The U.S. Air Force Acknowledges That Langley AFB Was Swarmed During ‘Multiple Incursions’ by Unidentified Drones

The United States Air Force has acknowledged that in December 2023 Langley Air Force Base was swarmed by waves of mysterious drones on multiple occasions over the course of the month. Although they did not disclose the behavior or apparent capabilities of the drones, the incursions prompted the scrambling of jet fighters over the area, and surveillance from a high-altitude NASA research aircraft.

“The installation first observed UAS [un-crewed aerial systems] activities the evening of December 6 [2023] and experienced multiple incursions throughout the month of December. The number of UASs fluctuated and they ranged in size/configuration,” according to a statement made by a Langley AFB spokesperson for The War Zone. “None of the incursions appeared to exhibit hostile intent but anything flying in our restricted airspace can pose a threat to flight safety. The FAA was made aware of the UAS incursions.”

“To protect operational security, we do not discuss impacts to operations,” the statement added. “We don’t discuss our specific force protection measures but retain the right to protect the installation. Langley continues to monitor our air space and work with local law enforcement and other federal agencies to ensure the safety of base personnel, facilities, and assets.”

Langley AFB is located in Newport News, just 25 miles (40 km) across Chesapeake Bay from Naval Air Station Oceana, where over the course of 2014-15 the members of the VFA-11 “Red Rippers” F/A-18 Super Hornet squadron experienced numerous encounters with unidentified objects, including an incident that resulted in a near miss with one of the objects that prompted one of the pilots involved to remark to Lieutenant Ryan Graves “I almost hit one of those things.”

On December 12 2023, combat air patrols consisting of what appeared to be F-16 fighter jets were spotted over the area using online flight-tracking services; the following week, plane spotters also tracked one of NASA’s high-altitude WB-57F Canberra research aircraft circling Langley AFB.

On occasion, the U.S. military has partnered with NASA to make use of the research planes’ extensive sensor suite “to support operational and test and evaluation-type missions,” according to The War Zone. However, the December 18 and 19 entries on the WB-57F’s activity page simply state “Imagery Support”, and offer no further details regarding what the craft’s mission was over the base.

“NASA’s WB-57 aircraft fly missions across the United States in support of scientific research and remote imaging,” according to a statement released by NASA’s Langley Research Center in response to queries made by The War Zone regarding N927NA’s December flights.

“They have flown at least 30 times in the past two months. The WB-57 with civil registration number N927NA was on the East Coast in December to fly in support of NASA’s SpaceX CRS-29 commercial resupply services mission and image the spacecraft upon its return to Earth. While in the area, the aircraft provided additional imaging support in Virginia.”

Additionally, the incursions do not appear to have been confined to the skies above at Langley AFB: on March 14, while delivering testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee, General Gregory Guillot remarked not only on how prominent the incursions on the Virginia coast were to him when he took command of the U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM) and North American Defense Command (NORAD), but also that this has been an ongoing problem in other regions.

“As part of my 90-day assessment… to tell the truth, the counter-UAS [uncrewed aircraft systems] mission has dominated that so far in the first month. Of course, I knew it was an issue coming from another combatant command [CENTCOM], where we faced that threat in a very different way because of the environment,” Guillot stated during the hearing. “But I wasn’t prepared for the number of incursions that I see. [I’ve] gone into the events at Joint Base Langley-Eustis, and I’m using that as the centerpiece of my 90-day assessment.”

While the Air Force’s statements regarding the December incidents were light on details, it highlights the fact that UAP incursions—human-made drones or otherwise—are indeed occurring, and pose not only a potential flight safety threat to operations being flown in the area, but also that the military does not appear to have the capability to defend against a potential attack on the base or its aircraft by a coordinated swarm of inexpensive, unmanned drones.

To that end, General Guillot stated that NORAD and NORTHCOM “can and should do more as this emerging capability outstrips the operational framework that we have to address it.”