no, the military takes posse comitatus very seriously. not sure what exactly would have to be done by who, but deploying the national guard to respond to an emergency requires the state's governor to request it of the president and that's a lot less legally fraught than the actual air force.
So you're telling me that if a Russian bomber violated America's airspace over Alaska and was on a path straight to Anchorage, the military would have to politely request permission from the state government and fill out a bunch of paperwork before it responded to the foreign threat? That's crazypants. Surprise foreign invasions are treated as the threats they are, the rules of engagement don't have a weekslong checklist that has to be satisfied before they can do anything about incursions into American airspace. Posse comitatus is about using the military for domestic law enforcement, not repelling invaders. We've spent trillions of dollars on the military since I was born, I would hope that if China invaded New Jersey that they would be able to at least notice it was happening before somebody posted a video of it on TikTok.
The drones that are being recorded are not commercially available. That leaves two options for their origin: the US military (or one of its contractors) or a foreign military. And since option B is out of the question, it's option A. It's unimaginable that the most powerful military on earth would be mystified and unable to respond to a foreign incursion into their territory. Defending the homeland is literally their number one job.
And the military is perfectly capable of keeping a secret from the governor of Maryland if they feel like it. Do you think Larry Hogan has eyes only clearance for US military research? Just ask all the people who filed FOIA requests about Area 51 about how forthcoming the military can be about something they want to keep secret.
All these drones are doing as of right now are flying low and weird, it's not like anyone has been hurt by one. Of course a defense contractor isn't going to be dropping bombs on the east coast, that would be a scandal and cost them their lucrative contract. They're certainly creeping people out, and it's gone viral because somehow people still believe in aliens, but no actual documented harm has come out of this yet.
Which again points away from a foreign origin. If anybody from another country wanted to spy on New Jersey from the air, they could use a small commercial drone with a few modifications to do it, which would be virtually undetectable. Why would they need dozens of low-flying drones the size of refrigerators? We can make smaller cameras than that. And if it's an attack and not a spy op, why haven't these very easy to spot drones provoked a swift military response?
Nothing else makes any sense. It's not foreign, it's not civilian, so who else would have the means and motive to do fly these things without the government scrambling to respond to it?
Hanlon's razor?
