I guess they could be playing semantic games. Could be defense contractor owned and operated as opposed to directly military controlled.
In any case, if they know what they are they are lying. Either directly or by omission. Not that either would be unusual.
[1]: https://techcrunch.com/2024/12/11/pentagon-says-mystery-dron...
EDIT: Actually there were statements that didn't leave room for semantic games:
“The Bureau is actively investigating the situation you mentioned, the unexplained sighting of drone activity over that part of New Jersey, including in proximity to sensitive sites and areas of concern. We do not attribute that to an individual or a group yet."
https://homeland.house.gov/2024/12/12/unexplained-sighting-d...
"While no direct threats to the installation have been identified, we can confirm multiple instances of unidentified drones entering the airspace above Naval Weapons Station Earle," Bill Addison, public affairs officer for the naval station, said in a statement to ABC News.
They’d just say nothing was seen, or it was normal flight ops, or make up a training mission.
The military doesn’t re-enforce the reason for public panic or admit they aren’t omnipotent unless they really don’t know.
CEO of a drone manufacturer seems to agree with your hypothesis
I don’t now anything about such scans but that was my immediate rebuttal.
Like you, though, at least I find this explanation plausible.
I’m calling it - this is going down as the largest case of mass hysteria in recorded history.
All of these things are pretty simple, I'm sure with the right people in the room even better ideas would emerge.
- with bright lights,
- flying over the same populated areas
- at the same time each night.
Not fake at all.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZK4HFxzsjgo
tldr: People aren't seeing drones. It's collective delusion.
Radiation surveys are steady paced gridding runs, evenly spaced lines flown at a uniform height and speed.
Little drones bobbing about aren't doing a good job running a detection grid.
As to what these are: they are clearly something complying with the FAR on dusk to dawn lighting, it's going to be some disappointing, boring outcome like dominos pizza delivery drones.
https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-14/chapter-I/subchapter-F...
Half the videos I saw were people noticing a commercial aircraft with landing lights on. I saw a bell 412 with some terrain mapping sensors mounted on it hovering in a pattern around my neighborhood earlier in the year and it turned out to be scanning for the power company, a new way of checking the lines. I'll be far more interested in a UAP that doesn't follow our dusk to dawn lighting rules.