Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio closed for hours due to drone activity

[reACTIONary]

13. What they have said is that the drones are not being launched from foreign craft....

... off the NJ shore. The sort of drone that is the subject of these rumors is a battery powered rotor craft, for instance, a quadcopter. The battery power required does not give them the range to be introduced into our airspace from offshore or abroad.

This does not rule out domestically resident foreign agents from using them for surveillance or espionage. This happened recently when a legally resident Chinese citizen flew a hobby drone over Vandenberg Air Base and was subsequently arrested. Of course, such activity is meant to be covert. So flying in some sort of a formation would probably rule out foreign espionage.

The other sort of drone is a fixed wing aircraft. These are sometimes called UAVs - Unmanned Aerial Vehicles. These are engine powered and have a range capable of being launched from offshore. But they are just a small airplane, so they don't fit the profile.

I think they have declared the rumored drones "not of foreign origin" based on this sort of reasoning.