The mystery drone swarms over British bases that could be a sign of an impending Russian attack – as alarm over New Jersey UFOs spreads across the globe

A British intelligence chief has warned Russian spies could soon launch a fresh wave of drones at military HQs across the UK in a bid to cause mayhem – amid alarm over sightings worldwide.

Last month saw a mysterious swarm of drones targeting three air bases used by the US Air Force, which triggered a scramble by British troops and police.

The unmanned aerial vehicles – or UAVs – were seen hovering over RAF Lakenheath and RAF Mildenhall, in Suffolk, and RAF Feltwell in Norfolk, over several days, in a what defence sources described as a ‘coordinated’ operation.

Similar drone ‘invasions’ have taken place in New Jersey, America – with unknown aircraft circling the US Army’s Picatinny Arsenal, home of the CCDC Armaments Center, which manufactures and supplies Ukraine with artillery ammunition.

Numerous ‘car-sized’ drones have been seen hovering throughout the state since mid-November, sometimes appearing in groups and often remaining in the same place for hours at a time. They have since spread to New York, Texas and Oklahoma.

Although those behind the mystery drone sightings have not been formally identified, intelligence analysts from both the US and UK have pointed the finger at Russian despot Vladimir Putin.

And, chillingly, a retired British spymaster has today said Kremlin intelligence services were potentially gearing up for a fresh wave of incursions into UK airspace.

Philip Ingram, a former British military intelligence Colonel, said the sightings had ‘all the hallmarks’ of an operation by Russia’s secretive GRU spy agency.

‘It’s a distinct possibility if not a certain probability this is all down to Russian intelligence,’ he said. ‘They and the GRU are just a bunch of petulant little boys. They’re trying to suggest they have the ability to disrupt and influence through a level of nuisance action.’

He added: ‘I would say we will see another flurry of activity in the next few months for sure. Whether drones or something else, I suspect something else.’

Col Ingram said they could also be using the UAVs to test Western forces’ responses and capabilities – and were potentially carrying out such operations to massage Russian tyrant Putin’s bruised ego, after his failures in Ukraine.

He also claimed the drones were part of a wider spate of small, ‘seemingly isolated’ incidents which could be part of a larger coordinated test of disruption tactics.

It follows a series of suspicious incidents worldwide, which have seen hackers carrying out cyber attacks, underwater internet cables sabotaged and bomb scares triggering chaos at Gatwick and in central London.

In America, drone sightings have spread across the US at an alarming rate, with unknown craft hovering in the skies above New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania, as well as Texas and Oklahoma.

The FBI and other agencies are investigating, but the Department of Homeland Security said on Wednesday: ‘We have no more information as to where these drones are coming from, where they’re launching from, where they’re landing.’

‘There’s a pattern building up and from an intelligence perspective, I don’t like patterns,’ Col Ingram added.

‘Each one of these things in isolation won’t massively disrupt our way of life and none will potentially raise a big question mark but if you suddenly put them together and they all happen at once, then the level of disruption you could have could be really serious.’

And as it seeks to beef up its aerial defences, Britain this week unveiled its newest weapon in the war against drones – a high powered laser which is able to scorch the devices out of the sky in seconds.

The high-energy device, mounted on the roof of a Wolfhound armoured vehicle, was successfully tested at the Radnor Range in mid-Wales.

Soldiers from 16 Royal Artillery – an air defence regiment based near Portsmouth, Hampshire – were able to track and destroy hovering targets.

Meanwhile, in America, intelligence experts have also pointed the finger at the Kremlin as being the prime suspect for a series of drone incursions in New Jersey.

US Army General Darryl Williams described the situation that mirrors what has unfolded at American/Nato  bases across Europe that are known to supply arms to Ukraine.

And retired police lieutenant and intelligence analyst Tim McMillan told DailyMail.com  the descriptions of the UFOs in Jersey ‘sound exactly like Russian Orlan-10 drones’ — secretive craft that fly in packs of three to five.

Lt McMillan and other experts have noted the New Jersey sightings circled around Picatinny Arsenal, home of the US Army’s CCDC Armaments Center, which is responsible for manufacturing and supplying Ukraine with artillery ammunition.

These experts suggest that Russia could be carrying out an intelligence-gathering mission known as ‘ferreting’, meant to intentionally trigger and test their foreign rival’s airspace defense procedures and response time.

Or the Kremlin could simply be spying on allies of Ukraine who are aiding the fight against Russia’s occupation of its southeastern regions, including Donetsk and Mariupol.

While experts could not rule out a theory that Iran was behind the attacks, argued by NJ Congressman Jeff Van Drew, but denied by the Pentagon, White House officials have long noted that Russia and Iran collaborate on military drone development.

‘Russia has been very aggressive and reckless with its responses to Western support of Ukraine,’ Lt McMillan told DailyMail.com. ‘This isn’t something I see discussed in US media, but it’s well documented and openly discussed here in Europe.’

The first New Jersey drone sightings appeared over the US Army’s Picatinny Arsenal on November 18, but reports to varying levels of credibility have now spread to at least 12 counties throughout the Garden State.

Officials have received reports of craft flying of ‘water reservoirs, electric transmission lines, rail stations, police departments, and military installations’ in recent weeks, according to Florham Park, NJ police chief Joseph J Orlando.

But those earliest and most credible sightings above Picatinny, according to Lt McMillan, are most worth focusing on.

‘Picatinny Arsenal,’ as Lt McMillan told DailyMail.com, is ‘home of the US Army’s CCDC Armaments Center, which is responsible for manufacturing and supplying Ukraine with 155mm artillery ammunition.’

Republican Rep Jeff Van Drew has claimed that Iran is behind the drones in New Jersey, telling reporters that the nation parked a ‘mothership’ off the East Coast.

But experts said the New Jersey sightings more accurately match the description of Russian drones known as ‘Orlan-10.’

The Orlan-10 craft comes with ‘standard positional lighting’ — a red light on the left (port) wingtip, a green light on the right (starboard) wingtip, and white taillights, similar to the lights seen on ordinary aircraft and Jersey’s ‘mystery drones.’

The brazen New Jersey night flights, as Lt McMillan explained, greatly resemble troubling drone flights above industrial parks surrounding Germany‘s Brunsbüttel harbor from this past August.

‘Here in Germany, we’ve had similar drone incidents over military bases training and equipping Ukrainian troops,’ Lt McMillan added, saying the ones in New Jersey ‘sound exactly like Russian Orlan-10 drones.’

The Russian craft fly in packs for three to five, similar to what has been reported in New Jersey.

At least one model contains optical and thermal vision cameras, but the Orlan-10 fleet’s full capabilities are not well known publicly, despite a few crashes in Europe.

Packs of Orlan-10s, Lt McMillan noted, often come ‘with each one running a different package like EW [electronic warfare] and data relays.’

The comment matches some reports in New Jersey, where one family in Morris County reported a drone that interfered with their car’s dashboard clock.

Russia has roughly 11 different versions of the Orlan-10, which have been produced at a rate of nearly 1,000 per year since 2018, according to manufacturer Special Technology Center.

The drones can fly between 4,000 and 5,000 feet in the air for reconnaissance, but up to 20,000 feet if necessary.

Formerly a police investigator in Garden City, Georgia, Lt McMillan served as an intelligence analyst for a law firm before moving to Germany.

He has since become a prolific investigative reporter on military cases of unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), including a spate of ‘mystery drones’ that plagued Sweden in 2022, curiously timed to its decision to ‘deepening its partnership with Nato.’

In an article for The Debrief, a publication Lt McMillan co-founded, he described two possible reasons Russia might engage in such-less-than secret drone flights.

One was ‘ferreting,’ the military term for intentionally triggering and testing a foreign rival’s airspace defenses.

A second, more unique to Russia is called ‘reflexive control,’ a psychological warfare tactic intended to influence the general public of a rival nation, for instance, to weaken popular support for their home government’s military aid or policies abroad.

Speaking at a US Army event this past October, Jack Watling, a ground warfare expert with the Royal United Services Institute in London, corroborated the reports coming in that described Russian-backed, covert ‘sabotage across Europe.’

Last month, Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth was reported stalked by an unidentified drone during a trip to Hamburg.

The 5ft-by-5ft drone shadowed the 65,000-ton behemoth at the entrance to the port, with guards from the German military reportedly trying to target the device with HP-47 jammers before it flew away.

Speaking about the drone sightings at UK military bases, a spokesman for the Ministry of Defence said last month: ‘We take threats seriously and maintain robust measures at defence sites. We are supporting the US Air Force response.’

MailOnline has approached the MoD for further comment.