There has been dozens of drone sightings on the East Coast in recent weeks, leaving many people wondering what the aircrafts are doing and where they came from.
With people’s questions in mind, New Jersey Representative, Jeff Van Drew, took it upon himself to give an apparent explanation, insisting that the information was given to him from ‘reliable sources’.
Van Drew went on: “I’m going to tell you… Iran launched a mothership probably about a month ago that contains these drones. That mothership is off the east coast of the United States of America.”
He also said that the drones ‘should be shot down’.
“We are not getting the full deal and the military is on alert with this,” the lawmaker added.
But the Pentagon has now denied that there’s a ‘mothership’ linked to the mysterious drones.
Jeff Van Drew made the outlandish claims to Fox News (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Speaking on Wednesday (December 11), Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh said in a briefing that there was ‘no evidence these are coming from a foreign entity or the work of an adversary’.
“We’re going to continue to monitor what is happening. But, you know, at no point were our installations threatened when this activity was occurring.” she continued.
Addressing Van Drew’s claims directly, Singh added there’s ‘no truth’ to his allegations.
“There is no Iranian ship off the coast of the United States, and there’s no so-called mothership launching drones towards the United States.” she continued.
Reuters reports that the FBI and New Jersey State police had asked the public to report any information regarding the possible sightings, with the FBI saying: “Witnesses have spotted the cluster of what look to be drones and a possible fixed-wing aircraft.
“We have reports from the public and law enforcement dating back several weeks.”
The Pentagon’s initial assessment had also shown the ‘drones’ weren’t from another country and that US military didn’t take them down because they weren’t deemed to be a threat.
Sabrina Singh said there’s no evidence that the drones are from a a foreign entity (Celal Gunes/Anadolu via Getty Images)
The Pentagon’s statement comes just weeks after mysterious drones were spotted near three British airbases – RAF Lakenheath, RAF Mildenhall, and RAF Feltwell – all of which are used by the United States Air Force (USAF).
At the time of the reports in November, the USAF said that it was unsure if the drones were hostile or not, reported BBC News.
Addressing the matter, a spokesperson for USAF in Europe said: “We can confirm that small unmanned aerial systems [UASs] were spotted in the vicinity of and over RAF Lakenheath, RAF Mildenhall and RAF Feltwell.
“The number of UASs fluctuated and they ranged in size/configuration. The UASs were actively monitored and installation leaders determined that none of the incursions impacted base residents or critical infrastructure.
“To protect operational security, we do not discuss our specific force protection measures but retain the right to protect the installation.”
