The Chinese Communist Party ‘is very good at this stuff,’ Rep. Michael McCaul warns.
The chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee warned that some drones that were spotted flying near U.S. military installations in recent days could be “adversarial” and deployed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), amid a rash of sightings in New Jersey.
Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) told reporters on Dec. 17 that he’s received intelligence from the administrator of NASA, Bill Nelson, that drones have been “reported over military sites, military bases,” without providing further detail.
“I would think those are adversarial,” he said.
This week, the Wright-Patterson Air Force base in Ohio reported multiple instances of drones being sighted near the facility, causing it to shut down over the weekend for a period of time. A second incursion involving drones was reported on Dec. 16 and Dec. 17, a base spokesperson told The Epoch Times.
Earlier this month, a Chinese national living in the United States was arrested by federal law enforcement officials for flying a drone in an illegal manner near the Vandenberg Space Force Base in Southern California.
It’s not clear whether McCaul was referring to the Wright-Patterson or Vandenberg bases.
“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 [PRC].
“I believe they’re spy drones, and the PRC and communist China is very good at this stuff. We know they bought land around military bases. This would be very consistent with their policy over the last couple of years.”
McCaul said federal officials have told him they are unsure who is behind the drone sightings near bases.
McCaul, the former chair of the House Homeland Security Committee, said he is “not getting answers.”
“I think it’s because our government does not know who is behind them, and that in and of itself is very disturbing to me,” he said.
“They seem to think that most of them are American-based commercial. It’s the ones over the military bases that I can’t explain, and they can’t either.”
