For a drone to fly, it needs some kind of energy source. 

It is possible that for these drones flying over New Jersey, this could be electrical. But that’s unlikely. Elon Musk’s Tesla brand’s claim to fame is the best proprietary battery in the world, but it weighs far more than the drones could carry into the sky. Which leaves some kind of liquid fuel.

Here’s how that works.

To illustrate this, in World War II, America had a world-exclusive monopoly on high-octane aviation gas. We helped the British with the Battle of Britain by supplying them with what was then high octane fuel, in the high 90s.  Germany, by comparison, had 87 octane fuel. “Octane” is a measure of the fuel’s efficient use of energy.  The higher the octane number, the more powerful the fuel. But by 1944, America was producing 145 octane fuel.

So when the P-51C and D Mustang fighters went to war – in 1944 – they had this incredibly high octane fuel, while the German Luftwaffe fighters still had 87 octane fuel. 

Here’s what that meant in practical terms.  The Mustang had huge range, because it got much more energy out of a gallon of av-gas.  So it could cruise all the way to Berlin, then outfight the best of the Luftwaffe, then fly all the way home.  When the head of the Luftwaffe, Hermann Goering, saw his first Mustang over Berlin, he said he knew the war was lost.  He was not wrong.  

That’s what high energy fuel means.

For drones to perform the odd maneuvers for seven hours at a time, it would need three things.  First, a fuel far more efficient in terms of energy per unit, because it couldn’t carry a lot of fuel.  Drones aren’t built for that.  But they would need something else.  First, because they emit no detectable radio signals, they’d need an AI more advanced than any we know of to control their drones. That’s two breakthrough technologies. Finally, they’d need someplace to land before daylight, to be serviced and refueled, and prepped for its next flight.  

Wednesday on Fox News, Rep. Jeff Van Drew said that “Iran launched a mothership probably about a month ago that contains these drones.” 

This mothership is, he said, off the east coast of the United States.  The Pentagon denied this, in one of the lamest denials in history.  Since they don’t know where the drones land to be refueled, all they did was deny that an Iranian ship was the “mothership.” 

But it could be a vessel registered in Mauritania or Panama – lots of third world countries make lots of money by registering ships to hide who really owns them. 

So technically, it might not be an Iranian-flagged ship, but still be run (technically) by the Iranians.  Or not.  We really don’t know.  

But the Congressman did become the first person to bring to attention of the public that if drones fly by night, they need to land somewhere to hide out and be refueled and serviced during the day.

The drones had to be created by some country that has figured out how to make a vastly more powerful per-unit fuel than any other known to man.  Why?  Because each drone flies bizarre flight profiles for seven hours, then has to “commute” to some safe base where they can refuel and be serviced.  So each mission is at least ten hours, perhaps more, all at night, which means a lot of fuel.  Which may be why they launched the missions during the longest nights of the year.

Also, reports from the ground suggest that they sound like motorcycles. But no motorcycle engine could handle the incredible energy needed to perform those weirdly wicked maneuvers the drones perform every night.  Just not possible.  So this noise is a ruse to mask what really powers them.

Because there are no “transmissions” signals the Military has indicated it can detect, this suggests a powerful AI has to be guiding each drone.  AI is in its relative infancy, but this AI must be possible – because something not tied to any radio waves is guiding these drones in real time.

These drones need the following.  A place to land and be refueled, and to hide out during daylight hours, where they would be vulnerable.  An incredibly powerful liquid fuel. An AI control system that can react in real time, creating complex maneuvers.  ChatGPT it’s not.

Which is the most important?  All are vital, but without a place to land and be refueled and serviced, the whole mission is a bust. 

But almost any ship could do this. An old former coastal tanker would perhaps be ideal. Lots of storage space, a very flat deck. Lots of room in a converted fuel storage cell for drone servicing – and hiding out. 

If not a ship then where? All of East Coast America near New Jersey is too urbanized to allow drones to be serviced out of sight. If not there, where? The sea is vast, and it could allow the base ship to move hundreds of miles each day.   If the Navy’s remarkably accurate spy satellites, geared for naval warfare was given the right commands, it might find the base.  But with the Pentagon in denial, that’s not likely to happen.

To say that we can’t track them when the lights go out is to overlook the obvious.

Any fuel burn, by whatever means, generates heat.  And Army and National Guard helicopters are almost all equipped with FLIR – Forward-Looking InfraRed – sensors.  For example, in the winter of 1997, Flagstaff was nuked with a 500-year storm – 56 inches of snow in just two days.  Cars on I-40 and I-17 were completely snowed under, buried.  Many had people huddling there, hoping to be found.  And they were, because the National Guard used their helicopters to peer through feet of snow to sense body heat in cars.  It was amazing, and this isn’t new technology.   

So any armed helicopter with FLIR could track a drone down, and if necessary, shoot it down. The drones wouldn’t stand a chance. But a better use would be to track the drones at long range as they headed to wherever their base station is located, and if it’s a ship, send a SEAL team in to take it down and end the drone threat once and for all.  And finally find out who did this to America.

Ned Barnett, a long-time American Thinker contributor dating to 2006, is a military technology historian, and hosted nine History Channel programs, such as World War I Tech or D-Day Tech, back when history meant something to the History Channel, before Pawn stars change its whole nature.  Ned also wrote ten books on the Air War in the South Pacific in 1942, when we were still losing.  Ned currently works with authors, either ghostwriting their books or helping them to market, promote and sell their books.  His next book, to be published in 2025, is Write Now!  How to Market, Promote and Sell Your Book. Ned can be reached at nedbarnett51@gmail.com or 702-561-1167.
 

Image: Twitter video screen shot