Department of Defense
Every UASFeed story on Department of Defense — across defense, counter-UAS, industry, commercial, policy, and tech, newest first.
-
Defense & Combat
China’s WZ-7 Soaring Dragon: The HALE Drone Reshaping PLA Surveillance
China’s WZ-7 Xianglong is the PLA’s operational high-altitude ISR drone — a joined-wing platform purpose-built for Pacific and Indian Ocean surveillance. Documented sorties from Tibet to the Sea of Japan and a naval variant wired to feed anti-ship targeting data mark it as the backbone of China’s kill-chain architecture.
-
Defense & Combat
ScanEagle and RQ-21A Blackjack: Inside Insitu’s Runway-Free ISR Platform Family
From a commercial fish-finder drone to front-line ISR in Ukraine, the Insitu ScanEagle and RQ-21A Blackjack are defined by a single design constraint: no runway needed. Here is how the platforms work, where they’ve fought, and why the formula endures.
-
Defense & Combat
MQ-1C Gray Eagle: The Army's Only MALE Drone, Caught Between Congress and Obsolescence
The MQ-1C Gray Eagle is the U.S. Army's sole medium-altitude long-endurance drone — a Predator descendant rebuilt around Army logistics, manned-unmanned teaming, and ground-force integration. Now Congress and Army leadership are openly fighting over whether it has a future.
-
Defense & Combat
Pentagon's Replicator Initiative: Thousands Promised, Hundreds Delivered
DoD's Replicator initiative launched in August 2023 with a promise to field multiple thousands of attritable autonomous systems within 18–24 months to counter China’s mass advantage. Two years on, hundreds have been delivered, the program has pivoted to counter-drone defense, and oversight gaps persist.
-
Defense & Combat
Loitering Munitions Explained: The Watching Weapon Reshaping Modern Combat
From Israel's 1989 Harpy to Ukraine's Lancet hunter-killer teams, loitering munitions fuse sensor and effector into a single expendable platform — a category distinct from both the cruise missile and the reusable drone, and now in procurement at scale across 50-plus countries.
-
Defense & Combat
DoD Drone Groups 1–5 Explained: The Classification That Governs Everything
The Pentagon's five-group UAS taxonomy determines who can buy a drone, which airspace it flies in, who is responsible for shooting it down, and what legal authorities apply. Here is how it works and why it is under strain.
-
Defense & Combat
Senate NDAA Panel Wants a Four-Star Drone Command to Fix the Stovepipe Problem
The Senate Armed Services Committee's FY2027 NDAA includes a provision permitting a new Robotic and Autonomous Systems Combatant Command, a four-star headquarters with acquisition authority designed to end service-by-service drone silos — but it is a committee bill, not law.
