Spate of drone sightings reported in banned US Air Force jet fighter airspace, including at least one collision

Something strange – and incredibly dangerous – has been happening in the Arizona skies, where pilots of advanced F-16 and F-35 fighter jets reported 22 sightings and at least one collision with drones in or around restricted US Air Force zones. But beyond the basic details of those encounters, the mystery surrounding them remains total.

Revelation of those drone sightings by Air Force pilots is the work of TV station group Arizona’s Family, whose investigative unit uncovered and pursued the story. Its main findings were that from October 2022 to June 2023, at least 22 cases of drones flights near F-16 and F-35 jets on training missions were reported to officials, including one involving a high-speed collision. 

The location of that strike lies within the particularly “restricted area R2301E,” which is part of what itself is the highly controlled airspace of the Barry M. Goldwater Range used by the Air Force for pilot training and sensitive ground exercises. In addition to their presence in that banned area, some of the drones sighted were operating at altitudes of 20,000 feet – well beyond the capabilities of most consumer UAVs, and a height even amateur thrill-seekers wouldn’t often dare.

“F16, TUS – TUS, REAR OF CANOPY STRUCK BY AN ORANGE-WHITE UAS WHILE OPERATING WITHIN RESTRICTED AREA R2301E, EXTENT OF DAMAGE UNKN,” the Federal Aviation Administration report on the incident noted in one of the few documents authorities provided Arizona Family’s requests for information. “NO INJURIES REPORTED. APPROX 46 WSW GILA BEND.”

That vast majority of the sightings during the reported period occurred within 100 miles of Luke Air Force Base, situated in the northwest greater Phoenix area. While that latter group could be explained by insouciant drone pilots flying unaware in restricted Air Force airspaces – or perhaps just unfortunate in operating legally somewhere a jet fighter happened to intersect. But the report will nevertheless stoke the curiosity of DroneDJ readers with longer memories.

As we noted in several 2021 posts, there were repeated sightings of drones around banned Air Force and airport zones in Arizona that year, some involving a remarkably powerful UAV that out-ran and -maneuvered pursuing police aircraft. That eerily potent vehicle was said to reach speeds of over 100 mph, and leave chasing airplanes and helicopters in the dust by ascending up to 14,000 feet, and vanishing into cloud banks. 

The lack of any compunction by the mysterious drone’s operator about violating Davis-Monthan Air Force Base airspace, or that of the nearby Tucson airport, led some observers to speculate the craft was itself the creation of military developers. Who else would have both the tech chops to put that kind of super craft together, then give authorities the airborne finger as it breezily traversed restricted areas – at times covering 70 miles in a single, evasive flight?

These later sightings seem to be something else, albeit still troubling.

Given the close encounters involved, and at least one collision with a fighter jet, it appears unlikely the drones in the Arizona’s Family scoop would have been flown by fellow Air Force staff. If they had been, however, that might explain why officials were so disinclined to provide any information the TV station didn’t manage to unearth on its own. Still: it’s an improbable scenario of a right hand not knowing what the left is up to, even in government.

More likely, however, is the incidents are similar to those over the restricted area of the Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth in Texas, another Air Force fighter jet training zone. Officials there last year said that monthly drone sightings in the banned airspace had risen from around 100 per month to 300 in November. 

Despite those insanely high numbers, authorities at the base are convinced the vast majority of those invasions involved uninformed drone pilots getting their craft aloft in a seemingly open desert setting; or informed operators ill-advisedly hoping to get shots of passing fighters from what turned out to be an unsafe distance. They’ve initially undertaken a public outreach and education program in the hopes of reducing those violations.

That logic works a little less well for the intrusions around Arizona’s Luke Air Force Base, and particularly the high altitudes of “restricted area R2301E.” Among the leading, entirely speculative theories behind those: foreign entities seeking to nab spy footage of advanced US military aircraft during operations. After all, UAVs may not be invisible, but are harder to spot – not to mention shoot down – than big, silver spy balloons.