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(NewsNation) — The House Oversight Committee met Tuesday afternoon to discuss a spree of unauthorized drone activity over U.S. military sites.
Lamakers pressed Department of Defense and Federal Aviation Administration officials on the drones and the response to them.
The hearing comes months after the White House said a spree of mysterious drones spotted over New Jersey at the end of last year were not “the work of an adversary.”
Lawmakers are slated to continue questioning the drone sightings and their place in national security.
The House Subcommittee on Military and Foreign Affairs has said UAP sightings above military bases have increased and that U.S. military sites are being exposed to surveillance, espionage and potential weaponization.
Subcommittee chair Rep. William Timmons, R-S.C., said “U.S. agencies’ confusion over who is responsible for countering increased drone activity severely hinders our military’s ability to respond to threats in real time.”
The sightings in New Jersey prompted serious concern from residents for weeks. Some of the sightings were reported over two military installations, according to the DOD, though a spokesperson for the department’s joint staff called the reports “typical.”
A top officer with U.S. Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command told the Senate Armed Services Committee in February that 350 unmanned aircraft systems were reported last year over 100 different military installations.
“The primary threat I see for them in the way they’ve been operating is detection and perhaps surveillance of sensitive capabilities on our installations,” U.S. Air Force Gen. Gregory M. Guillot said in February.