Sebastien Roblin

U.S. Soldiers with the 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, conduct Mobile Low, Slow, Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Integrated Defense System (M-LIDS) training, Camp Buehring, Kuwait, Jan. 25, 2022. The Soldiers trained on the M-LIDS weapon system, which can be mounted on vehicles and is designed to target and disable, or destroy hostile drones or other unmanned aerial vehicles, in support of the Combined Joint Task Force - Operation Inherent Resolve advise, assist, and enable mission. (U.S. Army photo by Maj. Karl R. Cain II)
Air, Cyber, Military

Counter-UAS: The Price of the Shot

By Sebastien Roblin

How Western militaries are trying to restore a sustainable cost-exchange ratio against cheap drones The announcement out of BAE Systems’…

U.S. Marine Corps Sgt. Jordan Chaussepied, a small unmanned aircraft system operator with the Marine Corps Attack Drone Team, flies a drone with a member from the House of Armed Services Committee, during a drone demonstration at Weapons Training Battalion on Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia, Aug. 6, 2025. MCADT conducted a range demonstration for members of the HASC highlighting their capabilities and potential applications on the battlefield. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Anthony C. Ramsey Jr.)
Air, Business News, Cyber, Military

Gauntlet Phase II: Tougher, Differentiated Missions

By Sebastien Roblin

Phase II of the Army’s Drone Dominance Gauntlet raises the stakes — longer range, tighter urban missions, continuous electronic warfare,…

A Neros Archer small unmanned aircraft system flies toward a simulated target during a kinetic first-person view drone range on Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, Sept. 12, 2025. The range was conducted to validate a scalable, repeatable methodology for enabling FPV strike operations and used as a reference to support cost-effective training and eventual kinetic employment. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Zachariah Ferraro)
Air, Business News, Military

Gauntlet Phase 1: America’s New Champions of FPV Warfare

By Sebastien Roblin

From Garage Startups to Pentagon Champions: Meet the Eleven Companies Remaking American FPV Warfare Phase 1 of the Pentagon’s Drone…

A Neros Archer first-person view drone, armed with a Kraken Kinetics Terminus payload, closes on a simulated enemy vehicle during the National Drone Association Drone Crucible in Florida, Sept. 20, 2025. The MCADT participated in the Drone Crucible with other teams from across the joint force to showcase capabilities and exchange tactics, techniques, and procedures to advance FPV attack drone and other small unmanned aircraft systems employment. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Joshua Barker)
Air, Business News, Military

Five Companies Win the Pentagon’s Drone Munition Lethality Prize Challenge

By Sebastien Roblin

The Pentagon’s Drone Dominance Program (DDP) announced this Wednesday its five preferred companies to manufacture modular warheads for small kamikaze drones it…

U.S. Army Cpl. Aristotle Alfaro, Avenger team chief from 52d Air Defense Artillery Brigade, 10th Army Air and Missile Defense Command, calls to the pilot that a counter-unmanned aerial system is ready for launch near Lipa, Poland, Nov. 9, 2025. The intensive 20-day multinational Train-the-Trainer course rapidly qualified 20 students from Poland, Romania, and the U.S., most with no prior military drone experience, in a battle-tested C-UAS system through classroom, practical flight, and night operations, culminating in a successful live-fire demonstration to destroy a jet powered drone, thereby accelerating the fielding of this critical capability along the Eastern Flank Deterrence Line. As the battlefield evolves, we are leveraging U.S. experience and NATO authorities to solve problems for the Alliance. The training occurring at Lipa shows how Allies like Poland and Romania are rapidly procuring and employing systems that are battle-tested in Ukraine to strengthen the Eastern Flank Deterrence Line. This is the EFDL in action.(U.S. Army photo by Sgt. 1st Class Jacob Kohrs, 10th AAMDC)
Air, Cyber, Military

Pentagon Deploys Merops Drone Interceptor System to Counter Iranian Shahed Threat

By Sebastien Roblin

The Pentagon has moved to acquire the Project Eagle Merops counter-UAS system and its low-cost AS3 Surveyor interceptor drone for…

U.S. CENTRAL COMMAND AREA OF RESPONSIBILITY (Nov. 23, 2025) Low-cost Unmanned Combat Attack System (LUCAS) drones are positioned on the tarmac at a base in the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) operating area, Nov. 23. The LUCAS platforms are part of a one-way attack drone squadron CENTCOM recently deployed to the Middle East to strengthen regional security and deterrence. (Courtesy Photo)
Air, Military

U.S. Uses Shahed-Class Strike Drone in First Combat Deployment

By Sebastien Roblin

The Pentagon has conducted its first operational combat use of a low-cost, long-range one-way attack drone, signaling a shift from…

U.S. Marine Corps Sgt. Jospeh Howell, left, and Sgt. Tuan Nguyen, low altitude air defense gunners with Counter-Unmanned Aerial Systems Detachment, 2nd Low Altitude Air Defense Battalion, attached to Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force Crisis Response-Central Command, mount a sensor onto a Marine air defense integrated system vehicle in Southwest Asia, April 22, 2019. 2nd LAAD Battalion provides the SPMAGTF-CR-CC with close-in, low altitude, surface-to-air weapons fires in defense of forward combat areas, vital areas, and installations in support of Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve, working with partner forces to defeat Daesh. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Alina Thackray)
Air, Cyber, Military

2025 Proved the Case for Drone Defense

By Sebastien Roblin

As mass-produced strike and FPV drones reshape battlefields from Ukraine to the Red Sea, the United States is scrambling to…

A MQ-25 Stingray sits parked in Hangar 1 on Scott Air Force Base, Illinois, May 12, 2023. The MQ-25 Stingray will be the world’s first operational, carrier-based unmanned aircraft and provide aerial refueling and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities that enhance capability and versatility for the Carrier Air Wing (CVW) and Carrier Strike Group (CSG). (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Solomon Cook)
Air, Business News, Military

Report: What Unmanned Systems is America’s Military Buying in 2026? 

By Sebastien Roblin

A turbulent FY2026 landscape favors affordable, modular, and rapidly fieldable unmanned systems—especially sUAS and loitering munitions—while legacy programs face cancellations,…