Department of Defense
Every UASFeed story on Department of Defense — across defense, counter-UAS, industry, commercial, policy, and tech, newest first.
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Industry & Contracts
Army Opens Five Test Ranges to Private Drone and Counter-Drone Makers
The Army is throwing open five proving grounds — four stateside, one in Morocco — to any drone or counter-drone company, promising range access within 30 days and no federal contract required.
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Industry & Contracts
Neros Triples to $2.5B Valuation in $250M Series C, Adds Bandit Interceptor to Product Line
Los Angeles drone maker Neros raised a $250 million Series C at a $2.5 billion valuation on August 11, 2026, funding a new Bandit counter-UAS interceptor alongside its Archer AI strike drone as it chases 1 million units/year of production by 2028.
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Industry & Contracts
First Production Laser: AeroVironment's $400M Locust Deal Moves Directed Energy From Prototype to Product Line
Bloomberg reports the Army will buy at least $400M of AeroVironment's Locust counter-drone lasers — the Pentagon's first production contract for a directed-energy system beyond the prototype phase — sending AVAV up ~8-9% and turning the E-HEL program of record from negotiation into recurring revenue.
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Industry & Contracts
Pentagon's Counter-Drone Marketplace Expands as Kaizen's $15M Platform Crosses $21M in Sales
JIATF-401's vetted C-UAS Marketplace, built by startup Kaizen under a $15M contract, has processed $21M in purchases and added the UK and Romania as allied buyers while linking to the Foreign Military Sales Fast Lane.
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Industry & Contracts
19 Drone Makers, One Fort Carson Proving Ground: Inside the Pentagon's $300M Gauntlet II Shootout
Nineteen finalists are trucking 120 attack drones apiece to Fort Carson this August, the live-fire elimination round of a $1.1B Pentagon program racing toward a 200,000-drone fleet by 2027.
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Industry & Contracts
Pentagon Commits Up to $820M to Performance Drone Works to Build Domestic Drone Component Supply Chain
The Department of War's Office of Strategic Capital signed a conditional loan of up to $820 million with Performance Drone Works on July 31, 2026, to mass-produce propulsion, power/control, and vision-system components for Group 1/2 drones industry-wide.
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Industry & Contracts
XTEND and JFB Construction Close In on $1.5B Merger to Form Nasdaq-Listed XTEND AI Robotics
SEC filings show Israeli drone-robotics firm XTEND and Nasdaq-listed JFB Construction advancing toward a $1.5B all-stock reverse merger that would list XTEND AI Robotics as XTND, as XTEND also closes its Atlas acquisition and lands a spot in a $1B Pentagon drone program.
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Industry & Contracts
Skydio Gets Its Whole Lineup Cleared — Including the First Blue UAS Drone-in-a-Box for DFR
Skydio's X10, Dock for X10 and R10 joined the Blue UAS Cleared List on 23 July 2026, making its entire lineup cleared and the Dock the first Blue UAS-cleared drone-as-first-responder system — unlocking Byrne JAG, COPS and HSGP grant money just as the list itself moves from DIU to DCMA.
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Industry & Contracts
Cathie Wood's Ark Invest Piles Into Kratos Defense as Drone and Anti-Drone Budget Bets Pay Off
Ark Invest bought roughly $9.1 million of Kratos Defense stock in early July 2026, betting on a drone maker whose unmanned systems revenue is growing over 30% amid a proposed $70 billion Pentagon drone budget.
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Industry & Contracts
Kratos Adds 100,000+ Square Feet to Oklahoma City Plant to Scale Jet-Drone Output
Kratos is expanding its Oklahoma City campus by more than 100,000 square feet to push jet-drone output beyond 165 units a year, backing Valkyrie, Firejet and Taiwan's Mighty Hornet IV programs.
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Industry & Contracts
A Federal DJI Ban Just Cost One Oregon Police Department $18,000 a Drone — the Skydio Swap, Line by Line
Redmond, Oregon approved a $410,762, five-year financed Axon contract for six Skydio drones to replace its DJI fleet — a 3.5x price jump driven by the federal NDAA ban, not operational need.
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Industry & Contracts
AeroVironment's Q4 Blowout: A $642M Quarter, a $1.2B Backlog, and the 'Drone Supercycle' Goes Mainstream
AeroVironment crushed estimates with a record $641.6M fiscal Q4, doubled annual revenue to nearly $2B, and grew funded backlog to $1.2B — sending shares up ~19% and turning 'drone supercycle' talk into public-market fact.
