commercial aircraft has been affected near military bases.’
Outside of his official duties, Hoffman is also a co-founder of the nonprofit, Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies, devoted to studying ‘unidentified aerial phenomena,’ once called UFOs.
‘It is also a concern that these drones are using frequencies not used by traditional drones,’ he said.
‘It rules out commercial drones from within the US, which are regulated.’
Officials at Langley would appear to agree, admitting that the December 2023 ‘drone’ swarms proved to be impossible to pin down.
Above, two USAF F-22 Raptors fly over Joint Base Langley-Eustis in Virginia on June 14, 2018
Above, Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Virginia, is seen from the air on October 6, 2020
The rogue fleets of small aircraft would disappear into thin air each night despite being hunted by the best hardware the Air Force and NASA had on hand.
The episodes were ‘so sustained and disruptive that an entire fighter wing had to be relocated to another base,’ according to Mellon, who wrote about the case in May.
General Glen VanHerck, the commander with North American Aerospace Defense (NORAD) Command, who led the mission to takedown the infamous Chinese spy balloon back in February 2023, described these Langley cases as unlike any other.
General VanHerck said he had personally ordered jet fighters and other aircraft to fly close enough to these drones to pick up some visual clues.
Ultimately, the general advised Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin to authorize a full battery of electronic eavesdropping equipment to get to the bottom of this case, but he acknowledged that strict rules govern the use of this tech over US soil.
Nevertheless, VanHerck said: ‘If there are unknown objects within North America… go out and identify them.’
