[throwawaycities]

Almost no chance these are not US military.

The drones have been appearing very consistently, if there were the slightest concern of foreign military drones, then military jets would have been scrambled to intercept - there have been no such reports.

[kjkjadksj]

I saw a video of some pentagon rep commenting on these sightings over military bases. They basically said ‘we say we don’t know because any old joe shmoe can fly a drone suddenly next to a military base and have it enter restricted space and in that moment no one knows what it is.’ Then they went on to mention how if they respond with force e.g. shooting down a drone like this there is risk of where missed bullets land. And if it turns out to be some kids air hogs plane that blew into a base then that’s a really sorry excuse for using ordinance. So they are taking a position that there is no threat and no response needed until there is indeed a threatening action. And just flying around is not deemed as that.

[binary132]

Military jets scrambled to intercept a bunch of random UAVs? Do you know how expensive those things are to operate?

[throwawaycities]

Yes, that is the protocol when aircraft enter restricted airspace like next to military bases - which has been reported.

Besides training, intercepting aircraft is primarily what jets do. In terms of cost, it’s a lot less expensive to scramble jets than the alternative, that’s why that is the protocol for a number of situations including things as mundane as aircraft losing communications.

Here there has been significant reporting, so it would be a national security risk and national embarrassment for the Country if the military was unable to demonstrate air superiority when our territorial sovereignty is violated by drones.

Unless you’re familiar with different FAA and NORAD protocols than I am, which it doesn’t seem like you are, the most likely explanation is they are military craft and exercises.

[kjkjadksj]

Picture this. You fly a kite in a park near a military base. Your kite blows over the fence. It is now an unidentified flying object over a military base. Now do you as base commander order jets to be scrambled to respond what could literally be a scrap of trash or some teenager with a dji drone? It is a different situation entirely compared to an actual airplane.

[throwawaycities]

No need to picture a cute hypothetical set of facts that are dissimilar to that actual set of facts.

These are serious military protocols not a academic exercise in a vacuum.

Unauthorized flying of even dji drones near and over military bases is illegal and people get arrested for it. In fact a Chinese citizen was just arrested yesterday for flying a drone over a Space Force base.

Based on reports and video evidence the drones being observed are not common dji drones (certainly not a kite blown over the fence), reports are these are 6-10ft and don’t have any radio frequency. Otherwise they are being reported as specifically going to/coming from military bases.

And though I don’t think it is credible, at least one Congressman is publicly stating these are Iranian military drones being launched from Iranian submarines.

Just seems to me “scrambling jets” seems like something out of a movie to people unfamiliar, but it’s an daily occurrence.

[ricardobeat]

And what's the purpose of putting jets in the air, that stall around 200km/h, to "intercept" stationary objects?

[throwawaycities]

Protocol

[abenga]

Airforces do a lot of ceremonial flyover stuff just to train and keep pilots' hours up. I doubt flying to deal with drones, even just for training, is a big lift.