With conspiracy theories giving and taking, and concern gradually turning to panic, US authorities are being urgently called upon to explain: who, or what, is behind the dozens of mysterious drone sightings that started on the east coast of the US and have spread to other areas;

Although the FBI says there is no safety risk to civilians, no one can currently offer a convincing explanation for the flights of unmanned flying vehicles – which are described as “large-scale, as large as a large SUV car”-and have been reported since November in New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Virginia and elsewhere.

For now, an explanation as to what these objects recorded in the American – and European, in some cases – skies are, with many talking about… alien technology and developing fanciful and unimaginative scenarios.
So what are the most likely scenarios being considered by US authorities?

1. Be a psy-ops or espionage operation:

Although there is no evidence to show that this is an organized operation to send drones for spying purposes, or as part of a psy ops operation to cause panic in the American public from another country (such as Russia, Iran, China, N. Korea), the… bad precedent with Chinese balloons, and the places where some of the drone sightings are noted, reinforce this scenario. As US air defense algorithms and radars are focused on detecting ballistic missiles and aircraft, drones are not easily detected; therefore, sonar detectors will be deployed in some areas.

This is because, in addition to the east coast of the US, unidentified drones were recorded near a US air base in Germany in early December, a month earlier flights of unidentified drones were reported over four US military bases in the UK, and a Chinese citizen was arrested for flying a drone over Vandenberg Space Base in California. Numerous drones were reportedly spotted near Langley Air Force Base in Virginia over the past year, while the US-Canadian North American Aerospace Defense Command reported last October that as of 2022 there had been about 600 unauthorized drone incursions recorded over US military installations.

But it’s not just military installations, such as Langley military airfield or the Piccadilly Armory. The day before the US Navy confirmed that unidentified drones violated the airspace of its New Jersey base on December 12, the governor of Maryland reported seeing dozens of drones over his home, and similar sightings have been reported in other “sensitive” places.

2. Drones should not be… drones

As unbelievable as it may seem, many experts say to keep… a small basket on this particular issue, as they don’t rule out it being a phenomenon of mass hysteria. That is, some people actually saw drones and then “dubbed” all the lights in the sky drones. In many cases, U.S. experts point out, the lights recorded in the sky and complaints from citizens who report seeing drones may be manned flying vehicles. That is, helicopters and planes performing scheduled flights.

Getting confused, if you’re not an expert, in a country where the FAA air traffic control agency handles more than 45,000 flights per day in nearly 30 million square miles of US airspace, isn’t exactly difficult. That’s the basic scenario for the FBI, which believes these are cases of “mistaken identity” with the public mistaking the flights of legitimate, small aircraft for drones.

 Government officials have said it is likely that there will not actually be drones at many of the shows. White House National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby said many of the displays are pilot aircraft flying legally.

Harry Dearin, an electronics and software engineering specialist at DireenTech, said he would not be surprised if people initially saw drones, but that once the concept of drones took hold, people assumed that any aircraft they could not identify was a drone. “After possibly real sightings of possibly amateur drones, any aircraft can then appear suspicious,” he said.

3. Being pranksters, or just … hobbyists

There are more than 800,000 registered drones in the United States, and there are a large number of unregistered ones that are not required – because of their size – to emit reconnaissance signals. U.S. authorities have not ruled out the possibility that this is an organized hoax by a group or groups of drone owners, or simply hobbyists who fly their drones at night to “strut” them as lights in the sky.

4. Be it secret US military tests.

“The military knows”, says US President-elect Donald Trump, who is calling for drones recorded in the skies to be shot down, while New Jersey Congressman Chris Smith has made it more “official” to speculate that it may be a test of US drones or a test of air defense systems: “The uncertain maneuvers of these drones suggest a major military force sophisticated, which raises the question of whether they have been deployed to test our defense capabilities – or worse – by violent dictatorships, perhaps perhaps perhaps Russia, or China, or Iran, or North Korea,” he said. Although this scenario, that is, that these are US drones of new, testable technology, is being widely circulated, a US Armed Forces spokesman denied it. Besides, if they are new US military drones, they should be judged a failure, since they are not so … stealthy, experts commented scathingly.

5. Be about flying commercial drones:

As in other countries, the US – and of course, to a greater extent – has dozens of companies that use drones for transportation and delivery of goods and products. It is possible that many of the recorded sightings involve drones performing such deliveries in populated areas, being tested for such, or mapping the areas in which they are to operate.

Whatever the truth, US authorities are currently leaving as a “last resort” the possibility of shooting down these drones. As – at least for now – there is no danger to the public, experts explain that shooting down these unmanned flying vehicles would pose a great risk to civilians and facilities on the ground from falling debris.