Drones spotted near at least 17 military bases located next to Chinese-owned land in US
At least 17 military bases adjacent to Chinese-owned farmland across the US have experienced a rash of drone sightings in recent weeks, The Post has learned.Mysterious drones have been reported near military bases in Hawaii and by installations in Utah, California, Maine and Florida — among other facilities scattered throughout the country.The Post previously identified 19 military bases that lie in close proximity to farmland bought up by Chinese-owned companies — a situation that has worried China analysts, who feared the Communist country would use the land to spy on US military operations.
All of those facilities apart from Grand Forks Air Force Base in North Dakota and Joint Base San Antonio-Camp Bullis in Texas had reports of drones either attempting to fly over their bases or nearby, according to local reports.It comes as residents in New York and New Jersey have reported thousands of sightings of unexplained mystery drones in the night skies.House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas) said Tuesday he believes some of the unidentified drones are “spy drones” from China.“We need to identify who is behind these drones,” he said.
“My judgment based on my experience is that those that are over our military sites are adversarial and most likely are coming from the People’s Republic of China.”In southern California, drones were reported over Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton in recent days.Spokesman Capt.
James C.Sartain told The War Zone that between Dec.
9 and 15, “there were six instances of unmanned aerial systems (UAS)” seen entering the airspace over Camp Pendleton.At the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, officials were forced to shuts its airspace for four hours last week because of concern about the “small unmanned aerial systems,” Bob Purtiman, the chief spokesman for the 88th Air Base Wing, told The Post.In Virginia, drones have been spotted over Virginia Beach, which is about 24 miles from the Na...