Coast Guard Logs Reveal December Drone Swarms Over New Jersey Coast - With Some Prosaic Explanations Provided
Written by Kyle Warfel and Christopher Sharp - 28 August 2025
Liberation Times - Exclusive | Obtained via FOIA - documentation can be found here.
On the evening of 8 December 2024, the Ocean County Sheriff’s Office informed the U.S. Coast Guard that Island Beach State Park Police had ‘sighted approximately 50 drones (estimated 4' long and flying approximately 60 mph) coming from offshore.’
Sector Delaware Bay - the Coast Guard’s local Command Center - launched Station Barnegat Light (S.BL) to Island Beach State Park to look for a launch platform.
S.BL arrived on-scene, spotted numerous drones overhead, followed them north to the area of responsibility line, and, on the return leg, captured digital imagery.
No origin was determined, and a command post was initiated at Island Beach State Park.
Logs record, ‘2 flashes of drone light from the east.’
Those are the Coast Guard’s own words, drawn from time-stamped radio logs and incident summaries documenting multiple, unknown-origin drones along the New Jersey coast in December 2024.
Crews followed them north - but their origin remained undetermined.
The Coast Guard radio log reads like a running chase north along the New Jersey Coast:
‘CG47219 is heading north; drones are following directly overhead. The coxswain is trying to avoid allowing the drone to be directly above them.’
‘Drone over stern, following vessel.’
‘One drone headed west to shore toward the base of State Police and the Governor’s mansion.’
‘Drones in bearing of 065.’
‘09 drones spotted moving north and west from speeds of 40–50 kts and at heights ranging from 300–1000 ft.’
‘12 drones spotted… cluster of 06 heading north.’
‘No drones are heading south… flying from south to north… headed offshore and towards the island.’
‘Recorded phone and video evidence of the last two drones spotted.’
One entry stands apart.
At 2325, the crew reported: ‘1 drone much larger than the rest… flying much lower… 200–300 ft… boat was put into low idle, drone sounds like a jet engine.’
Minutes later: ‘drones are much larger… at least 02 larger drones.’
However, an assessment provided on 10 December by the Department of Homeland Security’s Transportation Security Administration showed that witnesses were in a ‘high-traffic patter[n] for JFK International Airport.’
The assessment continues:
‘At the time of observation, these aircraft were descending out of 20,000 feet down to 10,000 feet until intersecting the glide slope into JFK. Due to their altitude, these aircraft would likely not be expected to have their approach lights on, as they are typically activated at, or below, 10,000 feet. This means that only the green or red wingtip lights would be visible, along with multiple strobes on each wingtip, on the underbody of the fuselage, on the top of the vertical stabilizer, and on the rear of the fuselage by the APU exhaust.
‘Were these videos to be of UAS operating over the ocean, we would expect to see these 17 aircraft to be visible in the background with their high-intensity navigational lights described above activated. Since we do not see additional aircraft beyond the drones, it furthers the assessment that the reported UAS in these videos are the aircraft themselves.’
Above: A map which appears in the Department of Homeland Security assessment, captioned: ‘There are only 2 GA aircraft on this map, but there are 15 commercial aircraft we assessed flew over the area during the described reporting window. Zooming in, you can observe slight deviations in their paths, but they are flying an approach vector so they are almost precisely stacked on top of each other.’
Witnesses Describe Mysterious Incidents
But not all of the night’s activity fits the JFK-traffic explanation.
A follow-up email the next day from the Sector Delaware Bay Command Center, recounting the 8 December events, relayed a witness who stated the drones ‘appeared to be shinning [sic] what looked like holograms on the water that were red in color,’ though the source ‘could not positively identify the holograms or type/number of drones due to distance.’
In a separate message, a Sector Delaware Bay officer reported larger drones extinguishing their lights when approached by lifeboats:
‘Last night we received a report of a drone swarm off Barnegat, NJ. When our crews went out to investigate, they observed about 50 drones, including some larger ones (about 8 feet) that extinguished their bright lights when approached by our 47’ MLB [Motor Lifeboat]. I was curious if you guys have experienced this before or heard of another Sector/unit experiencing this before.’
A separate case opened on 12 December, following a tip that 15 drones were ‘possibly launching from the vessel D & S Express’ off Seaside Heights/Point Pleasant.
The Coast Guard sent a 47-foot rescue boat from Station Manasquan to check the area and ask nearby boat crews if they’d seen any drones or a launch point.
All vessels queried reported not seeing any drones or suspicious activity, and the case was closed.
In another incident on 12 December, a fisherman near the south end of Island Beach State Park’s North Jetty reported seeing four to six suspected drones that ‘appeared to be rotary, with blinking red, green, and white lights.’
In response, the Coast Guard searched for a launch point but suffered a port-engine casualty and returned to base; no suspicious activity was confirmed, and the case was closed
On 14 December, Emergency Management & Force Readiness from Sector Delaware Bay provided a summary of drone activity over Atlantic City on the night of 13 December, including a large drone that had a ‘helicopter shaped body with a fixed-wing structure above the body.’
Smaller drones were described as ‘typhoon style and were turning their lights on and off while continuing to fly.’
According to BM1 Freeman - a Coast Guard petty officer - the ‘sedan-size drone with two bright headlights’ flew within 100 ft of the Seawall, skimming ‘2.5–3.5 ft [feet] above the water.’
Moments later, BM1 Freeman described seeing ‘2 sedan size drones, and 4 small drones.’
The summary continued:
‘The drones flew towards the Brigantine Bridge and the back bay, making occasional trips through the inlet and turning around.’
In January 2025, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt downplayed reports of mystery drones, including those observed near sensitive military installations in New Jersey, claiming they were simply research drones approved by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
Above: President Donald Trump
This was despite the FAA having imposed restrictions in direct response to these incidents.
In an interview with Liberation Times, Representative Eric Burlison - a leading advocate for Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena transparency - argued that bureaucratic inertia, not intent, could explain the confusion:
“Never underestimate the ineptitude of government employees and their inability to act. I think we’re often overly confident about our government’s capabilities. In my view, the most likely scenario is that they don’t know [what the so-called drones were], and they’re embarrassed that they don’t.”
On 14 December 2024, the Department of Defense confirmed drone activity over New Jersey military installations - including Picatinny Arsenal and Naval Weapons Station Earle - and acknowledged that, despite efforts by the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and the FAA, officials had 'been unable to determine who is responsible for flying the drones'.
Within the previous two years, drone incidents have occurred at other sensitive sites, such as U.S. Air Force Plant 42, RAF Lakenheath, and Joint Base Langley-Eustis, where detection proved difficult and available counter-drone measures appeared to have failed.
