Nation states, human/narco traffickers, or criminal-acting crazy people. 0.001% it was a stupid amateur. Either way, the source wasn't good. The prescription isn't more regulation but better defenses and integration of on-the-ground civ&mil police work.
The article is misleading or misinformed. There are numerous cheap consumer drones that can go miles high. The hardware is more than capable of it - it's just the firmware that's crippled, but it can be modded. You can also just make them quite easily. Here's [1] a video of a guy with a homemade drone that hit a height > 40k feet, along with links to buy the exact parts. It's almost certainly just people trolling, because it's somewhat predictably turning into the Great Balloon War of 2023, part 2.
Would a nation state be brazen enough to risk a state of war with the US over this?
But on the other hand, if an adversary was brazen enough to try that, would the US admit it and therefore effectively admit it has something close to zero control over its own airspace when it comes to drones? Maybe that's what this theoretical adversary is banking on.
It’s trivial to build your own with some basic soldering skills. I’m curious to see how this shakes down over the coming decades.
I built some non-compliant (also non-autonomous) 450g drones before the 250g weight limit. They’re only for acrobatics at treetop level or below. It’s kind of silly IMO that this style is required to have a transponder now. This is speaking as someone who flies planes.
For the store bought ones that require no forethought - I am glad those are regulated.