Attention again on unexplained 'drone swarm' over U.S. Navy's most advanced ship

[C C]

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/us-navy-d...54bae3d2ba

INTRO: New footage from the U.S. Navy shows a drone swarm of unknown origin flying over the USS Zumwalt, a highly sensitive “stealth destroyer” in the waters off California in April 2019. The video, obtained by The War Zone via the Freedom of Information Act, features a sailor describing a set of lights from six drones above the USS Zumwalt as he filmed the encounter (see video at bottom).

No official explanation has been offered about the incident, which All Hands ― an official Navy website ― has called “the largest and most technologically advanced surface combatant in the world.” Critics derided it as a failure after a series of problems ― and at $4.4 billion to develop, a costly one.

The incident documented in the video was one of several “drone swarm” events around U.S. Navy ships that took place in 2019.

“I am aware of those sightings, and as it’s been reported, there have been other sightings by aviators in the air and by other ships not only of the United States, but other nations — and of course other elements within the U.S. joint force,” Adm. Michael Gilday, chief of naval operations, said last year, per NBC News. “Those findings have been collected and they still are being analyzed.” (MORE - details)

https://youtu.be/ifslvA3SjOY

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/ifslvA3SjOY

[Yazata]

It's been happening a lot more than has been reported in the media. It seems to have peaked in 2019, when something was definitely happening. My guess it was likely the Chinese and that they may have stopped being so overt after some back-channel warnings from the US to cool it.

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/39...ous-nights

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/dr...-documents

The stories mention mysterious Navy-owned San Clemente Island which was right in the middle of the action. This island is said to have hosted secret Navy projects since the Cold War. If something exciting is happening in military technology and it isn't at Area 51 (more of an Air Force thing), this is one of the places it would be.

Predictably, the stories contain denials that the drones were ours, but I'm not entirely convinced.

It does appear that these were very likely small UAVs buzzing a variety of Navy ships, including the science-fictionish USS Zumwalt. Apparently the Navy is unaware of who owned and operated the drones (or if they are, they aren't talking). But the drones certainly seem to have been professional grade, with extraordinarily high endurance and able to track naval vessels in low visibility conditions at night. So they weren't off-the-shelf models and weren't something being used for fun by casual boaters.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Zumwalt

When some of the earlier events occurred, there was a Hong Kong registered bulk carrier in the area, the M/V Bass Strait that was ostensibly transiting to and from the Port of Long Beach.

In the briefing slides below, Zulu time is 7 hours ahead of PDT. So 05:11Z would be 22:11 PDT

PHM is USS Paul Hamilton, a guided missile destroyer. BKH is USS Bunker Hill, an Aegis missile cruiser.

https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/det...VesselInfo

[Image: image27.png?auto=webp&optimize=high&qual...width=1920]

[Image: image20.png?auto=webp&optimize=high&qual...width=1920]

Other times there were small private boats. Prez Espada is probably a mistake, since Pez Espada is Spanish for swordfish. I'm speculating that it's a Mexican fishing boat. R Donzi is probably a fishing boat too. It's the third 'Unknown small boat 1' that looks most suspicious. GBG is USS Gabriele Giffords, a littoral combat ship.

[Image: image2.png?auto=webp&optimize=high&quali...width=1920]

Somebody in the vicinity was launching the drones, controlling and recovering them. Presumably somebody was sending commands and was receiving video and sensor data back. I'm surprised that we don't hear more in these stories about RF communications between the drones and their controllers, though the Navy suggests they did capture some. (I should hope so!)

We read that only some of the ships were equipped with anti-drone jammers, the Northrop-Grumman Drake system. But these systems apparently weren't used.

https://news.northropgrumman.com/news/re...AwMTIwNC4w

The Navy points out that these drones were technically behaving legally, the events took place in international waters and the drones didn't behave in a hostile manner towards the ships.

My guess is that it was somebody exploring the use of merchant vessels and smaller fishing boat sized vessels as aircraft carriers for small UAVs, for espionage purposes as seems to have been the case in these incidents, and perhaps armed drones in wartime. My guess is that it was China, but it could have been virtually anyone given that this would be an inexpensive strategy using available technology and maritime assets.

[Zinjanthropos]

Isn’t there a free drone jamming app available at Google Play? Could a little kid bring down or compromise a military drone or is it more complicated than that?

[C C]

Isn’t there a free drone jamming app available at Google Play? Could a little kid bring down or compromise a military drone or is it more complicated than that?

It's a fake, simulates jamming or seizing control of a drone, or something. Though via Bluetooth a smartphone could connect to real jamming and hacking equipment and be used as a remote control (the jammer manufacturer would provide a facilitating app for install).

High-grade military drones have anti-jammer defenses, but in reciprocal response there are anti-anti-jammers and another nested level of anti-jamming defense striving to counter that.

In 2018, a GPS jamming signal caused 46 drones to crash that were performing in an aerial show at night. Those were professional ones that were supposed to automatically return to home base if disrupted, but they didn't.

Here's something that covers the whole genre of anti-drone technology, the problems and the legal issues. Narrowed to US law and concerns, though:

https://jrupprechtlaw.com/drone-jammer-g...-problems/

[RainbowUnicorn]

a small swarm of drones all carrying thermite grenades would be significantly disruptive to a modern war ship