The federal government will deploy a drone detection system in New York following weeks-long alarm about unmanned aircraft that have been flying in the skies above the East Coast. In an announcement on Sunday, Governor Hochul said the federal government needed to do more. 

“In response to my calls for additional resources, our federal partners are deploying a state-of-the-art drone detection system to New York State,” Ms. Hochul said in a statement. “This system will support state and federal law enforcement in their investigations. We are grateful to the Biden Administration for their support, but ultimately we need further assistance from Congress.”

New York’s senator, Chuck Schumer, on Sunday called for federal authorities to do even more, however. He said officials should allow recently declassified radar technology to be used to help determine whether an object is a drone or a bird, identify its electronic registration, and follow it back to its landing place.

The drones began appearing over New Jersey in mid-November, and the sightings are now being reported up and down the eastern states from Massachusetts to Virginia. Members of New Jersey’s congressional delegation have called on the federal government to provide more answers, though they have not yet gotten them from the Biden administration.

The secretary of homeland security, Alejandro Mayorkas, said Sunday that his department is “on it” with respect to the drones, but did not share anything about their origin or intentions. “We in the federal government have employed additional resources, personnel, technology, to assist the New Jersey State Police,” Mr. Mayorkas said. 

One conservative pundit, Ben Domenech, argued on Saturday that the drones are clearly part of a planned exercise with defense contractors at the Pentagon to test out new drone systems — an exercise that was announced to the public in June. 

“The NJ drones are following FAA [regulations], flying with lights, outside restricted airspace, as you would with a drone protocol testing program out of NAWCAD Lakehurst using bigger drones than people are used to seeing, in a testing corridor they … announced,” Mr. Domenech wrote, linking to a press release detailing the drone program. 

In June, the U.S. Transportation Command and Air Mobility Command said it was granting permission to the National Aerospace Research and Technology Park and the Atlantic County Economic Alliance to perform drone tests in New Jersey. 

“This agreement is a significant accomplishment and will demonstrate the NARTP’s ability to facilitate aviation research,” the board chairman of NARTP, Mark Loeben, said. “USTRANSCOM and AMC are major players in aviation. Their interest in working with the NARTP helps to advance both the development of the NARTP and the emerging aviation industry in New Jersey’s Atlantic County.”

Mr. Loeben said in his press release at the time that the drone program at the technology park would be testing how the American military can integrate drones into the U.S. Air Force. The president of the technology park did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

The Pentagon said in a statement Saturday that it does not have an answer for where the drones are coming from. “We don’t know what the activity is. We don’t know … if it is criminal,” Pentagon officials said. “But I will tell you that it is irresponsible. Here on the military side, we are just as frustrated with the irresponsible nature of this activity.”

The White House and the Pentagon have been widely criticized in recent days for not giving straight answers on what exactly these drones are, or if they even exist at all. The spokesman for the National Security Council, Rear Admiral Kirby, said last week that the federal government hadn’t even been able to verify the existence of the drones based on the photos and videos that have been circulating online. 

The state’s former governor, Chris Christie, went on ABC News on Sunday to say that it is a complete abandonment of their responsibilities for President Biden and his national security team to just tell Americans that there is nothing to worry about. 

Mr. Christie argues that the White House and the Department of Homeland Security need to stop saying that they don’t have the authority to determine the nature of the drones and instead just tell people what they know about them. 

“Let me tell you something — I agree that they need more authority. But … to say this is not unusual activity, it’s just wrong! I’ve lived in New Jersey my whole life. This is the first time that I’ve noticed drones over my house,” Mr. Christie said. 

Governor Murphy has said he is taking the drone issue “deadly seriously,” though he himself does not have any answers about the mysterious aircraft. Ms. Hochul said the drone incident had already gone “too far,” and that the federal government needed to do more. 

A spokesman for the Joint Staff told reporters on Saturday that the appearance of the drones over two military installations in New Jersey should not concern anyone, and that the military is prepared to take action should the drones be deemed a threat. 

“This is not a new issue for us. We’ve had to deal with drone incursions over our bases for quite a time now,” the unnamed spokesman said. “It’s something that we routinely respond to in each and every case when reporting is cited.” 

One lawmaker, Congressman Jeff Van Drew who represents southern New Jersey, speculated that the drones were of Chinese or Iranian origin. He later told Politico that he had no such evidence for that. The same spokesman for the Pentagon confirmed that there is zero evidence that the drones are coming from an “adversary” nation.