Our Muscle-Bound, Stiff U.S. Air Force Has Been Bested by Drones
A report from Global News, by way of The Wall Street Journal, has some surprising information. "Top security officials in the U.S. remain stumped after an unknown fleet of drones breached restricted military airspace for 17 straight days last December.
" . . . military personnel reported witnessing the mysterious fleet over a stretch of land at Langley Air Force Base along Virginia’s shore. The drones would appear in the sky about 45 minutes to an hour after sunset each night.
" . . . with officials at the Pentagon suspecting they might have been deployed by Chinese or Russian agents to spy on the American military."
Fox added some detail to the account of the incursion, "The drones would start to arrive about 45 minutes to an hour after sunset each night, one official reportedly told US Air Force Gen. Mark Kelly, who joined several other officers responsible for the country's most advanced jet fighters, including F-22 Raptors, on a squadron rooftop.
"Kelly described the first drone he saw as roughly 20 feet long and flying at more than 100 miles an hour, at an altitude of roughly 3,000 to 4,000 feet.
"As many as a dozen or more drones followed, flying across Chesapeake Bay, and then traveling toward Norfolk, Virginia, and through a space overlooking the base for the Navy’s SEAL Team Six and Naval Station Norfolk, the world’s largest naval port, according to the Journal."
This hardly sounds like Dad and Junior exploring the wonders of flight from their backyard.
And what was the response from our $170 billion per year Air Force?
- Did they open up with anti-aircraft batteries and blast the drones out of the sky?
- Scramble a squadron of F–22s to escort the drones into the same grave occupied by the Japanese Imperial Air Force?
- Or launch a Piper Cub with a shotgun riding shotgun to see how the drone fleet would deal with 00 buck?
In a word, no.
While the drone fleet proceeded unmolested, taking photographs and gathering intelligence, we’re wondering if ground personnel waved at the unknown aircraft to show how harmless they were.
Meanwhile, instead of using the F-22s at the base to eliminate the drone threat, the courageous commander moved his jets to another base and hoped the drones wouldn’t follow.
If we were Chinese or Russian military planners, we’d be laughing uncontrollably right about now.
In fairness, we'll have to admit while the drone fleet was violating the airspace of a U.S. Air Force base with impunity, the Pentagon did call a meeting.
A meeting that lasted two weeks, almost as long as the spying mission.
Going by the news coverage, the table at the meeting must have been long enough to land a drone. There were apparatchiks from the White House, Pentagon, FBI, the UFO Office and "outside experts."
We’re surprised the Chinese ambassador wasn’t invited.
Now the drones and any chance of discovering who sent them and why are long gone. Leaving our hidebound, bureaucratically constipated and risk-averse military to wonder why it all happened and was it their fault?
There is an aphorism that claims a liberal is someone who won’t take his own side in a fight. Now we learn it also applies to our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)-infected Air Force.
Michael Reagan, the eldest son of President Reagan, is a Newsmax TV analyst. A syndicated columnist and author, he chairs The Reagan Legacy Foundation. Mr. Reagan is an in-demand speaker with Premiere Speaker's Bureau. Read Michael Reagan's Reports — More Here.
Michael R. Shannon is a commentator, researcher for the League of American Voters, and an award-winning political and advertising consultant with nationwide and international experience. He is author of "Conservative Christian's Guidebook for Living in Secular Times (Now With Added Humor!)" Read Michael Shannon's Reports — More Here.