In the Press...

 — U.S. Rep. Chris Smith is urging the federal Defense Department to take action to identify and address the "potential threat" posed by drone activity over New Jersey after being told a U.S. Coast Guard vessel was followed by drones and that dozens of drones were seen flying onshore from the Atlantic Ocean over the weekend.

Smith made the demands in a letter to U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin after conversations he had Monday night where he was told about a large number of drones coming onshore from the Atlantic Ocean and about drones following a U.S. Coast Guard boat off Ocean County.

Smith told Austin he is very concerned about the proximity of unidentified drone flights over the last several weeks to sensitive sites and critical infrastructure across New Jersey, including Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst. The base is part of New Jersey's 4th District, which Smith represents.

He told Fox News host Martha MacCallum on Tuesday that he had been with Ocean County Sheriff Michael Mastronardy and the sheriff's office unit that is chronicling drone activity when a U.S. Coast Guard officer told him about the drones following the Coast Guard motor lifeboat.

"One of their 47-foot boats was trailed very closely by more than a dozen of these drones" off Barnegat Light, Smith said in the interview Tuesday. The drones were very large and close to the stern of the boat, Smith said he was told.

In addition, Smith said a member of the sheriff's office told him of seeing 50 drones flying onshore from a boat on Sunday night.

Messages left for the sheriff's office and the Coast Guard seeking additional details were not immediately returned Wednesday morning.

Smith said he spoke with officials at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst and was told the defense department has "the capability to ascertain who they are and take them down," but that the defense department has not been given the authority to shoot one down.

Smith, who spent hours with Mastronardy on Monday at the Sheriff’s Mobile Command Center while it was at Island Beach State Park, said he is deeply concerned by the potential threats posed by the drones.

"This is very, not just suspicious, but provocative," Smith said in the Fox interview. "This could be a foreign power whether it be Putin, Xi Jinping or (a country in) the Middle East."

Smith, in his letter to Austin, said he is very concerned about the proximity of flights to Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, along with other sensitive sites and critical infrastructure across New Jersey over the last several weeks.

"As you know, Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst (JBMDL) possess capabilities to identify and take down unauthorized unmanned aerial systems and have utilized this capability to address overflights of the installation," Smith said. "I urgently request all capabilities possessed by the Department of Defense, especially those in use by JBMDL to be immediately deployed to identify and address the potential threats posed by UAS over the state of New Jersey."

Smith, in a news release Tuesday morning, described the response so far by state and federal agencies as "tepid" and called it "totally unacceptable."

"As we saw with the Chinese spy balloon last year, our fiercest adversaries will stop at nothing to surveil our homeland and threaten our national security," he said.

"The serious concerns of New Jersey residents need to be put to rest with answers—not empty reassurances," Smith said. "The time to act is now."