Rep. Chris Smith: Drones Trailed Coast Guard Ship Off New Jersey Coast

Rep. Chris Smith: Drones Trailed Coast Guard Ship Off New Jersey Coast

Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) asked Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to investigate the drones over New Jersey, urging the department to take the matter seriously:

As you no doubt are also aware, there have been numerous instances of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) flying over New Jersey, including in close proximity to sensitive sites and critical infrastructure, to include military installations located in my district.

As you know, Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst (JB MDL) possess capabilities to identify and take down unauthorized unmanned aerial systems and have utilized this capability to address overflights of the installation.

I urgently request all capabilities possessed by the Department of Defense, especially those in use by JBMDL to be immediately deployed to identify and address the potential threats posed by UAS over the state of New Jersey.

Smith spoke to numerous law enforcement officials and people at JBMDL about the drones.

One conversation occurred with Ocean County Sheriff Michael Mastronardy, whose office has chronicled drone activity.

Smith told Fox News’s Martha MacCallum that Mastronardy said dozens of drones trailed a Coast Guard motorboats.

Mastronardy also told Smith that someone in his office saw “50 drones flying onshore from a boat on Saturday night.”

Here is Smith’s full interview with MacCallum:

MACCALLUM: New Jersey Republican Congressman Chris Smith. His constituents have been reporting drone activity over recent days. It’s been happening over several weeks. Congressman, good to have you with us.

The White House not ruling out anything, not giving us any answers. Neither did this hearing that, we just heard some questions in what is going on here and when can people expect to get some answers from our leaders?

SMITH: They should have had them immediately last night. I was on the beach with Sheriff Mastronardy, and he’s doing a magnificent job in trying to chronicle, ascertain a threat for this. He’s the Ocean County Sheriff. Sean Golden’s doing the same thing in Mamomouth County.

So I was there on the beach, and I talked to several people, including commander for the Coast Guard, who told me that the night before, I was there last night so two nights ago, one of their 47 foot vessels, boats, was trailed very closely by more than a dozen of these, of these drones.

Now, that to me is very not just suspicious, provocative. And this could be a foreign power, whether it be Putin or whether it be Xi Jingping in China or the Middle East. We can’t rule any of that out.

MACCALLUM: This is incredible. So a United States Coast Guard boat testified to you that twelve drones were following it in the water in the Atlantic Ocean. Did they tell you anything about the size, what they look like? Were they able to get images?

SMITH: They said they were about the size of a car. They were pretty large and they weren’t far off the stern, so it’s very, very troubling. I called the joint base and talked to the commanding officer there and asked, we know we have the capability within DoD to ascertain where it’s coming from, even bring it down, and they have it, but they don’t have the, quote, “authority to do it.”

MACCALLUM: Question, Congressman. So when you’re out over the ocean and you have twelve of them out, there, I think it’s a very reasonable question. Why weren’t one of those drones trailing the coast guard ship shot down over the ocean and grabbed and checked out?

SMITH: Well, again, the capability to do that in a way that could retrieve what it is and who’s doing it, it resides within the DoD. They have it. I’ve asked the commanding officer to get that authority.

I’ve written Lloyd Austin to ask him to give that authority. I mean, this could be the beginning of something or it could be nothing. Who knows? But how dare they allow us to live…I just listened to the White House spokeswoman say nothing. They got nothing to tell us.

MACCALLUM: Unbelievable.

SMITH: And we have the capability. And the night before I was there last night till late the night before, one of our, one of our police officers again working for Sheriff Mastronardy, chronicled 50 coming from the ocean onto land. 50. I mean, this is really serious.

MACCALLUM: It’s like a Sci-Fi movie, and it could be a hoax, but it’s so large the number of them…

SMITH: …there’s probably a ship.

MACCALLUM: It’s a foreign entity. It’s something that the US knows and understands, or it’s some kind of massive hoax with lots of people involved, but whatever it is, we absolutely have to know. So, this lack of answers is absolutely…

SMITH: Martha, there’s no way this is a hoax. We have foreign powers, especially China, Putin, Russia…

MACCALLUM: We watched the balloon go across and didn’t shoot it down until it was well out over the ocean, so let’s hope we can get it right this time. It’s already very late in that process. Unbelievable. I had one go over my house, and it’s a strange feeling.

SMITH: Well, we’ll let you know what we hear from Dod, because they can give that authority today.

MACCALLUM: Well, we appreciate how proactive you are, Congressman Smith, and we’re very glad to have you with us today.

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