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The mysterious drones that have been tormenting New Jersey residents for weeks could be part of a top-secret government program, security experts told The Post Tuesday — as lawmakers push for answers over the troubling sightings.
The feds have been mum about the daily drone activity in Morris, Passaic, Bergen and Hunterdon counties and beyond since the gizmos were first spotted on Nov. 18.
But several experts said the US government might be behind the unsettling flights — which could be part of a super-secret military program meant to test new hardware before it hits the battlefield.
“My first guess is these are potentially government programs kept within what’s known as a ‘Special Access Program,’ which is purposely put together to keep even the most cleared people out — it truly is to keep it secret,” said Clint Emerson, a retired Navy SEAL and owner of security company Escape the Wolf.
“That’s why the government’s like, ‘We don’t know.’ They’re being truthful,” he said, adding that the circle could be as small as a dozen officials. “They don’t even know the program exists.”
Emerson said it’s impossible to know what the drones might be doing — but he suspects the secret is the technology they’re carrying, not the devices themselves.
“It could be different types of collection capabilities — so, different types of cameras, like high-definition, infrared or thermal,” he said.
A second payload, for instance, could be hardware that grabs all the cellphone data in a given environment.
“How much data can we collect with this? Let’s say we got 10 drones, they fly in a grid, how much cellphone traffic can we pick up? Not actual conversations. But just the signature of millions of cellphones. What can 10 drones pick up going over an area?”
“That’s a legitimate test,” he said. “They’re not invading your privacy. That’s legitimate data. And that’s a f–king capability.”
And what better place to do that than New Jersey, the country’s most densely populated state.
“That would be my number one guess: It’s a very closely held program, and they’re doing what they need to do to ensure their technology actually works,” said Emerson.
The weirdest part?
If that’s what it is, the people running it wouldn’t have to say a word.
“The beauty of a [special access program] is they’re kinda in their own lawless little world,” Emerson said. “They can go do whatever they want, and they don’t have to tell anybody.”
Kelly McCann, a security expert and former Marine special missions officer who worked for the Office of Naval Research, echoed Emerson’s comments and said he thinks the government is testing out some “operational capacity.”
“It’s weird how we’re supposed to have control of the skies — but this is going on and no one is saying s–t?” McCann, a frequent Fox News contributor, told The Post.
“I don’t buy it. Tech exists to drop one or all of them, and they haven’t? Bulls–t.”
That’s likely not much comfort to New Jersey politicians, who are dealing with swarms of complaints about the low-flying devices.
GOP Rep. Chris Smith — who represents a wide swath of South Jersey — said Monday that state residents “deserve swift and bold action” by the government to investigate and address the situation.
“Understandably, New Jersey residents are very alarmed at this significant and reoccurring phenomenon — and the tepid response from our state and federal agencies so far is totally unacceptable,” Smith said in a statement.
“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.”
Meanwhile, state Sen. Jon Bramnick, a Republican from the state’s 21st Legislative District, said Tuesday that New Jersey should “issue a limited state of emergency banning all drones until the public receives an explanation regarding these multiple sightings,” according to a statement on the GOP Senate Republicans’ website.
On Monday, the governor told Fox News that he “doesn’t blame people for being frustrated” — but reiterated that there seems to be no threat.
“We see no evidence — and this includes Homeland Security, the FBI, Secret Service, our State Police and authorities at all levels of government — the most important point to say is we don’t see any concern for public safety,” Murphy said.
“Having said that, it’s really frustrating that we don’t have more answers about where they’re coming from and why they’re doing what they’re doing,” he continued, adding that there were 49 drone sightings Sunday night.
Murphy added that he spoke to the White House and Homeland Security officials Sunday, and is “hoping we get answers sooner than later.”
“They are apparently … very sophisticated,” he said about the aircraft. “The minute you get eyes on them, they go dark. We’re obviously most concerned about sensitive targets and critical infrastructure.”
The feds — who have said they’re investigating the sightings — appear similarly worried, and the Federal Aviation Administration has restricted drone flights over Picatinny Arsenal in Morris County and the Trump National Golf Club in Somerset
But no one in local or federal law enforcement has put forward a motive for the nightly flights — even as witness videos flood the internet.
“Unfortunately, we don’t have many answers, and we don’t want to guess or hypothesize about what’s going on,” FBI spokeswoman Amy J. Thoreson told NJ.com last week.
“We are doing all we can to figure it out.”
