Multiple Destroyers Were Swarmed By Mysterious 'Drones' Off California Over Numerous Nights

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Winston

Lorenzo von Matterhorn
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My guess is either an adversary or, much more likely in my opinion, a friendly, black world Red Team like one that may have also been involved in the 2020 drone sightings mostly in rural areas of eastern Colorado and adjacent areas of Nebraska and Kansas, those drones having the characteristics of military and expensive commercial drones under review by the US Army and other government agencies. If you look in US military news, the use of drone swarms is a near term thing.

Multiple Destroyers Were Swarmed By Mysterious 'Drones' Off California Over Numerous Nights
The disturbing series of events during the summer of 2019 resulted in an investigation that made its way to the highest echelons of the Navy.
23 Mar 2021

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zo...us-drones-off-california-over-numerous-nights
In July of 2019, a truly bizarre series of events unfolded around California’s Channel Islands. Over a number of days, groups of unidentified aircraft, which the U.S. Navy simply refers to as ‘drones’ or 'UAVs,' pursued that service's vessels, prompting a high-level investigation.

During the evening encounters, as many as six aircraft were reported swarming around the ships at once. The drones were described as flying for prolonged periods in low-visibility conditions, and performing brazen maneuvers over the Navy warships near a sensitive military training range less than 100 miles off Los Angeles. The ensuing investigation included elements of the Navy, Coast Guard, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The incidents received major attention, including from the Chief of Naval Operations—the apex of the Navy's chain of command.

The following is our own investigation into these events, during which we discovered these events were far more extensive in scale than previously understood.

[snip]

New documents significantly expand the public's knowledge of the scope and severity of that incident and reveal others that occurred around the same time. These details come largely from our Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, which resulted in the disclosure of deck logs from the ships involved. Additionally, our investigation utilized hundreds of gigabytes of automatic identification system (AIS) ship location data to forensically reconstruct the position of both military and civilian ships in the area during this strange series of events.

[big snip]

The log reflects that the drone managed to match the destroyer's speed with the craft moving at 16 knots in order to maintain a hovering position over the ship’s helicopter landing pad. To further complicate what was already a complex maneuver, the drone was operating in low visibility conditions (less than a nautical mile) and at night.

By this point, the encounter had lasted over 90 minutes—significantly longer than what commercially available drones can typically sustain.
 
I think that the fact that there wasn't an attempt to shoot them down means to me that they weren't what we think of as a drone, something with rotors or propellers. Possibly more like the flying Tic-Tac or flying suitcase that the Navy pilots saw a couple of years ago. Considering the use of armed or explosive laden quad copters being used around the world you would think that the ships would try to knock them down. Unless they knew they couldn't.
 
I just read an article on Microsoft News that said the sailors described them as flying Tic-Tacs. I wonder if other countries ships are being visited. I hope these are probes because I have a hard time visualizing inch tall ET's
 
Not worth the price of the missile, but time for target practice.
 
By virtue of the fact that no rounds were expended, the man in command knew who they were and didn't feel particularly threatened. Probably the same federal band of merry pranksters that were responsible for the flights in CO.

Jim
 
I was in the Navy in 1974, on a destroyer, and one night off the coast of Catalina we were going through some maneuvers. I was standing on the fantail and noticed something that seemed to be moving submerged in our wake, and when the ship reversed its engines, the wake became a phosphorescent cauldron of churned up water, when suddenly something very large dashed off to one side. It left a wake of its own, but I never got sight of what it was. I always thought it was a large shark following the ship waiting for garbage to be dumped, but maybe it was a USO . . . meaning a craft of some sort.
 
After just reading the post on AI pilots, and another article what has made it to the public under military developement (because they had no use for it and didn't patient it, the engineers took it with them when they left and sold it. Items like silly putty from trying to develop synthetic rubber, and slinkies to stabilize equipment as sea on ships) and the fact they invaded military air space and made no contact and was not shot down: It's all part of Military R&D, and at a level of security 99% of the sailors are not cleared to be clued in on.
Drones are a huge part of Military R&D these days, and I'm sure it's all top security level.

Oh, and Loved the Battleship Movie! Especially the German Grenade looking things flung at the ships. Surprising how such a blunt ended object could penetrate steel armor, and then go deeper before exploding!
 
That particular class of warship has very little deck armor but that's neither here nor there. Those things were a throw back to the pegs used in the Hasbro and Milton Bradely board games to represent hits on your opponents ships.
 
That particular class of warship has very little deck armor but that's neither here nor there. Those things were a throw back to the pegs used in the Hasbro and Milton Bradely board games to represent hits on your opponents ships.

The Battle Ship Game
Dad and I use to love playing that game. That and Cribbage was his favorite.
I miss my Dad!
 
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/201...o-q-and-a-with-navy-pilot-chad-underwood.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentagon_UFO_videos

https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/research/a30538203/navy-ufo-video-investigation/



I think one needs to be splashed and collected to see who is making them. On a side note I found a statement by the Navy about submarine launched UAV's being a high priority for the USN and others. Given the location and range the prank idea is a little far out.

Cheers / Robert
 
Did they ever figure out who was behind the repeated drone overflights in... Colorado maybe? All official channels denied involvement, but the drones kept coming back.
Nope. Here's the thread I started on that which became lengthy. Many of the reported characteristics matched drones being evaluated at that time by our military.

A Big And Bizarre Drone Mystery Is Unfolding In Rural Colorado

https://www.rocketryforum.com/threa...ystery-is-unfolding-in-rural-colorado.156722/
In that thread, I posted the latest investigative info in this post:

https://www.rocketryforum.com/threa...-in-rural-colorado.156722/page-5#post-2022560
 
I wonder if the "electronic countermeasures" on the ship could used to "jam" the signals to the Drones ?

Dave F.
Yes, there are a whole bunch of different "jammer rifle" models available and I saw somewhere that Navy ships were to get some. However, those are intended for hobby drones modified for destructive use and the characteristics of the aircraft seen in these cases indicates they are military types which, I'd hope, would have more jam-resistant control links. However, GPS and AI to interpret live video from a camera on the aircraft would allow it to find and follow/hover over or even land on a Navy ship and in that case no jamming would be possible.
 
A 50 cal BMG would do the trick but if a bullseye wouldn't leave much : ) Phalanx would leave "nothing"
SAW? M-16? 12GA? Would be range dependent.

Occam's Razor - fewest assumptions to explain and create a hypothesis.
1.) They are drones - ID'd as such by ships
2.) "Theirs" - agree with prev post, probably not. The above measures would have been taken especially near the states.
3.) "Ours" - likely yes. If you read the PM articles I posted there is a note about sub launched UAV capability being "sought" by everyone. No splash of drones makes it likely.
 
Birdshot.
For the modified hobby drones, absolutely. And in many of areas where they may be a threat, downrange impacts of rounds that don't meet the target apparently aren't of great concern. Note that a percentage of these rounds won't self-destruct and even an inert round can cause major damage:

C-RAM Weapon System



In Baghdad:

 
For the modified hobby drones, absolutely. And in many of areas where they may be a threat, downrange impacts of rounds that don't meet the target apparently aren't of great concern. Note that a percentage of these rounds won't self-destruct and even an inert round can cause major damage:

C-RAM Weapon System



In Baghdad:



Of course, the message in Baghdad should be, "Don't like the unintentional downrange damage? Then turn in the scumbags shooting at us."
 
Given that the Kidd class destroyers have no less than 6 different kinds of radar on board, I predict that some of them would have an effect on the drones, unless they are really EMP hardened.
 
My guess is either an adversary or, much more likely in my opinion, a friendly, black world Red Team like one that may have also been involved in the 2020 drone sightings mostly in rural areas of eastern Colorado and adjacent areas of Nebraska and Kansas, those drones having the characteristics of military and expensive commercial drones under review by the US Army and other government agencies. If you look in US military news, the use of drone swarms is a near term thing.

Multiple Destroyers Were Swarmed By Mysterious 'Drones' Off California Over Numerous Nights
The disturbing series of events during the summer of 2019 resulted in an investigation that made its way to the highest echelons of the Navy.
23 Mar 2021

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zo...us-drones-off-california-over-numerous-nights
In July of 2019, a truly bizarre series of events unfolded around California’s Channel Islands. Over a number of days, groups of unidentified aircraft, which the U.S. Navy simply refers to as ‘drones’ or 'UAVs,' pursued that service's vessels, prompting a high-level investigation.

During the evening encounters, as many as six aircraft were reported swarming around the ships at once. The drones were described as flying for prolonged periods in low-visibility conditions, and performing brazen maneuvers over the Navy warships near a sensitive military training range less than 100 miles off Los Angeles. The ensuing investigation included elements of the Navy, Coast Guard, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The incidents received major attention, including from the Chief of Naval Operations—the apex of the Navy's chain of command.

The following is our own investigation into these events, during which we discovered these events were far more extensive in scale than previously understood.

[snip]

New documents significantly expand the public's knowledge of the scope and severity of that incident and reveal others that occurred around the same time. These details come largely from our Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, which resulted in the disclosure of deck logs from the ships involved. Additionally, our investigation utilized hundreds of gigabytes of automatic identification system (AIS) ship location data to forensically reconstruct the position of both military and civilian ships in the area during this strange series of events.

[big snip]

The log reflects that the drone managed to match the destroyer's speed with the craft moving at 16 knots in order to maintain a hovering position over the ship’s helicopter landing pad. To further complicate what was already a complex maneuver, the drone was operating in low visibility conditions (less than a nautical mile) and at night.

By this point, the encounter had lasted over 90 minutes—significantly longer than what commercially available drones can typically sustain.
Can it be confirmed that the destroyers involved were carrying nuclear munitions?
 
Can it be confirmed that the destroyers involved were carrying nuclear munitions?
The USN has retired all tactical nuclear weapons, leaving only SLBMs on submarines.

IIRC, the Navy had previously a policy of never confirming the presence or absence of nukes, which lead to Navy ships staying outside of ports of even friendly and allied countries. Some of those countries would have required assurances that no nuclear weapons entered their ports or waters.

Reinhard
 
Officially "unidentified" as has been every black world U.S. military aircraft operation in history. "Oh, I'm sorry, I don't know what that is" either because I'm not "read into" the program and really don't know or, if I am, I play Sergeant Schultz:

Navy's Top Officer Says ‘Drones’ That Swarmed Destroyers Remain Unidentified
A series of bizarre events off Southern California in 2019 remain unexplained according to the Chief of Naval Operations. - APRIL 5, 2021

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zo...s-that-swarmed-destroyers-remain-unidentified
At a roundtable with reporters today, Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Michael Gilday, the U.S. Navy's top officer, was asked about a series of bizarre incidents that took place in July 2019 and involved what only have been described as 'drones' swarming American destroyers off the coast of Southern California. The War Zone was the first to report in detail on this series of mysterious events after the incident was originally uncovered by filmmaker Dave Beaty.

Asked by Jeff Schogol of Task & Purpose if the Navy had positively identified any of the aircraft involved, Gilday responded by saying:

“No, we have not. I am aware of those sightings and as it’s been reported there have been other sightings by aviators in the air and by other ships not only of the United States, but other nations – and of course other elements within the U.S. joint force.”
 
My younger brother was stationed on the DD-963 USS Spruance (as well as a few others during his service)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Spruance_(DD-963)
While on maneuvers off the coast of Florida, they fired the 5" guns at "tomatoes" (targets) and my brother snagged a few of the shell casings as they hit the deck and started to roll off into the ocean. I now have 2 flower planters next to my front door that are 5" wide but 3' tall. This from a ship that was decommissioned over 15 years ago because it was old and outdated. If these drones were any kind of threat, they would cease to exist. From 5" guns down to the 20mm in a Phalanx CIWS, they'd be turned into very small bits of floating garbage. If the CIWS can track and shoot down an incoming mortar round, a drone would be a walk in the park.
 
I would bet my last dollar that they have been told not to fire on the UAP's unless the ship is in danger for fear of pissing them off.
I'm not a gambler - although I have played backgammon for money - but I too would make that same bet as you. IMHO, it is a standing policy learned from hard experience going back decades.

On the other hand, incursions of ordinary drones into front line military bases all over the world reveal the US is totally defenseless against even the most humble of drones.
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zo...er-guams-thaad-anti-ballistic-missile-battery
 
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