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A team of Department of Defense drone operators and experts test the technical capabilities of various Uncrewed Aerial Systems (UAS) during a Defense Innovation Unit led prize challenge to identify platforms, components, and capabilities for Blue UAS, which clears and validates flying platforms are safe to fly, cyber-secure, and meet DOD requirements, at Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center, Twentynine Palms, California, on Nov. 2-6, 2024. The Blue UAS Refresh Challenge included more than 35 platforms and companies, and an expert team of 40 military drone end-users with participation from each service branch and several major program offices in support of the Department’s ability to quickly scale and field commercially produced drone technologies for military and government use. (DOD photo by Devon Bistarkey, Defense Innovation Unit)
Air, Business News, Cyber, Military

FCC Opens Drone Comment Period as Covered List Takes Shape

By Richard Thomas

The Federal Communications Commission is soliciting public comment on a broad slate of regulatory reforms aimed at accelerating domestic unmanned…

British Army soldiers assigned to 1st Battalion, The Royal Yorkshire Regiment scan a field for unmanned aerial systems during Project Flytrap at Joint Multinational Readiness Center, Hohenfels Training Area, Hohenfels, Germany, June 9, 2025. Drones flew near U.S. and U.K. training lanes, which allowed for testing and feedback on new, low-cost, and portable counter-unmanned aerial systems. (U.S. Army photo by Spc. Elijah Magaña)
Air, Business News, Cyber, Military

Europe’s UAS and Counter-UAS Reset: NATO Standardization, EU Industrial Policy

By Richard Thomas

Europe is moving from episodic counter-UAS buys toward something closer to an architecture: shared standards, testable assurance, common data formats,…

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, FAA, Military

El Paso Airspace Restriction Lifted Amid Counter-UAS Testing Concerns

By Inside Unmanned Systems

The FAA briefly imposed an unusually broad flight restriction affecting operations at El Paso International Airport, initially described as being…