Israeli drone maker Steadicopter has cleared a regulatory hurdle needed to expand operations of its Black Eagle 50E unmanned helicopter in the United States, the company announced Sept. 15, 2026. The aircraft completed an airworthiness validation process run by the Nevada Unmanned Aircraft Systems Test Site, based at the University of Nevada, Reno. The Nevada [β¦]Photos and video from Exercise Thunderstruck 3.0 show Oklahoma National Guard convoy vehicles fitted with wire mesh cage screens, a low-cost defense against first-person-view drones that Ukrainian forces have used on the battlefield since 2022. The exercise, held September 12 at Camp Gruber Training Center, centered on unmanned systems and drone threats. Images from the [β¦]The U.S. Navy has awarded Boeing a $562 million contract to begin low-rate production of the MQ-25A Stingray, the serviceβs first carrier-based unmanned refueling drone. The Fixed Price Incentive contract covers three Lot 1 aircraft and includes advance funding to buy long-lead components for three more Lot 2 aircraft. Boeing expects to deliver the first [β¦]Diehl Defence and Elbit Systems demonstrated their SkyStriker loitering βkamikaze droneβ system in a live test in early September 2026, the companies announced Sept. 14. The demonstration focused on the weaponβs range and a βhand-overβ function that worked at a distance of 80 km (50 miles). SkyStriker was launched from a canister, located a target, [β¦]German drone developer CiS has finished validation testing on a new compact launch and recovery system called the ORKA Dock Mini, the company announced Sept. 15, 2026 from Rostock, Germany. The final flight tests took place at night, ahead of the first unitβs delivery to an undisclosed naval customer. The Dock Mini is built to [β¦]Lockheed MartinΒ is building four more of its newest combat drones, the company announced September 14, doubling down on a program thatβs still more than a year away from ever leaving the ground. The news came from the companyβs secretive Skunk Works division, following a major Air Force conference near Washington, D.C., where Skunk Works also [β¦]Retired Gen. David Petraeus said the Russian drone that struck a train near Ukraineβs border with Poland on September 13 was a jet-powered version of Russiaβs Geran/Shahed attack drone, adding a detail Ukrainian officials had not specified in their own statements on the strike. Petraeus, a former CIA director and retired four-star U.S. Army general, [β¦]Photos published by military observer Massimo Frantarelli show a Russian Navy corvette in Kronstadt painted to resemble a waterfront building, with outlines suggesting windows and doors on its hull, alongside netting rigged over the deck to blunt drone strikes. The image, credited to M. Mishin and dated August 22, shows the ship at the Leningrad [β¦]Under heavy cloud cover, Russia fired a massive barrage of Geran-2 attack drones, the Russian-built version of Iranβs Shahed-136, at western Ukraine early Sunday. The Ukrainian General Staff said Russia launched 863 drones at Ukraine over the previous 24 hours, one of the largest barrages of the war. French open-source analyst ClΓ©ment Molin wrote on [β¦]A long-endurance surveillance drone built by Maryland-based Platform Aerospace was spotted taking off from a Jordanian air base used by U.S. forces on September 13, 2026, according to flight-tracking data shared by an open-source intelligence account. The MenchOsint described it as the first known sighting of the aircraft, known as Vanilla, operating from Jordan. The [β¦]Ukraineβs Navy said one of its Sargan-3000 uncrewed surface vessels destroyed a Russian drone boat in the Black Sea, describing the engagement as the first battle in history between two uncrewed naval vessels. The Navy said its Defense Intelligence partners spotted the Russian craft before the Sargan-3000 closed in and destroyed it using a remote-controlled [β¦]Russiaβs war against Ukraine has turned unmanned aircraft from a supporting capability into one of the central elements of modern battlefield operations. It has also forced drone manufacturers to confront a problem that peacetime testing cannot fully reproduce: how to keep an aircraft useful when tactics, electronic warfare threats and operational requirements can change within [β¦]A one-way attack drone built by Northrop Grumman flew a test flight in California, guided by a navigation system that never touches GPS. Instead, it reads faint variations in Earthβs own magnetic field, picked up by quantum sensors built by SandboxAQ, a Silicon Valley company spun out of Google. The test took place at Fort [β¦]Ukrainian drones struck Russian military aircraft near Anapa on September 9, 2026, destroying a helicopter and damaging a fixed-wing jet, according to both Russian and Ukrainian accounts of the same overnight operation that also hit Russiaβs naval base at Novorossiysk. Russian sources reporting on the strikes said a single drone destroyed a Mi-8AMTSh helicopter, tail [β¦]Anti-junta fighters launched a wave of FPV drones at Myanmarβs Tada-U Air Base on September 10, 2026, and video posted online shows one striking the nose of a Yak-130 jet, according to resistance sources. Myanmarβs military government said the drones were all intercepted before causing any damage. Journalist Thomas van Linge shared footage on X [β¦]Turkish drone maker Baykar has fitted its AkΔ±ncΔ± unmanned combat aircraft with Roketsanβs new 300-ER air-launched ballistic missile, with a first launch from the drone expected soon, according to Ulusavunma. Roketsan first showed the 300-ER publicly at the IDEF defense show in Istanbul in July 2025, presenting it as the longest-range weapon yet in a [β¦]Polish defense manufacturer WB Group has unveiled Gladius 2, a new loitering munition built for a reduced radar and heat signature and powered by a turbojet engine for a fast run into the target area. The company also refers to the weapon as Warmate 30, tying it to WB Groupβs existing Warmate family of strike [β¦]AEVEX Corp. has won $20.5 million in new U.S. government contracts to build and develop one-way attack drones, the company announced September 9. AEVEX did not name the government agency behind the awards or specify which of its drone models are covered. The work includes delivering the aircraft themselves along with engineering, development and integration [β¦]Elbit Systems has introduced FUSE, a new business line bringing together the Israeli defense contractorβs autonomous drone and ground vehicle systems under one portfolio, the company announced September 9 in Rosh HaAyin, Israel. FUSE centers on software called Dominion-X, which lets a single operator control multiple autonomous aircraft and ground vehicles at once, a setup [β¦]Israeli drone maker Aero Sentinel says its G2 unmanned aircraft completed a week of demonstrations with a Romanian defense company during a Romanian Land Forces exercise, flying reconnaissance missions of up to 75 minutes despite heavy electronic jamming. Aero Sentinel did not name the Romanian partner company, the exact exercise, or its location and dates. [β¦]
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