This is the moment a multitude of drones pass over an American air base which is set to become home to US nuclear weapons.
The footage acquired by MailOnline features what is suspected to be four drones, brazenly flying with bright lights, in the early evening darkness above RAF Lakenheath, Suffolk.
Information about American nuclear weapons being deployed to the base for the first time since the Cold War has intensified fears that Russia could be behind the drone activity.
While two of the drones to the left of the screen in the video seem stationary, the other two are shown moving and passing each other on the night of November 28.
It is thought that the brilliant light at the top of the screen represents Venus, which is visible in the southwest sky in November.
The brightest planet in the earth’s solar system is sometimes mistaken for a rocket or aeroplane.
The US Air Force revealed last month that drones had buzzed three of its UK bases – RAF Lakenheath and RAF Mildenhall in Suffolk and nearby RAF Feltwell, Norfolk.
The sightings which are said to have begun on November 20 and continued for several days have followed similar drone ‘invasions’ in New Jersey.
According to reports, unidentified aircraft have circled the US Army’s Picatinny Arsenal in the state, which produces and conducts research on weaponry, including those that are provided to Ukraine.
Some reports have talked of ‘car-sized’ drones over New Jersey since mid-November, occasionally emerging in groups and usually remaining in the same place for hours. They are also said to have been spotted in New York, Texas and Oklahoma.
A New Jersey police department sparked concern after it revealed that a drone it sent up to follow a mystery aircraft ‘easily’ evaded their device before disappearing into thin air.
Ocean County Sheriff Michael Mastronardy said a drone was launched after one of his officers saw 50 unmanned aerial vehicles, ‘coming off the ocean’.
The officer dialled 911 to warn state police, the FBI and the Coast Guard. The maritime agency then reported seeing spotted 13 drones following their boat, calculating that the devices had a wingspan of eight feet.
Matronardy told NewsNation’s Rich McHugh the force put up an ‘industrial grade’ drone to follow one of the devices, but it quickly slipped through their grasp.
Residents in the Garden State and beyond are worried about many drone sightings, including this one.
‘If this is not our military, then it’s even more scary,’ McHugh said.
Both US and UK intelligence professionals have blamed Russian dictator Vladimir Putin for the meddling.
The video at RAF Lakenheath was taken soon after British authorities had reported that 60 soldiers were being sent to explore the sightings at the three UK bases.
Two days after it was taken, an RAF Chinook flew British special forces troops to join the probe at RAF Lakenheath which is home to the 48th Fighter Wing’s F-15E Strike Eagle and F-35A Lightning II aircraft.
According to flight tracker records, the Chinook took off from RAF Odiham, Hampshire, and flew to Poole, Dorset, to pick up SBS personnel. From there, it proceeded to Hereford, the SAS’s base, and finally to the US base.
Earlier this month, villagers near RAF Lakenheath described seeing the drones on replicated nights, along with increased security patrols by MoD police. The base stated this week that there had been no new sightings in recent days.
A retired British spymaster claimed that Kremlin intelligence services were potentially gearing up for a fresh wave of incursions into UK airspace.
Philip Ingram, a former British military intelligence Colonel, said the recent drone sightings had ‘all the hallmarks’ of an operation by Russia’s secretive GRU spy agency.
‘It’s a distinct possibility if not a certain probability this is all down to Russian intelligence,’ he said.’
They and the GRU are just a bunch of petulant little boys. They’re trying to suggest they have the ability to disrupt and influence through a level of nuisance action.’
He added: ‘I would say we will see another flurry of activity in the next few months for sure. Whether drones or something else, I suspect something else.’
Col Ingram said Russians or their agents could also be using the UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) to test Western forces’ responses and capabilities.
He implied that they might be conducting these operations to stroke the bruised ego of Russian despot Putin following his setbacks in Ukraine.
He also claimed the drones were part of a wider spate of small, ‘seemingly isolated’ incidents which could be part of a larger coordinated test of disruption tactics.
‘There’s a pattern building up and from an intelligence perspective, I don’t like patterns,’ Col Ingram added.
‘Each one of these things in isolation won’t massively disrupt our way of life and none will potentially raise a big question mark but if you suddenly put them together and they all happen at once, then the level of disruption you could have could be really serious.’
The sightings come after a string of odd events that have occurred all around the world, including hacker-perpetrated cyberattacks, underwater internet cable sabotage, and bomb scares that caused pandemonium at Gatwick and in central London.
The FBI and other agencies are said to be investigating the sightings in America, but the Department of Homeland Security said on Wednesday: ‘We have no more information as to where these drones are coming from, where they’re launching from, where they’re landing.’
This week, Britain debuted its newest weapon in the fight against drones: a powerful laser that can quickly burn the drones out of the sky.
At the Radnor Range in mid-Wales, the high-energy gadget, which was installed on the roof of a Wolfhound armoured vehicle, underwent successful testing.
Soldiers from 16 Royal Artillery – an air defence regiment based near Portsmouth, Hampshire – were able to follow and destroy impending targets.
Retired police lieutenant and intelligence analyst Tim McMillan told DailyMail.com the descriptions of the UFOs in Jersey ‘sound exactly like Russian Orlan-10 drones’—secretive craft that fly in packs of three to five.
The Orlan-10 craft comes with ‘standard positional lighting’—a red light on the left (port) wingtip, a green light on the right (starboard) wingtip, and white taillights, similar to the lights seen on ordinary aircraft and Jersey’s ‘mystery drones.’
Experts suggest that Russia could be carrying out an intelligence-gathering mission known as ‘ferreting’, meant to deliberately trigger and test a rival’s airspace defence procedures and reaction times.
Or the Kremlin might just be eavesdropping on Ukraine’s allies who are supporting the country’s resistance to Russia’s incursion.
While experts could not rule out a theory that Iran was behind the attacks, argued by NJ Congressman Jeff Van Drew, but denied by the Pentagon, White House officials have long noted that Russia and Iran collaborate on military drone development.
‘Russia has been very aggressive and reckless with its responses to Western support of Ukraine,’ Lt McMillan told DailyMail.com. ‘This isn’t something I see discussed in US media, but it’s well documented and openly discussed here in Europe.’
The first New Jersey drone sightings emerged over the US Army’s Picatinny Arsenal on November 18 but reports to varying levels of credibility have now extended to at least 12 counties throughout the Garden State.
Officials have received reports of craft flying off ‘water reservoirs, electric transmission lines, rail stations, police departments, and military installations’ in recent weeks, according to Florham Park, NJ police chief Joseph J Orlando.
But those earliest and most plausible sightings above Picatinny, according to Lt McMillan, are most worth focusing on.
‘Picatinny Arsenal,’ as Lt McMillan told DailyMail.com, is ‘home of the US Army’s CCDC Armaments Center, which is responsible for manufacturing and supplying Ukraine with 155mm artillery ammunition.’
Republican Rep Jeff Van Drew has claimed that Iran is behind the drones in New Jersey, telling reporters that the nation parked a ‘mothership’ off the East Coast.
The MoD has been contacted by MailOnline for additional comment.
The most convincing hypothesis is that these drones are monitoring cities for anything harmful to national security. The fact that the Pentagon says that it doesn’t know what they are, but that they don’t pose a threat to anyone is like saying that the drones are theirs, but they won’t say that they have the technology.
Meanwhile, in the UK our government says nothing and none of us appear remotely concerned by the silence, but then we Brits don’t like to grumble too much.
Eventually, if we don’t fully comply with our governments’ demands, your every action will be monitored and documented.
This appears to be a highly secret way of testing their defences of air bases across the US. RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk might be called RAF but it’s completely USA – wait for those little green men!
Because there will always be conspiracy theorists who want to hear verifiable and accurate facts and because scared individuals are easier to manipulate, things won’t stop!
If the government aren’t doing anything to find out what they are or to stop them, then perhaps they are from the government, or maybe not, who knows these days what is truly going on?
Perhaps aliens are coming to see if there’s intelligent life on Earth – they will be sorely disappointed, especially if they look at our governments across the globe.
There is no way on earth that the UK and US military would permit potential Russian or Iranian drones to simply hang about over installations. The first one would be in a million pieces and on the front page of every newspaper.
Hostile drones don’t fly lit up like a Christmas tree, not even at this time of the year!
According to reports, they are flying over military locations in the US and the UK, but I do not doubt that these bases are protected and that they would shoot a bogey out of the sky if it got too close. Perhaps it’s JUST EAT extending their services.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 