In December 2019 and January 2020, the plains of rural northeastern Colorado and southwestern Nebraska were the epicenter of a series of sightings of what were widely described as unidentified drones. Despite the media attention these sightings received and the speculation that they were related to the security forces responsible for protecting intercontinental ballistic missile silos scattered throughout the region, military bases in the area denied that the drones were theirs. While the mystery of the drones’ operator or operators remains unsolved, a series of internal emails obtained through the Freedom of Information Act reveal just how serious the drone reports were taken by the 90th Security Forces Group and the public affairs office at F.E. Warren Air Force Base. The emails are heavily redacted, but they at least shed some light on the confusion even the base experienced at the hands of this seemingly unsolved mystery. In late December 2019, The War Zone was among the first outlets to report on the somewhat bizarre story of fleets of unidentified drones operating in the airspace above northeastern Colorado and western Nebraska. There was a sense of near-panic as law enforcement agencies were inundated with scores of reports of these drones, prompting the creation of a task force that included the FAA, federal law enforcement agencies like the FBI, and sheriffs from multiple Colorado counties. Eventually, the State of Colorado sent one of its well-equipped surveillance planes to hunt for the drones. Since then, however, reports of suspicious drone activity have dropped significantly, according to the Colorado Department of Public Safety and Nebraska State Patrol.

Despite the large effort and the mobilization of Colorado's infrared camera-equipped aircraft, nothing conclusive was identified and, to date, no one has come forward to claim responsibility for the drone activities. That doesn’t mean that the case is closed, however. Douglas D. Johnson, a volunteer researcher operating in affiliation with the Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies (SCU), recently obtained emails through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) which catalog the internal communications of the public affairs office at F.E. Warren and the 90th Security Forces Group regarding the spate of drone sightings. The 90th Security Forces Group provides security both for F.E. Warren and the 150 Minuteman III Intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) operated by the 90th Missile Wing. The heavily redacted emails can be read in their entirety here.

Wikimedia Commons Peacekeeper, Minuteman III, and Minuteman I intercontinental ballistic missiles outside F.E. Warren Air Force Base.

Johnson filed two separate FOIA requests for all official correspondence to and from Jon Carkhuff, a public affairs officer and/or spokesman associated with F.E. Warren Air Force Base, and all official correspondence to and from the headquarters staff of the 90th Security Forces Group that contain any of the following terms: drone, drones, counter-drone, counter-drones, unmanned aerial system, unmanned aerial systems, UAS, counter-UAS, unidentified aircraft, unidentified aerial, unidentified flying, unknown aircraft, UFO, and anomalous. The FOIA requests were for communications ranging from December 15, 2019, through January 18, 2020. The requests were filed on January 18, 2020, and were fulfilled on February 14. Many parts of the communications Johnson received are redacted, including the names of the participants in the email chains in which the mystery drones and the base's response to media inquiries about them are discussed. In an exchange about how to respond to an early media inquiry, an unknown sender writes "We need to ensure he doesn't feel like we are hiding anything." On the next page in the same release, after a statement "we do not know the origin of the drones," one writer inserts the hashtag "#aliens." As the FOIA documents show, public affairs staff at F.E. Warren would eventually release an official press statement on January 17 after receiving input from Major General Ferdinand 'Fred' B. Stoss III, commander of 20th Air Force, the part of Air Force Global Strike Command responsible for overseeing the entire ICBM force. The final version of the statement that was released states definitively that F.E. Warren was not responsible for the drones:

We can confirm that the drones spotted in Colorado and Nebraska are not from F.E. Warren Air Force Base and are not affiliated in any way with the United States Air Force. We have provided this information to the FAA, FBI, and state and local authorities, as they investigate this matter. The drones have not posed a threat to any of our sites, facilities or operations. F.E. Warren AFB does conduct counter-UAS training within the confines of the installation, however, any drones spotted outside of the installation are not part of our fleet.

Aside from discussions and drafts pertaining to the production of that official statement, the FOIA releases contain entire emails that are redacted and seem to have once contained nothing but images of drones taken by eyewitnesses. The only images not redacted are a series taken by a Nebraska State Trooper.

Douglas D. Johnson Much of the content in the FOIA releases is redacted.

Still, despite being heavily censored, the emails reveal that many at F.E. Warren were just as confused by the mystery drones as the public was. Questions And Confusion Surrounding Drone Sightings In one email contained in the F.E. Warren public affairs office FOIA release, the palpable confusion of staff can be detected in the fact that there seems to be no agreement on who might be responsible for the drone sightings. “[Redacted] — understand you’re part of the FBI TF [task force] looking at this? Pls send me an update,” the email reads. “This is becoming a bigger deal. What’s our PA [public affairs] play here right now WRT [with regards to] this (ongoing drone) effort?” In another email sent on January 2, 2020, an unknown sender notes the bewilderment the region experienced at the height of the drone panic:

Hey colonel: Northeastern Colorado is in a tizzy about drone sightings. They all seem clustered in an area that has quite a few Minuteman sites. Do you know if security forces is playing with UASs [unmanned aircraft systems] up there?

An email within the 90th Security Forces Group FOIA release dated January 8, 2020 states that the drones are “100000000000% not us.” “I’ve seen some articles pointing the finger as us [sic],” the sender writes, “but I can definitely say this is not our team.” Even the Air Force Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI) got involved with the drone mystery. AFOSI is military law enforcement and investigative agency that reports directly to the Secretary of the Air Force whose stated mission is to “identify, exploit and neutralize criminal, terrorist, and intelligence threats in multiple domains to the Air Force, Department of Defense and U.S. Government.” Its stated capabilities are to detect threats, conduct investigations, and “protect secrets.” A 90th Security Forces Group email dated January 6, 2020, adds that the sender will “defer to [Redacted] on this one since AFOSI is the lead agency on the FEW [F.E. Warren AFB] side for this issue.” In a separate email within the FOIA release from the public affairs office at F.E. Warren, it is written that the AFOSI would send a representative to the closed-door task force meeting held on Jan. 6 in Brush, Colorado.

USAF US Air Force Security Forces airmen protect part of a missile field during a training exercise.

Several of the emails in the 90th Security Forces Group FOIA release mention AF/A10, the office of the U.S. Air Force Air Staff that oversees Strategic Deterrence and Nuclear Integration. “AF/A10 reached down asked for confirmation that we (AFSGC) [Air Force Global Strike Command] are not flying the drones in question,” one email reads. In one of the stranger exchanges found in the 90th Security Forces Group release, a participant in the email chain writes that some eyewitness reports state that the drones were dropping what appeared to be “potatoes” and that the Perkins County Sheriff's Office collected some of them for analysis:

Sheriff’s deputies are responding and seeing the drones as well. They reported seeing a “mothership” 6’ in diameter flanked by 10 smaller drones (some fixed wing, some not). When deputies follow the drones, they clock them at speeds of 60-70 mph. The drones also appear to be dropping or picking up things that look like “potatoes” [Redacted] The FBI in Colorado and the Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) in Omaha are currently looking into the sightings. Perkins County Sherriff’s [sic] Office has three of the potatoes frozen in storage and will likely transfer them to the FBI for analysis. The FAA is sending an agent to Colorado this upcoming weekend to help investigate and handle the news coverage.

In an email dated January 2, someone else in the email chain added that “The “potatoes” have an agricultural purpose and are used by farmers with their large center pivot irrigation systems.” The Denver Post identified the "potatoes" as SOILPAM Tracklogs, a tool used to help fill the ruts left by wheels on large irrigation systems.

Douglas D. Johnson An email about the strange "potatoes" reported by the Perkins County Sheriff's Office.

The War Zone reached out to both the Perkins County Sheriff’s Office and the FBI office in Denver for comment on these “potatoes." The Perkins County Sheriff's Office declined to comment, while the FBI issued the following statement:

The FBI’s media policy prohibits confirming or denying an investigation unless in rare circumstances when publicity would help the investigation, such as in seeking a missing child or trying to identify a bank robber. The matter you’re inquiring about does not meet that exception, so it would not be appropriate to provide any details.

Counter-UAS Operations At F.E. Warren And Minuteman Sites Throughout the email chains of both the 90th Security Forces Group and the F.E. Warren AFB public affairs office, there is significant discussion regarding counter-UAS (unmanned aircraft systems) operations.

Douglas D. Johnson An email showing the confusion over possible counter unmanned aerial system operations.

In an email dated Jan. 2, 2020, it is noted that the 90th Security Forces Group does indeed have a section dedicated to UAS operations and that “we have some for testing and training throughout the command." The sender notes that “We can reach out to them to see if there are any concerns.” In a heavily redacted email dated Thursday, Jan. 9, 2020, with the subject line “Autonomous Base Defense System”, the sender discusses a capabilities demonstration (“capes demo”) at an unknown facility:

Good morning sir, [Redacted] Since this capes demo they have continued to develop and field their systems. To that end, they just successfully completed a very high visibility demonstration at [Redacted] that is continuing to drive interest and deployment of the system [Redacted] as well as a one-month long combat validation deployment to [Redacted] that was so successful they are now deploying four additional systems in country on a permanent basis. The [Redacted] proposed Jan 15th to come to FEW [F.E. Warren] and provide a brief and answer any questions. I will work with your front office to get it on your calendar.

On January 10, another message states that engineers from an unknown organization would be on base on Jan. 17 to lead a briefing on an unspecified autonomous base defense system:

The lead engineer for [Redacted] will be briefing [Redacted] on Jan 17th @ 1030 in the Wing Conference Room on their autonomous base defense system and associated systems. The C-UAS section hit me up and said they were attending which is awesome however, this is less about actual blue force sUAS development and more about the system used to detect, track, classify, and identify the threat. [Redacted]