2023 · Joint Base Langley-Eustis and Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia
The swarm over Langley
Part ofThe squeeze
60 Minutes: drone swarms over U.S. bases · CBS News, 60 Minutes
When6 to 23 December 2023
WhereJoint Base Langley-Eustis and Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia
Backing4 independent
Evidenceofficial records, documents
For seventeen nights in December 2023, unidentified aircraft came over Langley Air Force Base, home of the F-22 Raptors, about 45 minutes after sunset. They flew in groups, some of them large, and then headed south over Naval Station Norfolk and the home base of SEAL Team Six. NORAD's commander, Gen. Glen VanHerck, sent jets and other aircraft to get close to them and called the episode unlike anything he had seen. The base cancelled night training and moved its F-22s elsewhere. No one ever identified who was flying them, and on the 23rd they simply stopped coming.
Evidence, in date order (4)
- 2024Joint Base Langley-EustisofficialFirst saw the activity on 6 Dec 2023; night training cancelled and F-22s moved The Hill: Pentagon confirms 'incursions' of unauthorized drones over Air Force base
- Oct 2024Sabrina Singh, Pentagon spokespersonofficialConfirmed the incursions over Langley The Hill: Pentagon confirms 'incursions' of unauthorized drones over Air Force base
- Oct 2024Wall Street JournaldocumentReported 17 days of flights over Langley, Naval Station Norfolk and the SEAL Team Six base The War Zone: former NORAD boss wasn't surprised by the Langley incursions
- Mar 2025Gens. VanHerck and Guillot (60 Minutes, March 2025)officialNORAD's commanders said they did not know who flew over Langley Glen VanHerck
How plausible · High
The Pentagon confirmed seventeen nights of incursions and NORAD's commander spoke of them firsthand; no data released.
- ●●Access NORAD commander.
- ●●No gain sought Official.
- ●●Character record NORAD commander.
- ●●Independent convergence Pentagon; senators.
- ●●Checkable details check out Statements.
- ●●Fits the documented skeleton Base incursions documented.
Plausibility weighs how well an account fits where secrecy hides the documents by design, so missing records never count against it. Strength measures what is documented. Assessed 2026-10-23.
On the record
- Wall Street Journal, Oct 2024: drone flights over Langley for 17 days in December 2023, also over Naval Station Norfolk and the SEAL Team Six base.
- Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh confirmed the 'incursions', which varied day to day and showed no apparent hostile intent.
- Langley says it first saw the activity on the evening of 6 Dec 2023. Night training was cancelled and the F-22s were moved to another base.
- Gen. Glen VanHerck (NORTHCOM/NORAD) ordered aircraft to fly close and recommended electronic eavesdropping; the operators were never traced.
- Separate case: Chinese student Fengyun Shi was arrested in January 2024 for flying a drone over the Newport News shipyard. He pleaded guilty, and no link to Langley has been made.
Claims
The objects were advanced foreign platforms, possibly Chinese.anonymousSourced, unconfirmedan unnamed senator after a briefing
They were genuine unknowns of the same kind as the 2019 destroyer swarms and the 2024 drones over the bases in England.Virginia Navy swarmspeculationSourced, unconfirmedresearchers
Langley 'mostly ended up being Chinese drones'; he has not seen pictures.secondhandLeadMark Warner
More than 40 objects over about 90 minutes: large orbs with no rotors and odd colour changes, not conventional drones.firsthandSourced, unconfirmedJonathan Butner
Where
Joint Base Langley-Eustis and Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia
37.1°N 76.4°W
In The picture
They came when we split the atomFrom 1948, green fireballs flew over Los Alamos and Sandia; Sandia logged 209 sightings and Los Alamos held a conference of physicists about them. In March 1950 the Farmington paper named a dozen townspeople, a few hours' drive from Los Alamos, who watched hundreds of silvery discs fly in formation; in 1953 an F-84 c…
The shoot-down yearsDrones and orbs came over Langley, U.S. bases in Europe, New Jersey, Europe's airports and Australia's F-35 base at Williamtown, and no operator was caught. At Volkel, the Dutch F-35 base that stores American nuclear bombs, guards opened fire on objects in November 2025, and the defence minister told parliament their…
‹ Previous in Drone incursions"Possible UAP/UAV" near Baghdad, not followed (1 December 2022)9 of 21Next in Drone incursions ›Colorado Springs: black triangle with red corner lights emerging from a "pixelated" cloud (October 2023)
Similar cases · sharing people, threads, topics or era
Connected cases
Drones over bases 2024Helicopter orbs 2025Jersey drones 2024NORAD's east-coast chase Virginia Navy swarm 2024White Sands lure 2025RAAF Williamtown 2026 2026
People and organizations
George Knapp personGlen VanHerck personGregory Guillot personJonathan Butner personMark Warner personMatt Laslo person
Threads · click one to see it on the board
Sources
- The Hill: Pentagon confirms 'incursions' of unauthorized drones over Air Force base
- The War Zone: former NORAD boss wasn't surprised by the Langley incursions
- CBS 60 Minutes: the challenge of stopping drone swarms
- Ask a Pol: Warner, 'Chinese drones' shuttered Air Force base (10 Oct 2026)
- Ask a Pol: Warner disappointed with Langley drone briefing (Dec 2024)
- CBS 60 Minutes: US capability to handle drones (March 2025)