With each new report of an unidentified flying object, it feels like we’re getting closer to the U.S. government finally confirming that aliens are, in fact, real. And the newest unexplained sighting is only adding fuel to that fire, as the Wall Street Journal reported that Senior U.S. Defense officials are “stumped” by a legion of mysterious aircraft that were seen monitoring a U.S. military base for over two weeks last year.


According to the report, officials began noticing these literal UFOs in December flying over Langley Air Force Base near Virginia. When these sightings went on for several days, “the Defense Department, Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Pentagon’s UFO office joined outside experts to throw out possible explanations as well as ideas about how to respond.”



Basically, nobody had any clue where these things were coming from or who sent them, with experts working to figure out if the flying contraptions “belonged to clever hobbyists or hostile forces.” Almost a year later, officials appear to be no closer to a clear answer.


Normally, this type of thing would be the perfect set of circumstances to suggest that we are not alone and that the extraterrestrials have finally arrived to either save us or eat us. But sadly, this doesn’t seem to be aliens. Or at least, it’s unlikely.


It seems that these flying objects are drones, which would suggest that they originate from Earth instead of a galaxy far, far away. Even the r/UFOs subreddit says this is almost certainly not proof of aliens scouting out our planet for their eventual invasion. Bummer.


However, regardless of whether these drones are from space or not, the real takeaway here is how badly the government has handled identifying where the hell these things came from and what to do about them.

Per the report, after local police officers failed to track the drones, suggestions from experts included a “full menu of electronic eavesdropping and spycraft,” shooting a net into the air to capture them and using electronic signals to jam their navigation systems. Unsurprisingly, these Wile E. Coyote-inspired ideas were rejected.


So with no clear plan, the only course of action was to wait. U.S. Navy and Coast Guard ships were called in to keep a watch out for the drones “with little luck.” And finally, after 17 days of appearances, the drones showed up for the final time on December 23rd, with officials knowing as much about them as they did when they first arrived.


In January, authorities briefly believed they cracked the case after discovering that Fengyun Shi, a Chinese college student, had been witnessed flying a drone near Langley around the time of the mysterious drone sightings, as well as the FBI finding he had taken photos of Navy vessels in dry dock. Shi was arrested and charged with unlawfully taking photos of classified naval installations, which landed him a year in federal prison.


Case closed, right?


Not really. Shi insists that he wasn’t aware that taking drone photos of military bases was a crime, and so far, authorities have been unable to find any tangible connection to Shi and the Chinese government. For now, there doesn’t seem to be any real lead when it comes to who was flying the drones and what they were after.


The fact that this can so openly happen for so long is troubling, and it only gets worse when you realize that this is hardly the first time flying things have shown up in the sky around military bases while the U.S. government did basically nothing about. It was recently confirmed that drones were discovered around Edwards Air Force Base in Southern California. And in October 2023, five drones of unknown origins were seen flying near the Energy Department’s Nevada National Security Site.


“Two months earlier, in October 2023, five drones flew over a government site used for nuclear weapons experiments,” the report stated. “The Energy Department’s Nevada National Security Site outside Las Vegas detected four of the drones over three days. Employees spotted a fifth. U.S. officials said they didn’t know who operated the drones in Nevada, a previously unreported incursion, or for what reason.”


And to top it all off, the drones have apparently returned to Langley, at least according to a not-at-all-official video shared on r/UFOs that shows yet another flying object near the military base that was allegedly taken last night. “Just outside of Langley AFB tonight. Watched it slowly rise and reach this formation where it stayed for 2 hours stable except for one rapid movement in 20 mph winds,” the caption read. “Lights were flashing erratically and some changed color. Go out and look over Plum Tree Island NWR if you are in that area — could still be there.”


Prolonged sighting outside Langley AFB over Chesapeake Bay
byu/Proper_Aspect7933 inUFOs


So, to recap: Drones are popping up all over the United States to seemingly observe military bases and the government has shown absolutely zero ability to properly track them or have any real sense of who is really behind them. Not exactly what you want to hear from a country spending approximately one gazillion dollars on military spending.