Drone Tech
News Source
EXCERPT:
One of the biggest takeaways of the war with Iran is that it has proven itself to be a surprisingly capable adversary against the United States. In addition to its willingness to go on the offensive, Iran has forced the U.S. and its regional allies to confront the rise of cheap drones on the battlefield.
Iranian drones, made with commercial-grade technology, cost roughly $35,000 to produce. That is a fraction of the cost of the high-tech military interceptors sometimes used to shoot them down.
Note: Estimated price of munitions per unit. In practice, multiple interceptors are fired when targeting a drone. For instance, with the $80 bullet fired by the Centurion Counter-Rocket, Artillery, and Mortar (C-RAM), 75 rounds are fired in a second. Sources: Department of Defense, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Open Source Munitions Portal, SRC Inc, U.S. Army and U.S. Navy.
Cheap drones changed the war in Ukraine, and they have enabled Iranians to exploit a gap in American defense investments, which have historically prioritized accurate but expensive solutions.
Countering drones has been a major priority for the Pentagon for years, according to Michael C. Horowitz, who was a Pentagon official in the Biden administration. “But there has not been the impetus to scale a solution,” he said.
The U.S. Military’s New ‘Mini’ B-21 Raider Stealth Inspired Drones Just Broke Cover 19FortyFive
from news.google.com
The Coming Drone-War Inflection in Ukraine IEEE Spectrum
from news.google.com
Russia launched almost 1,000 drones against Ukraine within 24 hours between March 23 and 24, making it one of Moscow’s largest aerial attacks since the beginning of the full-scale invasion.
Following a massive barrage of missiles and drones overnight, Russia carried on its attack during Tuesday in a rare daytime wave of over 550 attack drones targeting central and western regions.
At least three people have been killed and over 30 have been injured across Ukraine during the daylight attack, following the overnight missiles and drone assault, killing at least four people and injuring 21, according to regional authorities.
Lviv in Western Ukraine got hit and 17 people were wounded when Russian drones hit civilian areas in the city not far from the border with Poland.
US Army orders 2,500 Skydio drones in record deal DroneDJ
from news.google.com
Drone Warfare and the Future of Korean Armor Modern War Institute –
from news.google.com
The recent Iranian strike campaign against the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has largely been viewed through images of drones striking skyscrapers and residential buildings. But it can also be understood through the dataset emerging from daily interception reports. Beginning on February 28, Iranian forces have launched nearly 1,800 drones and missiles towards the UAE, according to compiled data and interception timelines based on the daily releases shared by the UAE’s Ministry of Defence.
While interception rates remained high and protected key locations, a closer examination of the data reveals a structured operational campaign. The pattern suggests that Iran’s objective was not necessarily infrastructure destruction but imposing economic and operational strain on advanced air-defence networks.
Turns out, one-way drone warfare is a two-way street.
During a briefing Tuesday on the progress of the ongoing U.S.-Israeli attack on the Islamic Republic of Iran, Admiral Brad Cooper touted the success of a new weapon in the U.S. military’s arsenal.
And it originated with the Iranian military itself.
Update from CENTCOM Commander on Operation Epic Fury: pic.twitter.com/epEohq64Vf
— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) March 3, 2026
The Pentagon said that Iran is getting pummeled by suicide drones using technology that Iran itself developed and used against U.S. allies, including Ukraine.
The U.S. attacked leaders and commanders of the Iranian regime in a joint operation with Israeli forces beginning Saturday morning. President Donald Trump said Monday that the operation was planned to last four weeks but that the military was prepared to continue “for as long as necessary.”
China’s ‘Space Aircraft Carriers’: Nantianmen Project Could Mean Drone Mothership and a U.S. Military Scrambling to Respond 19FortyFive
from news.google.com
The federal government, in conjunction with state and local governments, is desperately trying to catch up to the threat posed by drones, but needs to close the gap for U.S. defenses before it’s too late.
The sheer scope and scale of what’s needed is hard to quantify. Any public event, airport, airplane, military installation, or critical infrastructure could be targeted by a drone or drone swarms, and the U.S. needs to be prepared to not only stop the perceived threat, but do so in a way that avoids collateral damage.
“The biggest dilemma is just how broad the threat exists. And then how do you layer in solutions that can take into account how much just territory is required to be defended,” Army Secretary Dan Driscoll told the Washington Examiner. “What keeps me up at night is just the sheer magnitude of the problem that is required.”
Drones are increasingly violating American airspace. We know that tens of thousands of drone sightings on our southern border are connected with the Mexican drug and human trafficking cartels. But dozens of other drone sightings at sensitive military installations suggest hostile nation-state actors, most likely China.
As drone operations in Russia’s war on Ukraine show, the threat is no longer hypothetical — it is active and escalating. Unfortunately, a dangerous combination of bureaucratic inertia and misplaced priorities has left our borders and military installations vulnerable.
Elon Musk bids to build swarms of drones for US military The Telegraph
from news.google.com
“Ukraine is using at least one adapted Antonov An-28 Cash twin-turboprop utility aircraft as part of its anti-drone inventory. While images of the aircraft, replete with multiple drone-kill marks, had previously been published, we now get to see the aircraft’s armament, a six-barrel, Gatling-type, M134 Minigun, in action, too.” — Thomas Newdick, for The War Zone, February 5, 2026.
“It’s two in the morning. There are targets in the air in the southeast. As pilots, we try to counter these drones using our aircraft, shooting them down with a machine gun.” — Ukrainian An-28TD aircrew member, February 2026.
Surge of mystery drone incursions target Europe’s military nerve centers Washington Times
from news.google.com
Ukraine burns through small drones like belts of ammunition — fed, fired, and reloaded. Piloted from behind the front lines, drones hunt on the battlefield. This summer, Ukraine’s drone production increased 900 percent to 200,000 per month from 20,000 the previous year. Costs, too, are ammunition-like: reconnaissance and first-person view drones cost in the low thousands, akin to 120mm mortar rounds and far cheaper than a $200,000 Javelin anti-tank missile. Despite limits to drone performance, the United States will certainly need more drones than it has now. Acquiring, maintaining, accounting for, and delivering drones exceeds what the U.S. Army’s supply system can do.
Ukraine arms infantry with ammo that splits mid-flight to hit drones Euromaidan Press
from news.google.com
Behind Russia’s battlefield drone surge in Ukraine? Chinese factories. The Washington Post
from news.google.com
It’s an urgent mission for the Pentagon and its defense industry partners: Build cost-effective tools — lots of them — to counter the increasingly cheap and lethal tactical attack drones wielded by America’s adversaries abroad or terrorists targeting events at home.
‘Swarms of Killer Robots’: Why AI is Terrifying the American Military – Politico
Source Link
Excerpt:
Artificial intelligence technology is poised to transform national security. In the United States, experts and policymakers are already experimenting with large language models that can aid in strategic decision-making in conflicts and autonomous weapons systems (or, as they are more commonly called, “killer robots”) that can make real-time decisions about what to target and whether to use lethal force.
But these new technologies also pose enormous risks. The Pentagon is filled with some of the country’s most sensitive information. Putting that information in the hands of AI tools makes it more vulnerable, both to foreign hackers and to malicious inside actors who want to leak information, as AI can comb through and summarize massive amounts of information better than any human. A misaligned AI agent can also quickly lead to decision-making that unnecessarily escalates conflict.
“These are really powerful tools. There are a lot of questions, I think, about the security of the models themselves,” Mieke Eoyang, the deputy assistant secretary of Defense for cyber policy during the Joe Biden administration, told POLITICO Magazine in a wide-ranging interview about these concerns.
Mysterious drone flights in NATO airspace have caused alarm across Europe. Here’s what we know – The Independent
Source Link
France urges tougher action against Russia, saying drones should be shot down and oil ships stopped – Greenwich Time
Source Link
EU ‘Drone Wall’ Plans Will Take Years To Materialize, Leaving Continent Vulnerable in the Meantime – Stratfor: The World’s Leading Geopolitical Intelligence Platform – Stratfor
Source Link
China Plans ‘Great Wall’ Anti-Drone Defense for Naval Warships – The Defense Post
Source Link
North Korea tests new suicide drone weapons, some possibly AI-powered – Korea JoongAng Daily
Source Link
Ukraine may soon add warheads, interceptor drones to digital marketplace– www.army-technology.com
Source Link
Excerpt:
Arsen Zhumadilov, director of Ukraine’s Defence Procurement Agency (DPA), revealed that the Ministry of Defence plan to introduce a new range of systems to the Ukrainian military’s digital marketplace, the DOT-Chain Defence platform, in 2026.
Last week, during DSEI 2025 in London, Zhumadilov revealed that the online marketplace may soon offer interceptor drones and warheads to Ukrainian military units for the first time.
What is the DOT-Chain Defence digital platform?
DOT-Chain Defence was launched in pilot mode only two months ago. Access to the IT system has only been granted to 12 brigades (deployed in Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, and Kharkiv regions) out of more than a hundred.
Commanders can independently select and acquire systems using funds from the DPA.
The platform operates much like an online store but instead of civilian commodities it offers a range of weapons systems. Initially, DPA focused on supplying first-person view (FPV) uncrewed aerial systems (UAS), but this soon expanded to include other autonomous systems and radio electronic warfare (EW) devices. Currently, the marketplace offers products from 25 companies.
Batteries are vital for The Pentagon’s drone roll-out– www.army-technology.com
Source Link
Excerpt:
As the US military looks to expand its drone capabilities, another important consideration is the batteries that will power these devices. Bruce Parkinson, Applications Engineering and Inside Sales Manager at Ultralife Corporation, explores how modern-day drone manufacturers now have more choice when selecting a power solution.
Single-use drones are typically treated as expendable and may not return from their first mission; therefore, they do not require a rechargeable battery. In the 1940s, when early versions of single-use drones were first developed, non-rechargeable battery technology was still in its infancy and alkaline chemistry had just been invented.
Alkaline batteries have a lower energy density compared to modern lithium alternatives, and, in single-use drones, the energy required for power-intensive systems like guidance, navigation and communications must be compact and efficient, so low energy density was a significant disadvantage. Alkaline batteries also did not perform as well in extreme temperatures, which was problematic for drones that operated in hot or cold climates or at high altitudes.
Today’s lithium-based non-rechargeable batteries not only address these issues, they can even power the propulsion systems of single-use drones, but this is still very rare. As in the 1940s, non-rechargeable batteries are mainly used to power radio control systems and flight stabilizers, but modern drones also feature additional sensors that require more power.