New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy warned Thursday that the staggering inflow of drone sightings over the Backyard State the previous few weeks — although innocent — is a “wake-up call” to the nation’s vulnerability to potential international drone assaults.
“Now we can say this based on the most sophisticated drone detection systems on the planet that started to arrive in New Jersey last Friday and Saturday, there is no public threat here, period. I could say that unequivocally,” Murphy mentioned on Information 12 New Jersey’s “Ask Gov. Murphy” program.
However that doesn’t imply Jersey or the nation as an entire just isn’t in danger, he added.
“The part that should worry really out there is the vulnerability that we as a nation have to drone incursions,” Murphy mentioned. “It’s a big issue.”
The Democrat mentioned the drone exercise is “a benign wake-up call” to the US’s vulnerability to international forces — in contrast to, by comparability, the 9/11 terror assaults’ “tragic wake-up call.”
“Thank God nobody’s gotten hurt here, nobody’s gotten injured. Nobody’s — thank God — passed,” Murphy mentioned.
“But we as a nation are vulnerable. We must address that,” he implored. “We must address it sooner than later, and New Jersey’s not immune.”
So far as the present drones swirling above the skies of the Backyard State, Murphy pointed to “the thousands, if not tens of thousands of drones that are up in the air every day.”
The gadgets are a mix of economic, regulation enforcement, army and hobbyist plane, he mentioned.
However a few of the flying gadgets objects are nonetheless a thriller.
“A month ago, there may have been suspicious activity,” Murphy mentioned through the broadcast. “We did not have those sophisticated [detection] systems that we now have had for the past week … We probably will never know.”
Within the meantime, the Federal Aviation Administration has banned drone operations from now by means of Jan. 17 over particular components of New Jersey.
Since drones first popped up in Jersey skies on Nov. 18, the FBI has obtained over 5,000 recommendations on sightings within the tri-state space, in accordance with an announcement launched on Monday by the Division of Homeland Safety, the FBI, the FAA and the Division of Protection.
