A former British UFO hunter has said he does not “rule out” recent drone incursions over RAF bases in England could be linked to Russia and China and nuclear weapons.
Unidentified drones were spotted in November over three air bases in the east of England, which are used by the United States Air Force (USAF).
“Small unmanned aerial systems” were observed between 20 and 22 November over RAF Lakenheath and RAF Mildenhall in Suffolk and RAF Feltwell in Norfolk. The US Air Force, which occupies the bases, could not confirm whether the drones were hostile.
According to a January notice from the US Department of Defense (DoD), plans to deploy US nuclear weapons at RAF Lakenheath have advanced. The document states that the work was in preparation for the base’s “upcoming nuclear mission.”
“I don’t rule out the activity being nuclear-related,” said Nick Pope, a former Ministry of Defense official who headed Whitehall’s UFO unit from 1991 to 1994.
“Adversaries (probably Russia or China) could use drones to collect data on this, alongside using other intelligence gathering strategies. But they’re unlikely to risk an intelligence officer (or a declared, let alone a high-value illegal) on something like this.
Pope thinks that if foreign adversaries are responsible, they could use third parties, perhaps by supplying equipment to domestic drone hobbyists.
“Maybe he’s convincing them that they’re going to work for an independent news agency.” Anti-nuclear groups or individual activists could also be potential culprits in this scenario.
The November incursions will not be the first time unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs, the military’s preferred acronym for Unidentified Flying Objects or UFOs) have been spotted around RAF air bases housing nuclear weapons.
On Boxing Day 1980 airmen from the United States spotted strange objects flying over Rendlesham Forest on the doorstep of RAF Bentwaters in Suffolk, a former air base used by the US Air Force.
Charles Halt, the base commander at the time, said he saw planes shoot beams of light toward the ground and heard on his radio that “the beams went down into the weapons storage area.”
Pope said that unlike other UFO stories, the eyewitness reports from Rendlesham were backed up by hard evidence. “This is the perfect storm of a UFO case. There are many witnesses, including military. These are observations over three consecutive nights.
“It’s physical evidence in terms of radar, radioactivity, depressions on the ground, burn marks, burn marks. This is a case where we have declassified and released documents which you can view in the National Archives and on the Ministry of Defense website. So, unlike many UFO documents floating around, there is no debate about their origin.
Former Pentagon officials such as Luis Elizondo, who claims to have led the US government’s UFO-hunting service, say there is a strong link between UFO sightings and nuclear weapons.
Over the years, dozens of military personnel have witnessed strange craft hovering over bases storing humanity’s most devastating weapons. In a disturbing incident in 1966. airmen saw a UFO flying over Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota.
They claimed that as the craft circled over Minot, its nuclear weapons suddenly activated, then deactivated when the UFO disappeared. The following year, a similar horror occurred at an air force base in Montana.
Witnesses there claimed to have seen a glowing red, oval-shaped craft hovering over its missile silos before all 10 of their nuclear warheads were deactivated.
However, Pope said the most likely possibility was that the sightings were of commercial drones. “It may be that some are operated by aircraft spotters, but as most of these people comply with the CAA rules for operating drones, it is more likely to be the work of irresponsible hobbyists,” Pope said.
Pope added that Lord Coker’s statement to Parliament that the raids were being treated as a criminal investigation for the purpose of prosecution supported his hypothesis.
“While hostile activity cannot be ruled out – not least because the intrusions came to light around the same time as Ukraine launched UK-supplied Storm Shadow missiles to strike Russia’s Kursk region – there is currently no evidence of this .”
Sightings can also result from people mistaking mundane objects such as Chinese lanterns, road torches or bright stars for UFOs. Sirius is often confused by the public with UFOs.
A Ministry of Defense spokesman said: “We take threats seriously and maintain robust measures at defense sites. This includes anti-drone capabilities. We will not comment further on security procedures.
