The 7 Prominent Theories Explaining the Mystery Drones

President-elect Donald Trump took to the podium Monday to claim that “the Government knows” what’s behind the mysterious drone sightings from New Jersey to California. “Something strange is going on,” he added.

You can say that again.

As sightings surge across the globe, a pressing question lingers: who—or what—is controlling these unknown aerial phenomena?

To date, over 3000 sightings have been reported across several states, including New Jersey, New York, and Maryland. The first sightings began in mid-November, sparking a flurry of speculation ranging from extraterrestrial visitors to foreign adversaries.

Here are some of the most prevalent theories on social media attempting to explain the phenomenon.

The Missing Nukes/Dirty Bomb Sweep Theory

One of the most prominent theories advanced during the weekend suggests the drones are a federal operation trying to find missing nuclear weapons or radioactive material trafficked by terrorists.

This nightmare scenario, suggested by Saxon Aerospace CEO John Ferguson, has gone viral on social media.

“Drones have no reason to be in the air at night unless you're doing some type of ISR work, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, looking for bad guys or looking for a victim, a search and rescue victim, or law enforcement or some type of military project,” Ferguson said in a clip uploaded to TikTok.

Ferguson recalled what he believes could be a similar event a few years ago in which drones were reportedly sighted flying in grid formations at night along the Interstate 70 corridor in eastern Colorado and western Nebraska. The sightings began in mid-December and carried into January, with reports of convoys as large as 19 drones.

“It was believed that those drones were looking for radioactive material because there had been some material that come up missing here in the United States, and they felt like it was a high probability that the nuclear or the radioactive material would be taken along interstate 70 corridor, heading east or west or south.”

The PSY-OP/Government Conspiracy Theory

A far less horrifying theory suggests the drones may be experimental technology undergoing public testing. While less prevalent, this idea aligns with speculation that the drones could be part of a psychological operation, or PSY-OP, designed to influence public perception or government policy.

The usual social media conspiracy theorists take this notion further, pushing the idea that the increase in drone activity is aimed at diverting attention from more important government activities attendant to the waning days of the Biden Administration.

Certainly, the federal government isn’t doing much to get to the bottom of the drone story, further fueling suspicion. “I generally believe in government, but this is testing my faith in their honesty,” New Jersey State Senator John Bramnick said Monday.”My guess is there is information, but they're holding it back. And now what you have is panic.” He added that “the Department of Defense has to come clean with the American public.”

The ET Theory

No mystery involving unidentified aerial phenomena would be complete without extraterrestrial speculation.

Mitch Horowitz, UFO expert and host of HBO Max’s “Alien Encounters: Fact or Fiction,” believes the term “drones” might serve as a psychological crutch to help the public process the idea of alien visitors.

“I think we're using the term drones because it's reassuring to employ a familiar term; it stands to reason that if we put a familiar name on bizarre phenomena, it's reassuring in a certain way,” Horowitz previously told Decrypt. “I haven't met anybody of any quality of intellect who professes any degree of confidence in what is going on.”

The Mass Hysteria Theory

At the other end of the spectrum are people who say that the drone sightings across the U.S. are mass hysteria rather than a real phenomenon, despite government officials saying they are investigating. They consistently point out that many reports of unexplained aerial phenomena are, in fact, nothing more than airplanes.

The Copycats/Hoaxers Theory

The simplest explanation may be that people are pulling a prank—though if the drones being reported are as big as some claim, that’s unlikely. Still, increased public and media interest has likely encouraged hobbyists and more likely pranksters to fly their drones in areas where sightings have been reported..

"When a story like this gets attention, it draws more people in—some flying drones to look for others, and some just flying them to mess with people,” Grant Jordan, the CEO of San Diego-based drone detection software company SkySafe, told Decrypt. “People are now seeing these drones in San Diego and the videos that were shown, it's just standard air traffic going into the San Diego Airport.”

The Iranian Mothership/Foreign Spy Theory

Earlier this month, U.S. Representative Jeff Van Drew floated the idea that the drones were being launched from a “mothership” in the Atlantic Ocean controlled by Iran, which had somehow managed to avoid detection as it sat off the Eastern Seaboard.

This theory was swiftly debunked by the U.S. Department of Defense.

“There is not any truth to that,” Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh told reporters last week. “There is no Iranian ship off the coast of the United States, and there's no so-called mothership launching drones towards the United States.”

The Angels Theory

Meanwhile, a surprising number of people seem to think that the drones are angels.

Edited by Josh Quittner and Sebastian Sinclair