All articles
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Tech & Builds
NASA's MoonFall Gets Its Carrier: Firefly's Elytra Passes Design Review to Fly Four Hopping Drones to the Lunar South Pole
Firefly's Elytra spacecraft has passed preliminary design review for NASA/JPL's MoonFall, a $75M effort to drop four rocket-powered hopping drones about 50 km above the lunar south pole no earlier than 2028. The design is settled on paper, but the critical design review, a launch vehicle and the drones themselves are all still to come.
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Industry & Contracts
DJI Quietly Updates Several Older Drones in One Day, Under an FCC Waiver That Runs Only to 2029
On Oct. 20, DJI pushed bug-fix firmware to the Mini 2, Mini 3 Pro, Mavic Air 2 and Air 2S. US owners can install it only because of an FCC waiver for drones already on the Covered List, and that waiver is guaranteed only until Jan. 1, 2029.
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Policy & Regulation
Spray-Drone Sales Fell 59% in 2025, and Dealers Ask the FCC to Keep Crop Sprayers Out of Its 'Military-Grade' Ban
US spray-drone sales fell 59% in 2025 as CBP held up DJI shipments, while sprayed acreage rose 58.7%. Now the dealers' coalition is asking the FCC to drop Part 137 crop sprayers from a proposed 'military-grade' import ban.
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Commercial & Delivery
Wing and Walmart Turn Seven Charlotte Supercenters Into One Drone-Delivery Metro, Under an FAA Review Sized for 25 Hubs
Wing now flies Walmart orders from seven Charlotte-area Supercenters, with two more due soon. The bigger story is the April 2025 FAA review behind it: up to 25 hubs and 500 flights per hub per day, with local towns controlling only the parking-lot permit.
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Policy & Regulation
Birmingham Votes a $500 Drone Fine Ahead of the Magic City Classic, but the FAA Stadium Restriction Still Decides Who Is Exempt
Birmingham now has a $500 citation to enforce Alabama's new ticketed-event drone law before the Magic City Classic, but on game day the FAA's stadium restriction around Legion Field likely cancels the state law's exemption for anyone flying lawfully under federal rules.
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Commercial & Delivery
Philly Suburbs' Police Drones: Upper Darby and Bensalem Cite Results While Lower Merion Requests $375,000
Upper Darby and Bensalem police say drones are catching car thieves and cutting retail theft. The one price on record, though, is Lower Merion's $375,000 request, which DroneXL says covers a single docked drone over five years.
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Tech & Builds
How Russia Steers Jet-Powered Drones Over Kyiv Without Starlink: Mesh Radios, Relay Drones and Rooftop Nodes
SpaceX cut Russia off from Starlink in February. Russia now steers long-range jet drones onto Kyiv targets by passing the control link through Chinese mesh radios, a relay drone circling overhead and, a Ukrainian adviser believes, relay nodes inside the city.
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Counter-UAS
Skapion's 'Native Counter-Swarm' System: An Iron Dome Architect Pitches 100-Target Engagements, With Every Number Still a Company Claim
Israeli startup Skapion used AUSA to unveil a counter-swarm air-defense system from Iron Dome architect Pini Yungman. It claims 100+ simultaneous engagements and a 97%+ interception rate but has released no independent test data.
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Defense & Combat
Ukraine Says It Flew a Wounded Soldier Off the Front Line Under a Hexacopter: What Is Claimed, What Is Not Verified
Ukraine says a soldier clipped himself under a Gurzuf Defence heavy-lift hexacopter and was flown out after mines and Russian drones blocked every ground route. The 62 km and 1h14m figures come from the company, and no one has independently verified the 'world first' claim.
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Tech & Builds
Australia Unveils Sea Mines, Supply Caches and Altius Drone Swarms for Anduril's Ghost Shark
Australia has declassified three payloads for Anduril's Ghost Shark: up to 12 sea mines per mission, supply caches for special forces, and swarms of Altius aerial drones. Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy says the uncrewed submarines "now have teeth."
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Defense & Combat
DIU Opens Sprint 2 of SWAP-USV: Uncrewed Boats That Shoot Down Drones With Hellfire, APKWS, Stinger or Lasers
DIU's SWAP-USV challenge moves to Sprint 2, asking industry for production-ready uncrewed surface vessels with hard-kill counter-air weapons, from Hellfire and JAGM to APKWS, Stinger and lasers, fieldable within 120 days. Up to $40M in prizes, with $200M set aside for follow-on awards.
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Counter-UAS
29 Governors Ask for More Counter-Drone Training, but the Federal Rule Already Offers a Prison Course
Twenty-nine governors want more FBI counter-drone seats, a prison-specific course and Guard access. The July rule already includes an abbreviated correctional certification and lets the AG add training sites, and the Guard needs Congress, not the DOJ.
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