Drone mystery solved? This little-known NASA program may explain New Jersey’s drone sightings

After weeks of drone sightings over New Jersey and the surrounding areas, one little-discussed but nonetheless public NASA program may explain at least some of the large and unusual platforms witnesses have spotted in the night skies.

In December 2023, NASA announced the establishment of a drone testing corridor between New Jersey and Deleware specifically for testing a variety of groundbreaking military, commercial, and academic drone technologies. The corridor is part of NASA’s larger Advanced Air Mobility Mission, which aims to advance low-altitude passenger, cargo, and public service flight technologies.

According to a National Aerospace Research and Technology Park press release, this drone testing corridor extends over Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst (JBMDL) in New Jersey and Dover AFB in Delaware, though how far beyond the confines of these installations the corridor may extend has not been disclosed.

The release goes on to state that this drone testing corridor, “allows [Air Mobility Command] and USTRANSCOM to rapidly assess technical and operational concepts for UAS and AAM, and to develop measures of value in operational scenarios.” In this context, UAS stands for Unmanned Aerial Systems and AAM for Advanced Air Mobility technologies.

The possibility that these mysterious drones may be part of this drone-testing program was first proposed by popular TikTok account “jk_ultra,” but was first brought to Sandboxx News’ attention by another creator that goes by “that.intel.guy” on the platform.

This drone testing corridor was established last December when an agreement was signed by officials representing the U.S. Transportation Command (USTRANSCOM), Air Mobility Command (AMC), the National Aerospace Research & Technology Park (NARTP), and the Atlantic County Economic Alliance (ACEA).

According to the December 2023 press release, “Under the terms of the Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA), the parties will cooperatively develop a prototype dual-use U.S. East Coast test and evaluation corridor for the demonstration, development, and evaluation of military, commercial, academic, and Federal Government UAS and AAM technologies with future application to strategic airlift capabilities of the U.S. Air Force.”

This drone testing corridor might not extend as far north as many reported drone sightings have occurred, though as several government officials have postulated, many drone sightings are all but certainly misidentified crewed aircraft, hobby drones, or commercial drones operating within the confines of the law.

The press release goes on to explain that launch and landing sites may not be within military installations inside this testing corridor.

“The availability of the UAS/AAM evaluation corridor between Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst (JBMDL) in New Jersey and Dover AFB in Delaware allows AMC and USTRANSCOM to rapidly assess technical and operational concepts for UAS and AAM, and to develop measures of value in operational scenarios. What makes the designated airspace a “dual use” corridor is that the CRADA facilitates the launching and landing of civilian craft from non-DOD sites within the corridor, including the NARTP. Many of the tests and experiments envisioned would only be possible with a dedicated corridor.”

Why, exactly, this program wouldn’t come forward at the onset of this rash of drone sightings is not clear. Sandboxx News has reached out to NASA for comments.

NASA Advanced Air Mobility Mission also conducted autonomous drone flights beyond line of sight with no visual observers along pre-programmed flight routes last year out of NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. These flights were announced on December 21, 2023, after they had been concluded. That same month, numerous reports of mysterious drones flying over military installations in Virginia and the surrounding area flooded the media and, to this day, have not been explained. However, the facility that launched NASA’s autonomous drone tests last December is less than 2 miles away from Langley Air Force Base where the drone sightings were first reported.

This latest rash of large drone sightings over New Jersey began in mid-November, in the week leading up to Thanksgiving, and security at the U.S. Army’s Picatinny arsenal first reported drones flying over the base on November 13. Since then, hundreds, if not thousands, of sightings have been reported to law enforcement or posted online.

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