The US Department of Defense is grappling with a real mystery: a “suspicious fleet” of unidentified unmanned aircraft flew undisturbed over Langley Air Base in Virginia for 17 days starting at the end of last year. This was reported by the «Wall Street Journal», according to which the Pentagon has not yet shed light on the matter, which seems to reveal a serious lack of security measures at some of the most sensitive military sites in the United States. General of the US Air Force Mark Kelly, commander of the base where other advanced fifth generation F-22 fighters are stationed, would also have personally witnessed the drone overflights. For several nights, guard personnel witnessed violations of restricted airspace over the base, whose perimeter encompasses one of the largest concentrations of national security infrastructure in the United States.
Overflights usually begin “45 minutes to an hour after sunset,” according to sources cited by the newspaper. The first violation was apparently carried out last December by a large drone, approximately six meters long, at a speed of approximately 160 kilometers per hour and at an altitude of approximately 1,200 meters. Other similar violations occurred in the following days and months, again by drones – sometimes flying in swarms of more than a dozen aircraft – heading south across the Chesapeake Bay, over an area that includes between the others the Navy Seal Team Six base and Norfolk Naval Station, the largest military port in the world. Reports regarding the episodes have already reached the desks of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris in recent months, but it is not clear if and what measures have been taken. To date, the Wall Street Journal recalls, US federal law prohibits shooting down drones near US military bases unless the devices pose an immediate threat.
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