(NewsNation) — FAA documents from recent years confirm U.S. Air Force pilots have reported numerous encounters with strange flying objects, sometimes in swarms, in their Arizona training ranges.
One even reportedly struck the canopy of an F-16 Viper, damaging the multimillion-dollar craft.
Famed former Pentagon UAP investigator Luis Elizondo, who testified to Congress on these matters, says he’s heard about the encounters.
“What I can tell you is that there has been a lot of activity, a lot of people reporting a lot of things out of Arizona, particularly on the border,” Elizondo told NewsNation.
Cartels using drones to smuggle drugs, conduct reconnaissance
NewsNation’s border reporter, Ali Bradley, has intel regarding flying objects on the border: drones used by cartels to smuggle drugs or conduct reconnaissance.
“Now we’re seeing drones … used as scouting patrols, to watch Border Patrol,” Bradley explained.
For the past decade, the cartel has used drones to help move up to 10 kilograms of drugs at a time, but the technology in French and Russian agricultural drones currently being used makes them hard to track.
“The technology they are using, we are not able to intercept like we did with the Chinese drones,” Bradley told Coulthart.
So could these be the answer to activity in the Arizona skies?
“The cartel wants intel on the United States,” Bradley said. “That’s their MO. That is their No. 1 priority: to always be one step ahead of us. … So what better place to do that than to infiltrate our military installations in some capacity.”
Mystery drones in New Jersey
In late 2024, mystery drones were being reported all over New Jersey for weeks. When officials started investigating, things only got more concerning.
“They don’t know where the drones are coming from, they don’t know who’s doing it,” state lawmaker Brian Bergen said at the time. “But they say there is no credible threat.”
The military has admitted that it can’t typically detect or down these objects. NewsNation’s Rich McHugh even saw these drones when reporting on the incidents.
“Definitely not an airplane, but what was it?” McHugh said.