Business
* AeroVironment has been awarded a five-year Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract worth $874.26 million from the U.S. Army Contracting Command. This contract will support future foreign military sales (FMS) through the Program Executive Office (PEO) Aviation, enabling allied and partner forces to procure a range of Groups
FPV
As someone who has been reviewing camera drones for over a decade, it's rare for me to encounter one that feels genuinely new, but what Antigravity has done with its first-ever product, the A1, essentially invents an entirely novel subcategory: the 360 drone. Using the same shoot-first, frame-later
New research involving Oxford University researchers has found that drones can be a valuable, non-invasive tool for observing elephant families and aiding long-term conservation efforts. This found that elephants can habituate remarkably quickly to drones, showing fewer signs of disturbance both during a single flight and after repeated exposures. Once
Electronic Systems
* Silvus Technologies, a Motorola Solutions company and a global leader in advanced wireless networking solutions, has announced that the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) has added the StreamCaster 4400 Enhanced (SC4400E) mobile ad-hoc network (MANET) radio to its Blue UAS Framework, a rigorous testing and
Weapons Systems
In a historic achievement, Boeing and the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) have successfully executed a force integrated air-to-air autonomous weapon engagement from an MQ-28 Collaborative Combat Aircraft. The landmark mission involved an MQ-28 Ghost Bat teaming with a RAAF E-7A Wedgetail and F/A-18F Super Hornet to destroy a
Business
* Hoverfly Technologies, a global provider of tethered unmanned aerial systems (TeUAS), has announced that its systems have been officially whitelisted on AV_Halo, a hardware-agnostic software platform developed by AeroVironment, Inc. that provides a modular, mission-ready suite of AI-powered software tools, including battle management with command and control (C2) for
C-UAS
Ukrainian company Varta has unveiled a modular hard-kill system for engaging aerial targets at close range, Maksym Dybenko, a Varta representative, commented to Ukrainska Pravda during the Brave1 Components exhibition. "This modular firing system is purpose-built for the hard-kill destruction of drones. We use a 12-gauge anti-drone round of
C-UAS
* Diehl Defence, a supplier of ground-based air defence systems, has demonstrated the capabilities of two of its drone defence products with successfully completed test campaigns at the Grafenwoehr military training area. The company tested the effectiveness of both its Kinetic Defence Vehicle (KDV) and the eMissile CICADA, which is part
Testing
* Boeing, in collaboration with Insitu and the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO), announced updates from the Multi-function Radar Intelligence Surveillance Reconnaissance (MRaISR) project. This Industrial Participation project, supported by the Dutch Ministries of Economic Affairs and Defence, has been in development for several years, showcasing the culmination of
C-UAS
The U.S. Army is moving to equip its MK19 40 mm automatic grenade launchers with programmable airburst counter-drone ammunition under a new Cornerstone Other Transaction initiative posted on SAM.gov. The effort would push dedicated, low-cost air defense against small unmanned aircraft down to squad and platoon level, tightening
Propulsion
A Ukrainian-Australian company has launched the production of turbojet engines for drones, missiles, and guided bombs in Ukraine. The Australian partners developed the engines, and the Ukrainian firm invested its own funds in their production. The joint venture showcased its products at the Brave1 Components exhibition in Kyiv. The manufacturer
Weapons Systems
Japan is moving forward with live trials of its new 100-kilowatt-class laser weapon system aboard a military test ship. The high-energy laser was recently installed on the Japan Maritime Self-Defence Force’s (JMSDF) testbed vessel Asuka and is now being readied for sea-based testing at Japan Marine United’s shipyard.