A British former UFO hunter has said he does not “rule out” recent drone incursions over RAF bases in England being connected to Russia and China and nuclear weapons.
Unidentified drones were spotted in November over three airbases in the east of England that are used by the US air force (USAF).
“Small unmanned aerial systems” were seen between 20 and 22 November over RAF Lakenheath and RAF Mildenhall in Suffolk and RAF Feltwell in Norfolk. The USAF, which occupies the bases, could not confirm if the drones were hostile.
According to a January US Department of Defense (DoD) notice, plans to deploy American nuclear weapons to RAF Lakenheath have progressed. The document states the work was in preparation for the base’s “upcoming nuclear mission”.
“I don’t rule out the activity being connected with nuclear weapons,” said Nick Pope, a former Ministry of Defence official who headed the UFO desk in Whitehall from 1991 to 1994.
“Adversaries (probably Russia or China) might use drones to gather data on this, in parallel with using other intelligence-gathering strategies. But they’d be unlikely to risk an intelligence officer (either declared, let alone a highly prized illegal) on something like this.”
Pope thinks that if foreign adversaries were responsible, they might use third parties, perhaps by supplying local drone hobbyists with some equipment.
“Perhaps convincing them they’d be working for an independent news agency. Anti-nuclear groups or individual activists might also be potential culprits in this scenario.”
November’s incursions wouldn’t be the first time unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP, the military’s preferred acronym for unidentified flying objects or UFOs) have poked around RAF airbases housing nuclear weapons.
On Boxing Day 1980, United States airmen spotted strange objects flying over Rendlesham forest on the doorstep of RAF Bentwaters in Suffolk, a former airbase used by the US air force.
Charles Halt, the on-base commander at the time, said he saw crafts shooting down beams of light to the ground and heard over his radio that “the beams went down into the weapons storage area”.
Pope said that, unlike other UFO tales, eyewitness reports from Rendlesham were backed up by hard evidence. “It’s the perfect storm of a UFO case. It’s multiple witnesses, including the military. It’s sightings over three consecutive nights.
“It’s physical evidence in terms of radar, radioactivity, ground trace indentations, burn marks, scorch marks. It’s a case where we have declassified and released documents, which you can see on the National Archives and the Ministry of Defence website. So, unlike a lot of UFO documents floating around, there’s no debate about their provenance.”
Former Pentagon officials such as Luis Elizondo, who claimed to have led the US government’s UFO hunting office, claim there is a strong correlation between UFO sightings and nuclear weapons.
Over the years, dozens of military personnel have witnessed bizarre crafts hovering over bases housing humanity’s most devastating weapons. In one alarming incident in 1966, airmen saw a UFO flying over Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota.
They claimed that as the craft was hovering above Minot, its nuclear weapons suddenly went live, then deactivated when the UFO disappeared. The following year, a similar fright occurred at an air force base in Montana.
Witnesses there claimed they saw a glowing red oval-shaped craft floating over its missile silos before all 10 of their nuclear warheads were disabled.
However, Pope said the most likely possibility was that the sightings were of commercial drones. “Perhaps some are operated by plane spotters but as most of these people abide by CAA rules on drone operation, it’s more likely to be the work of irresponsible hobbyists,” said Pope.
Pope added that Lord Coaker’s statement to parliament that the incursions were being treated as a criminal investigation, with the aim of prosecutions, supported his hypothesis.
“While adversary activity can’t be ruled out – not least because the incursions came to light at around the same time that Ukraine launched UK-supplied Storm Shadow missiles to strike the Kursk region in Russia – there’s currently no evidence of this.”
The sightings could also result from people confusing prosaic items like Chinese lanterns, road flares or bright stars with UFOs. Sirius is often confused by the public with a UFO.
An MoD spokesperson said: “We take threats seriously and maintain robust measures at defence sites. This includes counter-drone security capabilities. We won’t comment further on security procedures.”
