‘Rogue nuke’: Terrifying theory about mystery drones

Mysterious drones continue to plague the US as the government offers no answers — leading to one very disturbing theory.

As mysterious drones continue to operate in the night sky over the US east coast, a disturbing new theory has gone viral.

US officials have assured the public that the drones, which were first reported over New Jersey on November 18 and have since been spotted in at least six states including New York, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and Virginia, do not pose a security threat — while claiming they don’t know what they are.

But as the baffling sightings continue, the lack of answers from the federal government is causing growing outrage from state and local officials including police, governors and elected representatives.

And the information vacuum is allowing increasingly frenzied conspiracy theories to flourish — including the claim that the drones are on the hunt for a missing nuclear weapon.

John Ferguson, chief executive of Kansas-based drone manufacturer Saxon Aerospace, shared his thoughts in a TikTok video that has since gone viral on X, racking up more than 15 million views.

“My guess is that these drones are not nefarious in intent,” Mr Ferguson said.

“If they are our drones, the only reason why they would be flying [at night], and flying that low, is because they’re trying to smell something on the ground. That’s it. There’s no other reason for a drone to be flying in the air other than to piss a bunch of people off at night.”

Mr Ferguson made the sensational claim that a Soviet-era nuclear warhead had recently gone missing from Ukraine and may have made its way to the US.

Mystery drones have been seen over New Jersey for weeks. Picture: NY Post

“Back in the 1980s, Ronald Reagan had dismantled the nuclear program,” he said.

“With Russia there were countless nuclear missiles that were disarmed and disposed of. There were over 80 nuclear warheads that were in Ukraine that came up missing. We don’t know where they are. Maybe somebody does but nobody really knows where these are. I speak with some pretty high-level government officials on this stuff and it seems as though that is the case.”

Mr Fergson claimed he “spoke to a gentleman a few months ago who was trying to raise an alarm to the highest levels of our government … about this one particular nuclear warhead that he physically put his hands on, he physically touched this warhead that was left over from Ukraine”.

“And he knew that thing was headed towards the United States,” he said.

“This gentleman … who was trying to raise the alarm to try to get somebody in the government to … find this nuclear warhead, none of that ever happened. They knew that warhead was on its way to the United States, that’s all that ever came of it. This government did not do anything at all to help this gentleman raise the alarm that there is a very deadly weapon on its way to the United States. It’s out there, nobody knows where it’s at now. It left Europe, now it’s gone.”

This is the first video about these drones that has got me genuinely concerned. https://t.co/yzRoie2lUn

— Joe Rogan (@joerogan) December 15, 2024

He pointed to a similar wave of mysterious drone sightings over Colorado and Nebraska in late 2019 and early 2020.

“It was believed those drones were looking for radioactive material that came up missing and they felt like it was high probability that the radioactive material would be taken along the Interstate 70 corridor heading east or west or south,” he said.

Mr Ferguson, who insisted he was not trying to spread “misinformation” or “scare people”, said there was “no reason” for drones 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 search and rescue victim, or law enforcement, or some type of military project,” he said.

“There’s no reason for a drone to be flying at night, because they don’t see s**t. Unless you have thermal optics drones really don’t see stuff. The only reason why you would ever fly an unmanned aircraft at night is if you’re looking for something, whether it be a person or trying to smell gas. We have methane gas detection systems that can detect gas leaks in pipelines. We have special sensors that can detect radioactive material.”

John Ferguson from Saxon Aerospace shared a viral theory. Picture: X

The theory has attracted the attention of high-profile figures including podcaster Joe Rogan and entrepreneur Jason Calacanis.

“This is the first video about these drones that has got me genuinely concerned,” Rogan wrote on X.

Calacanis said, “If my family was in NJ right now, I would get the frack out of dodge for a couple of weeks/until an all clear. If it’s a 1 per cent — or, heck, a .10 per cent chance — they’re looking for a rogue nuke, why risk it?”

Former Department of Defense official and UFO personality Luis Elizondo also suggested the drones could be searching for weapons of mass destruction.

“Maybe someone like the Department of Energy is borrowing these drones from another government agency because maybe there’s a threat,” Mr Elizondo told The Good Trouble Show podcast.

“Maybe some rogue nation was able to put something really bad here, some sort of WMD here in the continental United States, maybe we don’t want to scare the public. So what do we do? We put out these drones with sniffers, and try to find something maybe that’s hopefully not there. Is that a possibility? Sure.”

More on the DOE’s aerial radiological detection and mapping air wing https://t.co/UOpW9pRwHT

— Tyler Rogoway (@Aviation_Intel) December 15, 2024

Tyler Rogoway, editor-in-chief of military news website The War Zone, called the viral theory “fiction”. “We have manned aircraft specifically equipped and on call for this role that don’t put civilian air traffic and those on the ground at great risk,” he wrote on X.

It came as a New Jersey state senator accused the federal government of hiding the truth because it was “fearful” of how the public would react.

“If they’re saying it’s not a threat it must be something going on that’s real, real top secret,” Jon Bramnick told NewsNation on Saturday.

“I’ve never seen anything go on this long. Why would the government allow the public to be so frustrated? Whatever these drones are doing the government really doesn’t want us to know. What that must mean is they’re more concerned with us getting knowledge and being afraid of that information than having no knowledge and having all these questions.”

Mr Bramnick said there was “no way the Department of Defense does not know what’s going on”. “That’s why I’m worried about it,” he said. “It must be something going on that they can’t tell us because they’re so fearful of what the public’s going to do when they hear what the drones are doing.”

US officials have insisted there is no evidence of a security threat. Picture: X

The Republican on Tuesday called for a New Jersey officials to declare a limited state of emergency and close the airspace.

“Whoever is putting the drones in the air, they’re not violating the law technically,” he said.

“So if we put that in effect we would see whether or not these individuals are bold enough to violate the law. Right now why should they stop? I’m not one of these conspiracy people but if this continues you’re going to see conspiracy theories create panic. Come clean now.”

Across New Jersey, where the majority of the activity has occurred, there have been at least 3000 reports of drone sightings since November 18, according to NJ.com.

Police in one New Jersey county released a startling heat map on Thursday highlighting the sheer number of sightings in just the past few days.

“The safety and security of our residents are our top priorities,” Monmouth County Sheriff Shaun Golden said in a statement.

“We urge state and federal authorities to work together in locating the source of these drones and determining their intent. It is essential that we address these incidents swiftly to prevent any concerns or disruptions.”

New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy told reporters on Monday that the drones, reported to be around the size of a small car, displayed “very sophisticated” technology.

“The minute you get eyes on them they go dark,” he said.

On Friday night, the mysterious drones caused New York’s Stewart International Airport to shut down its runways for an hour, prompting a furious response from Governor Kathy Hochul.

“This has gone too far,” Ms Hochul said in a statement on Saturday announcing that she asked federal authorities to authorise local police departments to shoot down drones.

“In mid-November, I directed the New York State Intelligence Center to actively investigate drone sightings and co-ordinate with federal law enforcement to address this issue, and those efforts are ongoing.”

President-elect Donald Trump has also suggested the government knows more than it is letting on, urging for officials to come clean — or shoot them down.

“Mystery Drone sightings all over the Country,” Mr Trump wrote on Truth Social.

“Can this really be happening without our government’s knowledge. I don’t think so! Let the public know, and now. Otherwise, shoot them down!!!”

Ms Hochul announced the next day that the federal government had agreed to deploy “a state-of-the-art drone detection system to New York State”.

New York Senator Chuck Schumer said on Sunday he was asking the Department of Homeland Security to immediately deploy drone-detecting technology to get to the bottom of the issue.

A heat map of sightings in one county. Picture: Monmouth County Sheriff’s Office

“If the technology exists for a drone to make it up into the sky, there certainly is the technology that can track the craft with precision and determine what the heck is going on,” he told reporters.

He said the unclassified Robin radar system, originally developed to detect birds to prevent them flying into aeroplane engines, used 360-degree technology that “has a much better chance of detecting these drones”.

“And we’re asking DHS to bring them to the New York, New Jersey area,” he said.

Earlier on Sunday, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas insisted the federal government was taking action. “I want to assure the American public that we are on it,” he told ABC’s This Week.

“There’s no question that people are seeing drones … we in the federal government have deployed additional resources, personnel, technology to assist the New Jersey State Police in addressing the drone sightings.”

The FBI and DHS said in a joint statement on Thursday there was “no evidence at this time that the reported drone sightings pose a national security or public safety threat or have a foreign nexus”.

“Historically, we have experienced cases of mistaken identity, where reported drones are, in fact, manned aircraft or facilities,” the statement said.

“Upon review of available imagery, it appears that many of the reported sightings are actually manned aircraft, operating lawfully. There are no reported or confirmed drone sightings in any restricted air space.”

The Pentagon has also played down the potential threat.

“At this time we have no evidence that these activities are coming from a foreign entity or are the work of an adversary,” spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said during a Wednesday briefing.

“We’re going to continue to monitor what is happening but at no point were our installations threatened when this activity was occurring. These are not US military drones. This is being investigated by local law enforcement.”

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Thursday President Joe Biden “is aware” and “we’re closely tracking the activity and co-ordinating closely with relevant agencies, including DHS and FBI, to continue to investigate these incidents”.

“Obviously we’re all aware of the incidents that have been reported,” she said. “I’m not going to go into what they could be or could not be from here.”

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Originally published as ‘Rogue nuke’: Terrifying theory about mystery drones