Van Drew calls for drones over N.J. to be shot down

In the weeks since mysterious drones began appearing in the sky over New Jersey, politicians of both parties have been increasingly sounding the alarm – and today Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-Dennis) took things a step further.

In both a press release and a letter sent to President Joe Biden, Van Drew said that the drones present a major national security risk, speculating that they may have originated from Iran. Given the threat they pose, Van Drew said, the appropriate action for the United States to take is to begin shooting the drones down and place flight restrictions on the airspace over New Jersey.

“The time to act on this information is now before the threat escalates any further,” Van Drew said in his statement. “We should have already taken action by imposing flight restrictions to regain our control. Whether this is a foreign adversary or even just a group of drone hobbyists, we cannot allow unidentified drones to operate freely in our airspace with no consequences and it is time we eliminate the threat they pose and shoot them down.”

Van Drew’s contention that the drones may have been sent by Iran, he said in a Fox News interview this morning, comes from “very high sources, very qualified sources” working with the information they have available.

“There are several pieces of circumstantial evidence that Iran is [responsible],” Van Drew said in his letter to Biden. “First, the Coast Guard has observed drones coming into New Jersey from the Atlantic Ocean. Second, we have information that a sea-based Iranian drone mothership is currently missing from port, and that its embarkation timeline would align with the appearances of the New Jersey drones. We know that Iran has both the motive and the capability to execute such an operation.”

“While I remain open to alternate explanations, I have not been presented a single credible, cohesive narrative except for that Iran is controlling these drones from offshore,” he added.

But the Department of Defense is pushing back on that explanation, per the Wall Street Journal, with Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh saying that her department’s initial assessment is that the drones are not coming from a foreign adversary.

“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,” Singh said.

The mystery of the hundreds of drone sightings that have been reported since mid-November is one that has perplexed both New Jersey residents and their elected representatives. Top leaders have said the drones present no immediate threat, but given their proximity to key strategic locations like the Picatinny Arsenal in Morris County and the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, where the president-elect spends much of his time, the flights may have important national security implications.

“We don’t see any concern to public safety,” Murphy told reporters earlier this week, saying that he’s been in contact with the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI, and the Secret Service. “Having said that, it’s really frustrating that we don’t have more answers as to where they’re coming from and why they’re doing what they’re doing.”

In a congressional hearing yesterday, FBI official Robert Wheeler similarly admitted that his agency has yet to determine what the drones are or what their purpose is.

“The bureau is actively investigating the unexplained sighting of drone activity over that part of New Jersey, including proximity to sensitive sites and areas of concern,” Wheeler said during the hearing, per NorthJersey.com. “We do not attribute that to an individual or group yet. I don’t have an answer of who’s responsible, one or more people that are responsible, but we’re actively investigating.”

But a number of New Jersey elected officials, particularly Republicans, are calling for more decisive action. State Sen. Jon Bramnick (R-Westfield), a 2025 gubernatorial candidate, has called for Murphy to declare a limited state of emergency until the nature of the drones can be determined; a set of 21 mayors in Morris County have also sent a letter to Murphy demanding that more be done.

And Van Drew’s fellow congressman, Rep. Chris Smith (R-Manchester), has similarly said that bringing down the drones by force may be the best option in light of the lack of answers.

“Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst (JBMDL) [a major military base in Burlington and Ocean Counties] possess capabilities to identify and take down unauthorized unmanned aerial systems (UAS) and have utilized this capability to address overflights of the installation,” Smith said in a statement yesterday. “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.”

This story was updated at 2:20 p.m. with the Department of Defense’s contention that the drones are likely not coming from a foreign adversary.