- The Pentagon denied the claim that drones hovering over New Jersey were from an Iranian mothership.
- Rep. Jeff Van Drew made the claim to Fox News on Wednesday, citing “very qualified” sources.
- Federal, state, and local officials have been probing unexplained drone activity over the state.
The mysterious drones spotted hovering over New Jersey did not come from an “Iranian mothership,” according to the Pentagon.
The statement was issued after dozens of drones were spotted across sensitive military locations across New Jersey.
Drones have also been seen over President-elect Donald Trump’s New Jersey golf course.
Republican Rep. Jeff Van Drew told Fox News on Wednesday that “very qualified” and “reliable” sources had indicated they came from an “Iranian mothership” in the Atlantic.
“They’ve launched drones into everything that we can see or hear,” Van Drew said, adding that the drones should be “shot down.”
Van Drew sits on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and the Aviation Subcommittee.
However, at a press briefing on Wednesday, Sabrina Singh, the Pentagon’s deputy press secretary, said: “There is not any truth to that.”
“There is no Iranian ship off the coast of the United States, and there’s no so-called mothership launching drones toward the United States,” she said, adding that at this time, there is no evidence that these activities are coming from a “foreign entity or the work of an adversary.”
The state police said on November 19 that officers had witnessed “drone activity” the night before over Morris County after rumors were “spreading on social media.”
The officers’ sightings prompted the FBI to open an investigation and the Federal Aviation Administration to impose flight restrictions.
Last week, Phil Murphy, governor of New Jersey, said he convened a briefing with Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and senior officials from the DHS, the state’s Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness, and the state’s police to discuss reported drone activity.
On Monday, he told reporters they didn’t have answers about where the drones were coming from or what they were doing but that he took the sightings “deadly seriously.”
He said that 49 drone sightings were reported on Sunday alone, but the DHS, the FBI, the Secret Service, the state police, and authorities at all levels of government didn’t have any concerns for public safety.
However, on Wednesday, Assemblywoman Dawn Fantasia dismissed the claim that there is no known or credible threat as “incredibly misleading.”
In an X post, Fantasia described the drones as six feet large in diameter, operating in a coordinated manner, with lights turned off, appearing to avoid detection by traditional methods, and not identified as hobbyist drones or related to DHS.
“At this point, I believe military intervention is the only path forward,” she said, adding: “There will be no answers in the absence of proactivity.”
More than 20 mayors across New Jersey signed a letter on Monday calling for “transparency” about the investigations.
“Either higher-level officials know what’s going on and are not concerned, or they are negligent for not apprehending and identifying one of these drones,” they wrote, per reports.
The FAA told BI that it continues to support interagency partners to assess the situation and the reported sightings.
The FBI, the New Jersey State Police, and the Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness didn’t immediately respond to requests for comments from Business Insider.
