By New York Post (U.S.) | Created at 2024-12-12 23:45:44 | Updated at 2024-12-23 17:00:48
1 week ago
A US military installation in New Jersey — one of the sites where mystery drone sightings have been reported — has been helping develop robotic drones which can counter weapons of mass destruction, The Post has learned.
The US Army’s Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center, located at the Picatinny Arsenal in Morris County, awarded a Maryland company a $50 million contract in 2018 to develop robotic drones.
The drones can produce three dimensional maps of urban areas and engage in surveillance to counter WMDs, according to a press release from the US Army.
However, a spokesman for the Picatinny Arsenal said the military installation has nothing to do with the recent drone activity over the state — which has resulted in over 3,000 reports made to the FBI since the beginning of the month and has many local residents on edge.
“While the source and cause of these aircraft operating in our area remain unknown, we can confirm that they are not the result of any Picatinny Arsenal-related activities,” said Lt. Col Craig Bonham II in a news release earlier this week.
As a highly secure facility which develops and tests new bombs, guns, ammunition and warfare devices for all branches of the military, it is a target for espionage by foreign adversaries.
The facility itself has recorded 17 confirmed and uncomfirmed sightings of drones over its territory since November 13, which was one of the earliest sightings over the state, according to Bonham.
A “confirmed” sighting is one verified by security personal at the military installation while an “unconfirmed” sighting relates to those reported by others, including local residents.
Do you have footage of drones over the skies of New Jersey or New York? Send it to The Post at drones@nypost.com.
The military installation, a bucolic 6,400 acre campus in the northern part of New Jersey, was established in 1880 and produced gunpowder until just after World War I.
The facility later focused on research and development of munitions and ammunition. The Picatinny Arsenal’s engineers have developed warheads, cannons, mortars, howitzers, precision-guided munitions and different calibers of ammunition such as high explosive anti-tank rounds, armor piercing rounds, and anti-personnel rounds, according to the Picatinny Enhancement Coalition.
Overall the aresnal supplies 90 percent of the Army’s “lethality” and all conventional ammunition and the site employs 4,500 people, according to the site.
Nighttime drone activity has unnerved some New Jersey residents over the last month with lawmakers demanding answers from the Pentagon, which has denied that the drones have been coming from enemy countries.
“They don’t know what it is,” said Republican NJ Rep. Jeff Van Drew Thursday. “They don’t know what it’s about. They haven’t taken one down to analyze it. They have no idea where it came from.”
Oak Ridge, New Jersey, resident Phil Doyle claimed he sees more than 30 drones per night over his house, which he claimed he sees coming from the direction of the military installation.
“It’s not two or three a night, it’s 30 or 50 a night. They have lights on them so you can see them,” he told NBC.
Robotic Research, the limited liability company that is developing the anti-WMD drones did not return The Post’s request for comment Thursday, but said that it was working with the US Army on the project in a 2018 press release.
“It is a great honour to expand our work for the US Army, the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), and the Special Forces community on the family-of-systems for autonomous collaborative robotic teaming in support of challenging subterranean missions,” said Robotic Research president Alberto Lacaze when the contract was awarded.
“The Robotic Research team shares the army leadership’s commitment to rapidly fielding effective autonomous counter-WMD solutions for our nation’s warfighters.”
