“Multiples UAV around the ship” - Investigating the USS Kidd UAV Incident

parallax ^ | 01/28/2021 | no byline

[BenLurkin]

... USS Kidd deck log...several mentions of UAVs, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles or drones. Although those single-line reports of drones don’t really stand out in the middle of mundane navigation details, contextual information and details make the whole matter more puzzling. Those sightings happened at night and SNOOPIE teams were deployed each time UAVs were observed from the USS Kidd deck....

“The ship’s nautical or otherwise photographic intelligence exploitation (SNOOPIE) team is a reaction team that records and photographs unknown contacts that approach the ship within visual range for both intelligence gathering and documentation."

... USS Kidd deck log...found mentions of UAVs on 4 different occasions. Here is a list of all entries referring to UAVs. (Note : Several other SNOOPIE team deployments are logged but with no reference to drones)

...

“River City is an OPSEC measure used to prevent the release of critical or sensitive information by controlling outgoing communications and network paths from a ship or location while allowing users to perform mission-essential duties. The operations cell of a command or activity makes the decision to set River City conditions...only predesignated essential personnel have communication access in any form to the outside world.“

The next day, as the deck log entry shows, multiple UAVs were observed by the crew.

...

Two other vessels are mentioned in this report :

-The M/V Bass Strait, a bulk carrier registered in Hong Kong, was somehow involved in this incident and from what we can read in this e.mail, the crew likely reported seeing UAVs.

-The ORV Alguita, an ocean research vessel from California, was considered to be a possible suspect in the July 14th/15th UAV situation because of its proximity to the Kidd at the time. Furthermore the Alguita crew had a Phantom 4 commercial drone onboard.

[pfflier]

One pound (~ 500 grams) of plastic explosive, unconfined, makes for a bang and a lot of smoke. Unless it was a shaped or focused charge I can only imagine superficial damage and scorched paint work on a ship.

We used C-4 a lot. If you want to damage something, you have to focus the blast.

If you just burn it, it would heat a c-rat can.

[allendale]

Well it would be confined and have a reliable fuse within the drone which would double as a casing. Such a device would do more than scorch or heat rations.

Let’s all hope that such devices are never deployed against the American navy and its brave sailors.