Perhaps starting a war with the aliens is not the best thing to do right now

So anyway, I started blasting...

However it would make a fitting sequel to COVID.

I had bet on zombies for the Dec 2020 final stage but I guess intergalactic war would have fit the bill too

As if our weapons would do anything to alien craft lmao

It's not space aliens, it's some other group of humans from another country or non-aligned organization.

Considering the amount of evidence provided, there's no way to be sure its 'some other country'. It could be US citizens, the US armed forces, or hell, an ET. Safe to not make assumptions.

What kind of odds are you willing to give me that it's actually space aliens?

There's no marines onboard a destroyer, and no one is shooting anything that hasn't shot first when you're in that area, it's full of Navy training platforms and civilians.

On the other hand if you allow drone to get to the ship, it might be too late.

Not really - you need thousands of pounds of ordinance to sink a destroyer and no small UAV is carrying that.

The UAV could be the first part of a coordinated attack... it could do something to foul the sensors on the ship, for example.

Did you see some representation of size?

Based on the flight times and 100 mile flights ~100 miles off the coast and the investigated boats in the area...they couldn't be small. At least not with current consumer battery technology. Maybe if they were launched by a sub?

There's a youtuber that has a multi-hour autonomous drone, but it's solar powered and this was at night.

Hybris electric/gas drones are commercially available these days.

https://dronelife.com/2021/03/18/skyfront-gas-electric-hybri...

That could almost had done what’s reported from land, and easily from a small boat 50 miles away from the ships (which is well over the horizon).

With that attitude you'd have started real war many times during the Cold War. Just go to youtube and watch Cold War fly-bies over opposite navy ships.

Here it were international waters and no any weapons trained toward the ships - and even trained weapons isn't enough actually to start shooting.

Prior to 9/11, hijackers weren't resisted... tactics changed after that. Active defense is now a reasonable strategy.

During the cold war drones were huge, noisy, expensive, and had relatively short endurance. They weren't used in waves like drones can be now.

Zone denial seems like a reasonable response to today's threat environment.

To clarify, I am pretty sure they are talking about flybys by actual manned fighters.

But it's a fair point that shooting down an unmanned drone is a lot less aggressive than shooting down a manned one.

Of course, not starting a war with aliens that don't shoot seems wise.

you miss the point - it isn't Florida with the "stand your ground", it is international waters where one side's "reasonable" most probably means absolutely nothing to the other side(s). You shoot at something in your denial zone - it is an act of war, and you open yourself to reciprocation. China, for example tries to establish various zones in international waters for the reasons of its national security - the US ships and planes still sail and fly right through rightfully without giving a flying f-k.

>I'm surprised the Marines on board weren't authorized to shoot them out of the sky.

They were 1000 feet in the air. Maybe read the article first.