Langley AFB drone incursions
- Date
- 6 Dec 2023
- Place
- Langley Air Force Base (Joint Base Langley-Eustis), Hampton, Virginia, United States
- Record
- Curated case
- Assessment
- Unexplained
- Evidence strength
What was reported
From 6 to 23 December 2023, personnel at Langley, home of F-22 squadrons, reported groups of drones, some said to be about 20 ft long and flying over 100 mph, appearing over restricted airspace each evening roughly 45 minutes after sunset. The incursions were reported by the Wall Street Journal and confirmed by the Pentagon, and the FBI, DoD and AARO met repeatedly to identify the source. No operator has been publicly identified and no drone was brought down; it is treated as a counter-drone and security failure, not an anomaly of physics, and it prompted counter-drone trials in 2024.
What officials concluded
Unresolved
Unauthorised drone incursions; operators unidentified (DoD)
Strongest ordinary reading
Drones of unknown, possibly foreign intelligence, operators
Evidence profile
- Yes: Visual
- No: Infrared
- Yes: Radar
- No: Video
- No: Photo
- No: Film
- No: Audio
- No: Night vision
- No: Other sensor
- No: Civilian
- Yes: Military aircrew
- Yes: Military ground
- No: Airline crew
- No: Sensor operator
- No: Law enforcement
- No: Scientist
- No: Astronaut
- No: Intelligence official
- No: Other
- No: Light only
- No: Orb or sphere
- No: Disc
- No: Triangle
- No: Cylinder
- No: Cube
- Yes: Other shape
- No: Physiological
- No: Physical trace
- No: Electromagnetic
- Yes: Sound
- No: Silent
Videos that discuss it
Claims and verdicts
- Unverified
A massive drone swarm, with individual drones roughly 20 feet long flying over 100 mph at over 3,000 feet, flew over Langley Air Force Base, Virginia in December (per testimony, roughly a year before the hearing); the origin and operators remain unknown.
Reports of this incident indicate these drones were roughly 20 feet long, flying more than 100 miles an hour at an altitude of over 3,000 feet.
Said in In full: US Congress holds 'Exposing the Truth' UFO hearing
- Unverified
The Langley Air Force Base drone incident lasted over two weeks, and most of the panel (Gold indicates he learned via a colleague, Chris Mellon, who had written about prior incursions) first learned of the full scope from a Wall Street Journal article rather than internal DoD channels.
A colleague of mine who I referenced previously, Chris Mellon, he wrote an extensive article about this, that there were other incursions of drones over Langley before this as well as many military installations over the last five decades.
Said in In full: US Congress holds 'Exposing the Truth' UFO hearing
Outside sources
- Sandboxx: drones swarmed a military base for dayssandboxx.us
- Task & Purpose: mystery drones over Langley AFBtaskandpurpose.com
On the map
37.08° N, 76.36° W, plotted at the site
Show on the map