Did the Pentagon say in early December 2024 that drones reportedly flying over a New Jersey military installation were "not of earthly origin," as was implied by a post on Instagram? No, that's not true: A Pentagon spokesperson told Lead Stories that the agency never described the drones as "not from earthly origin." A meme shared to Instagram included a portion of a December 11, 2024, Pentagon press briefing in which drones were discussed. However, at no point during the briefing did authorities describe the drones as "not of earthly origin," instead saying the government had no evidence that "these activities were coming from a foreign entity or the work of an adversary."
The claim originated in a post on Instagram (archived here) on December 11, 2024, showing a series of video clips that opened with a portion of a Pentagon news conference held that same day. The post caption read:
The Pentagon has confirmed that the mysterious drones appearing worldwide are NOT of earthly origin:
"These are not US Military drones and these are not drones coming from a foreign entity or adversary."
Here is what the post looked like on Instagram at the time of writing:
(Source: Instagram screenshot taken on Mon Dec 16 13:11:43 2024 UTC)
While the video portion of the Instagram post consists of several people talking about drone sightings, this fact check will focus solely on the claim in the post's text, that, "The Pentagon has confirmed that the mysterious drones ... are NOT of earthly origin."
Lead Stories reviewed the entire December 11, 2024, Pentagon press briefing where drones were discussed. However, at no point during the briefing did authorities describe the drones as "not of earthly origin," instead saying the government had no evidence that "these activities were coming from a foreign entity or the work of an adversary."
A Pentagon spokesperson told Lead Stories in an email received on December 16, 2024, that the Pentagon never described the drones as "not from earthly origin."
Officials at the news briefing (archived here) discussed the "mysterious drones" mentioned in the post on Instagram on three separate occasions.
At the 22:37 mark of the full briefing, Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh explained the military had not taken any action regarding reports of drone sightings over New Jersey military installations because there was no threat:
At this time we have no evidence that these activities are coming from a foreign entity or the work of an adversary. We're going to continue to monitor what is happening but at no point were our installations threatened when this activity was occurring.
Singh did not connect the drones to extraterrestrial activity. Singh also ruled out that the sightings involved U.S. Miltary drones.
Reporters asked twice more about the drone reports. At the 41:31 mark of the full briefing, Singh explained local law enforcement also agreed the sightings posed no threat:
That's a decision for local law enforcement. If a drone or any activity is a threat to military installations, they always have the right for self defense. And they can engage to respond to any potential risk, but with some of the drone activities that you're referring to, there was not a threat to any military installation, so they didn't feel the need to engage.
Ruling out military and foreign government drones does not leave only extraterrestrial activity as the remaining possible explanation for the drone sightings. At the 50:02 mark, Singh suggested some of the sightings may not be drones at all, but could be other domestic aircraft:
Initial assessments are that these are drones and potentially could be small airplanes. Could be a number of things that people are seeing and reporting.
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For more Lead Stories fact checks on claims involving drones, click here.
