NJ lawmakers want drone shot down, inspected by feds

A New Jersey lawmaker want a drone — and he wants one now.Republic Congressman Chris Smith is demanding The Pentagon shoot down one of the nearly 1,000 drones that have been spotted above the Garden State since Nov.

19, so answers can be had.“Why can’t we bag at least one drone and get to the bottom of this?” Smith asked during a Saturday news conference in Seaside Heights.“Why can’t we even track a suspect drone to its origin? Have we so little control over our airspace?”Smith echoed sentiments already expressed by President-elect Donald Trump, who also wants one of the drones taken out.The drone sightings have been disturbing New Jersey and New York residents for weeks.

Federal officials still can’t say what they are or where they’re from, but recently speculated people on the ground are misidentifying helicopters and small airplanes.“How does Secretary [Alejandro] Mayorkas, who infamously told us for years that our southern border was secure and closed — when it was and is not — now insult our intelligence that ‘we haven’t seen anything unusual? ‘This is usual?” Smith sneered.Smith slammed federal officials for dismissing the sightings as no threat to civilians.“How can anyone speculate or issue assurances to the thousands of Americans who have witnessed the drones that there is no threat?” Smith asked.In addition to civilians, a police officer and a ship full of Coast Guard members have reported seeing swarms of drones flying in from the Atlantic Ocean.“The elusive maneuvering of these drones suggests a major military power sophistication that begs the question whether they have been deployed to test our defense capabilities — or worse — by violent dictatorships including Russia, China, Iran, or North Korea,” Smith said.The Pentagon has denied it is deploying the drones.“I’ve written Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin asking the Pentagon to authorize the use of force to down one or more of these unmanned threats to u...