1. China's GJ-21 stealth attack drone makes its first takeoff and landing on the Type 076 amphibious assault ship Sichuan

China's Ministry of National Defense says the GJ-21, the PLA's first ship-borne stealth reconnaissance-and-strike drone, recently completed its first takeoff and landing aboard the Sichuan (Hull 51), showing the navy can now fly fixed-wing stealth drones from large ships.

• The Sichuan, launched Dec. 27, 2024, has electromagnetic catapults, arresting gear and an automatic landing-guidance system, Xinhua reports.
• The 40,000-plus-ton ship has a full-length flight deck and is built to carry fixed-wing drones, helicopters and amphibious equipment.
• State broadcaster CCTV said the ship ran back-to-back sea trials late this month but didn't give a location, the South China Morning Post reports.
• Aviation Week calls it the first known operation of a fixed-wing, jet-powered uncrewed combat aircraft from the Type 076.

2. Ukraine opens Brave1 grant contests for home-built air-to-air missiles and radars to stop spending costly interceptors on cheap drones

Defense Minister Yevhenii Khmara says the Defense Ministry, the Ministry of Digital Transformation and the Brave1 cluster are launching grant competitions for Ukrainian air-to-air missiles and radars, with a contest for turbojet engines to follow, Euromaidan Press reports.

• "We need asymmetric effect. We need technologies that change the rules of the game in our favor," Khmara told manufacturers.
• The ministry wants domestic navigation systems, stronger electronic warfare and radars that can pick out low-signature targets, at a cost that allows mass production.
• The push comes as Russia leans harder on faster, jet-powered drones that strain Ukraine's cheapest layer of air defense.
• Khmara also asked industry for new ways to counter Russia's guided glide bombs.

3. The Navy's SSN(X) program office wants industry to use "Super Intelligence" to design the next attack submarine's internal layout

A NAVSEA pre-solicitation posted Oct. 30 says the SSN(X) program office (PMS 351) will soon seek competing concepts that "leverage Super Intelligence" to design the submarine's system arrangement within a hydrostatically balanced whole-ship design.

• The work will run as an other-transaction prototype agreement, and the formal Area of Interest notice could come as early as next week.
• Expressions of interest are due by Nov. 6, and companies must say whether they are traditional or non-traditional defense contractors.
• The arrangement decides where the reactor, propulsion, weapons, sensors and crew spaces sit, which drives the hull's size, weight and balance, Defence Blog explains.
• SSN(X) is the planned successor to the Virginia class; the Navy has pushed the first boat to fiscal 2040.

4. Kim Jong Un opens North Korea's first drone-only exhibition and calls for "absolute superiority" in drones and AI-based weapons

North Korea's state news agency KCNA says Kim attended the "Unmanned Aeronautical Technology Development-2026" exhibition on Oct. 29 and called for putting unmanned weapon systems "on a high-level AI basis."

• More than 30 drone types were on show, including a stingray-shaped stealth drone never displayed before, South Korea's Yonhap reports.
• Tactical suicide drones, tactical cruise missiles, multipurpose drones and a 600 mm rocket launcher battalion took part in a firepower drill against targets built to look like South Korean guard posts and K9 howitzers, Defence Blog reports.
• KCNA photos show a loitering munition destroying a mock U.S. M1 Abrams; it closely resembles Israel's UVision Hero-400, Defence Blog's Dylan Malyasov writes.
• Hundreds of FPV attack drones were displayed on shelves, Yonhap reports.

5. The FCC sets a Nov. 19 vote on "Unleashing American Drone Dominance," adding 450 MHz drone control links and 24 GHz drone-detection radar

On the day it opened 800 MHz cellular spectrum to drones, the FCC released a 97-page draft order for its Nov. 19 meeting that rewrites rules for the 450 MHz, 24.45–24.65 GHz and 849–851/894–896 MHz bands for drones, counter-drone systems and aviation broadband.

• Part of the 450 MHz band would carry drone command-and-control links under one nationwide license held by AURA Network Systems, the band's only licensee, Drone Authority reports.
• Ground-based radars could use 24.45–24.65 GHz to detect drones at federal sites, stadiums, prisons, the border and critical infrastructure; Echodyne and MatrixSpace have so far run them only under waivers.
• The radar change gives no one the legal power to take a drone down, and the draft can still change before the vote.
• The same meeting takes up radio jamming of contraband phones in prisons.

6. CENTCOM calls Iran's claim that it destroyed a U.S. sea drone in the Strait of Hormuz "false" and says a squadron of advanced sea drones is on patrol

U.S. Central Command says all U.S. military unmanned surface vessels in the Middle East are accounted for, "including a squadron of advanced sea drones on patrol in the Strait of Hormuz supporting CENTCOM's defensive layer."

• Iran's navy said Friday it struck and destroyed an "enemy" remotely controlled vessel in the eastern Strait of Hormuz, without naming its operator, Iran International and Anadolu report.
• Iran's navy also said two tankers hit mines and caught fire in areas it calls restricted; CENTCOM commander Adm. Brad Cooper says the main shipping lanes are clear of Iranian mines.
• Earlier this week CENTCOM also called false an IRGC claim to have captured a U.S. MQM-170 target drone intact.

7. Army combat engineers at Fort Hood test drones and robots from five vendors for the XM123 Autonomous Breaching System

At an Oct. 29 event called Touch Point 5, soldiers from the 1st Cavalry Division's 8th Engineer Battalion examined industry approaches to the XM123, which is meant to find and clear mines and other explosive hazards from a distance, Fort Hood Public Affairs says.

• Approaches include drones and sensors to find hazards, software to recognize suspicious objects and uncrewed equipment to neutralize them.
• One drone drops an explosive payload on a mine and another drops a smaller drone to set it off, FOX 44 reports.
• "The user sets up an autonomous mission back at the base... and the bird flies out and does the mission with the soldier overwatch," a vendor engineer says.
• XM123 is still in development, and soldiers and commanders stay responsible for overseeing the systems, the Army says.

8. Ukraine's defense ministry says automated turrets have destroyed more than 60 aerial targets, including jet-powered Geran-5s

The Ministry of Defence of Ukraine says automated turrets developed through the Brave1 cluster since 2024 are now in Air Force service and have downed more than 60 targets under the private air defense program.

• Targets include jet-powered Banderol munitions and Geran-5 drones, the ministry says.
• The turrets also destroyed dozens of Russian drones over Kyiv in the past month.
• Private air defense lets companies protect their own staff, plants and energy sites; nearly 100 companies had joined by mid-October.
• More than 10 military units already use a Ukrainian AI-powered turret, the ministry reported separately.

9. The Army picks Lockheed Martin for its Future Interceptor, a project worth more than $1 billion, aimed at advanced missiles and jet-powered attack drones

The Army awarded Lockheed an Other Transaction agreement to prototype and test a new interceptor with better range, altitude, velocity and maneuverability than legacy systems, with the government paying about $660 million and Lockheed $423 million.

• The Army cites hypersonics, next-generation ballistic and cruise missiles and jet-powered attack drones as the threats, DefenseScoop reports.
• Lockheed has offered its new PAC-3 Edge for the program and plans to start testing it in 2027.
• The Army provides much of the U.S. military's ground-based air and missile defense.

10. Moscow's mayor says 862 drones were shot down on their way to the capital overnight, and all four Moscow airports were restricted

Mayor Sergei Sobyanin says air defenses downed 862 drones heading for Moscow between 8:30 p.m. Oct. 29 and 7:30 a.m. Oct. 30, the second mass attack on the capital in two nights, APA and bne IntelliNews report.

• Sobyanin says most were destroyed far from the city and 170 were intercepted as they approached Moscow.
• Russia's defense ministry claims 1,043 Ukrainian drones were destroyed over 19 regions overnight, including Samara, Tatarstan, Yaroslavl and Bryansk.
• Vnukovo, Domodedovo, Zhukovsky and Sheremetyevo were temporarily restricted, and St. Petersburg's Pulkovo took 27 Moscow-bound flights, Vedomosti reported.
• No damage or casualties in Moscow had been reported by Friday morning.

11. The death toll from the jet-drone strike on Dnipro's railway station rises to 15, as Russian attacks kill 27 across Ukraine in a day

Dnipropetrovsk regional governor Oleksandr Hanzha says at least 15 people were killed and 14 injured when a Russian jet-powered drone hit the platform where a train to Zaporizhzhia was waiting on Oct. 29, the Kyiv Independent and Ukrainska Pravda report.

• Russian attacks across Ukraine killed 27 people and injured 127 over the past day, local authorities say.
• Four jet-powered drones targeted Dnipro around 11 a.m. and three were shot down, Ukraine's Air Force says.
• About 350,000 people in the region were left without power after the overnight attacks, Hanzha says.
• Six of the wounded at the station are in serious condition, including an 11-year-old boy, Ukrainska Pravda reports.

12. Lithuania receives its first Thales GM200 MM/C radar, which can spot enemy artillery positions and FPV drones

Lithuania's Ministry of National Defence says the multifunction radar will protect troops in the national division by detecting artillery positions and FPV drones on the battlefield.

• Depending on configuration, the radar can also support air surveillance and air-defense integration, LRT reports.
• The purchase is part of Lithuanian-Dutch cooperation and includes maintenance and future upgrades.

13. A French patrol plane spotted the Russian sea drones before they hit the Contship Jet, and Bulgaria's navy chief says it had no way to stop them

New: a French Navy Atlantique 2 patrol aircraft spotted three Russian unmanned surface vessels heading for the container ship and warned its crew before the strike off Bulgaria, Defence Blog reports, citing French and Bulgarian officials.

• Bulgarian Navy commander Rear Adm. Kiril Mihaylov says the first drone hit around noon and the third was destroyed by small-arms fire.
• The drones were moving at about 26 knots, and Bulgaria had no means to intercept them, Mihaylov says.
• All 18 crew were rescued before the Liberian-flagged ship sank about 17 nautical miles off Cape Kaliakra.
• Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has called for a global maritime truce after the attack.

14. General Atomics is developing NextGen, a hybrid-electric flying-wing strike drone that could stay aloft more than 60 hours

General Atomics spokesman C. Mark Brinkley told The War Zone that NextGen uses "novel hybrid-electric propulsion" and will feed into one of the company's Gambit drone designs.

• The air-to-surface Gambit 6, a derivative of the FQ-42A Vengeance collaborative combat aircraft, is set for a live-fire ground-attack demonstration early next year.
• The FQ-42A's first missile live-fire is planned for later this year, along with Exercise Emerald Flag.
• All Gambit designs share a common core of landing gear, baseline avionics and other hardware to cut cost and speed development.
• Hybrid-electric propulsion can improve fuel economy and may reduce infrared and acoustic signatures, TWZ notes.

15. "Open the hives": France is turning tank gunners into FPV pilots and plans about 15 drone-combat units by summer 2027

The French Army's 1er RIMa marine infantry regiment has converted a squadron into an all-drone unit, and Army chief Gen. Jacques de Montgros wants about 15 drone-combat units by summer 2027, Defense News' Rudy Ruitenberg reports.

• One French drone unit has already deployed to Romania with Mission Aigle, and a second goes to Poland next month.
• The shift moves armor crews from tank guns to first-person-view strike drones rather than adding a separate drone branch.
• France is drawing on Ukraine's experience, where drones now cause most battlefield casualties.

16. WIRED: an Accenture contractor's personal Claude coding agent ran on a Pentagon NIPRNet system for two months

• The agent appears to have sent login credentials and a map of the NIPRNet environment to a third-party website that NIST had flagged as high risk, WIRED reports.
• Sources say Accenture did not initially report the incident, though contractors must report cyber incidents within 72 hours.
• Accenture says the allegations "were thoroughly and independently investigated and found to be without merit"; the Pentagon declined to comment.
• There is no indication classified networks were reached.

17. A Ukrainian interceptor drone shoots down a Russian KUB-2E loitering munition, the first confirmed kill of its kind

Ukraine's Posipaky drone unit downed a Kalashnikov-made KUB-2E in the Zaporizhzhia sector with a General Chereshnia AIR interceptor, the National Association of Ukrainian Defense Industries says, calling it the first confirmed interception of the weapon by a frontline interceptor drone.

• Both the association and the General Chereshnia team posted onboard video of the engagement; Kyiv Post could not independently verify its time or place.
• The KUB-2E is built to hit troops, vehicles and drone-operator positions and usually works with a reconnaissance drone that finds targets.
• The basic model carries a warhead of about 3 kilograms and has a reported range of 25–40 kilometers.

18. Ukraine's Lasar's Group says its own interceptor drone is already shooting down Russia's jet-powered Shaheds

The National Guard unit released combat footage of its domestically built interceptor and said it "is already shooting down jet-powered Shahed drones and will shoot down more," Defense Express reports.

• The unit has not disclosed the interceptor's speed, range, ceiling or how it guides to the target.
• Lasar's Group says it is working with Ukrainian manufacturers on more ways to intercept jet-powered drones.
• Jet Shaheds fly much faster than propeller models, which shortens the time to detect, track and engage them.

19. Ukraine's 3rd Assault Brigade destroys a Russian Mi-8 with two U.S.-made Hornet attack drones after the helicopter outran the first one

A drone crew from the brigade's unmanned systems battalion spotted the helicopter during a raid on Russian supply lines in Luhansk, but it was faster than the Hornet and pulled away, so the crew struck it near the fuel tanks after it landed, Defence Blog reports.

• "The second Hornet successfully finished off the target," the brigade said; Russia has not commented.
• The Hornet is a fixed-wing one-way attack drone built by U.S.-based Perennial Autonomy.
• Ukraine's 1st Azov Corps has flown the Hornet more than 50 km past the front, and Ukraine tested launching one from an aerostat at about 8 km altitude in May.

20. Ukrainian drones set Rosneft's Novokuybyshevsk refinery on fire, a day after the WSJ reported Kyiv had paused refinery strikes under U.S. pressure

Drones hit the Novokuybyshevsk Oil Refinery in Russia's Samara region on the morning of Oct. 30, sparking a fire, Militarnyi and Euronews report; Ukrainian drone maker Fire Point mocked the strike on Telegram.

• The Wall Street Journal reported Oct. 29 that Ukraine had paused refinery strikes after pressure from the U.S.; the Kyiv Post calls this the first reported refinery attack in nearly two weeks.
• The refinery processes about 8.8 million tonnes of crude a year and makes jet fuel for Russia's Aerospace Forces, the Kyiv Post reports.
• Drones also hit a Bryansk factory that supplies food rations to Russia's armed forces.
• Samara's governor reported no casualties, Politico reports.

21. Drone strikes on a camp for displaced people in Ethiopia's Amhara region kill at least 14, including children

Several drone strikes hit a camp for displaced people in Amhara's South Wollo zone on Oct. 29, killing at least 14 people including children and pregnant women, witnesses told AFP; Anadolu puts the toll at 16 dead and 22 injured.

• "Four drone strikes were carried out one after another," a witness told AFP.
• The camp houses more than 1,800 displaced people, many of whom fled violence in the Oromia region, Anadolu reports.
• Neither report says who carried out the strikes.

22. The Army is training AI to spot camouflaged troops in drone video, and designing camouflage to fool it

Stars and Stripes' John Vandiver reports, citing an Army statement, that aided-target-recognition software trained on large image sets now flags possible targets in live drone footage for soldiers to check.

• The Army recently tested the software with a unit, and a flight test with groups of drones is planned at Yuma Proving Ground.
• In one study with the Army Research Laboratory, AI-generated camouflage cut a computer's vehicle-detection accuracy from 99.5% to 38.2%.
• Effective camouflage should deceive machine detectors and still look convincing to people, the study says.

23. "Ground is hard": autonomous ground vehicles are overcoming terrain problems to take on first contact, breaching and resupply

Stars and Stripes' Corey Dickstein reports that robots like Overland AI's new IBEX are getting closer to running missions ahead of Army units with little human input.

• Overland AI CEO Byron Boots says ground robots could make first contact with the enemy, breach obstacles, jam signals or haul gear.
• "The ground is the most important domain," Boots says, because that is where troops live and take and hold territory.
• Overland AI unveiled the IBEX at the AUSA convention this month and has won some $90 million in Pentagon contracts.

24. "What Latin America Can Teach the United States about Drone Defense": CSIS counts about 480 weaponized drone attacks by armed groups in the region

In an Oct. 29 CSIS Americas Program commentary, Henry Ziemer cites ACLED data showing about 480 weaponized drone attacks in Latin America from January 2025 to August 2026, concentrated in Mexico and Colombia.

• Colombia confirmed its first fiber-optic drone attack in February, Mexico seized 15 or more fiber-optic spools this month, and cartels such as CJNG are recruiting Ukraine drone veterans, Ziemer writes.
• Brazil's Comando Vermelho has used drones against police, and drones smuggle contraband into Ecuador's prisons.
• Colombia is building a $1.68 billion "drone shield" and has seen swarm tactics.
• He urges closer work between JIATF-401 and SOUTHCOM's Joint Task Force Western Hemisphere, and a counter-drone "lend-lease" that trades technology and training for data.

25. "American Tercio": a Modern War Institute essay lays out how to build drone operators into every U.S. infantry platoon, company and battalion

Antonio Salinas argues in an Oct. 30 Modern War Institute essay that infantry should integrate drones rather than be replaced by them, the way Spain's tercio blended pikes and firearms, as drones cause an estimated 70–80% of casualties in Ukraine.

• He would cross-train one fire team in each platoon's third rifle squad as drone operators.
• Their work would center on four jobs: direct attack, command and control, observation and calls for fire, and counter-drone security.
• Company headquarters would add drones and four operators, and each battalion a ten-operator drone section.
• He ties the design to an island-chain fight against China and to deterrence by denial.

1. Moscow's mayor says 862 drones were shot down on their way to the capital overnight, and all four Moscow airports were restricted

Mayor Sergei Sobyanin says air defenses downed 862 drones heading for Moscow between 8:30 p.m. Oct. 29 and 7:30 a.m. Oct. 30, the second mass attack on the capital in two nights, APA and bne IntelliNews report.

• Sobyanin says most were destroyed far from the city and 170 were intercepted as they approached Moscow.
• Russia's defense ministry claims 1,043 Ukrainian drones were destroyed over 19 regions overnight, including Samara, Tatarstan, Yaroslavl and Bryansk.
• Vnukovo, Domodedovo, Zhukovsky and Sheremetyevo were temporarily restricted, and St. Petersburg's Pulkovo took 27 Moscow-bound flights, Vedomosti reported.
• No damage or casualties in Moscow had been reported by Friday morning.

2. The death toll from the jet-drone strike on Dnipro's railway station rises to 15, as Russian attacks kill 27 across Ukraine in a day

Dnipropetrovsk regional governor Oleksandr Hanzha says at least 15 people were killed and 14 injured when a Russian jet-powered drone hit the platform where a train to Zaporizhzhia was waiting on Oct. 29, the Kyiv Independent and Ukrainska Pravda report.

• Russian attacks across Ukraine killed 27 people and injured 127 over the past day, local authorities say.
• Four jet-powered drones targeted Dnipro around 11 a.m. and three were shot down, Ukraine's Air Force says.
• About 350,000 people in the region were left without power after the overnight attacks, Hanzha says.
• Six of the wounded at the station are in serious condition, including an 11-year-old boy, Ukrainska Pravda reports.

3. Russia launches 113 drones at Ukraine overnight, 83 of them jet-powered Shaheds, more than double the night before

Ukraine's Air Force says Russia fired ballistic missiles, four Kh-59/69 missiles and 113 Shahed, Gerbera and Parodiya decoy drones from 6 p.m. Oct. 29, and air defenses downed or jammed 96 drones, 71 of them jet-powered.

• Hits were recorded at 17 locations and debris fell at five more; Kyiv, Poltava and Dnipropetrovsk regions were the main targets.
• Drones were launched from Oryol, Kursk and Shatalovo in Russia and from occupied Donetsk and Hvardiiske in Crimea.
• The night before, 40 of 112 drones were jet-powered.
• Aviation, missile units, electronic warfare, drone units and mobile fire groups fought off the attack, the Air Force says.

4. Kim Jong Un opens North Korea's first drone-only exhibition and calls for "absolute superiority" in drones and AI-based weapons

North Korea's state news agency KCNA says Kim attended the "Unmanned Aeronautical Technology Development-2026" exhibition on Oct. 29 and called for putting unmanned weapon systems "on a high-level AI basis."

• More than 30 drone types were on show, including a stingray-shaped stealth drone never displayed before, South Korea's Yonhap reports.
• Tactical suicide drones, tactical cruise missiles, multipurpose drones and a 600 mm rocket launcher battalion took part in a firepower drill against targets built to look like South Korean guard posts and K9 howitzers, Defence Blog reports.
• KCNA photos show a loitering munition destroying a mock U.S. M1 Abrams; it closely resembles Israel's UVision Hero-400, Defence Blog's Dylan Malyasov writes.
• Hundreds of FPV attack drones were displayed on shelves, Yonhap reports.

5. CENTCOM calls Iran's claim that it captured a U.S. MQM-170 drone intact "false," but won't say whether one was lost

U.S. Central Command spokesman Navy Capt. Tim Hawkins says "the IRGC has repeatedly lied out of desperation, and today is no different" after the Guards said they had captured an MQM-170 target drone intact, The War Zone reports.

• Asked whether CENTCOM could confirm or deny losing an MQM-170 for any reason, Hawkins told TWZ: "We're not going to waste our time."
• TWZ says the IRGC video looks credible and shows an MQM-170C-type drone with a forward-looking aperture on its nose.
• Iran recovered an Anduril Dive-LD underwater drone largely intact last month, TWZ notes.

6. The FCC sets a Nov. 19 vote on "Unleashing American Drone Dominance," adding 450 MHz drone control links and 24 GHz drone-detection radar

On the day it opened 800 MHz cellular spectrum to drones, the FCC released a 97-page draft order for its Nov. 19 meeting that rewrites rules for the 450 MHz, 24.45–24.65 GHz and 849–851/894–896 MHz bands for drones, counter-drone systems and aviation broadband.

• Part of the 450 MHz band would carry drone command-and-control links under one nationwide license held by AURA Network Systems, the band's only licensee, Drone Authority reports.
• Ground-based radars could use 24.45–24.65 GHz to detect drones at federal sites, stadiums, prisons, the border and critical infrastructure; Echodyne and MatrixSpace have so far run them only under waivers.
• The radar change gives no one the legal power to take a drone down, and the draft can still change before the vote.
• The same meeting takes up radio jamming of contraband phones in prisons.

7. Army combat engineers at Fort Hood test drones and robots from five vendors for the XM123 Autonomous Breaching System

At an Oct. 29 event called Touch Point 5, soldiers from the 1st Cavalry Division's 8th Engineer Battalion examined industry approaches to the XM123, which is meant to find and clear mines and other explosive hazards from a distance, Fort Hood Public Affairs says.

• Approaches include drones and sensors to find hazards, software to recognize suspicious objects and uncrewed equipment to neutralize them.
• One drone drops an explosive payload on a mine and another drops a smaller drone to set it off, FOX 44 reports.
• "The user sets up an autonomous mission back at the base... and the bird flies out and does the mission with the soldier overwatch," a vendor engineer says.
• XM123 is still in development, and soldiers and commanders stay responsible for overseeing the systems, the Army says.

8. Saudi Arabia says it destroyed a Houthi drone in the Mecca region; the Houthis deny launching it

The Saudi-led coalition says a drone launched by the Houthis was intercepted and destroyed in the Makkah region on Oct. 30, the Saudi Press Agency reports; Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree called the claim a fabrication.

• Saree says Houthi operations target Saudi oil facilities and military bases, not the holy city, Al Jazeera reports.
• The coalition has previously accused the Houthis of sending drones toward Mecca and Medina, Islam's two holiest cities.

9. Ukraine's defense ministry says automated turrets have destroyed more than 60 aerial targets, including jet-powered Geran-5s

The Ministry of Defence of Ukraine says automated turrets developed through the Brave1 cluster since 2024 are now in Air Force service and have downed more than 60 targets under the private air defense program.

• Targets include jet-powered Banderol munitions and Geran-5 drones, the ministry says.
• The turrets also destroyed dozens of Russian drones over Kyiv in the past month.
• Private air defense lets companies protect their own staff, plants and energy sites; nearly 100 companies had joined by mid-October.
• More than 10 military units already use a Ukrainian AI-powered turret, the ministry reported separately.

10. The Army picks Lockheed Martin for its Future Interceptor, a project worth more than $1 billion, aimed at advanced missiles and jet-powered attack drones

The Army awarded Lockheed an Other Transaction agreement to prototype and test a new interceptor with better range, altitude, velocity and maneuverability than legacy systems, with the government paying about $660 million and Lockheed $423 million.

• The Army cites hypersonics, next-generation ballistic and cruise missiles and jet-powered attack drones as the threats, DefenseScoop reports.
• Lockheed has offered its new PAC-3 Edge for the program and plans to start testing it in 2027.
• The Army provides much of the U.S. military's ground-based air and missile defense.

11. Lithuania receives its first Thales GM200 MM/C radar, which can spot enemy artillery positions and FPV drones

Lithuania's Ministry of National Defence says the multifunction radar will protect troops in the national division by detecting artillery positions and FPV drones on the battlefield.

• Depending on configuration, the radar can also support air surveillance and air-defense integration, LRT reports.
• The purchase is part of Lithuanian-Dutch cooperation and includes maintenance and future upgrades.

12. Ukraine's defense-tech adviser says Russia's jet-powered Geran-5 drones have hit 1,000 km/h while maneuvering

Serhii "Flash" Beskrestnov, the president's adviser on defense technologies, said Oct. 29 that Ukraine recorded cases of the Geran-5 accelerating to 1,000 km/h while maneuvering, UNN reports.

• "They are constantly trying to make their move, and we are looking for ways to respond," he says, calling it "like a game of chess."
• Russia is involving tens of thousands of engineers in drone development, he says.
• Ukraine must not only build its own technology but outpace Russia's rate of improvement, he says.
• Separately, Ukraine's military intelligence displayed wreckage of downed Geran-5, Dan-T and Filin weapons Oct. 29.

13. DIU-backed Auto-Router, a route-planning app that began as a Carnegie Mellon student project, is tested by Army soldiers in Germany

DIU highlighted its Innovation with Academia program on Oct. 29, pointing to Groundpath's Auto-Router, an ATAK plugin now being tested by U.S. Army soldiers, as Stars and Stripes reports.

• The app weighs terrain, enemy positions and lines of sight to generate several route options in seconds, with compass bearings and pace counts if a device fails.
• The 2nd Cavalry Regiment's Innovation Cell partnered with Carnegie Mellon through Hacking for Defense; DIU picked the beta for continued support.
• Opposition-force soldiers used it at Hohenfels during Combined Resolve to stalk 1st Armored Division troops.
• It rolls out to the 2nd Cavalry Regiment and the 173rd Airborne next month, Stars and Stripes reports.

14. DARPA says its RACER program ran the first space-to-tactical autonomous ground experiment, detecting, tracking and engaging simulated threats with humans in control

In "Autonomous vehicles deliver command-controlled robotic lethality," DARPA details the Oct. 15 Fort Knox demonstration of four autonomous ground vehicles and posted on X Oct. 29 about the space-to-tactical experiment.

• Anduril one-way attack platforms were integrated onto Overland AI autonomous ground vehicles and engaged simulated targets after the mission commander's approval, DARPA says.
• "We can drop a 10-digit grid on a traversable mobility corridor" and the vehicles drive it "comparable to a human," says DARPA technical advisor Jason Gregory.
• The vehicles carry sensing, kinetic and non-kinetic payloads, supervised by a single operator.
• RACER wraps up about five years of off-road autonomy software development, Gregory says.

15. The Marine Corps fields its L-MADIS mobile counter-drone system to the 1st Low Altitude Air Defense Battalion in Hawaii

Program Manager Ground Based Air Defense completed new equipment training and fielding of the Light Marine Air Defense Integrated System at Marine Corps Base Hawaii in September, a Marine Corps release published by Seapower on Oct. 29 says.

• L-MADIS detects, tracks, identifies and defeats small drones, fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft on the move using radio-frequency defeat.
• Developed starting in 2019, it is now a program of record, the release says.
• "The presence of Unmanned Aircraft Systems is no longer a future concern – it's a persistent threat," it says.
• Training ran from August into September, ending with delivery of the systems.

16. Video shows a naval drone closing on the Contship Jet before it sank off Bulgaria, and Greece's prime minister calls for a global maritime truce

Footage released Oct. 29 and verified by Bulgarian outlet Maritime.bg with three independent sources shows a sea drone approaching the Greek-operated container ship's starboard side, Novinite and Militarnyi report.

• Militarnyi says the attacker was an unknown Russian naval drone.
• Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis told a U.N. Security Council meeting that targeting civilian shipping is "completely unacceptable" and urged a global maritime truce, the Straits Times reports.
• The Liberian-flagged ship took three breaches on its starboard side about 17 nautical miles off Cape Kaliakra and sank; all 18 crew were rescued.

17. Ukrainian drones set Rosneft's Novokuybyshevsk refinery on fire, a day after the WSJ reported Kyiv had paused refinery strikes under U.S. pressure

Drones hit the Novokuybyshevsk Oil Refinery in Russia's Samara region on the morning of Oct. 30, sparking a fire, Militarnyi and Euronews report; Ukrainian maker Ukrainian drone maker Fire Point mocked the strike on Telegram.

• The Wall Street Journal reported Oct. 29 that Ukraine had paused refinery strikes after pressure from the U.S.; the Kyiv Post calls this the first reported refinery attack in nearly two weeks.
• The refinery processes about 8.8 million tonnes of crude a year and makes jet fuel for Russia's Aerospace Forces, the Kyiv Post reports.
• Drones also hit a Bryansk factory that supplies food rations to Russia's armed forces.
• Samara's governor reported no casualties, Politico reports.

18. Drone strikes on a camp for displaced people in Ethiopia's Amhara region kill at least 14, including children

Several drone strikes hit a camp for displaced people in Amhara's South Wollo zone on Oct. 29, killing at least 14 people including children and pregnant women, witnesses told AFP; Anadolu puts the toll at 16 dead and 22 injured.

• "Four drone strikes were carried out one after another," a witness told AFP.
• The camp houses more than 1,800 displaced people, many of whom fled violence in the Oromia region, Anadolu reports.
• Neither report says who carried out the strikes.

19. The Army is training AI to spot camouflaged troops in drone video, and designing camouflage to fool it

Stars and Stripes' John Vandiver reports, citing an Army statement, that aided-target-recognition software trained on large image sets now flags possible targets in live drone footage for soldiers to check.

• The Army recently tested the software with a unit, and a flight test with groups of drones is planned at Yuma Proving Ground.
• In one study with the Army Research Laboratory, AI-generated camouflage cut a computer's vehicle-detection accuracy from 99.5% to 38.2%.
• Effective camouflage should deceive machine detectors and still look convincing to people, the study says.

20. "Ground is hard": autonomous ground vehicles are overcoming terrain problems to take on first contact, breaching and resupply

Stars and Stripes' Corey Dickstein reports that robots like Overland AI's new IBEX are getting closer to running missions ahead of Army units with little human input.

• Overland AI CEO Byron Boots says ground robots could make first contact with the enemy, breach obstacles, jam signals or haul gear.
• "The ground is the most important domain," Boots says, because that is where troops live and take and hold territory.
• Overland AI unveiled the IBEX at the AUSA convention this month and has won some $90 million in Pentagon contracts.

21. The Pentagon's inspector general declines a bipartisan Senate request to investigate October's Starlink and Starshield slowdowns in Ukraine

The War Department Office of Inspector General turned down senators' request to find which U.S. officials were responsible for the slowdowns, the Washington Examiner and CNN report.

• Inspector General Platte Moring said the issues were contractual matters better handled by the Air Force and Space Force, which oversee the SpaceX contract, reports say.
• Senators had asked about two weeks ago whether U.S. officials authorized or knew of the restrictions and whether they endangered U.S. personnel.
• Ukrainian officials say the slowdowns hurt drone operations, including grounding Bars interceptor drones.

22. U.S. soldiers and airmen in Germany train on RD-SUADS, a self-powered palletized counter-drone system

The Defence Blog reports, with U.S. Army Europe and Africa photos, that troops trained on Trust Automation's Rapidly Deployable Small-Unmanned Air Defense System, which fits on a pallet.

• Trust Automation says SUADS completed a U.S. Army operational assessment at the National Training Center, Fort Irwin.
• There it detected and engaged drones at roughly 2 to 6 km, with coverage up to about 7 km in favorable conditions.
• That configuration combined radar and electro-optical/infrared sensors with NINJA and DroneBuster electronic attack systems.

23. Echodyne and Allen Control Systems pair EchoShield radar with the Bullfrog robotic gun turret for counter-drone use on land and at sea

Under a strategic collaboration agreement, EchoShield feeds radar position and velocity data to ACS's Bullfrog, which uses computer vision and autonomous control to aim existing weapons, Military Aerospace reports.

• The radar data helps Bullfrog orient its sensors, hold tracks on maneuvering drones and build firing solutions.
• Tests and demos are planned for fixed-site, mobile, expeditionary and maritime use, including on uncrewed vessels.
• The companies say guns and existing ammunition could reduce reliance on missile interceptors, but disclosed no cost or performance data.
• Both firms hold separate JIATF-401 awards; the combined system has not been procured.

24. Germany's ARX Robotics and Ukraine's Roboneers arm the GEREON ground robot with the Shablya combat module, carrying an M2 or Mk.19

ARX Robotics and ROBONEERS have made Ukraine's Shablya remote weapon module compatible with the GEREON UGV, Roboneers told Militarnyi on Oct. 29.

• Full integration in the M2 Browning and Mk.19 grenade launcher configurations is due by the end of the year.
• First deliveries will follow operational requirements, the companies say.
• It is company-supplied information; no customer or order was named.

25. India's IG Defence and Oman's MSA Global sign an MoU to explore making the KAL long-range one-way attack drone and counter-drone systems in Oman

The exploratory agreement covers co-development and local manufacturing for Oman and the Gulf states, Business Standard and the Times of India report.

• KAL is described as a one-way attack drone with a stated range of up to 1,000 km.
• The MoU also covers the BAJ drone interceptor and the JWALA counter-drone micro-missile.
• No order, factory or deployment has been announced.

1. The FCC votes 3–0 to open 50 MHz of the 800 MHz cellular band to drones, ending a 35-year-old airborne ban

At its Oct. 29 open meeting the Federal Communications Commission adopted "FCC Opens More Cellular Spectrum for Drones," Report and Order FCC 26-72, letting drones use the band for command, control, communications and payload links.

• "Today, we give drone operators a new source of spectrum and open up new business models for aerial connectivity," Chairman Brendan Carr says.
• Carr and Commissioners Anna Gomez and Olivia Trusty approved it; the ban on passengers using phones in flight stays.
• The same meeting adopted FCC 26-73, limiting recognized equipment test labs to the U.S. and reciprocal countries, which reaches every new drone model sold in the U.S., Drone Authority reports.
• Routine beyond-visual-line-of-sight flight still waits on the FAA's Part 108 rule, due by Dec. 7, DroneXL reports.

2. A Russian jet-powered drone hits a crowded platform at Dnipro's main railway station, killing at least 14

Ukraine's state railway Ukrzaliznytsia says a jet-powered drone struck the platform where train No. 866 to Zaporizhzhia was waiting around 11 a.m. Thursday; regional head Oleksandr Hanzha puts the toll at 14 killed and 14 injured, Ukrainska Pravda and the BBC report.

• Ukraine's Air Force says four jet-powered drones attacked the region; three were shot down and the fourth hit the station.
• An elevated threat warning had been issued, but "there was a significant number of people on the platform," Ukrzaliznytsia CEO Oleksandr Pertsovskyi says.
• Six people are in serious condition, including an 11-year-old boy, Hanzha says.
• Russia's military has not commented, the BBC reports.

3. The Kremlin says the war "must continue" after Ukraine sent 613 drones toward Moscow during the Russia-Africa summit

"Our air defense systems are working effectively. But this shows once again that the situation continues, and the (war) must continue so that we are protected from threats," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Oct. 29, the Kyiv Independent reports.

• Peskov called it "strange" that Kyiv mounted such a massive attack while delegations from 48 African countries met in the Kremlin.
• Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin says 231 of the 613 drones were destroyed on approach to the capital; Russian authorities report no casualties or damage.
• RIA Novosti says it was one of the largest attempts on Moscow in October, after 630 drones on Oct. 21–22.
• Ukraine, Russia and the U.S. are preparing another round of talks, with no date confirmed.

4. Ukraine's defense-tech adviser says Russia's jet-powered Geran-5 drones have hit 1,000 km/h while maneuvering

Serhii "Flash" Beskrestnov, the president's adviser on defense technologies, said Oct. 29 that Ukraine recorded cases of the Geran-5 accelerating to 1,000 km/h while maneuvering, UNN reports.

• "They are constantly trying to make their move, and we are looking for ways to respond," he says, calling it "like a game of chess."
• Russia is involving tens of thousands of engineers in drone development, he says.
• Ukraine must not only build its own technology but outpace Russia's rate of improvement, he says.
• Separately, Ukraine's military intelligence displayed wreckage of downed Geran-5, Dan-T and Filin weapons Oct. 29.

5. DIU-backed Auto-Router, a route-planning app that began as a Carnegie Mellon student project, is tested by Army soldiers in Germany

DIU highlighted its Innovation with Academia program on Oct. 29, pointing to Groundpath's Auto-Router, an ATAK plugin now being tested by U.S. Army soldiers, as Stars and Stripes reports.

• The app weighs terrain, enemy positions and lines of sight to generate several route options in seconds, with compass bearings and pace counts if a device fails.
• The 2nd Cavalry Regiment's Innovation Cell partnered with Carnegie Mellon through Hacking for Defense; DIU picked the beta for continued support.
• Opposition-force soldiers used it at Hohenfels during Combined Resolve to stalk 1st Armored Division troops.
• It rolls out to the 2nd Cavalry Regiment and the 173rd Airborne next month, Stars and Stripes reports.

6. DARPA says its RACER program ran the first space-to-tactical autonomous ground experiment, detecting, tracking and engaging simulated threats with humans in control

In "Autonomous vehicles deliver command-controlled robotic lethality," DARPA details the Oct. 15 Fort Knox demonstration of four autonomous ground vehicles and posted on X Oct. 29 about the space-to-tactical experiment.

• Anduril one-way attack platforms were integrated onto Overland AI autonomous ground vehicles and engaged simulated targets after the mission commander's approval, DARPA says.
• "We can drop a 10-digit grid on a traversable mobility corridor" and the vehicles drive it "comparable to a human," says DARPA technical advisor Jason Gregory.
• The vehicles carry sensing, kinetic and non-kinetic payloads, supervised by a single operator.
• RACER wraps up about five years of off-road autonomy software development, Gregory says.

7. The Marine Corps fields its L-MADIS mobile counter-drone system to the 1st Low Altitude Air Defense Battalion in Hawaii

Program Manager Ground Based Air Defense completed new equipment training and fielding of the Light Marine Air Defense Integrated System at Marine Corps Base Hawaii in September, a Marine Corps release published by Seapower on Oct. 29 says.

• L-MADIS detects, tracks, identifies and defeats small drones, fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft on the move using radio-frequency defeat.
• Developed starting in 2019, it is now a program of record, the release says.
• "The presence of Unmanned Aircraft Systems is no longer a future concern – it's a persistent threat," it says.
• Training ran from August into September, ending with delivery of the systems.

8. President Trump finds that imported robotics and industrial machinery threaten U.S. national security, citing defense systems, but holds off on tariffs for now

In "Adjusting Imports of Robotics, Industrial Machinery, and Their Parts and Components into the United States" (Oct. 28), a Section 232 proclamation, the President concurs with a Commerce Department finding that the imports "threaten to impair the national security."

• The proclamation says nearly all modern defense systems depend on robotics or industrial machinery, and that foreign-sourced equipment can pose significant cybersecurity vulnerabilities.
• Commerce found the domestic industry doesn't produce enough robotics, machinery and components to meet national security needs.
• Commerce and the U.S. Trade Representative must negotiate agreements with trading partners and report within 180 days.
• No immediate tariffs are imposed, but duties remain possible if talks fall short, Reuters reports.

9. Russia launches 112 drones at Ukraine overnight, 40 of them jet-powered Shaheds; air defenses down or jam 97

Ukraine's Air Force says Russia attacked from 6 p.m. Oct. 28 with Shahed, Gerbera and Parodiya decoy drones launched from the Orel, Millerovo and occupied Donetsk directions, Interfax-Ukraine and Ukrainska Pravda report.

• As of 8 a.m., 97 drones were shot down or suppressed, including 30 of the 40 jet-powered Shaheds.
• Hits were recorded at seven locations and debris fell at five; about seven drones were still in the air.
• An overnight Russian attack in the Rivne region killed one man, Ukrainian authorities say, Reuters reports.
• A drone strike in Kharkiv set fire to an educational facility, Mayor Ihor Terekhov says.

10. Iran's Revolutionary Guards claim they shot down a U.S. MQ-1 drone over the Strait of Hormuz and hijacked an MQM-170 target drone with electronic warfare

The IRGC said Thursday it downed an "advanced" MQ-1 over the eastern Strait of Hormuz near Sirik, calling it the 14th it has shot down, Iran International reports.

• The IRGC Navy separately claims its electronic warfare unit took over an MQM-170 Outlaw's guidance and landed it intact in the western strait, PressTV reports.
• It says the drone was mapping Iran's coastal air defenses and took off from a southern Gulf state.
• The U.S. has not confirmed any loss; these are IRGC claims.

11. The container ship Contship Jet sinks overnight after the three-drone attack off Bulgaria, and the navy chief says no Bulgarian forces were close enough to intercept

Bulgarian Navy commander Rear Adm. Kiril Mihaylov says the ship, hit by three maritime drones around noon Wednesday, sank during the night, Radio Bulgaria and AP report.

• "We had no forces or assets in the immediate area that could reach them quickly enough to intercept and destroy them," Mihaylov says; he does not know where the drones were launched from.
• Twenty of its 421 containers fell overboard; the manifest lists lithium-ion batteries, acids, flammable liquids and other hazardous cargo.
• Maritime Administration inspectors expect no significant environmental impact so far; water sampling runs at five coastal sites.
• Separately, Russia's defense ministry says it struck a dry-cargo ship in the Black Sea used to supply the Ukrainian military, Russian news agencies report.

12. The Pentagon's inspector general declines a bipartisan Senate request to investigate October's Starlink and Starshield slowdowns in Ukraine

The War Department Office of Inspector General turned down senators' request to find which U.S. officials were responsible for the slowdowns, the Washington Examiner and CNN report.

• Inspector General Platte Moring said the issues were contractual matters better handled by the Air Force and Space Force, which oversee the SpaceX contract, reports say.
• Senators had asked about two weeks ago whether U.S. officials authorized or knew of the restrictions and whether they endangered U.S. personnel.
• Ukrainian officials say the slowdowns hurt drone operations, including grounding Bars interceptor drones.

13. U.S. soldiers and airmen in Germany train on RD-SUADS, a self-powered palletized counter-drone system

The Defence Blog reports, with U.S. Army Europe and Africa photos, that troops trained on Trust Automation's Rapidly Deployable Small-Unmanned Air Defense System, which fits on a pallet.

• Trust Automation says SUADS completed a U.S. Army operational assessment at the National Training Center, Fort Irwin.
• There it detected and engaged drones at roughly 2 to 6 km, with coverage up to about 7 km in favorable conditions.
• That configuration combined radar and electro-optical/infrared sensors with NINJA and DroneBuster electronic attack systems.

14. The Navy has stopped buying Aevex's GARC drone speedboats after spending $136.8 million on 325 of them, Bloomberg reports; Aevex disputes the framing

Bloomberg's Katrina Manson reports the Navy halted further purchases of the Global Autonomous Reconnaissance Craft built by BlackSea, now owned by Aevex, citing hardware limits and cheaper alternatives after an independent assessment; the decision was made earlier this fall.

• A Navy spokesperson says the service has spent $136.8 million on 24 prototypes and 301 production boats.
• A defense official cites hardware, software and sensor issues, including a 2025 test in which a boat switched to autonomous mode and threw its tow-boat captain into the sea.
• In an Oct. 21 statement, Aevex says no orders were halted: it delivered all 325 contracted boats in 2025, no more hulls were planned, and its roughly $350 million upgrade contract runs through June 2027.
• Aevex says the boats have logged more than 25,000 hours on the water and are now flying mine-countermeasure missions in the Strait of Hormuz.

15. Lockheed Martin wins a $57.3 million Army contract to build a counter-drone interceptor, joining L3Harris and Northrop in the next round of XRC

Lockheed's three-year award covers developing and building an interceptor against drones and other short-range air-defense threats under round two of the Army's Xtended Range Counter-small UAS program, Defense Daily reports.

• "We are building on our Next-Generation Short-Range Interceptor work to support development for XRC," a Lockheed spokeswoman says.
• L3Harris reported its own round-two award last week, Defense Daily notes.

16. Russian satellites have repeatedly positioned over Saudi oil and military sites before and after Houthi attacks, AP and ISW report

AP reports, citing satellite-tracking data and officials, that Russian satellites routinely positioned above Saudi energy and military sites in the days before and after Houthi strikes since July, and ISW says Russia is supporting Houthi efforts to disrupt energy markets.

• A geospatial intelligence firm logged 40 instances of Russian satellite positioning over Saudi sites between July 1 and Oct. 19, including the Sept. 10 drone strike on the East-West Pipeline.
• A Saudi official and a senior Houthi official separately told AP that Russia passes targeting intelligence through Iranian military advisers in Yemen.
• Pre- and post-strike imagery very likely supports battle-damage assessment, ISW says.
• The Houthis struck Aden International Airport on Oct. 28, ISW says.

17. Reuters maps how Iran used a military-financial complex of 5,000 agencies to import drone and missile parts, even during the war

In an investigation posted Oct. 29, Reuters says Iran harnessed some 5,000 agencies to bring in components, explosives and heavy-duty trucks critical to its drone and missile programs.

• Deliveries reached Iran by land, sea and air even during the war, Reuters reports.

18. Singapore's army tests a vehicle-mounted counter-drone system and an untethered airborne 5G node at Exercise Wallaby in Australia

Janes and The Straits Times report the Singapore Armed Forces are trialing the systems in Queensland during Exercise Wallaby 2026, its largest overseas drill.

• The counter-drone kit mounts sensors on pickup trucks to detect hostile drones and jam their control links on the move.
• The airborne 5G communications node gives forward troops high-bandwidth, low-latency links.
• Singapore's defense ministry outlined the exercise in an Oct. 23 fact sheet.

19. Echodyne and Allen Control Systems pair EchoShield radar with the Bullfrog robotic gun turret for counter-drone use on land and at sea

Under a strategic collaboration agreement, EchoShield feeds radar position and velocity data to ACS's Bullfrog, which uses computer vision and autonomous control to aim existing weapons, Military Aerospace reports.

• The radar data helps Bullfrog orient its sensors, hold tracks on maneuvering drones and build firing solutions.
• Tests and demos are planned for fixed-site, mobile, expeditionary and maritime use, including on uncrewed vessels.
• The companies say guns and existing ammunition could reduce reliance on missile interceptors, but disclosed no cost or performance data.
• Both firms hold separate JIATF-401 awards; the combined system has not been procured.

20. Germany's ARX Robotics and Ukraine's Roboneers arm the GEREON ground robot with the Shablya combat module, carrying an M2 or Mk.19

ARX Robotics and ROBONEERS have made Ukraine's Shablya remote weapon module compatible with the GEREON UGV, Roboneers told Militarnyi on Oct. 29.

• Full integration in the M2 Browning and Mk.19 grenade launcher configurations is due by the end of the year.
• First deliveries will follow operational requirements, the companies say.
• It is company-supplied information; no customer or order was named.

21. Researchers fly a fixed-wing interceptor drone steered by a reinforcement-learning policy that catches maneuvering drone targets in real flight

In "Autonomous fixed-wing interception using reinforcement learning" (arXiv), Daan van Hamersveld, Ewoud Smeur and Iurii Kriachko pitch cheap fixed-wing interceptors as a counter to Shahed-type drones, which quadcopter interceptors can't reach at range.

• A single neural network maps monocular-camera detections straight to control-surface and throttle commands, bypassing the autopilot.
• In simulation it beat proportional-navigation and pure-pursuit guidance under most conditions.
• In flight tests at Valkenburg air base in the Netherlands, it intercepted a maneuvering fixed-wing target in three of six engagements, with pilots taking over to avoid a collision.
• The airframe is built from off-the-shelf parts, with a Raspberry Pi 5 running detection.

22. HII lays the hull plaque on its first ROMULUS 151 drone ship, one of 10 the Navy ordered for its medium unmanned surface vessel program

HII held the ceremony in New Iberia, La., on Oct. 27 with Vice Adm. Michael Wosje, the deputy chief of naval operations for warfighting requirements, the company says.

• Wosje calls the MUSV "an essential tailored offset within the CNO's Hedge Strategy" and says the Navy will field it fast.
• ROMULUS runs HII's Odyssey autonomy software; in Navy-monitored evaluation it completed a 420-nautical-mile, 28-hour mission.
• Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry and Breaux Brothers Enterprises, a regional shipbuilding partner, joined the ceremony.
• It is a company release; Defense War Room also covered it.

23. NATO's support agency picks Sky-Watch's RQ-35 Heidrun, letting allies buy the small recon drone without their own tenders

The Danish drone maker was selected under a NATO Support and Procurement Agency framework for the UAS Partnership, covering procurement and in-service support for fixed-wing mini drones, dronenr reports.

• The hand-launched RQ-35 flies up to 2.5 hours with a 50 km link and is built to work under electronic warfare and GNSS jamming.
• Sky-Watch says it has been used in conflict zones including Ukraine.
• No value, duration or orders were disclosed; parent AIRO Group trades on Nasdaq.

24. ParaZero launches TillOnAIR, an autonomous net-firing interceptor drone guided entirely from the ground to beat jamming and fiber-optic drones

The Israeli company says a ground mission-control unit detects, tracks and steers its quadcopter interceptors, which carry no GPS, seeker or camera, Unmanned Systems Technology reports from its release.

• The interceptor nets a hostile drone from above and returns for a new net pod, avoiding explosive debris.
• One ground unit can run several interceptors against swarms without a pilot, the company says.
• The 15 kg system sets up in about 20 minutes and protects a 50–100 m bubble; demos are planned in November.
• It is a company release with no customer named.

25. India's IG Defence and Oman's MSA Global sign an MoU to explore making the KAL long-range one-way attack drone and counter-drone systems in Oman

The exploratory agreement covers co-development and local manufacturing for Oman and the Gulf states, Business Standard and the Times of India report.

• KAL is described as a one-way attack drone with a stated range of up to 1,000 km.
• The MoU also covers the BAJ drone interceptor and the JWALA counter-drone micro-missile.
• No order, factory or deployment has been announced.

1. The container ship Contship Jet sinks overnight after the three-drone attack off Bulgaria, and the navy chief says no Bulgarian forces were close enough to intercept

Bulgarian Navy commander Rear Adm. Kiril Mihaylov says the ship, hit by three maritime drones around noon Wednesday, sank during the night, Radio Bulgaria and AP report.

• "We had no forces or assets in the immediate area that could reach them quickly enough to intercept and destroy them," Mihaylov says; he does not know where the drones were launched from.
• Twenty of its 421 containers fell overboard; the manifest lists lithium-ion batteries, acids, flammable liquids and other hazardous cargo.
• Maritime Administration inspectors expect no significant environmental impact so far; water sampling runs at five coastal sites.
• Separately, Russia's defense ministry says it struck a dry-cargo ship in the Black Sea used to supply the Ukrainian military, Russian news agencies report.

2. President Trump finds that imported robotics and industrial machinery threaten U.S. national security, citing defense systems, but holds off on tariffs for now

In "Adjusting Imports of Robotics, Industrial Machinery, and Their Parts and Components into the United States" (Oct. 28), a Section 232 proclamation, the President concurs with a Commerce Department finding that the imports "threaten to impair the national security."

• The proclamation says nearly all modern defense systems depend on robotics or industrial machinery, and that foreign-sourced equipment can pose significant cybersecurity vulnerabilities.
• Commerce found the domestic industry doesn't produce enough robotics, machinery and components to meet national security needs.
• Commerce and the U.S. Trade Representative must negotiate agreements with trading partners and report within 180 days.
• No immediate tariffs are imposed, but duties remain possible if talks fall short, Reuters reports.

3. Russia launches 112 drones at Ukraine overnight, 40 of them jet-powered Shaheds; air defenses down or jam 97

Ukraine's Air Force says Russia attacked from 6 p.m. Oct. 28 with Shahed, Gerbera and Parodiya decoy drones launched from the Orel, Millerovo and occupied Donetsk directions, Interfax-Ukraine and Ukrainska Pravda report.

• As of 8 a.m., 97 drones were shot down or suppressed, including 30 of the 40 jet-powered Shaheds.
• Hits were recorded at seven locations and debris fell at five; about seven drones were still in the air.
• An overnight Russian attack in the Rivne region killed one man, Ukrainian authorities say, Reuters reports.
• A drone strike in Kharkiv set fire to an educational facility, Mayor Ihor Terekhov says.

4. Russia says 613 Ukrainian drones flew toward Moscow overnight and claims 1,214 downed nationwide

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin says air defenses destroyed 231 drones on approach to the capital between Wednesday evening and Thursday morning, with the rest stopped farther out, Reuters reports via Al Jazeera, citing TASS.

• Russia's defense ministry claims 1,214 Ukrainian drones intercepted across Russian regions overnight; the figures are Russian claims.
• Debris caused minor damage at an industrial site in Sterlitamak, Bashkortostan; the mayor says all eight drones there were shot down.
• September's record attack on the Moscow region saw more than 1,600 drones reported downed.
• The attacks come as Moscow and Kyiv prepare to resume U.S.-mediated peace talks next month.

5. Iran's Revolutionary Guards claim they shot down a U.S. MQ-1 drone over the Strait of Hormuz and hijacked an MQM-170 target drone with electronic warfare

The IRGC said Thursday it downed an "advanced" MQ-1 over the eastern Strait of Hormuz near Sirik, calling it the 14th it has shot down, Iran International reports.

• The IRGC Navy separately claims its electronic warfare unit took over an MQM-170 Outlaw's guidance and landed it intact in the western strait, PressTV reports.
• It says the drone was mapping Iran's coastal air defenses and took off from a southern Gulf state.
• The U.S. has not confirmed any loss; these are IRGC claims.

6. The FCC votes today to open 50 MHz of the 800 MHz cellular band to drones, lifting a 35-year-old ban on airborne use

In "FCC to Open Huge Swath of Cellular Spectrum for Drones" (Oct. 27), the Federal Communications Commission says it will vote at its Oct. 29 open meeting on a Report and Order letting drones use 50 megahertz of licensed, nationwide, low-band spectrum in the 800 MHz Cellular band.

• The draft order modifies section 22.925 of FCC rules to allow drone use of the band for command, control, communication and payload links, and adds a primary mobile allocation for UAS, per the FCC fact sheet.
• The FCC says modern networks can prevent drone interference, so the 1991-era "airborne" restriction is no longer needed; the ban on passengers using phones in flight stays.
• AT&T, Verizon, Amazon, CTIA, AUVSI, Red Cat, Ondas and DRONERESPONDERS backed the move; Red Cat and Dracoe cite defense as well as commercial users.
• The change does not itself authorize beyond-visual-line-of-sight flights; FAA rules still apply, DroneLife reports.

7. The Army opens two Indiana National Guard sites, Camp Atterbury and Muscatatuck, to commercial drone and counter-drone testing

In "Army expands test range initiative to Indiana National Guard sites, boosting commercial drone testing options" (army.mil, Oct. 28), Acting Secretary of the Army Adam Telle adds both sites to the Permissive Test Range Expansion Initiative at the Northeast Indiana Defense Summit.

• Camp Atterbury offers more than 34,000 acres and a restricted airspace corridor up to 40,000 feet; Muscatatuck is a 1,000-acre urban site for testing drone and counter-drone navigation and tracking.
• Companies request access through testrange.army.mil, and an ATEC "concierge" team schedules the tests with the Indiana Guard.
• "The Army is throwing open our doors to American innovators and tearing down bureaucratic red tape," Telle says.
• Indiana's senators had asked for the designation in a Sept. 30 letter.

8. DIU acting director Travis Metz says the military needs drones "measured in hundreds of thousands just to train" and wants two to four mass producers

In "The military's $1 billion drone plan to take on China" (Washington Examiner, Oct. 27), Metz describes the Drone Dominance Program, which DIU shared Oct. 28.

• The department expects to spend $1.1 billion on roughly 300,000 drones across all Gauntlet rounds, with Gauntlets 2.5, 3 and 4 still to come in the next year or so.
• Gauntlet I bought 30,000 drones for about $150 million from 11 companies; Gauntlet II, 60,000 for $300 million from nine; 16 companies have contracts so far.
• Metz wants the services to settle on two to four companies to mass-produce small drones, avoiding single-supplier risk.
• Gauntlet II orders were the first to bar Chinese brushless motors and battery packs; most Gauntlet I drones have been delivered.

9. A Ukrainian ground robot drives 93% of a 20 km front-line supply run on its own, a first for the Khartiia corps' Lava regiment

The Lava Unmanned Systems Regiment of Ukraine's National Guard 2nd Corps "Khartiia" says its AI-enabled UGV completed its first autonomous logistics mission in the Kharkiv sector, Militarnyi and LB.ua report.

• The operator took control for only 1.4 km of the route.
• A scout vehicle first maps the route with lidar into a 3D model; cameras and AI then handle the road, verges and obstacles in real time.
• "The operator stops being a driver and becomes a dispatcher," says UGV battalion commander Andrii "Matematyk" Kopach; the goal is one dispatcher for several robots, with less dependence on Starlink.
• Apex.AI built the software; casualty evacuation is the next planned use.

10. Zelensky says the October Starshield slowdown grounded 2,000 European-funded Bars interceptor drones just after one downed a Shahed in testing

"They tested it, and it destroyed a Shahed. We were very happy. And then Starshield stopped working," President Zelensky told journalists Oct. 27, Interfax-Ukraine and Militarnyi report.

• A European country paid for the 2,000 Bars interceptors, he said; he did not name it.
• Zelensky says he doesn't know who ordered the shutoff, and that Ukraine uses Starshield on its own territory, mainly for logistics and against Shaheds and jet drones.
• Ukraine now downs about 90% of Shaheds, up from 50–75% early on, he said.
• Ukraine's defense minister reported full speeds restored Oct. 24 after terminals lost service above roughly 72–161 km/h from Oct. 14.

11. Ukraine's military intelligence says Russia is building a jet-drone launch site near Millerovo that could handle up to 100 launches a day

HUR said Oct. 28, citing satellite imagery, that the site 3.5 km from Millerovo airfield in Rostov Oblast, about 20 km from Ukraine's Luhansk Oblast, is built to prepare and launch jet-powered Geran-4 and Geran-5 drones, the Kyiv Independent reports.

• There were no significant signs of construction in late August; launch positions and infrastructure have gone up since.
• HUR says it may be part of preparations to step up attacks this winter; actual tempo depends on drone, fuel and warhead supply and trained crews.
• The updated Geran-4 adds autonomous navigation and a new warhead for bridges and power pylons, HUR says.
• Russia has at least 12 drone launch sites; Geran-4 and -5 ranges are put at 770 and 950 km.

12. Ukraine's Azov corps says its drone units have struck more than 100 trains supplying Russian forces

The press service of the National Guard's 1st Corps "Azov" reported the strikes Oct. 28 and released footage, Militarnyi and Interfax-Ukraine report.

• The strikes disabled locomotives, fuel tank cars and other rail equipment on trains feeding the front line.
• Russia is trying to protect rail routes with mobile fire groups and electronic warfare, without fully shielding key hubs, the corps says.
• The Come Back Alive Foundation supplied 440 Starlink Mini terminals that supported the operations.

13. The Navy has stopped buying Aevex's GARC drone speedboats after spending $136.8 million on 325 of them, Bloomberg reports; Aevex disputes the framing

Bloomberg's Katrina Manson reports the Navy halted further purchases of the Global Autonomous Reconnaissance Craft built by BlackSea, now owned by Aevex, citing hardware limits and cheaper alternatives after an independent assessment; the decision was made earlier this fall.

• A Navy spokesperson says the service has spent $136.8 million on 24 prototypes and 301 production boats.
• A defense official cites hardware, software and sensor issues, including a 2025 test in which a boat switched to autonomous mode and threw its tow-boat captain into the sea.
• In an Oct. 21 statement, Aevex says no orders were halted: it delivered all 325 contracted boats in 2025, no more hulls were planned, and its roughly $350 million upgrade contract runs through June 2027.
• Aevex says the boats have logged more than 25,000 hours on the water and are now flying mine-countermeasure missions in the Strait of Hormuz.

14. Lockheed Martin wins a $57.3 million Army contract to build a counter-drone interceptor, joining L3Harris and Northrop in the next round of XRC

Lockheed's three-year award covers developing and building an interceptor against drones and other short-range air-defense threats under round two of the Army's Xtended Range Counter-small UAS program, Defense Daily reports.

• "We are building on our Next-Generation Short-Range Interceptor work to support development for XRC," a Lockheed spokeswoman says.
• L3Harris reported its own round-two award last week, Defense Daily notes.

15. Russian satellites have repeatedly positioned over Saudi oil and military sites before and after Houthi attacks, AP and ISW report

AP reports, citing satellite-tracking data and officials, that Russian satellites routinely positioned above Saudi energy and military sites in the days before and after Houthi strikes since July, and ISW says Russia is supporting Houthi efforts to disrupt energy markets.

• A geospatial intelligence firm logged 40 instances of Russian satellite positioning over Saudi sites between July 1 and Oct. 19, including the Sept. 10 drone strike on the East-West Pipeline.
• A Saudi official and a senior Houthi official separately told AP that Russia passes targeting intelligence through Iranian military advisers in Yemen.
• Pre- and post-strike imagery very likely supports battle-damage assessment, ISW says.
• The Houthis struck Aden International Airport on Oct. 28, ISW says.

16. Reuters maps how Iran used a military-financial complex of 5,000 agencies to import drone and missile parts, even during the war

In an investigation posted Oct. 29, Reuters says Iran harnessed some 5,000 agencies to bring in components, explosives and heavy-duty trucks critical to its drone and missile programs.

• Deliveries reached Iran by land, sea and air even during the war, Reuters reports.

17. Singapore's army tests a vehicle-mounted counter-drone system and an untethered airborne 5G node at Exercise Wallaby in Australia

Janes and The Straits Times report the Singapore Armed Forces are trialing the systems in Queensland during Exercise Wallaby 2026, its largest overseas drill.

• The counter-drone kit mounts sensors on pickup trucks to detect hostile drones and jam their control links on the move.
• The airborne 5G communications node gives forward troops high-bandwidth, low-latency links.
• Singapore's defense ministry outlined the exercise in an Oct. 23 fact sheet.

18. China is testing a semi-submersible trimaran missile carrier, likely uncrewed or lightly crewed, with an estimated 16 missiles

In "China's New Trimaran Submarine: 16 Missiles And An Unconventional Design" (Naval News, Oct. 2026), imagery shows a roughly 65 m semi-submersible trimaran, first seen at Huangpu Shipyard in Guangzhou and now at Huludao.

• It appears to carry 16–18 missiles in two hangars and must surface and raise launchers to fire.
• Stern outriggers provide stability and propulsion, and a snorkel supports submerged diesel running.
• China has announced no designation, mission or missile type.
• Militarnyi describes it as combining a semi-submersible missile carrier with an uncrewed platform.

19. Canadian volunteer Jesse Adams is killed by a Russian FPV drone while evacuating animals near Kramatorsk

Adams, co-founder of B.C.'s RainCoast Dog Rescue Society, died after an FPV drone hit his vehicle's windshield on Oct. 25 as he evacuated animals in Donetsk Oblast, Ukrainska Pravda and CBC News report.

• He was taken to hospital and died despite emergency surgery.
• Friends describe him as having rescued hundreds of animals in Ukraine.
• Russian FPV drones increasingly hit civilian traffic well behind the front line.

20. Researchers fly a fixed-wing interceptor drone steered by a reinforcement-learning policy that catches maneuvering drone targets in real flight

In "Autonomous fixed-wing interception using reinforcement learning" (arXiv), Daan van Hamersveld, Ewoud Smeur and Iurii Kriachko pitch cheap fixed-wing interceptors as a counter to Shahed-type drones, which quadcopter interceptors can't reach at range.

• A single neural network maps monocular-camera detections straight to control-surface and throttle commands, bypassing the autopilot.
• In simulation it beat proportional-navigation and pure-pursuit guidance under most conditions.
• In flight tests at Valkenburg air base in the Netherlands, it intercepted a maneuvering fixed-wing target in three of six engagements, with pilots taking over to avoid a collision.
• The airframe is built from off-the-shelf parts, with a Raspberry Pi 5 running detection.

21. HII lays the hull plaque on its first ROMULUS 151 drone ship, one of 10 the Navy ordered for its medium unmanned surface vessel program

HII held the ceremony in New Iberia, La., on Oct. 27 with Vice Adm. Michael Wosje, the deputy chief of naval operations for warfighting requirements, the company says.

• Wosje calls the MUSV "an essential tailored offset within the CNO's Hedge Strategy" and says the Navy will field it fast.
• ROMULUS runs HII's Odyssey autonomy software; in Navy-monitored evaluation it completed a 420-nautical-mile, 28-hour mission.
• Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry and Breaux Brothers Enterprises, a regional shipbuilding partner, joined the ceremony.
• It is a company release; Defense War Room also covered it.

22. NATO's support agency picks Sky-Watch's RQ-35 Heidrun, letting allies buy the small recon drone without their own tenders

The Danish drone maker was selected under a NATO Support and Procurement Agency framework for the UAS Partnership, covering procurement and in-service support for fixed-wing mini drones, dronenr reports.

• The hand-launched RQ-35 flies up to 2.5 hours with a 50 km link and is built to work under electronic warfare and GNSS jamming.
• Sky-Watch says it has been used in conflict zones including Ukraine.
• No value, duration or orders were disclosed; parent AIRO Group trades on Nasdaq.

23. ParaZero launches TillOnAIR, an autonomous net-firing interceptor drone guided entirely from the ground to beat jamming and fiber-optic drones

The Israeli company says a ground mission-control unit detects, tracks and steers its quadcopter interceptors, which carry no GPS, seeker or camera, Unmanned Systems Technology reports from its release.

• The interceptor nets a hostile drone from above and returns for a new net pod, avoiding explosive debris.
• One ground unit can run several interceptors against swarms without a pilot, the company says.
• The 15 kg system sets up in about 20 minutes and protects a 50–100 m bubble; demos are planned in November.
• It is a company release with no customer named.

24. Quantum Systems opens a Japan subsidiary and signs agreements with Mitsubishi Chemical and Panasonic to build drones for Japan's Self-Defense Forces

The German drone maker announced Quantum Systems Japan G.K. and a Tokyo office during Chancellor Friedrich Merz's Oct. 28 visit to Japan, Militarnyi reports.

• The office will adapt uncrewed systems to Japan Self-Defense Forces needs.
• It will offer air, land and maritime systems tied together by its MOSAIC UXS software.
• "Ukraine had demonstrated why this mattered," co-CEO Sven Kruck says.
• The company opened a development center in Huntsville, Ala., in August.

25. A U.S. Army colonel who watched Ukraine fix jammed drones in hours says Pentagon buying should reward how fast suppliers adapt

In "I Saw Ukraine's Rapid Adaptation Cycle in Action, and This is What the US Military Should Learn from It" (Modern War Institute), Col. Rachael Hoagland contrasts Ukraine's hours-to-days drone fixes with U.S. processes that can take one to two years.

• When Russian electronic warfare disrupted drones, Ukrainian engineers changed frequencies, antennas or navigation and sent them back to the fight, she writes.
• She recommends judging suppliers on their ability to adapt to new threats, using live Ukrainian threat data in testing.
• She also calls for faster iteration, feedback loops and "fail fast" incentives.

1. The FCC will vote Thursday to open 50 MHz of the 800 MHz cellular band to drones, lifting a 35-year-old ban on airborne use

In "FCC to Open Huge Swath of Cellular Spectrum for Drones" (Oct. 27), the Federal Communications Commission says it will vote at its Oct. 29 open meeting on a Report and Order letting drones use 50 megahertz of licensed, nationwide, low-band spectrum in the 800 MHz Cellular band.

• The draft order modifies section 22.925 of FCC rules to allow drone use of the band for command, control, communication and payload links, and adds a primary mobile allocation for UAS, per the FCC fact sheet.
• The FCC says modern networks can prevent drone interference, so the 1991-era "airborne" restriction is no longer needed; the ban on passengers using phones in flight stays.
• AT&T, Verizon, Amazon, CTIA, AUVSI, Red Cat, Ondas and DRONERESPONDERS backed the move; Red Cat and Dracoe cite defense as well as commercial users.
• The change does not itself authorize beyond-visual-line-of-sight flights; FAA rules still apply, DroneLife reports.

2. Three sea drones hit the container ship Contship Jet off Bulgaria, leaving it badly damaged and listing; all 18 crew are rescued

Bulgarian Defense Minister Dimitar Stoyanov says the Liberian-flagged ship "was hit...with three naval drones, approximately 21 miles southeast of Shabla" on Wednesday, in Bulgaria's exclusive economic zone, Reuters and AP report.

• Bulgaria's transport ministry says navy and border-police boats rescued the 14 Filipino and four Ukrainian crew; the ship was sailing from Haifa to Constanța with 421 containers.
• A maritime security source says the ship was badly damaged and listing; no one has claimed the attack.
• At least six merchant ships have been attacked off Bulgaria in recent weeks, likely killing about two dozen seafarers, Reuters reports; Moscow denies involvement.
• Turkish Defense Minister Yasar Guler warned Russia and Ukraine against attacks on commercial ships in the Black Sea.

3. The Army opens two Indiana National Guard sites, Camp Atterbury and Muscatatuck, to commercial drone and counter-drone testing

In "Army expands test range initiative to Indiana National Guard sites, boosting commercial drone testing options" (army.mil, Oct. 28), Acting Secretary of the Army Adam Telle adds both sites to the Permissive Test Range Expansion Initiative at the Northeast Indiana Defense Summit.

• Camp Atterbury offers more than 34,000 acres and a restricted airspace corridor up to 40,000 feet; Muscatatuck is a 1,000-acre urban site for testing drone and counter-drone navigation and tracking.
• Companies request access through testrange.army.mil, and an ATEC "concierge" team schedules the tests with the Indiana Guard.
• "The Army is throwing open our doors to American innovators and tearing down bureaucratic red tape," Telle says.
• Indiana's senators had asked for the designation in a Sept. 30 letter.

4. Zelensky says the October Starshield slowdown grounded 2,000 European-funded Bars interceptor drones just after one downed a Shahed in testing

"They tested it, and it destroyed a Shahed. We were very happy. And then Starshield stopped working," President Zelensky told journalists Oct. 27, Interfax-Ukraine and Militarnyi report.

• A European country paid for the 2,000 Bars interceptors, he said; he did not name it.
• Zelensky says he doesn't know who ordered the shutoff, and that Ukraine uses Starshield on its own territory, mainly for logistics and against Shaheds and jet drones.
• Ukraine now downs about 90% of Shaheds, up from 50–75% early on, he said.
• Ukraine's defense minister reported full speeds restored Oct. 24 after terminals lost service above roughly 72–161 km/h from Oct. 14.

5. DIU acting director Travis Metz says the military needs drones "measured in hundreds of thousands just to train" and wants two to four mass producers

In "The military's $1 billion drone plan to take on China" (Washington Examiner, Oct. 27), Metz describes the Drone Dominance Program, which DIU shared Oct. 28.

• The department expects to spend $1.1 billion on roughly 300,000 drones across all Gauntlet rounds, with Gauntlets 2.5, 3 and 4 still to come in the next year or so.
• Gauntlet I bought 30,000 drones for about $150 million from 11 companies; Gauntlet II, 60,000 for $300 million from nine; 16 companies have contracts so far.
• Metz wants the services to settle on two to four companies to mass-produce small drones, avoiding single-supplier risk.
• Gauntlet II orders were the first to bar Chinese brushless motors and battery packs; most Gauntlet I drones have been delivered.

6. A Ukrainian ground robot drives 93% of a 20 km front-line supply run on its own, a first for the Khartiia corps' Lava regiment

The Lava Unmanned Systems Regiment of Ukraine's National Guard 2nd Corps "Khartiia" says its AI-enabled UGV completed its first autonomous logistics mission in the Kharkiv sector, Militarnyi and LB.ua report.

• The operator took control for only 1.4 km of the route.
• A scout vehicle first maps the route with lidar into a 3D model; cameras and AI then handle the road, verges and obstacles in real time.
• "The operator stops being a driver and becomes a dispatcher," says UGV battalion commander Andrii "Matematyk" Kopach; the goal is one dispatcher for several robots, with less dependence on Starlink.
• Apex.AI built the software; casualty evacuation is the next planned use.

7. Ukraine's military intelligence says Russia is building a jet-drone launch site near Millerovo that could handle up to 100 launches a day

HUR said Oct. 28, citing satellite imagery, that the site 3.5 km from Millerovo airfield in Rostov Oblast, about 20 km from Ukraine's Luhansk Oblast, is built to prepare and launch jet-powered Geran-4 and Geran-5 drones, the Kyiv Independent reports.

• There were no significant signs of construction in late August; launch positions and infrastructure have gone up since.
• HUR says it may be part of preparations to step up attacks this winter; actual tempo depends on drone, fuel and warhead supply and trained crews.
• The updated Geran-4 adds autonomous navigation and a new warhead for bridges and power pylons, HUR says.
• Russia has at least 12 drone launch sites; Geran-4 and -5 ranges are put at 770 and 950 km.

8. Ukraine's Azov corps says its drone units have struck more than 100 trains supplying Russian forces

The press service of the National Guard's 1st Corps "Azov" reported the strikes Oct. 28 and released footage, Militarnyi and Interfax-Ukraine report.

• The strikes disabled locomotives, fuel tank cars and other rail equipment on trains feeding the front line.
• Russia is trying to protect rail routes with mobile fire groups and electronic warfare, without fully shielding key hubs, the corps says.
• The Come Back Alive Foundation supplied 440 Starlink Mini terminals that supported the operations.

9. Drones set fire to the Azot chemical plant in Novomoskovsk, one of Russia's largest, the Tula governor confirms

Tula Oblast Governor Dmitry Milyaev confirmed a drone attack damaged Novomoskovsk's industrial zone, homes and infrastructure overnight into Oct. 28, and geolocated footage shows a large smoke column over the Azot plant, Ukrainska Pravda and GeoConfirmed report.

• Milyaev later reported one person injured.
• Ukrainian outlets say the fire likely hit an ammonia production unit; authorities sent environmental labs to check for leaks.
• Ukraine has not detailed the strike.

10. The Netherlands prepares a €500 million military package focused on air defense and starts a joint "Bliksem" air-defense project with Ukraine

President Zelensky announced the package Oct. 28 in the Netherlands after meeting Prime Minister Rob Jetten, saying it is particularly important for repelling Russian air attacks, Kyiv Post reports.

• Ukrainian and Dutch teams have been tasked with the Bliksem air-defense project, with work already underway; few details were given.
• Talks with Dutch and Ukrainian defense and software companies covered defense production, joint technology and air defense.
• The Netherlands also pledged €1.2 billion in non-military aid for 2027–29.

11. Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine names AI, which he calls "super intelligence," as one of his three strategic priorities, ahead of ongoing operations

In "Caine Says Super Intelligence Is a Strategic Priority" (DoW News, Oct. 27), Gen. Dan Caine tells the NDTA-U.S. Transportation Command fall meeting in Grapevine, Texas, that his priorities are "No. 1 ... a budget. ... No. 2 is [super intelligence], and No. 3 is ongoing operations."

• Caine says SI will be essential for winning tactical engagements, logistics and sustainment, and command and control.
• He expects the volume of kinetic and cyber actions between the U.S. and an adversary to be "significant" enough to need machine help.
• He stresses training leaders, systems and models while keeping humans appropriately involved, and says the military must match the private sector's "speed and tempo."
• "Super intelligence" is the term a Sept. 29 executive order directs agencies to use in place of "artificial intelligence," Defence Blog notes.

12. The Navy's drone-boat chief says some uncrewed craft in the Iran war have topped 1,000 hours, and the fight is teaching hard lessons on sustainment and electronic warfare

In "Iran War Teaching Navy to Prioritize Sustainment, EW in Future Maritime Robots" (National Defense, Oct. 27), Christopher Miller, the Navy's direct reporting portfolio manager for robotic and autonomous systems, tells the Ironclad Maritime Summit that sustainment must be planned sooner.

• "I've got craft out there that are pushing over 1,000 hours now that were never intended for that," Miller says.
• Uncrewed systems need alternatives to GPS; "We have learned some hard lessons in the Centcom [area of responsibility]" about operating under electronic warfare, he says.
• Rear Adm. Melvin Smith, commander of the Robotic and Autonomous Systems Warfighting Development Center, says manpower-heavy drones are "untenable in the long term" for expeditionary use.
• Lessons from theater are already going into the next gear sent for the same missions, Smith says.

13. Russia launches a ballistic missile and 88 drones at Ukraine overnight; air defenses down or jam 71, including 31 jet-powered Shaheds

Ukraine's Air Force says Russia attacked from 6 p.m. Oct. 27 with an Iskander-M/S-400 missile from Taganrog and 88 Shahed (38 jet-powered), Gerbera and decoy drones plus S8000 Banderol/Dan-T missiles, Ukrainska Pravda and Ukrinform report.

• As of 8 a.m., 71 drones were shot down or suppressed, including 31 of the jet-powered Shaheds.
• Hits were recorded at eight locations and debris fell at two; several drones were still in the air.
• Aviation, missile units, electronic warfare, unmanned systems units and mobile fire groups repelled the attack, the Air Force says.
• This follows Monday night's attack of 280 drones and ballistic missiles centered on Kyiv.

14. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Ken Wilsbach and South Korea's air chief sign a letter of intent to cooperate on autonomous collaborative platforms

Gen. Ken Wilsbach posted Oct. 27 that he and ROK Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Son Sug Rag "signed a letter of intent to advance U.S.-ROK collaboration on autonomous platforms" at the Sacheon ADEX air show.

• Yonhap reports the Oct. 22 letter covers manned-unmanned teaming, including interoperability and mission-data sharing.
• Korean outlets say the two air forces plan to work together from the early development stage of unmanned aircraft that team with crewed fighters.
• Neither side has released the text of the letter or named specific programs.

15. China is testing a semi-submersible trimaran missile carrier, likely uncrewed or lightly crewed, with an estimated 16 missiles

In "China's New Trimaran Submarine: 16 Missiles And An Unconventional Design" (Naval News, Oct. 2026), imagery shows a roughly 65 m semi-submersible trimaran, first seen at Huangpu Shipyard in Guangzhou and now at Huludao.

• It appears to carry 16–18 missiles in two hangars and must surface and raise launchers to fire.
• Stern outriggers provide stability and propulsion, and a snorkel supports submerged diesel running.
• China has announced no designation, mission or missile type.
• Militarnyi describes it as combining a semi-submersible missile carrier with an uncrewed platform.

16. Greece parades Greek-made loitering munitions, a strike drone boat and counter-drone systems in Thessaloniki under its Agenda 2030 plan

Greece used the Oct. 28 Oxi Day parade in Thessaloniki to show new systems from its Agenda 2030 modernization, To Vima and ProtoThema report.

• The Greek-made "Arpyia" one-way attack drone uses autonomous navigation and low-altitude flight, ProtoThema reports.
• The "Anemogianis" uncrewed surface vessel, built for maritime area denial, carries a 50 kg warhead at up to 75 km/h, per ProtoThema.
• Counter-drone platforms Kentauros and Hyperion, ground robots and surveillance drones also appeared, alongside the "Achilles' Shield" air-defense umbrella.

17. Satellite images show damage at two Omsk chemical plants and a gutted Ozon warehouse after Ukraine's drone strike more than 2,400 km away

Militarnyi reports new satellite imagery of the Oct. 24 strike on Omsk, showing damage at the Omsky Kauchuk petrochemical plant's gas-fractionation workshop and to Poliom pipelines.

• One section of Ozon's logistics warehouse was completely burned out and another partly damaged.
• More than 40 tonnes of polypropylene burned, according to the report.
• Militarnyi says Ukrainian FP-1 long-range drones carried out the strike, confirmed by local authorities and Ozon.

18. Canadian volunteer Jesse Adams is killed by a Russian FPV drone while evacuating animals near Kramatorsk

Adams, co-founder of B.C.'s RainCoast Dog Rescue Society, died after an FPV drone hit his vehicle's windshield on Oct. 25 as he evacuated animals in Donetsk Oblast, Ukrainska Pravda and CBC News report.

• He was taken to hospital and died despite emergency surgery.
• Friends describe him as having rescued hundreds of animals in Ukraine.
• Russian FPV drones increasingly hit civilian traffic well behind the front line.

19. A U.S. Army colonel who watched Ukraine fix jammed drones in hours says Pentagon buying should reward how fast suppliers adapt

In "I Saw Ukraine's Rapid Adaptation Cycle in Action, and This is What the US Military Should Learn from It" (Modern War Institute), Col. Rachael Hoagland contrasts Ukraine's hours-to-days drone fixes with U.S. processes that can take one to two years.

• When Russian electronic warfare disrupted drones, Ukrainian engineers changed frequencies, antennas or navigation and sent them back to the fight, she writes.
• She recommends judging suppliers on their ability to adapt to new threats, using live Ukrainian threat data in testing.
• She also calls for faster iteration, feedback loops and "fail fast" incentives.

20. Quantum Systems opens a Japan subsidiary and signs agreements with Mitsubishi Chemical and Panasonic to build drones for Japan's Self-Defense Forces

The German drone maker announced Quantum Systems Japan G.K. and a Tokyo office during Chancellor Friedrich Merz's Oct. 28 visit to Japan, Militarnyi reports.

• The office will adapt uncrewed systems to Japan Self-Defense Forces needs.
• It will offer air, land and maritime systems tied together by its MOSAIC UXS software.
• "Ukraine had demonstrated why this mattered," co-CEO Sven Kruck says.
• The company opened a development center in Huntsville, Ala., in August.

21. Quantum-Systems shows its Reliant long-range VTOL drone armed with 82 mm mortar rounds and 40 mm grenades

In "German drone maker unveils armed version of its Reliant spy drone" (Defence Blog, Oct. 28), Quantum-Systems Inc. CEO Dave Sharpin shares images of the reconnaissance drone carrying mixed munitions on its wing hardpoints, crediting partner Orbital.

• Reliant is a Group 2 hybrid-electric VTOL drone with a 3.9 m wingspan and more than 10 hours of endurance.
• The armed configuration grows out of a version built for U.S. customers with hardpoints that can drop munitions or smaller drones.
• The company has also shown Reliant as a carrier for Neros' Archer FPV attack drone.
• Quantum-Systems has offered Reliant to the German military and U.S. buyers.

22. CX2's Vadris, an FPV-mounted sensor that hunts the operators behind enemy drones, is added to JIATF-401's counter-UAS marketplace

CX2 posted Oct. 28: "CX2's Vadris has been selected for inclusion in the Joint Interagency Task Force 401 (JIATF-401) Counter-UAS Marketplace."

• Mounted on an FPV drone, Vadris detects RF emissions and gives real-time direction to the operators and control stations behind enemy drones, the company says.
• "Hunt the Archer, Not the Arrow," the company says.
• The marketplace gives U.S. forces a streamlined path to buy listed systems; JIATF-401 has not commented.

23. Lidar maker Innoviz says it saw strong counter-drone demand at AUSA for its Perciz sensor in U.S. defense and homeland security

In "Innoviz Sees Strong Counter-UAS Demand at AUSA 2026" (PR Newswire, Oct. 28), the lidar supplier pitches its Perciz sensor for U.S. counter-UAS work.

• The release positions Perciz for U.S. defense and homeland security counter-drone markets.
• Innoviz says buyers want precise, real-time 3D drone localization and identification, including against fiber-optic drones that evade RF detection and jamming.
• It is a company release; Innoviz says it is pursuing opportunities with U.S. integrators and primes but named no orders.

24. "Readiness Is an Ability, Not a Condition": Timothy Wood argues Ukraine's drone adaptation shows the U.S. military measures the wrong thing

In an X Article posted Oct. 28, Timothy Wood argues that readiness is an organization's ability to generate capability under changing conditions, not the condition of the force on a readiness report.

• He cites Col. Rachael Hoagland's Modern War Institute account of Ukrainian engineers fixing EW-jammed drones within hours or days.
• He frames readiness as Generative Capacity × Adaptation Velocity, which he calls the "Catalytic Layer."
• He names four traps: preaching initiative while requiring permission, rewarding compliance, headquarters consuming units' spare capacity, and mistaking control for capability.

25. A Ukrainian ground-robot unit commander says strike UGVs saved about 2,500 lives in the "Vivaldi" operation, carrying out more than 200 strikes

Analyst David Kirichenko posted Oct. 27 a quote from The Defender's interview "How 'Makar' is building the NC13 ground strike drone unit and what role it played in 'Vivaldi'": "Thanks to striking UGVs in Vivaldi, about 2,500 lives were saved."

• The quote says the robotic systems carried out more than 200 strikes and 94 assault and sabotage operations "without risk to Ukrainian troops."
• The figures come from the unit commander and haven't been independently verified.
• Samuel Bendett reposted the post.

1. Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine names AI, which he calls "super intelligence," as one of his three strategic priorities, ahead of ongoing operations

In "Caine Says Super Intelligence Is a Strategic Priority" (DoW News, Oct. 27), Gen. Dan Caine tells the NDTA-U.S. Transportation Command fall meeting in Grapevine, Texas, that his priorities are "No. 1 ... a budget. ... No. 2 is [super intelligence], and No. 3 is ongoing operations."

• Caine says SI will be essential for winning tactical engagements, logistics and sustainment, and command and control.
• He expects the volume of kinetic and cyber actions between the U.S. and an adversary to be "significant" enough to need machine help.
• He stresses training leaders, systems and models while keeping humans appropriately involved, and says the military must match the private sector's "speed and tempo."
• "Super intelligence" is the term a Sept. 29 executive order directs agencies to use in place of "artificial intelligence," Defence Blog notes.

2. The Navy's drone-boat chief says some uncrewed craft in the Iran war have topped 1,000 hours, and the fight is teaching hard lessons on sustainment and electronic warfare

In "Iran War Teaching Navy to Prioritize Sustainment, EW in Future Maritime Robots" (National Defense, Oct. 27), Christopher Miller, the Navy's direct reporting portfolio manager for robotic and autonomous systems, tells the Ironclad Maritime Summit that sustainment must be planned sooner.

• "I've got craft out there that are pushing over 1,000 hours now that were never intended for that," Miller says.
• Uncrewed systems need alternatives to GPS; "We have learned some hard lessons in the Centcom [area of responsibility]" about operating under electronic warfare, he says.
• Rear Adm. Melvin Smith, commander of the Robotic and Autonomous Systems Warfighting Development Center, says manpower-heavy drones are "untenable in the long term" for expeditionary use.
• Lessons from theater are already going into the next gear sent for the same missions, Smith says.

3. Two drones are shot down near Baghdad's Green Zone as the U.S. Embassy's air defenses activate, Iraqi officials say

Iraq's Security Media Cell says a loud blast heard across Baghdad on Tuesday afternoon came from the interception of a drone near the fortified Green Zone, and Iraqi security sources tell Reuters the U.S. Embassy's air defenses detected two drones approaching the perimeter and shot them down.

• Security Media Cell head Lt. Gen. Saad Maan tells Kurdistan24 the drone carried no explosives, calling it "a failed attempt" rather than an attack, with no casualties or damage.
• Debris was recovered at two locations, and a technical team is investigating where the drones were launched.
• Security sources tell The New Arab the embassy's C-RAM system brought down two surveillance drones; officials did not confirm which system was used.
• No group has claimed responsibility; the embassy has faced repeated rocket and drone attacks by Iran-backed militias since the Iran war began in February.

4. Russia launches a ballistic missile and 88 drones at Ukraine overnight; air defenses down or jam 71, including 31 jet-powered Shaheds

Ukraine's Air Force says Russia attacked from 6 p.m. Oct. 27 with an Iskander-M/S-400 missile from Taganrog and 88 Shahed (38 jet-powered), Gerbera and decoy drones plus S8000 Banderol/Dan-T missiles, Ukrainska Pravda and Ukrinform report.

• As of 8 a.m., 71 drones were shot down or suppressed, including 31 of the jet-powered Shaheds.
• Hits were recorded at eight locations and debris fell at two; several drones were still in the air.
• Aviation, missile units, electronic warfare, unmanned systems units and mobile fire groups repelled the attack, the Air Force says.
• This follows Monday night's attack of 280 drones and ballistic missiles centered on Kyiv.

5. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Ken Wilsbach and South Korea's air chief sign a letter of intent to cooperate on autonomous collaborative platforms

Gen. Ken Wilsbach posted Oct. 27 that he and ROK Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Son Sug Rag "signed a letter of intent to advance U.S.-ROK collaboration on autonomous platforms" at the Sacheon ADEX air show.

• Yonhap reports the Oct. 22 letter covers manned-unmanned teaming, including interoperability and mission-data sharing.
• Korean outlets say the two air forces plan to work together from the early development stage of unmanned aircraft that team with crewed fighters.
• Neither side has released the text of the letter or named specific programs.

6. AFRL and Air Combat Command fly the XQ-67A autonomous collaborative platform with new mission systems and beyond-line-of-sight links over Nevada

In "Air Force Research Laboratory completes flight of XQ-67A, advancing autonomous technology" (AFRL, Oct. 27), the lab says it and ACC's Experimental Operations Unit flew the XQ-67A in the Nevada Test and Training Range under the Demon APE project.

• The flight integrated new sensors, mission computers and power and thermal management hardware.
• Beyond-line-of-sight datalinks and live, virtual and constructive simulation showed management of uncrewed platforms across distributed theaters, AFRL says.
• "By pairing AFRL's rapid prototyping with ACC's operational test units, the Air Force is shortening the timeline between concept and warfighter capability," says Col. Matthew Caspers.
• The General Atomics-built XQ-67A is a testbed feeding the Air Force's Collaborative Combat Aircraft effort.

7. DIU picks Fort Benning and Fort Hood for on-base driverless-vehicle pilots and advances five teams to Phase III of its $30 million ROADS challenge

The Defense Innovation Unit said Oct. 27 that Fort Benning and Fort Hood will host the next phase of the Robotic Operations for Autonomous Delivery and Sustainment (ROADS) prize challenge, which brings commercial driverless-car technology to the department's non-tactical vehicle fleet.

• Advancing to Phase III: Forterra with May Mobility, Applied Intuition, Perrone Robotics, Overland AI with Gatik, and Bot Auto, DIU says.
• Phase III is a 3–4+ month on-installation pilot with small fleets, with up to $10 million available to selected companies, according to the solicitation.
• DIU says ROADS will set the operational, safety and installation processes to move commercial autonomy "toward repeatable deployment" across the department.
• The $30 million challenge, run with the Army, targets a fleet of more than 150,000 non-tactical vehicles.

8. Russia hits Kyiv with ballistic missiles and 280 attack drones overnight, striking a university campus, the Southern Bridge and medical facilities

Ukraine's Air Force says Russia launched Iskander-M/S-400 ballistic missiles and 280 Shahed, Gerbera and decoy drones from 6 p.m. Oct. 26, with Kyiv the main target, and that 255 drones and two missiles were shot down or jammed by 9 a.m., the Kyiv Independent and Ukrinform report.

• 69 of the Shahed-type drones were jet-powered; 56 of those were downed, the Air Force says.
• Hits were recorded at 25 locations and debris fell at 16; several drones were still in the air at the time of the report.
• At least one person was killed and 15 injured in Kyiv, including a paramedic and a university student, the State Emergency Service says.
• President Zelensky says Russia fired 16 ballistic missiles and calls the strike on the Southern Bridge "a serious escalation" against Ukraine's logistics.

9. U.S. Marines fly live-warhead Neros Archer one-way attack drones into targets at Camp Fuji, Japan, for the first time

In "Marines Test Neros Archer at CATC Camp Fuji for First Time" (DVIDS), Battalion Landing Team 1/1 of the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit flies the first-person-view strike drone in its live kinetic variant on Oct. 20 at the foot of Mount Fuji.

• Both flights, including an anti-armor ambush scenario, destroyed their targets with no unexploded drones left on the range, Defence Blog reports from the release.
• "Neros Archer is the current Marine Corps' program of record for one-way attack drones flown by a first-person view pilot," says Camp Fuji Gunner CWO2 Stephen Bilbo.
• The pilots were junior Marines trained in a three-week course, per the battalion.
• It follows the Marines' first live-fire FPV training in South Korea in July and August, with strikes out to about 20 km.

10. Saudi air defenses shoot down four Houthi drones and three ballistic missiles aimed at the kingdom, the Saudi-led coalition says

In statements carried by the Saudi Press Agency on Tuesday, coalition spokesman Maj. Gen. Turki al-Maliki says four drones launched toward the Southern Region and three missiles aimed at the Eastern Province were intercepted, with no casualties.

• Saudi Civil Defense issued alerts around 3 a.m. local time for the Eastern Province and Al-Kharj before giving the all-clear.
• The coalition also reported downing three drones over Riyadh and the southern region on Monday evening, Al Jazeera reports.
• A Houthi attack on Riyadh's King Khalid International Airport this month killed at least 13 people.
• There was no immediate Houthi comment.

11. 1st Armored Division soldiers fold a Skydio X10 drone and a VMAX electronic warfare system into Combined Resolve 27-01 training at Hohenfels

U.S. Army Europe and Africa posted Oct. 27: "During Combined Resolve 27-01 at Hohenfels, Soldiers from 1st Armored Division integrated a Skydio X10 unmanned aircraft system and VMAX electronic warfare system into training scenarios."

• The post, headed "Eyes up. Signals on.," shows soldiers with the small drone and electronic warfare gear in the field.
• Combined Resolve is the multinational rotation run by the 7th Army Training Command in Germany.
• The Army has not released details on how the systems were used in the scenarios.

12. SOUTHCOM's commander says autonomous systems are "not just for testing anymore" and wants a river-reconnaissance mix of drone boats, aircraft and underwater vehicles for the counter-drug fight

In "EXCLUSIVE: SOUTHCOM chief seeks unmanned river solution as he embraces autonomy" (Breaking Defense, Oct. 26), Gen. Francis Donovan says he wants a "tailorable mix of unmanned surface, air and sub surface autonomous platforms" to map how criminal networks use South and Central American rivers.

• Saronic Corsair drone boats moved to Guantanamo Bay are now deployed on both sides of the Panama Canal, assisting local forces and canal security, Donovan says.
• SOUTHCOM's Autonomous Warfare Command (SAWC) runs a training and test site at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay that is open to allies, agencies and industry: "We are open for business."
• Autonomous systems "will be used to take the fight to the enemy," he says.
• The interview took place Oct. 13.

13. The Navy and Marine Corps demo a Maven Smart System air-defense dashboard that puts incoming threats and available defenses on one screen

In "Navy, Marine Corps demonstrate prototype air-defense decision tool at WTI" (Department of the Navy release), the Maven Smart System Regional Air Defense Commander Dashboard C2 Tool is shown Oct. 5 at Weapons and Tactics Instructor course 1-27 at MCAS Yuma.

• The Navy's Overmatch Rapid Capability Cell built the prototype inside the existing Palantir-built Maven environment in under two months, Defence Blog reports.
• Project Dynamis and Task Force Maven led the Marine side, with the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing as sponsor.
• "Ready-to-use C2 tools are critical," says 3rd MAW assistant wing commander Brig. Gen. Dolberry Jr.

14. The Pentagon's technology office warns that "any narco terrorist drone" entering U.S. airspace "will be completely DESTROYED"

The Department of War's chief technology office (OUSW(R&E)) posted Oct. 27: "Any narco terrorist drone that attempts to invade American skies will be completely DESTROYED. DEFEND THE HOMELAND."

• The post drew more than 750 likes within hours and was reposted by Patrick Weaver, deputy chief of staff to the Secretary of War.
• The office did not name a program, unit or incident tied to the warning.
• Secretary Hegseth the same day reposted SOUTHCOM's meeting of defense leaders from 19 Western Hemisphere nations in the Dominican Republic.

15. Iran's army says it shot down a U.S. LUCAS one-way attack drone over Bandar Abbas and circulates debris photos; CENTCOM hasn't addressed the claim

In "Iranian army says it shot down US drone over Bandar Abbas, Tasnim reports" (Reuters, Oct. 25), Iran's army says its unified air defense network destroyed a U.S. LUCAS drone over the southern port near the Strait of Hormuz.

• The claim comes from Iran's army via the semi-official Tasnim news agency (claim, not independently verified).
• Photos of what Iranian outlets say is the wreckage, including propellers and engine parts laid out on tarps, circulated widely on X on Sunday.
• CENTCOM commander Adm. Brad Cooper flew over the Strait of Hormuz on Oct. 25; CENTCOM's account of the visit doesn't mention the drone claim.
• LUCAS is the low-cost U.S. one-way attack drone the Army is training units to employ.

16. DIU and the Navy's DRPM RAS open SWAP-USV Sprint 2, a prize challenge for drone boats armed with hard-kill counter-air weapons, with proposals due Nov. 30

In "We are scaling distributed maritime air defense" (Oct. 23), the Navy's Direct Reporting Program Manager for Robotic and Autonomous Systems says it has launched SWAP Sprint 2 with DIU and DRPM UxS, and DIU's solicitation seeks production-ready USVs paired with mature counter-air effectors that can be fielded forward within 120 days.

• Four weapon tracks: Hellfire/JAGM, APKWS rockets, remote weapon stations with Stinger, machine guns or high-power lasers, and other mature effectors.
• Thresholds: 200 nautical miles of range, a 10-knot cruise and engagements beyond 3 nautical miles against Group 1–3 drones and helicopters, under human-in-the-loop control.
• Up to $40 million in prizes for Sprint 2, with $200 million budgeted for follow-on prototype or production deals; in-water testing is planned for early 2027 at Little Creek, Va.
• DIU posted updated FAQs on Oct. 26, including how to obtain the Category 1 technical data package; The Defense Post also covered the sprint.

17. AUKUS partners run more than 40 crewed, uncrewed and autonomous systems off Southern California in Maritime Big Play Pacific, "from seafloor to space"

In "U.S., Australia, U.K. Launch Maritime Demonstration to Enhance Interoperability" (war.gov, Oct. 22), the Pentagon says the demonstration runs Oct. 5–26 and is testing how the three nations jointly operate uncrewed maritime systems and share maritime data in real time.

• Assistant Secretary of War for Critical Technologies Michael Dodd: "It's certainly all autonomous systems ... in the domains from seafloor to space."
• Dodd says the goal is to "deter major conflicts by creating a disparity of technological capability."
• Maritime Big Play was the first project under AUKUS Pillar 2's new model and led to its first signature project, announced in May: payloads and enabling systems for uncrewed undersea vehicles.
• Saronic says it fielded three Corsair drone boats across the three nations, including a pier resupply run with communications partly denied, Defence Blog reports Oct. 27.

18. Owen West says Drone Dominance "will soon expand in domain and size" as DIU lines up orders for 60,000 small attack drones from nine companies

Owen West (DoW), personal X account, wrote Oct. 24: "The U.S. invented drones. Yet our military failed to cheapen and scale for troops doing the fighting and dying. Drone Dominance will soon expand in domain and size."

• West: FPVs "were a fitting start to ensure grunts have an option beyond close contact and an endless air permission queue."
• DIU's Gauntlet II leaderboard sets up 30,000 drones in Deep Strike and 30,000 in Close Quarters Battle, per Defence Blog.
• Neros placed in both categories and says it is "delivering 14,000 drones and explosive payloads."
• West did not say which domains come next or when.

19. Project Agincourt marks the 611th anniversary of the battle it's named for, pledging to "rapidly adapt, field, and scale unmanned capabilities across the joint force"

Project Agincourt's official account posted Oct. 25: "611 years later, @SecWar's Project Agincourt is fusing operators with innovators to rapidly adapt, field, and scale unmanned capabilities across the joint force—transforming how we fight and win."

• The post marks Henry V's 1415 victory at Agincourt, where "the longbow changed warfare."
• It follows Secretary Hegseth's one-word "AUTOWARCOM" post on Oct. 24, quoting Owen West's summary of the plan for an Autonomous Warfare Command.
• The Oct. 21 war.gov release says the model measures success by how fast an operational problem gets a fielded, scalable solution.
• The roadmap letter was signed by Owen West and Senior Chief Max Strasiser.

20. Ukraine says Starlink and Starshield are back to full speed for its drones; Elon Musk says Ukraine broke Starlink's terms with drone strikes, and Kyiv says that was impossible

President Zelensky said Oct. 24 that "the speeds are now where they need to be," and Ukraine's Defense Ministry said Starshield was again working above 400 km/h, the Kyiv Independent reports, ending more than a week of limits that disrupted front-line drone work.

• Musk on X: Ukraine's "military violated Starlink terms of service and used it for offensive drone strikes to kill people. That loophole was closed last week."
• Zelensky adviser Serhii Beskrestnov: since February, terminals in Ukraine stop working above 70–90 km/h and Starlink is off over Russia, so "we physically cannot use commercial Starlink for deep strikes," Defence Blog reports.
• Moving terminals must be registered and routed through Starshield, which Musk says "is controlled by the US government."
• ISW says Ukrainian officials confirmed unrestricted access on Oct. 24. This follows Sen. Blumenthal's probe into the restrictions, with answers due from the Pentagon by Nov. 5.

21. MacDill Air Force Base trains with JIATF-401 on two drone interceptors: the net-firing Paladin and the ramming Bumblebee V2

In "A new sting in drone defense: Bumblebee V2 arrives at MacDill" (6th Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs, Oct. 23), the base shows 6th Security Forces Squadron defenders training Oct. 8 with Joint Interagency Task Force 401 on counter-drone interceptors.

• Paladin, a six-rotor drone from Zone 5 Technologies, fires net rounds that tangle a target's rotors, avoiding bullets or fragments over the base, Defence Blog reports.
• The Bumblebee V2 brings down hostile drones by direct collision and is described as a low-cost option for layered base defense.
• The Air Force hasn't said how many systems took part, whether live intercepts happened or whether it will buy Paladin.
• MacDill hosts CENTCOM and SOCOM headquarters.

22. The Army picks AWS and World Wide Technology for a $2.6 million Project Griffin pilot to build autonomous, agentic cyber defense

In "U.S. Army launches Project Griffin to automate cyber defense" (Defence Blog, Oct. 27), the Army says it chose the two companies Oct. 23 to build a platform that can find and stop network threats with little human involvement.

• Griffin is one of three fast-tracked efforts under Project ARDS (Army Rapid Defensive of Cyber Systems).
• "We will swiftly implement SI-enabled cyber tools to detect, divert and deceive threat actors," says Brandon Pugh, principal cyber advisor to the Army secretary.
• Project Manager, Cyber Warfare runs the pilot; the Army didn't say how the money is split or how long the pilot lasts.

23. Quantum-Systems shows its Reliant long-range VTOL drone armed with 82 mm mortar rounds and 40 mm grenades

In "German drone maker unveils armed version of its Reliant spy drone" (Defence Blog, Oct. 28), Quantum-Systems Inc. CEO Dave Sharpin shares images of the reconnaissance drone carrying mixed munitions on its wing hardpoints, crediting partner Orbital.

• Reliant is a Group 2 hybrid-electric VTOL drone with a 3.9 m wingspan and more than 10 hours of endurance.
• The armed configuration grows out of a version built for U.S. customers with hardpoints that can drop munitions or smaller drones.
• The company has also shown Reliant as a carrier for Neros' Archer FPV attack drone.
• Quantum-Systems has offered Reliant to the German military and U.S. buyers.

24. Skyborne's Cerberus MI, a reusable drone that fires 40 mm grenades or shotgun rounds and flies home to reload, joins the Blue UAS Cleared List

In "Shotgun-armed drone gets Pentagon green light" (Defence Blog, Oct. 27), Skyborne Technologies says its 18 kg Group 2 Cerberus MI can now be bought and flown across the U.S. military without a policy exception.

• It carries a HAVOC 40 mm grenade launcher or CHAOS 12-gauge shotgun and flies about 35 minutes armed.
• EXITUS AI targeting software computes firing solutions from more than 300 meters, with a human deciding to fire.
• Skyborne pitches it as a reusable alternative to one-way attack drones on the Blue UAS list.

25. A Ukrainian ground-robot unit commander says strike UGVs saved about 2,500 lives in the "Vivaldi" operation, carrying out more than 200 strikes

Analyst David Kirichenko posted Oct. 27 a quote from The Defender's interview "How 'Makar' is building the NC13 ground strike drone unit and what role it played in 'Vivaldi'": "Thanks to striking UGVs in Vivaldi, about 2,500 lives were saved."

• The quote says the robotic systems carried out more than 200 strikes and 94 assault and sabotage operations "without risk to Ukrainian troops."
• The figures come from the unit commander and haven't been independently verified.
• Samuel Bendett reposted the post.

1. Two drones are shot down near Baghdad's Green Zone as the U.S. Embassy's air defenses activate, Iraqi officials say

Iraq's Security Media Cell says a loud blast heard across Baghdad on Tuesday afternoon came from the interception of a drone near the fortified Green Zone, and Iraqi security sources tell Reuters the U.S. Embassy's air defenses detected two drones approaching the perimeter and shot them down.

• Security Media Cell head Lt. Gen. Saad Maan tells Kurdistan24 the drone carried no explosives, calling it "a failed attempt" rather than an attack, with no casualties or damage.
• Debris was recovered at two locations, and a technical team is investigating where the drones were launched.
• Security sources tell The New Arab the embassy's C-RAM system brought down two surveillance drones; officials did not confirm which system was used.
• No group has claimed responsibility; the embassy has faced repeated rocket and drone attacks by Iran-backed militias since the Iran war began in February.

2. Russia hits Kyiv with ballistic missiles and 280 attack drones overnight, striking a university campus, the Southern Bridge and medical facilities

Ukraine's Air Force says Russia launched Iskander-M/S-400 ballistic missiles and 280 Shahed, Gerbera and decoy drones from 6 p.m. Oct. 26, with Kyiv the main target, and that 255 drones and two missiles were shot down or jammed by 9 a.m., the Kyiv Independent and Ukrinform report.

• 69 of the Shahed-type drones were jet-powered; 56 of those were downed, the Air Force says.
• Hits were recorded at 25 locations and debris fell at 16; several drones were still in the air at the time of the report.
• At least one person was killed and 15 injured in Kyiv, including a paramedic and a university student, the State Emergency Service says.
• President Zelensky says Russia fired 16 ballistic missiles and calls the strike on the Southern Bridge "a serious escalation" against Ukraine's logistics.

3. AFRL and Air Combat Command fly the XQ-67A autonomous collaborative platform with new mission systems and beyond-line-of-sight links over Nevada

In "Air Force Research Laboratory completes flight of XQ-67A, advancing autonomous technology" (AFRL, Oct. 27), the lab says it and ACC's Experimental Operations Unit flew the XQ-67A in the Nevada Test and Training Range under the Demon APE project.

• The flight integrated new sensors, mission computers and power and thermal management hardware.
• Beyond-line-of-sight datalinks and live, virtual and constructive simulation showed management of uncrewed platforms across distributed theaters, AFRL says.
• "By pairing AFRL's rapid prototyping with ACC's operational test units, the Air Force is shortening the timeline between concept and warfighter capability," says Col. Matthew Caspers.
• The General Atomics-built XQ-67A is a testbed feeding the Air Force's Collaborative Combat Aircraft effort.

4. DIU picks Fort Benning and Fort Hood for on-base driverless-vehicle pilots and advances five teams to Phase III of its $30 million ROADS challenge

The Defense Innovation Unit said Oct. 27 that Fort Benning and Fort Hood will host the next phase of the Robotic Operations for Autonomous Delivery and Sustainment (ROADS) prize challenge, which brings commercial driverless-car technology to the department's non-tactical vehicle fleet.

• Advancing to Phase III: Forterra with May Mobility, Applied Intuition, Perrone Robotics, Overland AI with Gatik, and Bot Auto, DIU says.
• Phase III is a 3–4+ month on-installation pilot with small fleets, with up to $10 million available to selected companies, according to the solicitation.
• DIU says ROADS will set the operational, safety and installation processes to move commercial autonomy "toward repeatable deployment" across the department.
• The $30 million challenge, run with the Army, targets a fleet of more than 150,000 non-tactical vehicles.

5. U.S. Marines fly live-warhead Neros Archer one-way attack drones into targets at Camp Fuji, Japan, for the first time

In "Marines Test Neros Archer at CATC Camp Fuji for First Time" (DVIDS), Battalion Landing Team 1/1 of the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit flies the first-person-view strike drone in its live kinetic variant on Oct. 20 at the foot of Mount Fuji.

• Both flights, including an anti-armor ambush scenario, destroyed their targets with no unexploded drones left on the range, Defence Blog reports from the release.
• "Neros Archer is the current Marine Corps' program of record for one-way attack drones flown by a first-person view pilot," says Camp Fuji Gunner CWO2 Stephen Bilbo.
• The pilots were junior Marines trained in a three-week course, per the battalion.
• It follows the Marines' first live-fire FPV training in South Korea in July and August, with strikes out to about 20 km.

6. Saudi air defenses shoot down four Houthi drones and three ballistic missiles aimed at the kingdom, the Saudi-led coalition says

In statements carried by the Saudi Press Agency on Tuesday, coalition spokesman Maj. Gen. Turki al-Maliki says four drones launched toward the Southern Region and three missiles aimed at the Eastern Province were intercepted, with no casualties.

• Saudi Civil Defense issued alerts around 3 a.m. local time for the Eastern Province and Al-Kharj before giving the all-clear.
• The coalition also reported downing three drones over Riyadh and the southern region on Monday evening, Al Jazeera reports.
• A Houthi attack on Riyadh's King Khalid International Airport this month killed at least 13 people.
• There was no immediate Houthi comment.

7. 1st Armored Division soldiers fold a Skydio X10 drone and a VMAX electronic warfare system into Combined Resolve 27-01 training at Hohenfels

U.S. Army Europe and Africa posted Oct. 27: "During Combined Resolve 27-01 at Hohenfels, Soldiers from 1st Armored Division integrated a Skydio X10 unmanned aircraft system and VMAX electronic warfare system into training scenarios."

• The post, headed "Eyes up. Signals on.," shows soldiers with the small drone and electronic warfare gear in the field.
• Combined Resolve is the multinational rotation run by the 7th Army Training Command in Germany.
• The Army has not released details on how the systems were used in the scenarios.

8. Sudan's RSF hits five power stations with drones in a coordinated pre-dawn attack, blacking out four army-held states, the state electricity company says

In a statement Monday, the Sudan Electricity Holding Company says Rapid Support Forces drones struck the Singa, El Hawata, Al Fao, Mashkour and Al-Junaid stations, causing "severe damage" and a total blackout of the southeastern grid, Reuters and AFP report.

• Power was cut in Sennar, Gedaref, White Nile and Gezira states, about half the territory the army holds, and the operator says the national grid's stability is threatened.
• AFP's correspondent in Al-Jazira says power had been out since 2 a.m.; the RSF did not respond to requests for comment.
• Sudan Tribune reports a guard was injured at Singa and the RSF also tried to hit fuel depots at Um Alila.
• Both sides have stepped up drone strikes this month, including attacks on RSF-held Nyala and army-held Khartoum airport, Reuters says.

9. SOUTHCOM's commander says autonomous systems are "not just for testing anymore" and wants a river-reconnaissance mix of drone boats, aircraft and underwater vehicles for the counter-drug fight

In "EXCLUSIVE: SOUTHCOM chief seeks unmanned river solution as he embraces autonomy" (Breaking Defense, Oct. 26), Gen. Francis Donovan says he wants a "tailorable mix of unmanned surface, air and sub surface autonomous platforms" to map how criminal networks use South and Central American rivers.

• Saronic Corsair drone boats moved to Guantanamo Bay are now deployed on both sides of the Panama Canal, assisting local forces and canal security, Donovan says.
• SOUTHCOM's Autonomous Warfare Command (SAWC) runs a training and test site at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay that is open to allies, agencies and industry: "We are open for business."
• Autonomous systems "will be used to take the fight to the enemy," he says.
• The interview took place Oct. 13.

10. The Navy and Marine Corps demo a Maven Smart System air-defense dashboard that puts incoming threats and available defenses on one screen

In "Navy, Marine Corps demonstrate prototype air-defense decision tool at WTI" (Department of the Navy release), the Maven Smart System Regional Air Defense Commander Dashboard C2 Tool is shown Oct. 5 at Weapons and Tactics Instructor course 1-27 at MCAS Yuma.

• The Navy's Overmatch Rapid Capability Cell built the prototype inside the existing Palantir-built Maven environment in under two months, Defence Blog reports.
• Project Dynamis and Task Force Maven led the Marine side, with the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing as sponsor.
• "Ready-to-use C2 tools are critical," says 3rd MAW assistant wing commander Brig. Gen. Dolberry Jr.

11. The Pentagon's technology office warns that "any narco terrorist drone" entering U.S. airspace "will be completely DESTROYED"

The Department of War's chief technology office (OUSW(R&E)) posted Oct. 27: "Any narco terrorist drone that attempts to invade American skies will be completely DESTROYED. DEFEND THE HOMELAND."

• The post drew more than 750 likes within hours and was reposted by Patrick Weaver, deputy chief of staff to the Secretary of War.
• The office did not name a program, unit or incident tied to the warning.
• Secretary Hegseth the same day reposted SOUTHCOM's meeting of defense leaders from 19 Western Hemisphere nations in the Dominican Republic.

12. Iran's army says it shot down a U.S. LUCAS one-way attack drone over Bandar Abbas and circulates debris photos; CENTCOM hasn't addressed the claim

In "Iranian army says it shot down US drone over Bandar Abbas, Tasnim reports" (Reuters, Oct. 25), Iran's army says its unified air defense network destroyed a U.S. LUCAS drone over the southern port near the Strait of Hormuz.

• The claim comes from Iran's army via the semi-official Tasnim news agency (claim, not independently verified).
• Photos of what Iranian outlets say is the wreckage, including propellers and engine parts laid out on tarps, circulated widely on X on Sunday.
• CENTCOM commander Adm. Brad Cooper flew over the Strait of Hormuz on Oct. 25; CENTCOM's account of the visit doesn't mention the drone claim.
• LUCAS is the low-cost U.S. one-way attack drone the Army is training units to employ.

13. DIU and the Navy's DRPM RAS open SWAP-USV Sprint 2, a prize challenge for drone boats armed with hard-kill counter-air weapons, with proposals due Nov. 30

In "We are scaling distributed maritime air defense" (Oct. 23), the Navy's Direct Reporting Program Manager for Robotic and Autonomous Systems says it has launched SWAP Sprint 2 with DIU and DRPM UxS, and DIU's solicitation seeks production-ready USVs paired with mature counter-air effectors that can be fielded forward within 120 days.

• Four weapon tracks: Hellfire/JAGM, APKWS rockets, remote weapon stations with Stinger, machine guns or high-power lasers, and other mature effectors.
• Thresholds: 200 nautical miles of range, a 10-knot cruise and engagements beyond 3 nautical miles against Group 1–3 drones and helicopters, under human-in-the-loop control.
• Up to $40 million in prizes for Sprint 2, with $200 million budgeted for follow-on prototype or production deals; in-water testing is planned for early 2027 at Little Creek, Va.
• DIU posted updated FAQs on Oct. 26, including how to obtain the Category 1 technical data package; The Defense Post also covered the sprint.

14. AUKUS partners run more than 40 crewed, uncrewed and autonomous systems off Southern California in Maritime Big Play Pacific, "from seafloor to space"

In "U.S., Australia, U.K. Launch Maritime Demonstration to Enhance Interoperability" (war.gov, Oct. 22), the Pentagon says the demonstration runs Oct. 5–26 and is testing how the three nations jointly operate uncrewed maritime systems and share maritime data in real time.

• Assistant Secretary of War for Critical Technologies Michael Dodd: "It's certainly all autonomous systems ... in the domains from seafloor to space."
• Dodd says the goal is to "deter major conflicts by creating a disparity of technological capability."
• Maritime Big Play was the first project under AUKUS Pillar 2's new model and led to its first signature project, announced in May: payloads and enabling systems for uncrewed undersea vehicles.
• Saronic says it fielded three Corsair drone boats across the three nations, including a pier resupply run with communications partly denied, Defence Blog reports Oct. 27.

15. Owen West says Drone Dominance "will soon expand in domain and size" as DIU lines up orders for 60,000 small attack drones from nine companies

Owen West (DoW), personal X account, wrote Oct. 24: "The U.S. invented drones. Yet our military failed to cheapen and scale for troops doing the fighting and dying. Drone Dominance will soon expand in domain and size."

• West: FPVs "were a fitting start to ensure grunts have an option beyond close contact and an endless air permission queue."
• DIU's Gauntlet II leaderboard sets up 30,000 drones in Deep Strike and 30,000 in Close Quarters Battle, per Defence Blog.
• Neros placed in both categories and says it is "delivering 14,000 drones and explosive payloads."
• West did not say which domains come next or when.

16. A massive drone attack on Voronezh kills two men, the governor says, and likely hits a petrochemical plant, an Ilyushin aircraft factory and a bridge

In "Drone attack on Russia's Voronezh region kills two men, governor says" (Reuters, Oct. 26), Voronezh Governor Alexander Gusev reports deaths and fires at several industrial sites in the city after an overnight drone attack.

• Militarnyi reports the Voronezhsintezkauchuk synthetic-rubber plant, which OSINT Varta links to defense supply chains, was likely hit.
• Local monitors say the Voronezh Aircraft Manufacturing Company, part of Ilyushin, was also likely struck; it builds the Il-96-400M and parts for other aircraft.
• The Northern Bridge across the Voronezh Reservoir was reportedly struck and closed to traffic.
• ASTRA footage appears to show a drone exploding at the 25-story Chizhov Gallery business center; the Kyiv Independent couldn't verify the extent of damage.

17. Project Agincourt marks the 611th anniversary of the battle it's named for, pledging to "rapidly adapt, field, and scale unmanned capabilities across the joint force"

Project Agincourt's official account posted Oct. 25: "611 years later, @SecWar's Project Agincourt is fusing operators with innovators to rapidly adapt, field, and scale unmanned capabilities across the joint force—transforming how we fight and win."

• The post marks Henry V's 1415 victory at Agincourt, where "the longbow changed warfare."
• It follows Secretary Hegseth's one-word "AUTOWARCOM" post on Oct. 24, quoting Owen West's summary of the plan for an Autonomous Warfare Command.
• The Oct. 21 war.gov release says the model measures success by how fast an operational problem gets a fielded, scalable solution.
• The roadmap letter was signed by Owen West and Senior Chief Max Strasiser.

18. Ukraine says Starlink and Starshield are back to full speed for its drones; Elon Musk says Ukraine broke Starlink's terms with drone strikes, and Kyiv says that was impossible

President Zelensky said Oct. 24 that "the speeds are now where they need to be," and Ukraine's Defense Ministry said Starshield was again working above 400 km/h, the Kyiv Independent reports, ending more than a week of limits that disrupted front-line drone work.

• Musk on X: Ukraine's "military violated Starlink terms of service and used it for offensive drone strikes to kill people. That loophole was closed last week."
• Zelensky adviser Serhii Beskrestnov: since February, terminals in Ukraine stop working above 70–90 km/h and Starlink is off over Russia, so "we physically cannot use commercial Starlink for deep strikes," Defence Blog reports.
• Moving terminals must be registered and routed through Starshield, which Musk says "is controlled by the US government."
• ISW says Ukrainian officials confirmed unrestricted access on Oct. 24. This follows Sen. Blumenthal's probe into the restrictions, with answers due from the Pentagon by Nov. 5.

19. MacDill Air Force Base trains with JIATF-401 on two drone interceptors: the net-firing Paladin and the ramming Bumblebee V2

In "A new sting in drone defense: Bumblebee V2 arrives at MacDill" (6th Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs, Oct. 23), the base shows 6th Security Forces Squadron defenders training Oct. 8 with Joint Interagency Task Force 401 on counter-drone interceptors.

• Paladin, a six-rotor drone from Zone 5 Technologies, fires net rounds that tangle a target's rotors, avoiding bullets or fragments over the base, Defence Blog reports.
• The Bumblebee V2 brings down hostile drones by direct collision and is described as a low-cost option for layered base defense.
• The Air Force hasn't said how many systems took part, whether live intercepts happened or whether it will buy Paladin.
• MacDill hosts CENTCOM and SOCOM headquarters.

20. The Army picks AWS and World Wide Technology for a $2.6 million Project Griffin pilot to build autonomous, agentic cyber defense

In "U.S. Army launches Project Griffin to automate cyber defense" (Defence Blog, Oct. 27), the Army says it chose the two companies Oct. 23 to build a platform that can find and stop network threats with little human involvement.

• Griffin is one of three fast-tracked efforts under Project ARDS (Army Rapid Defensive of Cyber Systems).
• "We will swiftly implement SI-enabled cyber tools to detect, divert and deceive threat actors," says Brandon Pugh, principal cyber advisor to the Army secretary.
• Project Manager, Cyber Warfare runs the pilot; the Army didn't say how the money is split or how long the pilot lasts.

21. Ukrainian drones reportedly blow up a Russian ammunition depot near Khrustalnyi in occupied Luhansk Oblast, setting off over an hour of secondary blasts

In "Ukraine reportedly strikes Russian ammunition depot in occupied Luhansk Oblast" (Kyiv Independent, Oct. 27), monitoring channel Exilenova+ says a strike-drone attack lasting several hours hit the depot overnight.

• Exilenova+ posted night footage of a large fire with secondary detonations lasting more than an hour.
• Drones also hit the city of Luhansk for hours and part of the city lost power, Euromaidan Press reports.
• Neither Ukraine's General Staff nor Russia's Defense Ministry has confirmed the depot strike; Russia says it downed 222 drones overnight.
• Khrustalnyi, about 65 km southwest of Luhansk, is a Russian rear logistics hub.

22. NPR reports from Fort Bragg on the U.S. military's push into drones and AI as Congress weighs safeguards for autonomous weapons

In "U.S. military forges ahead on autonomous weaponry" (NPR All Things Considered, Oct. 26), WUNC's Jay Price looks at Secretary Hegseth's new command for drones and AI alongside proposals in Congress to limit military AI.

• The piece notes Hegseth's announced command to accelerate drones and AI in warfare.
• One proposal discussed would require the Pentagon to keep data on battlefield decisions involving AI so mistakes can be understood and prevented.

23. Is the Pentagon's demand signal for drones working? Industry and Army officials are divided, Breaking Defense reports

In "Is the Pentagon's demand signal for drones working? It depends on who you ask." (Breaking Defense, Oct. 26), drone makers and officials debate whether competitions and awards will produce the steady orders needed for a lasting U.S. drone industry.

• "We need to see sustained, normalized demand," says Performance Drone Works CEO James Slider; 1,000 drones a month for a year would be "very healthy."
• Army Materiel Command's small-drone manufacturing lead Jon Strzelec says the department is trying to "artificially induce" demand signals.
• The Pentagon plans nearly $55 billion for autonomous warfare in its FY27 budget, but most of it was requested through a reconciliation package, leaving its future uncertain.

24. Ukraine's Himera and Denmark's GomSpace say OBRIA NANO, the first test satellite for a sovereign Ukrainian communications network, is operating in orbit

In "Himera and GomSpace launch Obria Nano satellite for Ukrainian military" (Ukrainska Pravda, Oct. 27), Himera says the satellite, launched Oct. 1 on SpaceX's Transporter-18, is undergoing planned tests for a future national constellation.

• The network would be run by a Ukrainian operator, cover all of Ukraine and complement European satellite systems, the companies say.
• Himera says reliance on foreign technology "creates strategic risks, especially in wartime."
• Next step: localizing satellite and ground-terminal production in Ukraine; no date has been set for a full network.

25. Skyborne's Cerberus MI, a reusable drone that fires 40 mm grenades or shotgun rounds and flies home to reload, joins the Blue UAS Cleared List

In "Shotgun-armed drone gets Pentagon green light" (Defence Blog, Oct. 27), Skyborne Technologies says its 18 kg Group 2 Cerberus MI can now be bought and flown across the U.S. military without a policy exception.

• It carries a HAVOC 40 mm grenade launcher or CHAOS 12-gauge shotgun and flies about 35 minutes armed.
• EXITUS AI targeting software computes firing solutions from more than 300 meters, with a human deciding to fire.
• Skyborne pitches it as a reusable alternative to one-way attack drones on the Blue UAS list.

1. Russia hits Kyiv with ballistic missiles and 280 attack drones overnight, striking a university campus, the Southern Bridge and medical facilities

Ukraine's Air Force says Russia launched Iskander-M/S-400 ballistic missiles and 280 Shahed, Gerbera and decoy drones from 6 p.m. Oct. 26, with Kyiv the main target, and that 255 drones and two missiles were shot down or jammed by 9 a.m., the Kyiv Independent and Ukrinform report.

• 69 of the Shahed-type drones were jet-powered; 56 of those were downed, the Air Force says.
• Hits were recorded at 25 locations and debris fell at 16; several drones were still in the air at the time of the report.
• At least one person was killed and 15 injured in Kyiv, including a paramedic and a university student, the State Emergency Service says.
• President Zelensky says Russia fired 16 ballistic missiles and calls the strike on the Southern Bridge "a serious escalation" against Ukraine's logistics.

2. U.S. Marines fly live-warhead Neros Archer one-way attack drones into targets at Camp Fuji, Japan, for the first time

In "Marines Test Neros Archer at CATC Camp Fuji for First Time" (DVIDS), Battalion Landing Team 1/1 of the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit flies the first-person-view strike drone in its live kinetic variant on Oct. 20 at the foot of Mount Fuji.

• Both flights, including an anti-armor ambush scenario, destroyed their targets with no unexploded drones left on the range, Defence Blog reports from the release.
• "Neros Archer is the current Marine Corps' program of record for one-way attack drones flown by a first-person view pilot," says Camp Fuji Gunner CWO2 Stephen Bilbo.
• The pilots were junior Marines trained in a three-week course, per the battalion.
• It follows the Marines' first live-fire FPV training in South Korea in July and August, with strikes out to about 20 km.

3. Sudan's RSF hits five power stations with drones in a coordinated pre-dawn attack, blacking out four army-held states, the state electricity company says

In a statement Monday, the Sudan Electricity Holding Company says Rapid Support Forces drones struck the Singa, El Hawata, Al Fao, Mashkour and Al-Junaid stations, causing "severe damage" and a total blackout of the southeastern grid, Reuters and AFP report.

• Power was cut in Sennar, Gedaref, White Nile and Gezira states, about half the territory the army holds, and the operator says the national grid's stability is threatened.
• AFP's correspondent in Al-Jazira says power had been out since 2 a.m.; the RSF did not respond to requests for comment.
• Sudan Tribune reports a guard was injured at Singa and the RSF also tried to hit fuel depots at Um Alila.
• Both sides have stepped up drone strikes this month, including attacks on RSF-held Nyala and army-held Khartoum airport, Reuters says.

4. Saudi air defenses shoot down four Houthi drones and three ballistic missiles aimed at the kingdom, the Saudi-led coalition says

In statements carried by the Saudi Press Agency on Tuesday, coalition spokesman Maj. Gen. Turki al-Maliki says four drones launched toward the Southern Region and three missiles aimed at the Eastern Province were intercepted, with no casualties.

• Saudi Civil Defense issued alerts around 3 a.m. local time for the Eastern Province and Al-Kharj before giving the all-clear.
• The coalition also reported downing three drones over Riyadh and the southern region on Monday evening, Al Jazeera reports.
• A Houthi attack on Riyadh's King Khalid International Airport this month killed at least 13 people.
• There was no immediate Houthi comment.

5. SOUTHCOM's commander says autonomous systems are "not just for testing anymore" and wants a river-reconnaissance mix of drone boats, aircraft and underwater vehicles for the counter-drug fight

In "EXCLUSIVE: SOUTHCOM chief seeks unmanned river solution as he embraces autonomy" (Breaking Defense, Oct. 26), Gen. Francis Donovan says he wants a "tailorable mix of unmanned surface, air and sub surface autonomous platforms" to map how criminal networks use South and Central American rivers.

• Saronic Corsair drone boats moved to Guantanamo Bay are now deployed on both sides of the Panama Canal, assisting local forces and canal security, Donovan says.
• SOUTHCOM's Autonomous Warfare Command (SAWC) runs a training and test site at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay that is open to allies, agencies and industry: "We are open for business."
• Autonomous systems "will be used to take the fight to the enemy," he says.
• The interview took place Oct. 13.

6. The Navy and Marine Corps demo a Maven Smart System air-defense dashboard that puts incoming threats and available defenses on one screen

In "Navy, Marine Corps demonstrate prototype air-defense decision tool at WTI" (Department of the Navy release), the Maven Smart System Regional Air Defense Commander Dashboard C2 Tool is shown Oct. 5 at Weapons and Tactics Instructor course 1-27 at MCAS Yuma.

• The Navy's Overmatch Rapid Capability Cell built the prototype inside the existing Palantir-built Maven environment in under two months, Defence Blog reports.
• Project Dynamis and Task Force Maven led the Marine side, with the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing as sponsor.
• "Ready-to-use C2 tools are critical," says 3rd MAW assistant wing commander Brig. Gen. Dolberry Jr.

7. A massive drone attack on Voronezh kills two men, the governor says, and likely hits a petrochemical plant, an Ilyushin aircraft factory and a bridge

In "Drone attack on Russia's Voronezh region kills two men, governor says" (Reuters, Oct. 26), Voronezh Governor Alexander Gusev reports deaths and fires at several industrial sites in the city after an overnight drone attack.

• Militarnyi reports the Voronezhsintezkauchuk synthetic-rubber plant, which OSINT Varta links to defense supply chains, was likely hit.
• Local monitors say the Voronezh Aircraft Manufacturing Company, part of Ilyushin, was also likely struck; it builds the Il-96-400M and parts for other aircraft.
• The Northern Bridge across the Voronezh Reservoir was reportedly struck and closed to traffic.
• ASTRA footage appears to show a drone exploding at the 25-story Chizhov Gallery business center; the Kyiv Independent couldn't verify the extent of damage.

8. Iran's army says it shot down a U.S. LUCAS one-way attack drone over Bandar Abbas and circulates debris photos; CENTCOM hasn't addressed the claim

In "Iranian army says it shot down US drone over Bandar Abbas, Tasnim reports" (Reuters, Oct. 25), Iran's army says its unified air defense network destroyed a U.S. LUCAS drone over the southern port near the Strait of Hormuz.

• The claim comes from Iran's army via the semi-official Tasnim news agency (claim, not independently verified).
• Photos of what Iranian outlets say is the wreckage, including propellers and engine parts laid out on tarps, circulated widely on X on Sunday.
• CENTCOM commander Adm. Brad Cooper flew over the Strait of Hormuz on Oct. 25; CENTCOM's account of the visit doesn't mention the drone claim.
• LUCAS is the low-cost U.S. one-way attack drone the Army is training units to employ.

9. DIU and the Navy's DRPM RAS open SWAP-USV Sprint 2, a prize challenge for drone boats armed with hard-kill counter-air weapons, with proposals due Nov. 30

In "We are scaling distributed maritime air defense" (Oct. 23), the Navy's Direct Reporting Program Manager for Robotic and Autonomous Systems says it has launched SWAP Sprint 2 with DIU and DRPM UxS, and DIU's solicitation seeks production-ready USVs paired with mature counter-air effectors that can be fielded forward within 120 days.

• Four weapon tracks: Hellfire/JAGM, APKWS rockets, remote weapon stations with Stinger, machine guns or high-power lasers, and other mature effectors.
• Thresholds: 200 nautical miles of range, a 10-knot cruise and engagements beyond 3 nautical miles against Group 1–3 drones and helicopters, under human-in-the-loop control.
• Up to $40 million in prizes for Sprint 2, with $200 million budgeted for follow-on prototype or production deals; in-water testing is planned for early 2027 at Little Creek, Va.
• DIU posted updated FAQs on Oct. 26, including how to obtain the Category 1 technical data package; The Defense Post also covered the sprint.

10. AUKUS partners run more than 40 crewed, uncrewed and autonomous systems off Southern California in Maritime Big Play Pacific, "from seafloor to space"

In "U.S., Australia, U.K. Launch Maritime Demonstration to Enhance Interoperability" (war.gov, Oct. 22), the Pentagon says the demonstration runs Oct. 5–26 and is testing how the three nations jointly operate uncrewed maritime systems and share maritime data in real time.

• Assistant Secretary of War for Critical Technologies Michael Dodd: "It's certainly all autonomous systems ... in the domains from seafloor to space."
• Dodd says the goal is to "deter major conflicts by creating a disparity of technological capability."
• Maritime Big Play was the first project under AUKUS Pillar 2's new model and led to its first signature project, announced in May: payloads and enabling systems for uncrewed undersea vehicles.
• Saronic says it fielded three Corsair drone boats across the three nations, including a pier resupply run with communications partly denied, Defence Blog reports Oct. 27.

11. Owen West says Drone Dominance "will soon expand in domain and size" as DIU lines up orders for 60,000 small attack drones from nine companies

Owen West (DoW), personal X account, wrote Oct. 24: "The U.S. invented drones. Yet our military failed to cheapen and scale for troops doing the fighting and dying. Drone Dominance will soon expand in domain and size."

• West: FPVs "were a fitting start to ensure grunts have an option beyond close contact and an endless air permission queue."
• DIU's Gauntlet II leaderboard sets up 30,000 drones in Deep Strike and 30,000 in Close Quarters Battle, per Defence Blog.
• Neros placed in both categories and says it is "delivering 14,000 drones and explosive payloads."
• West did not say which domains come next or when.

12. Project Agincourt marks the 611th anniversary of the battle it's named for, pledging to "rapidly adapt, field, and scale unmanned capabilities across the joint force"

Project Agincourt's official account posted Oct. 25: "611 years later, @SecWar's Project Agincourt is fusing operators with innovators to rapidly adapt, field, and scale unmanned capabilities across the joint force—transforming how we fight and win."

• The post marks Henry V's 1415 victory at Agincourt, where "the longbow changed warfare."
• It follows Secretary Hegseth's one-word "AUTOWARCOM" post on Oct. 24, quoting Owen West's summary of the plan for an Autonomous Warfare Command.
• The Oct. 21 war.gov release says the model measures success by how fast an operational problem gets a fielded, scalable solution.
• The roadmap letter was signed by Owen West and Senior Chief Max Strasiser.

13. Ukraine says Starlink and Starshield are back to full speed for its drones; Elon Musk says Ukraine broke Starlink's terms with drone strikes, and Kyiv says that was impossible

President Zelensky said Oct. 24 that "the speeds are now where they need to be," and Ukraine's Defense Ministry said Starshield was again working above 400 km/h, the Kyiv Independent reports, ending more than a week of limits that disrupted front-line drone work.

• Musk on X: Ukraine's "military violated Starlink terms of service and used it for offensive drone strikes to kill people. That loophole was closed last week."
• Zelensky adviser Serhii Beskrestnov: since February, terminals in Ukraine stop working above 70–90 km/h and Starlink is off over Russia, so "we physically cannot use commercial Starlink for deep strikes," Defence Blog reports.
• Moving terminals must be registered and routed through Starshield, which Musk says "is controlled by the US government."
• ISW says Ukrainian officials confirmed unrestricted access on Oct. 24. This follows Sen. Blumenthal's probe into the restrictions, with answers due from the Pentagon by Nov. 5.

14. MacDill Air Force Base trains with JIATF-401 on two drone interceptors: the net-firing Paladin and the ramming Bumblebee V2

In "A new sting in drone defense: Bumblebee V2 arrives at MacDill" (6th Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs, Oct. 23), the base shows 6th Security Forces Squadron defenders training Oct. 8 with Joint Interagency Task Force 401 on counter-drone interceptors.

• Paladin, a six-rotor drone from Zone 5 Technologies, fires net rounds that tangle a target's rotors, avoiding bullets or fragments over the base, Defence Blog reports.
• The Bumblebee V2 brings down hostile drones by direct collision and is described as a low-cost option for layered base defense.
• The Air Force hasn't said how many systems took part, whether live intercepts happened or whether it will buy Paladin.
• MacDill hosts CENTCOM and SOCOM headquarters.

15. DARPA's RACER robot team at Fort Knox drove and searched on its own from a satellite-imagery tip to a simulated strike, with a human approving every engagement

In "DARPA tests autonomous vehicles that team up to find enemy targets" (Defence Blog, Oct. 25), DARPA describes the Oct. 15 end-to-end test of four uncrewed ground vehicles running autonomy software from its RACER program at Fort Knox's St. Vith Range.

• DARPA's Dr. Jason Gregory: "We can drop a ten-digit grid on a traversable mobility corridor" and the vehicles drive it "comparable to a human."
• The lead vehicle carried a boxed drone that could scout a target or, armed, attack it from the air.
• Each detection goes to an operator as an image; nothing fires without human approval.
• DARPA is now adding kinetic and non-kinetic payloads; EUCOM asked for the test.

16. After Ukrainian drones hit five Russian data centers, Russia's digital ministry tells operators to go underground, hide from the air and add drone defenses

In "Russian ministry recommends underground data centers following Ukrainian drone strikes" (Kyiv Independent, Oct. 26, citing Kommersant), Russia's Digital Development Ministry sets drone-protection rules for existing, planned and under-construction data centers.

• Sites are split into three tiers; the top tier covers strategic sites whose loss could disrupt key state functions for an hour or more, and placement underground is one of the criteria.
• Existing sites should cut their visibility from the air and add layered defenses: reinforced structures, electronic warfare and counter-drone systems.
• It follows Ukrainian drone strikes on three Yandex data centers, a Sberbank site under construction and a VK data center between Oct. 8 and Oct. 18.
• Kommersant says the rules also call for backups of critical services and coordination with the Defense Ministry and Rosgvardia.

17. Project Meridian's "Future of Warfare" group met at Maritime Big Play in San Diego this week, the Pentagon's technology office says, under a 120-day sprint ordered by the Secretary of War

The Department of War's chief technology office (OUSW(R&E)) posted Oct. 24 that "the disruptive minds of Project Meridian" received briefings from department leaders and held working sessions at the Navy's Maritime Big Play, a day after Secretary Pete Hegseth said former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is co-leading the effort.

• The office: "The fight of 2040 is being shaped TODAY," and the Secretary's "120-day sprint mandate is driving bold thinking about the future of combat."
• Hegseth (DoW), personal X account, Oct. 23: the department "will dominate all domains of future fights"; Gingrich had spent an afternoon at the Pentagon on drones and autonomous vehicles.
• Hegseth reposted the technology office's update on Oct. 24.
• The Pentagon still hasn't published Project Meridian's membership, scope or budget.

18. A French Atlantique 2 and a U.S. Navy P-8A patrol the Black Sea after drone attacks on at least seven merchant ships off Romania and Bulgaria this month

In "France sends patrol planes to Black Sea after ship attacks" (Defence Blog, Oct. 25), France confirms its Atlantique 2 is supporting rescue efforts under NATO arrangements, and Bulgaria's prime minister says the P-8A began patrolling at Sofia's request.

• Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev: allies responded "very quickly" after attacks in Bulgaria's exclusive economic zone.
• Romanian President Nicușor Dan blamed Russia for the drone strike that capsized the cargo ship Khoryv off Constanța on Oct. 23; one crew member died and three are missing.
• Romanian F-16s shot down two Russian Geran drones heading for merchant ships on Oct. 17, Romanian authorities said.
• Militarnyi reported Oct. 25 that France's Atlantique 2 has been operating in the region for two weeks as part of NATO missions.

19. NPR reports from Fort Bragg on the U.S. military's push into drones and AI as Congress weighs safeguards for autonomous weapons

In "U.S. military forges ahead on autonomous weaponry" (NPR All Things Considered, Oct. 26), WUNC's Jay Price looks at Secretary Hegseth's new command for drones and AI alongside proposals in Congress to limit military AI.

• The piece notes Hegseth's announced command to accelerate drones and AI in warfare.
• One proposal discussed would require the Pentagon to keep data on battlefield decisions involving AI so mistakes can be understood and prevented.

20. Ukrainian drones reportedly blow up a Russian ammunition depot near Khrustalnyi in occupied Luhansk Oblast, setting off over an hour of secondary blasts

In "Ukraine reportedly strikes Russian ammunition depot in occupied Luhansk Oblast" (Kyiv Independent, Oct. 27), monitoring channel Exilenova+ says a strike-drone attack lasting several hours hit the depot overnight.

• Exilenova+ posted night footage of a large fire with secondary detonations lasting more than an hour.
• Drones also hit the city of Luhansk for hours and part of the city lost power, Euromaidan Press reports.
• Neither Ukraine's General Staff nor Russia's Defense Ministry has confirmed the depot strike; Russia says it downed 222 drones overnight.
• Khrustalnyi, about 65 km southwest of Luhansk, is a Russian rear logistics hub.

21. Is the Pentagon's demand signal for drones working? Industry and Army officials are divided, Breaking Defense reports

In "Is the Pentagon's demand signal for drones working? It depends on who you ask." (Breaking Defense, Oct. 26), drone makers and officials debate whether competitions and awards will produce the steady orders needed for a lasting U.S. drone industry.

• "We need to see sustained, normalized demand," says Performance Drone Works CEO James Slider; 1,000 drones a month for a year would be "very healthy."
• Army Materiel Command's small-drone manufacturing lead Jon Strzelec says the department is trying to "artificially induce" demand signals.
• The Pentagon plans nearly $55 billion for autonomous warfare in its FY27 budget, but most of it was requested through a reconciliation package, leaving its future uncertain.

22. Skyborne's Cerberus MI, a reusable drone that fires 40 mm grenades or shotgun rounds and flies home to reload, joins the Blue UAS Cleared List

In "Shotgun-armed drone gets Pentagon green light" (Defence Blog, Oct. 27), Skyborne Technologies says its 18 kg Group 2 Cerberus MI can now be bought and flown across the U.S. military without a policy exception.

• It carries a HAVOC 40 mm grenade launcher or CHAOS 12-gauge shotgun and flies about 35 minutes armed.
• EXITUS AI targeting software computes firing solutions from more than 300 meters, with a human deciding to fire.
• Skyborne pitches it as a reusable alternative to one-way attack drones on the Blue UAS list.

23. Spain's ARMMO launches its Bandit-X interceptor drone from a tracked ASCOD armored vehicle at the ATLAS 26 counter-drone exercise

In "GDELS and ARMMO team up on mobile anti-drone system" (Defence Blog, Oct. 27), ARMMO and GDELS unit Santa Bárbara Sistemas announce the launch and a deal to integrate autonomous systems on armored vehicles.

• ARMMO says Bandit-X flies faster than 360 km/h, stays up 20 to 25 minutes and has a 40 to 50 km range; the launchers were first spotted on the ASCOD at the exercise last week.
• It navigates without satellite signals and guides itself in the final phase of an intercept, the company says.
• The launch was watched by Spain's Chief of the Defence Staff and NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Transformation.

24. Auterion shows its shoulder-fired Talon drone interceptor on a test range with Germany's Bundeswehr

In "German troops test Auterion's Talon drone interceptor" (Defence Blog, Oct. 27), company footage shows one soldier firing Talon from a rifle-style launcher while a second steers it onto the target.

• Auterion, known for the autonomy software in thousands of Ukrainian strike drones, says Talon can take on single drones and swarms.
• The company didn't say where or when the trials took place or whether Talon destroyed any targets.
• CEO Lorenz Meier has said later versions will move to vehicle launchers and fixed site defense.

25. Finnish drone-electronics maker Arctic RAVN raises about $2.8 million in five days before launching a single product

In "Finnish drone electronics maker raises $2.8M in five days" (Defence Blog, Oct. 27), Arctic RAVN says it secured €2.5 million in convertible loan commitments, beating a €2 million target.

• It makes electronic speed controllers and flight controllers built in Finland with European and NATO-sourced parts.
• It aims to build tens of thousands of speed controllers by the end of 2026, many already reserved by customers.
• CEO Matti Vansén cites follow-up orders and talks with several European defense manufacturers.

1. Sudan's RSF hits five power stations with drones in a coordinated pre-dawn attack, blacking out four army-held states, the state electricity company says

In a statement Monday, the Sudan Electricity Holding Company says Rapid Support Forces drones struck the Singa, El Hawata, Al Fao, Mashkour and Al-Junaid stations, causing "severe damage" and a total blackout of the southeastern grid, Reuters and AFP report.

• Power was cut in Sennar, Gedaref, White Nile and Gezira states, about half the territory the army holds, and the operator says the national grid's stability is threatened.
• AFP's correspondent in Al-Jazira says power had been out since 2 a.m.; the RSF did not respond to requests for comment.
• Sudan Tribune reports a guard was injured at Singa and the RSF also tried to hit fuel depots at Um Alila.
• Both sides have stepped up drone strikes this month, including attacks on RSF-held Nyala and army-held Khartoum airport, Reuters says.

2. A massive drone attack on Voronezh kills two men, the governor says, and likely hits a petrochemical plant, an Ilyushin aircraft factory and a bridge

In "Drone attack on Russia's Voronezh region kills two men, governor says" (Reuters, Oct. 26), Voronezh Governor Alexander Gusev reports deaths and fires at several industrial sites in the city after an overnight drone attack.

• Militarnyi reports the Voronezhsintezkauchuk synthetic-rubber plant, which OSINT Varta links to defense supply chains, was likely hit.
• Local monitors say the Voronezh Aircraft Manufacturing Company, part of Ilyushin, was also likely struck; it builds the Il-96-400M and parts for other aircraft.
• The Northern Bridge across the Voronezh Reservoir was reportedly struck and closed to traffic.
• ASTRA footage appears to show a drone exploding at the 25-story Chizhov Gallery business center; the Kyiv Independent couldn't verify the extent of damage.

3. SOUTHCOM's commander says autonomous systems are "not just for testing anymore" and wants a river-reconnaissance mix of drone boats, aircraft and underwater vehicles for the counter-drug fight

In "EXCLUSIVE: SOUTHCOM chief seeks unmanned river solution as he embraces autonomy" (Breaking Defense, Oct. 26), Gen. Francis Donovan says he wants a "tailorable mix of unmanned surface, air and sub surface autonomous platforms" to map how criminal networks use South and Central American rivers.

• Saronic Corsair drone boats moved to Guantanamo Bay are now deployed on both sides of the Panama Canal, assisting local forces and canal security, Donovan says.
• SOUTHCOM's Autonomous Warfare Command (SAWC) runs a training and test site at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay that is open to allies, agencies and industry: "We are open for business."
• Autonomous systems "will be used to take the fight to the enemy," he says.
• The interview took place Oct. 13.

4. Russia launches 140 attack drones at Ukraine overnight, half of them jet-powered, plus four missiles; Ukraine says it downed 112 drones

In "Russian attacks across Ukraine kill 2, injure 35 over past day, as repeated strikes hit Zaporizhzhia" (Kyiv Independent, Oct. 26), Ukraine's Air Force reports 140 attack drones, a Kh-31P anti-radar missile and three Kh-59/69 guided missiles overnight.

• The Air Force says it shot down all three Kh-59/69 missiles and 112 drones.
• About 70 of the drones were jet-powered, BBC Ukrainian and DW report from the Air Force data.
• Zaporizhzhia was hit repeatedly, with eight people injured there over the past day.
• Russian attacks killed at least two people and wounded 35 across Ukraine over the past day, local authorities said.

5. Iran's army says it shot down a U.S. LUCAS one-way attack drone over Bandar Abbas and circulates debris photos; CENTCOM hasn't addressed the claim

In "Iranian army says it shot down US drone over Bandar Abbas, Tasnim reports" (Reuters, Oct. 25), Iran's army says its unified air defense network destroyed a U.S. LUCAS drone over the southern port near the Strait of Hormuz.

• The claim comes from Iran's army via the semi-official Tasnim news agency (claim, not independently verified).
• Photos of what Iranian outlets say is the wreckage, including propellers and engine parts laid out on tarps, circulated widely on X on Sunday.
• CENTCOM commander Adm. Brad Cooper flew over the Strait of Hormuz on Oct. 25; CENTCOM's account of the visit doesn't mention the drone claim.
• LUCAS is the low-cost U.S. one-way attack drone the Army is training units to employ.

6. Ukraine says Starlink and Starshield are back to full speed for its drones; Elon Musk says Ukraine broke Starlink's terms with drone strikes, and Kyiv says that was impossible

President Zelensky said Oct. 24 that "the speeds are now where they need to be," and Ukraine's Defense Ministry said Starshield was again working above 400 km/h, the Kyiv Independent reports, ending more than a week of limits that disrupted front-line drone work.

• Musk on X: Ukraine's "military violated Starlink terms of service and used it for offensive drone strikes to kill people. That loophole was closed last week."
• Zelensky adviser Serhii Beskrestnov: since February, terminals in Ukraine stop working above 70–90 km/h and Starlink is off over Russia, so "we physically cannot use commercial Starlink for deep strikes," Defence Blog reports.
• Moving terminals must be registered and routed through Starshield, which Musk says "is controlled by the US government."
• ISW says Ukrainian officials confirmed unrestricted access on Oct. 24. This follows Sen. Blumenthal's probe into the restrictions, with answers due from the Pentagon by Nov. 5.

7. DIU and the Navy's DRPM RAS open SWAP-USV Sprint 2, a prize challenge for drone boats armed with hard-kill counter-air weapons, with proposals due Nov. 30

In "We are scaling distributed maritime air defense" (Oct. 23), the Navy's Direct Reporting Program Manager for Robotic and Autonomous Systems says it has launched SWAP Sprint 2 with DIU and DRPM UxS, and DIU's solicitation seeks production-ready USVs paired with mature counter-air effectors that can be fielded forward within 120 days.

• Four weapon tracks: Hellfire/JAGM, APKWS rockets, remote weapon stations with Stinger, machine guns or high-power lasers, and other mature effectors.
• Thresholds: 200 nautical miles of range, a 10-knot cruise and engagements beyond 3 nautical miles against Group 1–3 drones and helicopters, under human-in-the-loop control.
• Up to $40 million in prizes for Sprint 2, with $200 million budgeted for follow-on prototype or production deals; in-water testing is planned for early 2027 at Little Creek, Va.
• DIU posted updated FAQs on Oct. 26, including how to obtain the Category 1 technical data package; The Defense Post also covered the sprint.

8. Project Agincourt marks the 611th anniversary of the battle it's named for, pledging to "rapidly adapt, field, and scale unmanned capabilities across the joint force"

Project Agincourt's official account posted Oct. 25: "611 years later, @SecWar's Project Agincourt is fusing operators with innovators to rapidly adapt, field, and scale unmanned capabilities across the joint force—transforming how we fight and win."

• The post marks Henry V's 1415 victory at Agincourt, where "the longbow changed warfare."
• It follows Secretary Hegseth's one-word "AUTOWARCOM" post on Oct. 24, quoting Owen West's summary of the plan for an Autonomous Warfare Command.
• The Oct. 21 war.gov release says the model measures success by how fast an operational problem gets a fielded, scalable solution.
• The roadmap letter was signed by Owen West and Senior Chief Max Strasiser.

9. After Ukrainian drones hit five Russian data centers, Russia's digital ministry tells operators to go underground, hide from the air and add drone defenses

In "Russian ministry recommends underground data centers following Ukrainian drone strikes" (Kyiv Independent, Oct. 26, citing Kommersant), Russia's Digital Development Ministry sets drone-protection rules for existing, planned and under-construction data centers.

• Sites are split into three tiers; the top tier covers strategic sites whose loss could disrupt key state functions for an hour or more, and placement underground is one of the criteria.
• Existing sites should cut their visibility from the air and add layered defenses: reinforced structures, electronic warfare and counter-drone systems.
• It follows Ukrainian drone strikes on three Yandex data centers, a Sberbank site under construction and a VK data center between Oct. 8 and Oct. 18.
• Kommersant says the rules also call for backups of critical services and coordination with the Defense Ministry and Rosgvardia.

10. Project Meridian's "Future of Warfare" group met at Maritime Big Play in San Diego this week, the Pentagon's technology office says, under a 120-day sprint ordered by the Secretary of War

The Department of War's chief technology office (OUSW(R&E)) posted Oct. 24 that "the disruptive minds of Project Meridian" received briefings from department leaders and held working sessions at the Navy's Maritime Big Play, a day after Secretary Pete Hegseth said former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is co-leading the effort.

• The office: "The fight of 2040 is being shaped TODAY," and the Secretary's "120-day sprint mandate is driving bold thinking about the future of combat."
• Hegseth (DoW), personal X account, Oct. 23: the department "will dominate all domains of future fights"; Gingrich had spent an afternoon at the Pentagon on drones and autonomous vehicles.
• Hegseth reposted the technology office's update on Oct. 24.
• The Pentagon still hasn't published Project Meridian's membership, scope or budget.

11. Owen West says Drone Dominance "will soon expand in domain and size" as DIU lines up orders for 60,000 small attack drones from nine companies

Owen West (DoW), personal X account, wrote Oct. 24: "The U.S. invented drones. Yet our military failed to cheapen and scale for troops doing the fighting and dying. Drone Dominance will soon expand in domain and size."

• West: FPVs "were a fitting start to ensure grunts have an option beyond close contact and an endless air permission queue."
• DIU's Gauntlet II leaderboard sets up 30,000 drones in Deep Strike and 30,000 in Close Quarters Battle, per Defence Blog.
• Neros placed in both categories and says it is "delivering 14,000 drones and explosive payloads."
• West did not say which domains come next or when.

12. DARPA's RACER robot team at Fort Knox drove and searched on its own from a satellite-imagery tip to a simulated strike, with a human approving every engagement

In "DARPA tests autonomous vehicles that team up to find enemy targets" (Defence Blog, Oct. 25), DARPA describes the Oct. 15 end-to-end test of four uncrewed ground vehicles running autonomy software from its RACER program at Fort Knox's St. Vith Range.

• DARPA's Dr. Jason Gregory: "We can drop a ten-digit grid on a traversable mobility corridor" and the vehicles drive it "comparable to a human."
• The lead vehicle carried a boxed drone that could scout a target or, armed, attack it from the air.
• Each detection goes to an operator as an image; nothing fires without human approval.
• DARPA is now adding kinetic and non-kinetic payloads; EUCOM asked for the test.

13. MacDill Air Force Base trains with JIATF-401 on two drone interceptors: the net-firing Paladin and the ramming Bumblebee V2

In "A new sting in drone defense: Bumblebee V2 arrives at MacDill" (6th Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs, Oct. 23), the base shows 6th Security Forces Squadron defenders training Oct. 8 with Joint Interagency Task Force 401 on counter-drone interceptors.

• Paladin, a six-rotor drone from Zone 5 Technologies, fires net rounds that tangle a target's rotors, avoiding bullets or fragments over the base, Defence Blog reports.
• The Bumblebee V2 brings down hostile drones by direct collision and is described as a low-cost option for layered base defense.
• The Air Force hasn't said how many systems took part, whether live intercepts happened or whether it will buy Paladin.
• MacDill hosts CENTCOM and SOCOM headquarters.

14. A French Atlantique 2 and a U.S. Navy P-8A patrol the Black Sea after drone attacks on at least seven merchant ships off Romania and Bulgaria this month

In "France sends patrol planes to Black Sea after ship attacks" (Defence Blog, Oct. 25), France confirms its Atlantique 2 is supporting rescue efforts under NATO arrangements, and Bulgaria's prime minister says the P-8A began patrolling at Sofia's request.

• Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev: allies responded "very quickly" after attacks in Bulgaria's exclusive economic zone.
• Romanian President Nicușor Dan blamed Russia for the drone strike that capsized the cargo ship Khoryv off Constanța on Oct. 23; one crew member died and three are missing.
• Romanian F-16s shot down two Russian Geran drones heading for merchant ships on Oct. 17, Romanian authorities said.
• Militarnyi reported Oct. 25 that France's Atlantique 2 has been operating in the region for two weeks as part of NATO missions.

15. AUKUS partners run more than 40 crewed, uncrewed and autonomous systems off Southern California in Maritime Big Play Pacific, "from seafloor to space"

In "U.S., Australia, U.K. Launch Maritime Demonstration to Enhance Interoperability" (war.gov, Oct. 22), the Pentagon says the demonstration runs Oct. 5–26 and is testing how the three nations jointly operate uncrewed maritime systems and share maritime data in real time.

• Assistant Secretary of War for Critical Technologies Michael Dodd: "It's certainly all autonomous systems ... in the domains from seafloor to space."
• Dodd says the goal is to "deter major conflicts by creating a disparity of technological capability."
• Maritime Big Play was the first project under AUKUS Pillar 2's new model and led to its first signature project, announced in May: payloads and enabling systems for uncrewed undersea vehicles.
• Missions named include seabed infrastructure protection, anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare, mine countermeasures, electronic warfare and contested littoral maneuver.

16. Japan's defense minister says the military's two-year-old AI policy can't keep up and needs review, including on leaving decisions to AI

Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi told the upper house budget committee that the 2024 basic policy on AI use by the Ministry of Defense and Self-Defense Forces needs review because the technology has moved faster than the rules, Defence Blog reports, citing the Nikkei.

• Koizumi: "I feel there is a need to review it." He gave no timeline.
• He said any review would address the question of leaving decisions to AI on its own.
• The 2024 policy names seven priority areas, including target detection, command and control and unmanned assets, and requires human involvement.
• Tokyo cites a shrinking population and SDF manpower shortages as a reason to lean on AI.

17. The Army is putting cyber and jamming payloads on small drones for its 11th Cyber Battalion to deliver "tailored cyber effects"

In "Army unit experimenting with small drones for 'tailored cyber effects'" (Breaking Defense, Oct. 22), Col. David Bergmann, the Army's project manager for cyber warfare, describes tests of the Radiofrequency Delivery Effects Platform (RDEP) on small drones.

• RDEP lets operators load exploits onto cards and deliver "digital bullets" to blind or gain access to adversary systems.
• The tests mix government-built and commercial payloads for spectrum monitoring and non-kinetic effects at the tactical edge.
• The results will shape standard equipment for the 11th Cyber Battalion and a forthcoming 12th Cyber Battalion.

18. Britain's Royal Navy opens a tender to buy American-made Skydio X10D reconnaissance drones, the quadcopter the U.S. Army ordered by the thousands

In "Royal Navy moves to buy U.S.-made Skydio X10D drones" (Defence Blog, Oct. 25), a Navy Commercial notice on the UK Defence Sourcing Portal puts the buy at an estimated £120,000 (about $160,700).

• Bids are due Nov. 19, with a contract running to March 31, 2027; it doesn't say how many drones or which unit.
• The X10D uses onboard AI to fly around obstacles in darkness, hops channels under jamming and holds position without GPS.
• It's been on the Pentagon's Blue UAS list since May 2024; the Army ordered more than 2,500 for over $52 million in March.
• Spain and Norway have also bought the drone.

19. Is the Pentagon's demand signal for drones working? Industry and Army officials are divided, Breaking Defense reports

In "Is the Pentagon's demand signal for drones working? It depends on who you ask." (Breaking Defense, Oct. 26), drone makers and officials debate whether competitions and awards will produce the steady orders needed for a lasting U.S. drone industry.

• "We need to see sustained, normalized demand," says Performance Drone Works CEO James Slider; 1,000 drones a month for a year would be "very healthy."
• Army Materiel Command's small-drone manufacturing lead Jon Strzelec says the department is trying to "artificially induce" demand signals.
• The Pentagon plans nearly $55 billion for autonomous warfare in its FY27 budget, but most of it was requested through a reconciliation package, leaving its future uncertain.

20. A drone strike on Syria's Damascus-Homs highway kills three, including a former commander of al-Qaeda affiliate Hurras al-Din, a Syrian defense source tells AFP

A "drone of unidentified provenance" hit a car in the Al-Qastal area northeast of Damascus on Monday, killing Abu Abdul-Rahman al-Libi and two others, a Syrian defense ministry source told AFP, as reported by Al Arabiya.

• State news agency SANA reported an explosion inside a car on the highway and said authorities opened an investigation.
• No country has claimed the strike.
• Al-Libi had been reported killed in a February 2025 U.S. strike in Idlib that CENTCOM announced at the time, Shafaq News notes.
• Hurras al-Din said it dissolved in January 2025.

21. Kyiv's air defense crews say Russia's jet-powered Gerans fly too fast and too high for many of their guns and interceptor drones

In "With Kyiv's air defense crews as they race to keep up with Russia's jet-powered drones" (Kyiv Independent, Oct. 26), reporters spend two days with the 112th Territorial Defense Brigade outside the capital.

• Some jet-powered drones fly about 600 km/h and at 5 to 6 km altitude; the unit's Sting interceptors top out around 320 km/h.
• Soldiers say some newer Gerans carry cameras and mesh radios so operators can watch live video and redirect them in flight.
• Some targets cross a crew's sector in as little as 20 seconds; machine gunners say they have about five seconds to engage.
• Brave1 said Oct. 18 that seven Ukrainian interceptor types had downed jet drones and more than 1,000 had been ordered.

22. U.K. startup NeuroDoctrine flies three drones with a brain-reading headband and no controller, National Defense reports

In "U.K. Startup Demonstrates Controlling Drones via Brain Signals" (National Defense, Oct. 26), Stew Magnuson watches a pilot in Manchester command drones with a headband that reads visual-cortex signals.

• Signals are decoded on the device and sent to the drones by Bluetooth; calibration takes about six hours per user.
• The company has controlled up to 10 drones flying collectively and wants a "neural operating system" on top of munitions' autonomy, keeping a human in the loop.
• Founder Zied Tayeb worked on DARPA's Revolutionizing Prosthetics program; advisers include former SOCOM S&T director Lisa Sanders.
• The company is raising money.

23. France tested its HELMA-P anti-drone laser on the deck of the carrier Charles de Gaulle in the Gulf of Oman, the French Navy's magazine reports

In "France Tests HELMA-P Laser Anti-Drone System Aboard Charles de Gaulle Aircraft Carrier" (Militarnyi, Oct. 26, citing Cols Bleus via Zone Militaire), the CILAS laser was trialed June 4–8 during the La Fayette 26 mission.

• Installing the system on the flight deck took about four hours; it has a camera turret, LIDAR, laser emitter, cooling unit and control console.
• HELMA-P was first tested at sea on the frigate Forbin in 2023 and guarded the 2024 Paris Olympics.
• It is built to destroy small drones within seconds under France's L2AD laser program.
• The U.S. carrier George H.W. Bush tested the LOCUST laser in October 2025.

24. Helsing unveils Contra, an AI-run air defense system meant to engage thousands of drones and missiles at once, with two new low-cost interceptors

In "German firm develops low-cost interceptor to stop mass drone attacks" (Defence Blog, Oct. 26), Helsing announces Contra, which fuses sensors and weapons into one air picture, plus the AD-1 Inferno and AD-2 Ambush interceptors.

• AD-1 Inferno is jet-powered, can loiter, swarm and re-engage after a miss; AD-2 Ambush reaches Mach 2.5 with more than 20 km of range.
• Operators keep control of decisions and target priorities through Helsing's Altra software, the company says.
• Helsing gave no customers, prices, service dates or flight-test results.
• The company ties the launch to reported Russian output of 4,000 Geran-4 and Geran-5 jet drones a month.

25. France's SEABER launches RAVEN, a 13 kg mine-hunting underwater drone it says matches high-end vehicles at a third of the price

In "French firm launches mine-hunting underwater drone" (Defence Blog, Oct. 26), SEABER unveils RAVEN, a one-person-launch autonomous underwater vehicle for mine hunting and seabed survey.

• RAVEN dives to 300 meters, runs up to eight hours and carries side-scan sonar, with magnetometer or HD camera versions.
• Its LYNX optical-inertial navigation drifts less than 0.2% of distance traveled, SEABER says, and its satellite receiver resists jamming.
• No price, customers or delivery dates were disclosed.

1. Russia launches 140 attack drones at Ukraine overnight, half of them jet-powered, plus four missiles; Ukraine says it downed 112 drones

In "Russian attacks across Ukraine kill 2, injure 35 over past day, as repeated strikes hit Zaporizhzhia" (Kyiv Independent, Oct. 26), Ukraine's Air Force reports 140 attack drones, a Kh-31P anti-radar missile and three Kh-59/69 guided missiles overnight.

• The Air Force says it shot down all three Kh-59/69 missiles and 112 drones.
• About 70 of the drones were jet-powered, BBC Ukrainian and DW report from the Air Force data.
• Zaporizhzhia was hit repeatedly, with eight people injured there over the past day.
• Russian attacks killed at least two people and wounded 35 across Ukraine over the past day, local authorities said.

2. A massive drone attack on Voronezh kills two men, the governor says, and likely hits a petrochemical plant, an Ilyushin aircraft factory and a bridge

In "Drone attack on Russia's Voronezh region kills two men, governor says" (Reuters, Oct. 26), Voronezh Governor Alexander Gusev reports deaths and fires at several industrial sites in the city after an overnight drone attack.

• Militarnyi reports the Voronezhsintezkauchuk synthetic-rubber plant, which OSINT Varta links to defense supply chains, was likely hit.
• Local monitors say the Voronezh Aircraft Manufacturing Company, part of Ilyushin, was also likely struck; it builds the Il-96-400M and parts for other aircraft.
• The Northern Bridge across the Voronezh Reservoir was reportedly struck and closed to traffic.
• Gusev confirmed fires at several industrial facilities but didn't name them; the damage is unknown.

3. Iran's army says it shot down a U.S. LUCAS one-way attack drone over Bandar Abbas and circulates debris photos; CENTCOM hasn't addressed the claim

In "Iranian army says it shot down US drone over Bandar Abbas, Tasnim reports" (Reuters, Oct. 25), Iran's army says its unified air defense network destroyed a U.S. LUCAS drone over the southern port near the Strait of Hormuz.

• The claim comes from Iran's army via the semi-official Tasnim news agency (claim, not independently verified).
• Photos of what Iranian outlets say is the wreckage, including propellers and engine parts laid out on tarps, circulated widely on X on Sunday.
• CENTCOM commander Adm. Brad Cooper flew over the Strait of Hormuz on Oct. 25; CENTCOM's account of the visit doesn't mention the drone claim.
• LUCAS is the low-cost U.S. one-way attack drone the Army is training units to employ.

4. Ukraine says Starlink and Starshield are back to full speed for its drones; Elon Musk says Ukraine broke Starlink's terms with drone strikes, and Kyiv says that was impossible

President Zelensky said Oct. 24 that "the speeds are now where they need to be," and Ukraine's Defense Ministry said Starshield was again working above 400 km/h, the Kyiv Independent reports, ending more than a week of limits that disrupted front-line drone work.

• Musk on X: Ukraine's "military violated Starlink terms of service and used it for offensive drone strikes to kill people. That loophole was closed last week."
• Zelensky adviser Serhii Beskrestnov: since February, terminals in Ukraine stop working above 70–90 km/h and Starlink is off over Russia, so "we physically cannot use commercial Starlink for deep strikes," Defence Blog reports.
• Moving terminals must be registered and routed through Starshield, which Musk says "is controlled by the US government."
• ISW says Ukrainian officials confirmed unrestricted access on Oct. 24. This follows Sen. Blumenthal's probe into the restrictions, with answers due from the Pentagon by Nov. 5.

5. Project Agincourt marks the 611th anniversary of the battle it's named for, pledging to "rapidly adapt, field, and scale unmanned capabilities across the joint force"

Project Agincourt's official account posted Oct. 25: "611 years later, @SecWar's Project Agincourt is fusing operators with innovators to rapidly adapt, field, and scale unmanned capabilities across the joint force—transforming how we fight and win."

• The post marks Henry V's 1415 victory at Agincourt, where "the longbow changed warfare."
• It follows Secretary Hegseth's one-word "AUTOWARCOM" post on Oct. 24, quoting Owen West's summary of the plan for an Autonomous Warfare Command.
• The Oct. 21 war.gov release says the model measures success by how fast an operational problem gets a fielded, scalable solution.
• The roadmap letter was signed by Owen West and Senior Chief Max Strasiser.

6. After Ukrainian drones hit five Russian data centers, Russia's digital ministry tells operators to go underground, hide from the air and add drone defenses

In "Russian ministry recommends underground data centers following Ukrainian drone strikes" (Kyiv Independent, Oct. 26, citing Kommersant), Russia's Digital Development Ministry sets drone-protection rules for existing, planned and under-construction data centers.

• Sites are split into three tiers; the top tier covers strategic sites whose loss could disrupt key state functions for an hour or more, and placement underground is one of the criteria.
• Existing sites should cut their visibility from the air and add layered defenses: reinforced structures, electronic warfare and counter-drone systems.
• It follows Ukrainian drone strikes on three Yandex data centers, a Sberbank site under construction and a VK data center between Oct. 8 and Oct. 18.
• Kommersant says the rules also call for backups of critical services and coordination with the Defense Ministry and Rosgvardia.

7. Project Meridian's "Future of Warfare" group met at Maritime Big Play in San Diego last week, the Pentagon's technology office says, under a 120-day sprint ordered by the Secretary of War

The Department of War's chief technology office (OUSW(R&E)) posted Oct. 24 that "the disruptive minds of Project Meridian" received briefings from department leaders and held working sessions at the Navy's Maritime Big Play, a day after Secretary Pete Hegseth said former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is co-leading the effort.

• The office: "The fight of 2040 is being shaped TODAY," and the Secretary's "120-day sprint mandate is driving bold thinking about the future of combat."
• Hegseth (DoW), personal X account, Oct. 23: the department "will dominate all domains of future fights"; Gingrich had spent an afternoon at the Pentagon on drones and autonomous vehicles.
• Hegseth reposted the technology office's update on Oct. 24.
• The Pentagon still hasn't published Project Meridian's membership, scope or budget.

8. Owen West says Drone Dominance "will soon expand in domain and size" as DIU lines up orders for 60,000 small attack drones from nine companies

Owen West (DoW), personal X account, wrote Oct. 24: "The U.S. invented drones. Yet our military failed to cheapen and scale for troops doing the fighting and dying. Drone Dominance will soon expand in domain and size."

• West: FPVs "were a fitting start to ensure grunts have an option beyond close contact and an endless air permission queue."
• DIU's Gauntlet II leaderboard sets up 30,000 drones in Deep Strike and 30,000 in Close Quarters Battle, per Defence Blog.
• Neros placed in both categories and says it is "delivering 14,000 drones and explosive payloads."
• West did not say which domains come next or when.

9. DARPA's RACER robot team at Fort Knox drove and searched on its own from a satellite-imagery tip to a simulated strike, with a human approving every engagement

In "DARPA tests autonomous vehicles that team up to find enemy targets" (Defence Blog, Oct. 25), DARPA describes the Oct. 15 end-to-end test of four uncrewed ground vehicles running autonomy software from its RACER program at Fort Knox's St. Vith Range.

• DARPA's Dr. Jason Gregory: "We can drop a ten-digit grid on a traversable mobility corridor" and the vehicles drive it "comparable to a human."
• The lead vehicle carried a boxed drone that could scout a target or, armed, attack it from the air.
• Each detection goes to an operator as an image; nothing fires without human approval.
• DARPA is now adding kinetic and non-kinetic payloads; EUCOM asked for the test.

10. A French Atlantique 2 and a U.S. Navy P-8A patrol the Black Sea after drone attacks on at least seven merchant ships off Romania and Bulgaria this month

In "France sends patrol planes to Black Sea after ship attacks" (Defence Blog, Oct. 25), France confirms its Atlantique 2 is supporting rescue efforts under NATO arrangements, and Bulgaria's prime minister says the P-8A began patrolling at Sofia's request.

• Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev: allies responded "very quickly" after attacks in Bulgaria's exclusive economic zone.
• Romanian President Nicușor Dan blamed Russia for the drone strike that capsized the cargo ship Khoryv off Constanța on Oct. 23; one crew member died and three are missing.
• Romanian F-16s shot down two Russian Geran drones heading for merchant ships on Oct. 17, Romanian authorities said.
• Militarnyi reported Oct. 25 that France's Atlantique 2 has been operating in the region for two weeks as part of NATO missions.

11. A drone attack injures five people and damages an industrial plant in Russia's Perm region in the Urals, the regional governor says

In "Drone attack injures five people, damages industrial facility in Russia's Perm region, governor says" (Reuters, Oct. 25), Perm Krai's governor reports a drone strike on an industrial site.

• Five people were injured, the governor said.
• Reports on X identify the site as the AVISMA titanium works in Berezniki, a major supplier of titanium for Russian military aircraft and missiles; Reuters' headline doesn't name it.
• Perm Krai lies in the Urals, far beyond the Russian regions Ukraine's drones usually hit near the border.
• Ukraine had not commented on the target as of Sunday afternoon.

12. DIU and the Navy's DRPM RAS open SWAP-USV Sprint 2, a prize challenge for drone boats armed with hard-kill counter-air weapons, with proposals due Nov. 30

In "We are scaling distributed maritime air defense" (Oct. 23), the Navy's Direct Reporting Program Manager for Robotic and Autonomous Systems says it has launched SWAP Sprint 2 with DIU and DRPM UxS, and DIU's solicitation seeks production-ready USVs paired with mature counter-air effectors that can be fielded forward within 120 days.

• Four weapon tracks: Hellfire/JAGM, APKWS rockets, remote weapon stations with Stinger, machine guns or high-power lasers, and other mature effectors.
• Thresholds: 200 nautical miles of range, a 10-knot cruise and engagements beyond 3 nautical miles against Group 1–3 drones and helicopters, under human-in-the-loop control.
• Up to $40 million in prizes for Sprint 2, with $200 million budgeted for follow-on prototype or production deals; in-water testing is planned for early 2027 at Little Creek, Va.
• Project AVO (Autonomous Vehicle Orchestrator) is the primary command-and-control software.

13. Türkiye's navy runs TURNAs-2026, an uncrewed maritime exercise with 25 air, surface and underwater drones; an Aksungur drone drops sonobuoys and a Barkan robot joins a beach raid

Türkiye's Naval Forces Command says TURNAs-2026, running Oct. 19–27 in the Gulf of Antalya and eastern Mediterranean, puts uncrewed air, surface, underwater and amphibious systems into the same scenarios as crewed forces, Defence Blog reports.

• Nine UAVs, seven UUVs and nine USVs, including one-way attack boats, join 18 ships, 11 aircraft and 41 systems from 17 Turkish companies, per the Defense Ministry via Anadolu.
• Turkish Aerospace says its Aksungur long-endurance drone flew a mission with Aselsan's aselBUOY 100P sonobuoys for anti-submarine work.
• HAVELSAN's Barkan ground robot moved with troops in an amphibious raid and urban combat, then evacuated simulated wounded.
• Aselsan says it is building an AI center with the navy to train detection models on underwater acoustic data.

14. Japan's defense minister says the military's two-year-old AI policy can't keep up and needs review, including on leaving decisions to AI

Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi told the upper house budget committee that the 2024 basic policy on AI use by the Ministry of Defense and Self-Defense Forces needs review because the technology has moved faster than the rules, Defence Blog reports, citing the Nikkei.

• Koizumi: "I feel there is a need to review it." He gave no timeline.
• He said any review would address the question of leaving decisions to AI on its own.
• The 2024 policy names seven priority areas, including target detection, command and control and unmanned assets, and requires human involvement.
• Tokyo cites a shrinking population and SDF manpower shortages as a reason to lean on AI.

15. AUKUS partners run more than 40 crewed, uncrewed and autonomous systems off Southern California in Maritime Big Play Pacific, "from seafloor to space"

In "U.S., Australia, U.K. Launch Maritime Demonstration to Enhance Interoperability" (war.gov, Oct. 22), the Pentagon says the demonstration runs Oct. 5–26 and is testing how the three nations jointly operate uncrewed maritime systems and share maritime data in real time.

• Assistant Secretary of War for Critical Technologies Michael Dodd: "It's certainly all autonomous systems ... in the domains from seafloor to space."
• Dodd says the goal is to "deter major conflicts by creating a disparity of technological capability."
• Maritime Big Play was the first project under AUKUS Pillar 2's new model and led to its first signature project, announced in May: payloads and enabling systems for uncrewed undersea vehicles.
• Missions named include seabed infrastructure protection, anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare, mine countermeasures, electronic warfare and contested littoral maneuver.

16. JIATF-401 lays out its first-year counter-drone model: one buyer for the military and interagency, a drones.mil marketplace and layered "systems of systems"

In "JIATF-401 leads a new era in counter-sUAS defense" (Army Acquisition Support Center, Oct. 22), the Joint Interagency Task Force 401 describes how it buys and fields counter-drone systems for the services and federal partners.

• Col. Tony Lindh leads the task force's rapid acquisition work, using the drones.mil marketplace to move vetted systems to units quickly.
• The task force favors layered sensors, effectors and command-and-control over single-point solutions.
• Interagency partners, including CBP, the FAA, the FBI and DHS, are embedded with the task force to handle domestic authorities.

17. The Army is putting cyber and jamming payloads on small drones for its 11th Cyber Battalion to deliver "tailored cyber effects"

In "Army unit experimenting with small drones for 'tailored cyber effects'" (Breaking Defense, Oct. 22), Col. David Bergmann, the Army's project manager for cyber warfare, describes tests of the Radiofrequency Delivery Effects Platform (RDEP) on small drones.

• RDEP lets operators load exploits onto cards and deliver "digital bullets" to blind or gain access to adversary systems.
• The tests mix government-built and commercial payloads for spectrum monitoring and non-kinetic effects at the tactical edge.
• The results will shape standard equipment for the 11th Cyber Battalion and a forthcoming 12th Cyber Battalion.

18. Britain's Royal Navy opens a tender to buy American-made Skydio X10D reconnaissance drones, the quadcopter the U.S. Army ordered by the thousands

In "Royal Navy moves to buy U.S.-made Skydio X10D drones" (Defence Blog, Oct. 25), a Navy Commercial notice on the UK Defence Sourcing Portal puts the buy at an estimated £120,000 (about $160,700).

• Bids are due Nov. 19, with a contract running to March 31, 2027; it doesn't say how many drones or which unit.
• The X10D uses onboard AI to fly around obstacles in darkness, hops channels under jamming and holds position without GPS.
• It's been on the Pentagon's Blue UAS list since May 2024; the Army ordered more than 2,500 for over $52 million in March.
• Spain and Norway have also bought the drone.

19. Türkiye debuts the jet-powered Ayaz one-way attack drone and flies 20 Kargu drones as a data-sharing swarm at its Ateş Serbest live-fire demonstration

In "Unmanned systems take center stage at Turkish Ateş Serbest military demonstration" (Breaking Defense, Oct. 26), reporting from Ankara describes unmanned systems leading the "Free Fire" exercise held earlier this month.

• Turkish Aerospace's turbojet Ayaz and its Super Simsek both made dive attacks with live warheads for the first time, a company official said.
• Twenty STM Kargu drones hit targets at once, sharing real-time data with each other and the operator before splitting into two groups.
• A Puhu drone carried medical aid and a Palem robot vehicle did casualty evacuation; Aselsan's Ejderha microwave and Gokberk laser systems shot down drones.
• Breaking Defense, like other outlets, accepted travel and accommodations from Türkiye's Defense Ministry.

20. Kyiv's air defense crews say Russia's jet-powered Gerans fly too fast and too high for many of their guns and interceptor drones

In "With Kyiv's air defense crews as they race to keep up with Russia's jet-powered drones" (Kyiv Independent, Oct. 26), reporters spend two days with the 112th Territorial Defense Brigade outside the capital.

• Some jet-powered drones fly about 600 km/h and at 5 to 6 km altitude; the unit's Sting interceptors top out around 320 km/h.
• Soldiers say some newer Gerans carry cameras and mesh radios so operators can watch live video and redirect them in flight.
• Some targets cross a crew's sector in as little as 20 seconds; machine gunners say they have about five seconds to engage.
• Brave1 said Oct. 18 that seven Ukrainian interceptor types had downed jet drones and more than 1,000 had been ordered.

21. France tested its HELMA-P anti-drone laser on the deck of the carrier Charles de Gaulle in the Gulf of Oman, the French Navy's magazine reports

In "France Tests HELMA-P Laser Anti-Drone System Aboard Charles de Gaulle Aircraft Carrier" (Militarnyi, Oct. 26, citing Cols Bleus via Zone Militaire), the CILAS laser was trialed June 4–8 during the La Fayette 26 mission.

• Installing the system on the flight deck took about four hours; it has a camera turret, LIDAR, laser emitter, cooling unit and control console.
• HELMA-P was first tested at sea on the frigate Forbin in 2023 and guarded the 2024 Paris Olympics.
• It is built to destroy small drones within seconds under France's L2AD laser program.
• The U.S. carrier George H.W. Bush tested the LOCUST laser in October 2025.

22. Myanmar resistance fighters destroy several Chinese-made ZSL-92 armored vehicles with FPV drones, an analyst reports

In "Myanmar rebels destroy Chinese-made armored vehicles with FPV drones" (Defence Blog, Oct. 26), open-source analyst Jesus Roman attributes the strikes to the Monywa Scout group in Sagaing Region.

• The exact number, date and place of the losses weren't disclosed.
• The ZSL-92 is a six-wheeled Chinese infantry vehicle with a 25 mm cannon.
• ACLED counted more than 2,100 resistance drone strikes in Myanmar by mid-2025, mostly with converted commercial drones.
• On Sept. 10, fighters hit a Yak-130 jet at Tada-U Air Base with an FPV drone.

23. Ukraine's F-Drones is building the F-Jet 80, a jet-powered AI-guided interceptor meant to catch Russia's jet Gerans for $5,000 to $7,000 apiece

In "Ukrainian Company F-Drones Develops Low-Cost F-Jet 80 Interceptor to Counter Shaheds" (Militarnyi, Oct. 25, following a New York Times report), the company says its compact jet engine produces 8 to 10 kgf of thrust.

• Engineers plan to add AI to help the interceptor detect and pursue aerial targets.
• The target price is $5,000 to $7,000 so it can be mass-produced.
• A company engineer says the drone has already intercepted and destroyed several targets.
• Russia now builds about 4,000 jet-powered Geran-4/5s a month, twice its piston Geran-2 output, Militarnyi reports.

24. ISW: the Houthis have fired at least 12 missiles and two drones at Saudi Arabia since Oct. 24

The Institute for the Study of War posted Oct. 25 that the strikes are part of a Houthi campaign meant to impose economic and political costs on Saudi Arabia.

• ISW counts at least 12 missiles and two drones since Oct. 24.
• ISW says the campaign aims to compel Saudi Arabia to give in to the Houthis.

25. Ukraine's PUF launches Ban-One, a 370 km/h interceptor drone it says hunts Shahed-type drones

In "PUF unveils Ban-One interceptor with a peak speed of 370 km/h" (Militarnyi special project, Oct. 26), the Ukrainian maker says it designed the drone for speed above all.

• The company says it engages targets at 190–345 km/h and carries up to a 400 g payload.
• It has a modular fiberglass airframe with analog or digital video and day or thermal cameras.
• It has a NATO Stock Number and can be ordered now; it will soon be on Brave1 Market.
• Performance figures are the company's; range and endurance are available only on request.

1. Iran's army says it shot down a U.S. LUCAS one-way attack drone over Bandar Abbas and circulates debris photos; CENTCOM hasn't addressed the claim

In "Iranian army says it shot down US drone over Bandar Abbas, Tasnim reports" (Reuters, Oct. 25), Iran's army says its unified air defense network destroyed a U.S. LUCAS drone over the southern port near the Strait of Hormuz.

• The claim comes from Iran's army via the semi-official Tasnim news agency (claim, not independently verified).
• Photos of what Iranian outlets say is the wreckage, including propellers and engine parts laid out on tarps, circulated widely on X on Sunday.
• CENTCOM commander Adm. Brad Cooper flew over the Strait of Hormuz on Oct. 25; CENTCOM's account of the visit doesn't mention the drone claim.
• LUCAS is the low-cost U.S. one-way attack drone the Army is training units to employ.

2. Ukraine says Starlink and Starshield are back to full speed for its drones; Elon Musk says Ukraine broke Starlink's terms with drone strikes, and Kyiv says that was impossible

President Zelensky said Oct. 24 that "the speeds are now where they need to be," and Ukraine's Defense Ministry said Starshield was again working above 400 km/h, the Kyiv Independent reports, ending more than a week of limits that disrupted front-line drone work.

• Musk on X: Ukraine's "military violated Starlink terms of service and used it for offensive drone strikes to kill people. That loophole was closed last week."
• Zelensky adviser Serhii Beskrestnov: since February, terminals in Ukraine stop working above 70–90 km/h and Starlink is off over Russia, so "we physically cannot use commercial Starlink for deep strikes," Defence Blog reports.
• Moving terminals must be registered and routed through Starshield, which Musk says "is controlled by the US government."
• ISW says Ukrainian officials confirmed unrestricted access on Oct. 24. This follows Sen. Blumenthal's probe into the restrictions, with answers due from the Pentagon by Nov. 5.

3. Russia launches 153 attack drones at Ukraine overnight, 92 of them jet-powered, plus low-cost Banderol cruise missiles; a drone hits an apartment block in Vinnytsia

Ukraine's Air Force says it intercepted 119 of the 153 Shahed-type drones launched overnight into Oct. 25, including 64 of the 92 jet-powered ones, the Kyiv Independent reports.

• Drones that got through struck 15 locations, and debris fell at nine more; at least nine were still in Ukrainian airspace at 8 a.m.
• A drone hit a five-story building in Vinnytsia, injuring six, the regional governor said.
• The jet-powered share keeps climbing, the type Ukraine's interceptor drones struggle to catch.
• Russian attacks killed eight people and injured 51 across Ukraine over the past day, local officials said.

4. Project Agincourt marks the 611th anniversary of the battle it's named for, pledging to "rapidly adapt, field, and scale unmanned capabilities across the joint force"

Project Agincourt's official account posted Oct. 25: "611 years later, @SecWar's Project Agincourt is fusing operators with innovators to rapidly adapt, field, and scale unmanned capabilities across the joint force—transforming how we fight and win."

• The post marks Henry V's 1415 victory at Agincourt, where "the longbow changed warfare."
• It follows Secretary Hegseth's one-word "AUTOWARCOM" post on Oct. 24, quoting Owen West's summary of the plan for an Autonomous Warfare Command.
• The Oct. 21 war.gov release says the model measures success by how fast an operational problem gets a fielded, scalable solution.
• The roadmap letter was signed by Owen West and Senior Chief Max Strasiser.

5. Project Meridian's "Future of Warfare" group met at Maritime Big Play in San Diego this week, the Pentagon's technology office says, under a 120-day sprint ordered by the Secretary of War

The Department of War's chief technology office (OUSW(R&E)) posted Oct. 24 that "the disruptive minds of Project Meridian" received briefings from department leaders and held working sessions at the Navy's Maritime Big Play, a day after Secretary Pete Hegseth said former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is co-leading the effort.

• The office: "The fight of 2040 is being shaped TODAY," and the Secretary's "120-day sprint mandate is driving bold thinking about the future of combat."
• Hegseth (DoW), personal X account, Oct. 23: the department "will dominate all domains of future fights"; Gingrich had spent an afternoon at the Pentagon on drones and autonomous vehicles.
• Hegseth reposted the technology office's update on Oct. 24.
• The Pentagon still hasn't published Project Meridian's membership, scope or budget.

6. Owen West says Drone Dominance "will soon expand in domain and size" as DIU lines up orders for 60,000 small attack drones from nine companies

Owen West (DoW), personal X account, wrote Oct. 24: "The U.S. invented drones. Yet our military failed to cheapen and scale for troops doing the fighting and dying. Drone Dominance will soon expand in domain and size."

• West: FPVs "were a fitting start to ensure grunts have an option beyond close contact and an endless air permission queue."
• DIU's Gauntlet II leaderboard sets up 30,000 drones in Deep Strike and 30,000 in Close Quarters Battle, per Defence Blog.
• Neros placed in both categories and says it is "delivering 14,000 drones and explosive payloads."
• West did not say which domains come next or when.

7. DARPA's RACER robot team at Fort Knox drove and searched on its own from a satellite-imagery tip to a simulated strike, with a human approving every engagement

In "DARPA tests autonomous vehicles that team up to find enemy targets" (Defence Blog, Oct. 25), DARPA describes the Oct. 15 end-to-end test of four uncrewed ground vehicles running autonomy software from its RACER program at Fort Knox's St. Vith Range.

• DARPA's Dr. Jason Gregory: "We can drop a ten-digit grid on a traversable mobility corridor" and the vehicles drive it "comparable to a human."
• The lead vehicle carried a boxed drone that could scout a target or, armed, attack it from the air.
• Each detection goes to an operator as an image; nothing fires without human approval.
• DARPA is now adding kinetic and non-kinetic payloads; EUCOM asked for the test.

8. A French Atlantique 2 and a U.S. Navy P-8A patrol the Black Sea after drone attacks on at least seven merchant ships off Romania and Bulgaria this month

In "France sends patrol planes to Black Sea after ship attacks" (Defence Blog, Oct. 25), France confirms its Atlantique 2 is supporting rescue efforts under NATO arrangements, and Bulgaria's prime minister says the P-8A began patrolling at Sofia's request.

• Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev: allies responded "very quickly" after attacks in Bulgaria's exclusive economic zone.
• Romanian President Nicușor Dan blamed Russia for the drone strike that capsized the cargo ship Khoryv off Constanța on Oct. 23; one crew member died and three are missing.
• Romanian F-16s shot down two Russian Geran drones heading for merchant ships on Oct. 17, Romanian authorities said.
• A NATO military source told Reuters Russian drones hit two tankers near the Sulina Canal.

9. A drone attack injures five people and damages an industrial plant in Russia's Perm region in the Urals, the regional governor says

In "Drone attack injures five people, damages industrial facility in Russia's Perm region, governor says" (Reuters, Oct. 25), Perm Krai's governor reports a drone strike on an industrial site.

• Five people were injured, the governor said.
• Reports on X identify the site as the AVISMA titanium works in Berezniki, a major supplier of titanium for Russian military aircraft and missiles; Reuters' headline doesn't name it.
• Perm Krai lies in the Urals, far beyond the Russian regions Ukraine's drones usually hit near the border.
• Ukraine had not commented on the target as of Sunday afternoon.

10. A massive Ukrainian drone attack hits Belgorod overnight, with locals saying the swarm concentrated on the city's biggest shopping complex

The Belgorod Oblast Operational Headquarters confirmed a "massive UAV attack" on the city overnight into Oct. 25, the Kyiv Independent reports; monitoring channels say the target was the MegaGRINN shopping and entertainment complex.

• Russian authorities say one civilian was killed and 14 injured, with 30 apartment buildings and 35 vehicles damaged (claims, not independently verified).
• MegaGRINN covers more than 163,000 square meters and was closed and empty at the time.
• Belgorod sits about 34 km from the Ukrainian border.
• Ukraine has not commented on the target.

11. DIU and the Navy's DRPM RAS open SWAP-USV Sprint 2, a prize challenge for drone boats armed with hard-kill counter-air weapons, with proposals due Nov. 30

In "We are scaling distributed maritime air defense" (Oct. 23), the Navy's Direct Reporting Program Manager for Robotic and Autonomous Systems says it has launched SWAP Sprint 2 with DIU and DRPM UxS, and DIU's solicitation seeks production-ready USVs paired with mature counter-air effectors that can be fielded forward within 120 days.

• Four weapon tracks: Hellfire/JAGM, APKWS rockets, remote weapon stations with Stinger, machine guns or high-power lasers, and other mature effectors.
• Thresholds: 200 nautical miles of range, a 10-knot cruise and engagements beyond 3 nautical miles against Group 1–3 drones and helicopters, under human-in-the-loop control.
• Up to $40 million in prizes for Sprint 2, with $200 million budgeted for follow-on prototype or production deals; in-water testing is planned for early 2027 at Little Creek, Va.
• Project AVO (Autonomous Vehicle Orchestrator) is the primary command-and-control software.

12. Türkiye's navy runs TURNAs-2026, an uncrewed maritime exercise with 25 air, surface and underwater drones; an Aksungur drone drops sonobuoys and a Barkan robot joins a beach raid

Türkiye's Naval Forces Command says TURNAs-2026, running Oct. 19–27 in the Gulf of Antalya and eastern Mediterranean, puts uncrewed air, surface, underwater and amphibious systems into the same scenarios as crewed forces, Defence Blog reports.

• Nine UAVs, seven UUVs and nine USVs, including one-way attack boats, join 18 ships, 11 aircraft and 41 systems from 17 Turkish companies, per the Defense Ministry via Anadolu.
• Turkish Aerospace says its Aksungur long-endurance drone flew a mission with Aselsan's aselBUOY 100P sonobuoys for anti-submarine work.
• HAVELSAN's Barkan ground robot moved with troops in an amphibious raid and urban combat, then evacuated simulated wounded.
• Aselsan says it is building an AI center with the navy to train detection models on underwater acoustic data.

13. Japan's defense minister says the military's two-year-old AI policy can't keep up and needs review, including on leaving decisions to AI

Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi told the upper house budget committee that the 2024 basic policy on AI use by the Ministry of Defense and Self-Defense Forces needs review because the technology has moved faster than the rules, Defence Blog reports, citing the Nikkei.

• Koizumi: "I feel there is a need to review it." He gave no timeline.
• He said any review would address the question of leaving decisions to AI on its own.
• The 2024 policy names seven priority areas, including target detection, command and control and unmanned assets, and requires human involvement.
• Tokyo cites a shrinking population and SDF manpower shortages as a reason to lean on AI.

14. Bulgaria's defense minister proposes letting navy ship commanders and fighter pilots shoot down hostile drones without waiting for his order

Defense Minister Dimitar Stoyanov said Oct. 23 that draft amendments would delegate the decision to fire on a drone to lower-level commanders acting in self-defense, The Sofia Globe reports, citing Bulgarian National Radio.

• Today only the defense minister can authorize firing on a drone.
• The drone must be used as a weapon and flying over restricted areas such as military sites.
• Stoyanov: "if we wait ... for the Minister of Defence to give permission throughout the entire chain, it will simply be too late."
• The proposal follows several drone attacks on merchant ships off Bulgaria and Romania in recent weeks.

15. AUKUS partners run more than 40 crewed, uncrewed and autonomous systems off Southern California in Maritime Big Play Pacific, "from seafloor to space"

In "U.S., Australia, U.K. Launch Maritime Demonstration to Enhance Interoperability" (war.gov, Oct. 22), the Pentagon says the demonstration runs Oct. 5–26 and is testing how the three nations jointly operate uncrewed maritime systems and share maritime data in real time.

• Assistant Secretary of War for Critical Technologies Michael Dodd: "It's certainly all autonomous systems ... in the domains from seafloor to space."
• Dodd says the goal is to "deter major conflicts by creating a disparity of technological capability."
• Maritime Big Play was the first project under AUKUS Pillar 2's new model and led to its first signature project, announced in May: payloads and enabling systems for uncrewed undersea vehicles.
• Missions named include seabed infrastructure protection, anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare, mine countermeasures, electronic warfare and contested littoral maneuver.

16. JIATF-401 lays out its first-year counter-drone model: one buyer for the military and interagency, a drones.mil marketplace and layered "systems of systems"

In "JIATF-401 leads a new era in counter-sUAS defense" (Army Acquisition Support Center, Oct. 22), the Joint Interagency Task Force 401 describes how it buys and fields counter-drone systems for the services and federal partners.

• Col. Tony Lindh leads the task force's rapid acquisition work, using the drones.mil marketplace to move vetted systems to units quickly.
• The task force favors layered sensors, effectors and command-and-control over single-point solutions.
• Interagency partners, including CBP, the FAA, the FBI and DHS, are embedded with the task force to handle domestic authorities.

17. The Army is putting cyber and jamming payloads on small drones for its 11th Cyber Battalion to deliver "tailored cyber effects"

In "Army unit experimenting with small drones for 'tailored cyber effects'" (Breaking Defense, Oct. 22), Col. David Bergmann, the Army's project manager for cyber warfare, describes tests of the Radiofrequency Delivery Effects Platform (RDEP) on small drones.

• RDEP lets operators load exploits onto cards and deliver "digital bullets" to blind or gain access to adversary systems.
• The tests mix government-built and commercial payloads for spectrum monitoring and non-kinetic effects at the tactical edge.
• The results will shape standard equipment for the 11th Cyber Battalion and a forthcoming 12th Cyber Battalion.

18. Britain's Royal Navy opens a tender to buy American-made Skydio X10D reconnaissance drones, the quadcopter the U.S. Army ordered by the thousands

In "Royal Navy moves to buy U.S.-made Skydio X10D drones" (Defence Blog, Oct. 25), a Navy Commercial notice on the UK Defence Sourcing Portal puts the buy at an estimated £120,000 (about $160,700).

• Bids are due Nov. 19, with a contract running to March 31, 2027; it doesn't say how many drones or which unit.
• The X10D uses onboard AI to fly around obstacles in darkness, hops channels under jamming and holds position without GPS.
• It's been on the Pentagon's Blue UAS list since May 2024; the Army ordered more than 2,500 for over $52 million in March.
• Spain and Norway have also bought the drone.

19. A pro-Russian militant says one Russian unit fired about 100 Lancet kamikaze drones in three months and hit just three targets, one a roadside shop

In "Russia's once-feared Lancet kamikaze drone is losing its edge" (Defence Blog, Oct. 25, citing Militarnyi), Pavel Gubarev says Ukrainian air defenses downed most of the Sparta unit's Lancets from mid-June on.

• The three hits: a self-propelled gun, an infantry dugout and a roadside shop.
• Gubarev prices a Lancet at $37,000 to $67,000, putting three hits at roughly $3.7 million to $6.1 million.
• He blames commanders for poor preparation and inflated reports, not the operators.
• Gubarev is a pro-Russian commentator, and Russia's military hasn't responded to his account.

20. Ukraine's F-Drones is building the F-Jet 80, a jet-powered AI-guided interceptor meant to catch Russia's jet Gerans for $5,000 to $7,000 apiece

In "Ukrainian Company F-Drones Develops Low-Cost F-Jet 80 Interceptor to Counter Shaheds" (Militarnyi, Oct. 25, following a New York Times report), the company says its compact jet engine produces 8 to 10 kgf of thrust.

• Engineers plan to add AI to help the interceptor detect and pursue aerial targets.
• The target price is $5,000 to $7,000 so it can be mass-produced.
• A company engineer says the drone has already intercepted and destroyed several targets.
• Russia now builds about 4,000 jet-powered Geran-4/5s a month, twice its piston Geran-2 output, Militarnyi reports.

21. Russia unveils Titan, a 2.3-ton tracked robot that clears minefields with rollers and can carry jamming gear against drones

In "Russia Develops Tracked Titan UGV Equipped With Roller-Type Mine-Clearing Devices" (Militarnyi, Oct. 25, citing TASS), the developer says the electric tracked vehicle clears a 2-meter-wide path of antipersonnel mines.

• Two rollers sit at the front and a third at the rear; the developer says it also handles tripwire and breakwire fuzes.
• It carries a 1-ton payload, runs at least 3.5 hours and is remote-controlled from at least 500 meters.
• A video shows it surviving three small blasts, one under each roller.
• No date has been given for serial production or delivery to Russian troops.

22. The Army's 2nd Cavalry Regiment in Germany starts fielding 26 AZAK robot carriers, using one to evacuate a casualty in a Grafenwoehr exercise

In "U.S. Army fields AZAK robotic wheel system in Germany" (Defence Blog, Oct. 24), citing Stars and Stripes, troops from 2nd Squadron, 2nd Cavalry Regiment used the S26-wheeled "Stoat" robot on Oct. 21 to carry a simulated casualty to the rear.

• The regiment received the first three of 26 vehicles last week through the Army's Global Tactical Edge Acquisition Directorate, after an Other Transaction Agreement.
• A mortarman drove one 8 km over rough ground at night with a 60 mm mortar and a Bangalore torpedo in just over an hour.
• Each S26 wheel holds a full EV drive: motor, controller, brakes and battery.
• AZAK says it is the first wide-scale rollout of the vehicle in the U.S. military.

23. L3Harris wins an Army contract worth up to $60 million to flight-test a ramjet-powered drone interceptor that reaches farther than Stinger

In "L3Harris to develop long-range drone killer for U.S. Army" (Defence Blog, Oct. 24), L3Harris says it has advanced to phase two of the Army's Xtended Range Counter-sUAS Missile (XRC) program at DEVCOM's Aviation & Missile Center.

• The three-year deal covers flight tests of a fully integrated interceptor; the full $60 million depends on continued funding.
• An air-breathing ramjet frees space for more fuel, extending engagement range against small and medium drones.
• The Army wants XRC to fire from the Stinger Vehicle Universal Launcher, including on M-SHORAD.
• Northrop Grumman got an $18.8 million XRC ramjet propulsion deal earlier this fall.

24. Long War Journal: Ukraine's intelligence service details Russia's Filin, a low-cost cruise missile built from drone parts that can outrun today's interceptor drones

In "Ukrainian intelligence details new low-cost Russian cruise missile" (FDD's Long War Journal, Oct. 23), John Hardie relays HUR's findings on the ground-launched Filin and what it means for Ukraine's interceptor drones.

• HUR: 1,200 km claimed range, 800 km/h, a 50- or 100-kg warhead and anti-jam satellite-inertial navigation; electronics share layouts with Russia's Garpiya Geran-2 drones.
• Russia builds about 4,000 jet-powered Geran-4/5s a month plus 2,000 Geran-2s; Ukraine downed just 55% of Geran-4/5s in September versus over 90% of Geran-2s.
• Ukraine's Air Force says faster interceptor drones won't be available in enough numbers until the end of November at the earliest.
• Some interceptors rely on Starshield, which Ukraine says is still disrupted.

25. Raptor Defense's PIT VIPER, a soldier-level robot vehicle from a former dorm-room startup, advances in the Army's GroundBreaker 1 and an xTech autonomous resupply contest

In "Philadelphia startup's unmanned vehicle makes U.S. Army shortlist" (Defence Blog, Oct. 25), Raptor Defense Company says it made Phase II of GroundBreaker 1 and is one of nine finalists in xTech's G-TEAD USARPAC ACE 27-01: Autonomous Sustainment.

• PIT VIPER is a small modular wheeled UGV the company calls a "Personal Combat Vehicle."
• It will demonstrate autonomous resupply on Oahu, Hawaii.
• Payloads cover resupply, casualty evacuation, reconnaissance, breaching and communications.
• The company says it worked with Ukrainian units during the war.

1. Iran's army says its air defenses shot down a U.S. LUCAS one-way attack drone over the port city of Bandar Abbas; Washington has not confirmed a loss

In "Iranian army says it shot down US drone over Bandar Abbas, Tasnim reports" (Reuters, Oct. 25), Iran's army says a U.S. LUCAS drone was destroyed by its unified air defense network over the southern port near the Strait of Hormuz.

• The claim comes from Iran's army via the semi-official Tasnim news agency (claim, not independently verified).
• U.S. officials had not confirmed losing a drone as of early Sunday.
• LUCAS is the low-cost U.S. one-way attack drone the Army is training units to employ.
• The report lands as President Trump weighs possible military action against Iran.

2. Ukraine says Starlink and Starshield are back to full speed for its drones; Elon Musk says Ukraine broke Starlink's terms with drone strikes, and Kyiv says that was impossible

President Zelensky said Oct. 24 that "the speeds are now where they need to be," and Ukraine's Defense Ministry said Starshield was again working above 400 km/h, the Kyiv Independent reports, ending more than a week of limits that disrupted front-line drone work.

• Musk on X: Ukraine's "military violated Starlink terms of service and used it for offensive drone strikes to kill people. That loophole was closed last week."
• Zelensky adviser Serhii Beskrestnov: since February, terminals in Ukraine stop working above 70–90 km/h and Starlink is off over Russia, so "we physically cannot use commercial Starlink for deep strikes," Defence Blog reports.
• Moving terminals must be registered and routed through Starshield, which Musk says "is controlled by the US government."
• ISW says Ukrainian officials confirmed unrestricted access on Oct. 24. This follows Sen. Blumenthal's probe into the restrictions, with answers due from the Pentagon by Nov. 5.

3. Russia launches 153 attack drones at Ukraine overnight, 92 of them jet-powered, plus low-cost Banderol cruise missiles; a drone hits an apartment block in Vinnytsia

Ukraine's Air Force says it intercepted 119 of the 153 Shahed-type drones launched overnight into Oct. 25, including 64 of the 92 jet-powered ones, the Kyiv Independent reports.

• Drones that got through struck 15 locations, and debris fell at nine more; at least nine were still in Ukrainian airspace at 8 a.m.
• A drone hit a five-story building in Vinnytsia, injuring six, the regional governor said.
• The jet-powered share keeps climbing, the type Ukraine's interceptor drones struggle to catch.
• Russian attacks killed eight people and injured 51 across Ukraine over the past day, local officials said.

4. Project Meridian's "Future of Warfare" group met at Maritime Big Play in San Diego this week, the Pentagon's technology office says, under a 120-day sprint ordered by the Secretary of War

The Department of War's chief technology office (OUSW(R&E)) posted Oct. 24 that "the disruptive minds of Project Meridian" received briefings from department leaders and held working sessions at the Navy's Maritime Big Play, a day after Secretary Pete Hegseth said former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is co-leading the effort.

• The office: "The fight of 2040 is being shaped TODAY," and the Secretary's "120-day sprint mandate is driving bold thinking about the future of combat."
• Hegseth (DoW), personal X account, Oct. 23: the department "will dominate all domains of future fights"; Gingrich had spent an afternoon at the Pentagon on drones and autonomous vehicles.
• Hegseth reposted the technology office's update on Oct. 24.
• The Pentagon still hasn't published Project Meridian's membership, scope or budget.

5. Hegseth amplifies Project Agincourt's plan for an Autonomous Warfare Command with a one-word post: "AUTOWARCOM"

Pete Hegseth (DoW), personal X account, quoted Owen West's Oct. 23 summary of Project Agincourt on Oct. 24 with the single word "AUTOWARCOM"; the post drew about 60,000 views and 1,400 likes in its first hours.

• Owen West (DoW), personal X account: Agincourt will "prototype the fusion of development and operations, pushing money and decisions to operational units."
• The Oct. 21 war.gov release says the model measures success by how fast an operational problem gets a fielded, scalable solution.
• The open letter laying out the roadmap was signed by West and Senior Chief Max Strasiser.
• Assistant Secretary Sean Parnell reposted it overnight.

6. Owen West says Drone Dominance "will soon expand in domain and size" as DIU lines up orders for 60,000 small attack drones from nine companies

Owen West (DoW), personal X account, wrote Oct. 24: "The U.S. invented drones. Yet our military failed to cheapen and scale for troops doing the fighting and dying. Drone Dominance will soon expand in domain and size."

• West: FPVs "were a fitting start to ensure grunts have an option beyond close contact and an endless air permission queue."
• DIU's Gauntlet II leaderboard sets up 30,000 drones in Deep Strike and 30,000 in Close Quarters Battle, per Defence Blog.
• Neros placed in both categories and says it is "delivering 14,000 drones and explosive payloads."
• West did not say which domains come next or when.

7. DARPA's RACER robot team at Fort Knox drove and searched on its own from a satellite-imagery tip to a simulated strike, with a human approving every engagement

In "DARPA tests autonomous vehicles that team up to find enemy targets" (Defence Blog, Oct. 25), DARPA describes the Oct. 15 end-to-end test of four uncrewed ground vehicles running autonomy software from its RACER program at Fort Knox's St. Vith Range.

• DARPA's Dr. Jason Gregory: "We can drop a ten-digit grid on a traversable mobility corridor" and the vehicles drive it "comparable to a human."
• The lead vehicle carried a boxed drone that could scout a target or, armed, attack it from the air.
• Each detection goes to an operator as an image; nothing fires without human approval.
• DARPA is now adding kinetic and non-kinetic payloads; EUCOM asked for the test.

8. A French Atlantique 2 and a U.S. Navy P-8A patrol the Black Sea after drone attacks on at least seven merchant ships off Romania and Bulgaria this month

In "France sends patrol planes to Black Sea after ship attacks" (Defence Blog, Oct. 25), France confirms its Atlantique 2 is supporting rescue efforts under NATO arrangements, and Bulgaria's prime minister says the P-8A began patrolling at Sofia's request.

• Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev: allies responded "very quickly" after attacks in Bulgaria's exclusive economic zone.
• Romanian President Nicușor Dan blamed Russia for the drone strike that capsized the cargo ship Khoryv off Constanța on Oct. 23; one crew member died and three are missing.
• Romanian F-16s shot down two Russian Geran drones heading for merchant ships on Oct. 17, Romanian authorities said.
• A NATO military source told Reuters Russian drones hit two tankers near the Sulina Canal.

9. A massive Ukrainian drone attack hits Belgorod overnight, with locals saying the swarm concentrated on the city's biggest shopping complex

The Belgorod Oblast Operational Headquarters confirmed a "massive UAV attack" on the city overnight into Oct. 25, the Kyiv Independent reports; monitoring channels say the target was the MegaGRINN shopping and entertainment complex.

• Russian authorities say one civilian was killed and 14 injured, with 30 apartment buildings and 35 vehicles damaged (claims, not independently verified).
• MegaGRINN covers more than 163,000 square meters and was closed and empty at the time.
• Belgorod sits about 34 km from the Ukrainian border.
• Ukraine has not commented on the target.

10. DIU and the Navy's DRPM RAS open SWAP-USV Sprint 2, a prize challenge for drone boats armed with hard-kill counter-air weapons, with proposals due Nov. 30

In "We are scaling distributed maritime air defense" (Oct. 23), the Navy's Direct Reporting Program Manager for Robotic and Autonomous Systems says it has launched SWAP Sprint 2 with DIU and DRPM UxS, and DIU's solicitation seeks production-ready USVs paired with mature counter-air effectors that can be fielded forward within 120 days.

• Four weapon tracks: Hellfire/JAGM, APKWS rockets, remote weapon stations with Stinger, machine guns or high-power lasers, and other mature effectors.
• Thresholds: 200 nautical miles of range, a 10-knot cruise and engagements beyond 3 nautical miles against Group 1–3 drones and helicopters, under human-in-the-loop control.
• Up to $40 million in prizes for Sprint 2, with $200 million budgeted for follow-on prototype or production deals; in-water testing is planned for early 2027 at Little Creek, Va.
• Project AVO (Autonomous Vehicle Orchestrator) is the primary command-and-control software.

11. Ukraine's General Staff says its drones hit the Togliattikauchuk synthetic-rubber plant deep in Russia; Moscow claims 1,297 Ukrainian drones downed in a day

Ukraine's General Staff says it struck the Togliattikauchuk petrochemical plant in Russia's Samara region overnight into Oct. 24, and Togliatti's mayor says several industrial facilities were damaged, Reuters reports.

• Kyiv says the plant, one of Russia's largest synthetic-rubber producers, supplies materials used in missile propellants; the mayor reported no deaths or injuries.
• The General Staff also reported hits on the Proton electronics plant in Oryol and an aircraft at Yeysk airfield; local officials confirmed only minor damage near Yeysk.
• Russia's Defense Ministry claims it destroyed 1,297 drones, a SCALP cruise missile and four Neptune missiles in 24 hours (claim, not independently verified).

12. Türkiye's navy runs TURNAs-2026, an uncrewed maritime exercise with 25 air, surface and underwater drones; an Aksungur drone drops sonobuoys and a Barkan robot joins a beach raid

Türkiye's Naval Forces Command says TURNAs-2026, running Oct. 19–27 in the Gulf of Antalya and eastern Mediterranean, puts uncrewed air, surface, underwater and amphibious systems into the same scenarios as crewed forces, Defence Blog reports.

• Nine UAVs, seven UUVs and nine USVs, including one-way attack boats, join 18 ships, 11 aircraft and 41 systems from 17 Turkish companies, per the Defense Ministry via Anadolu.
• Turkish Aerospace says its Aksungur long-endurance drone flew a mission with Aselsan's aselBUOY 100P sonobuoys for anti-submarine work.
• HAVELSAN's Barkan ground robot moved with troops in an amphibious raid and urban combat, then evacuated simulated wounded.
• Aselsan says it is building an AI center with the navy to train detection models on underwater acoustic data.

13. Japan's defense minister says the military's two-year-old AI policy can't keep up and needs review, including on leaving decisions to AI

Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi told the upper house budget committee that the 2024 basic policy on AI use by the Ministry of Defense and Self-Defense Forces needs review because the technology has moved faster than the rules, Defence Blog reports, citing the Nikkei.

• Koizumi: "I feel there is a need to review it." He gave no timeline.
• He said any review would address the question of leaving decisions to AI on its own.
• The 2024 policy names seven priority areas, including target detection, command and control and unmanned assets, and requires human involvement.
• Tokyo cites a shrinking population and SDF manpower shortages as a reason to lean on AI.

14. Bulgaria's defense minister proposes letting navy ship commanders and fighter pilots shoot down hostile drones without waiting for his order

Defense Minister Dimitar Stoyanov said Oct. 23 that draft amendments would delegate the decision to fire on a drone to lower-level commanders acting in self-defense, The Sofia Globe reports, citing Bulgarian National Radio.

• Today only the defense minister can authorize firing on a drone.
• The drone must be used as a weapon and flying over restricted areas such as military sites.
• Stoyanov: "if we wait ... for the Minister of Defence to give permission throughout the entire chain, it will simply be too late."
• The proposal follows several drone attacks on merchant ships off Bulgaria and Romania in recent weeks.

15. AUKUS partners run more than 40 crewed, uncrewed and autonomous systems off Southern California in Maritime Big Play Pacific, "from seafloor to space"

In "U.S., Australia, U.K. Launch Maritime Demonstration to Enhance Interoperability" (war.gov, Oct. 22), the Pentagon says the demonstration runs Oct. 5–26 and is testing how the three nations jointly operate uncrewed maritime systems and share maritime data in real time.

• Assistant Secretary of War for Critical Technologies Michael Dodd: "It's certainly all autonomous systems ... in the domains from seafloor to space."
• Dodd says the goal is to "deter major conflicts by creating a disparity of technological capability."
• Maritime Big Play was the first project under AUKUS Pillar 2's new model and led to its first signature project, announced in May: payloads and enabling systems for uncrewed undersea vehicles.
• Missions named include seabed infrastructure protection, anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare, mine countermeasures, electronic warfare and contested littoral maneuver.

16. JIATF-401 lays out its first-year counter-drone model: one buyer for the military and interagency, a drones.mil marketplace and layered "systems of systems"

In "JIATF-401 leads a new era in counter-sUAS defense" (Army Acquisition Support Center, Oct. 22), the Joint Interagency Task Force 401 describes how it buys and fields counter-drone systems for the services and federal partners.

• Col. Tony Lindh leads the task force's rapid acquisition work, using the drones.mil marketplace to move vetted systems to units quickly.
• The task force favors layered sensors, effectors and command-and-control over single-point solutions.
• Interagency partners, including CBP, the FAA, the FBI and DHS, are embedded with the task force to handle domestic authorities.

17. The Pentagon's APKWS framework would buy up to 25,000 drone-killing rocket kits a year for up to seven years; Duffey says it "flips the cost calculus"

Air & Space Forces Magazine's "Pentagon Bets Big on Drone-Killing APKWS Laser-Guided Rockets" (Chris Gordon) details the BAE Systems framework and why the services want it.

• Up to 25,000 kits a year, plus up to 10,000 more for international customers, at roughly $35,000 each.
• Under Secretary Michael Duffey says the cheap guided rockets "flip the cost calculus" against one-way attack drones.

18. The Army is putting cyber and jamming payloads on small drones for its 11th Cyber Battalion to deliver "tailored cyber effects"

In "Army unit experimenting with small drones for 'tailored cyber effects'" (Breaking Defense, Oct. 22), Col. David Bergmann, the Army's project manager for cyber warfare, describes tests of the Radiofrequency Delivery Effects Platform (RDEP) on small drones.

• RDEP lets operators load exploits onto cards and deliver "digital bullets" to blind or gain access to adversary systems.
• The tests mix government-built and commercial payloads for spectrum monitoring and non-kinetic effects at the tactical edge.
• The results will shape standard equipment for the 11th Cyber Battalion and a forthcoming 12th Cyber Battalion.

19. The Army takes four retired Navy MQ-8C Fire Scout drone helicopters to use as sensor testbeds, saving about $70 million

Defence Blog's "U.S. Army takes over retired U.S. Navy drone helicopters" relays a Navy release: the Redstone Test Center will fly the MQ-8Cs to test sensors and payloads.

• The aircraft will operate from Dugway Proving Ground, Utah; the transfer took about 14 months.
• The Navy's Fire Scout program office (PMA-266, Col. Leigh Irwin) says reusing the airframes avoids about $70 million in new costs.
• Army CW4 Taylor Kiel is quoted on the testbed plan.

20. Britain's Royal Navy opens a tender to buy American-made Skydio X10D reconnaissance drones, the quadcopter the U.S. Army ordered by the thousands

In "Royal Navy moves to buy U.S.-made Skydio X10D drones" (Defence Blog, Oct. 25), a Navy Commercial notice on the UK Defence Sourcing Portal puts the buy at an estimated £120,000 (about $160,700).

• Bids are due Nov. 19, with a contract running to March 31, 2027; it doesn't say how many drones or which unit.
• The X10D uses onboard AI to fly around obstacles in darkness, hops channels under jamming and holds position without GPS.
• It's been on the Pentagon's Blue UAS list since May 2024; the Army ordered more than 2,500 for over $52 million in March.
• Spain and Norway have also bought the drone.

21. A pro-Russian militant says one Russian unit fired about 100 Lancet kamikaze drones in three months and hit just three targets, one a roadside shop

In "Russia's once-feared Lancet kamikaze drone is losing its edge" (Defence Blog, Oct. 25, citing Militarnyi), Pavel Gubarev says Ukrainian air defenses downed most of the Sparta unit's Lancets from mid-June on.

• The three hits: a self-propelled gun, an infantry dugout and a roadside shop.
• Gubarev prices a Lancet at $37,000 to $67,000, putting three hits at roughly $3.7 million to $6.1 million.
• He blames commanders for poor preparation and inflated reports, not the operators.
• Gubarev is a pro-Russian commentator, and Russia's military hasn't responded to his account.

22. The Army's 2nd Cavalry Regiment in Germany starts fielding 26 AZAK robot carriers, using one to evacuate a casualty in a Grafenwoehr exercise

In "U.S. Army fields AZAK robotic wheel system in Germany" (Defence Blog, Oct. 24), citing Stars and Stripes, troops from 2nd Squadron, 2nd Cavalry Regiment used the S26-wheeled "Stoat" robot on Oct. 21 to carry a simulated casualty to the rear.

• The regiment received the first three of 26 vehicles last week through the Army's Global Tactical Edge Acquisition Directorate, after an Other Transaction Agreement.
• A mortarman drove one 8 km over rough ground at night with a 60 mm mortar and a Bangalore torpedo in just over an hour.
• Each S26 wheel holds a full EV drive: motor, controller, brakes and battery.
• AZAK says it is the first wide-scale rollout of the vehicle in the U.S. military.

23. L3Harris wins an Army contract worth up to $60 million to flight-test a ramjet-powered drone interceptor that reaches farther than Stinger

In "L3Harris to develop long-range drone killer for U.S. Army" (Defence Blog, Oct. 24), L3Harris says it has advanced to phase two of the Army's Xtended Range Counter-sUAS Missile (XRC) program at DEVCOM's Aviation & Missile Center.

• The three-year deal covers flight tests of a fully integrated interceptor; the full $60 million depends on continued funding.
• An air-breathing ramjet frees space for more fuel, extending engagement range against small and medium drones.
• The Army wants XRC to fire from the Stinger Vehicle Universal Launcher, including on M-SHORAD.
• Northrop Grumman got an $18.8 million XRC ramjet propulsion deal earlier this fall.

24. Long War Journal: Ukraine's intelligence service details Russia's Filin, a low-cost cruise missile built from drone parts that can outrun today's interceptor drones

In "Ukrainian intelligence details new low-cost Russian cruise missile" (FDD's Long War Journal, Oct. 23), John Hardie relays HUR's findings on the ground-launched Filin and what it means for Ukraine's interceptor drones.

• HUR: 1,200 km claimed range, 800 km/h, a 50- or 100-kg warhead and anti-jam satellite-inertial navigation; electronics share layouts with Russia's Garpiya Geran-2 drones.
• Russia builds about 4,000 jet-powered Geran-4/5s a month plus 2,000 Geran-2s; Ukraine downed just 55% of Geran-4/5s in September versus over 90% of Geran-2s.
• Ukraine's Air Force says faster interceptor drones won't be available in enough numbers until the end of November at the earliest.
• Some interceptors rely on Starshield, which Ukraine says is still disrupted.

25. Raptor Defense's PIT VIPER, a soldier-level robot vehicle from a former dorm-room startup, advances in the Army's GroundBreaker 1 and an xTech autonomous resupply contest

In "Philadelphia startup's unmanned vehicle makes U.S. Army shortlist" (Defence Blog, Oct. 25), Raptor Defense Company says it made Phase II of GroundBreaker 1 and is one of nine finalists in xTech's G-TEAD USARPAC ACE 27-01: Autonomous Sustainment.

• PIT VIPER is a small modular wheeled UGV the company calls a "Personal Combat Vehicle."
• It will demonstrate autonomous resupply on Oahu, Hawaii.
• Payloads cover resupply, casualty evacuation, reconnaissance, breaching and communications.
• The company says it worked with Ukrainian units during the war.

1. Project Meridian's "Future of Warfare" group met at Maritime Big Play in San Diego this week, the Pentagon's technology office says, under a 120-day sprint ordered by the Secretary of War

The Department of War's chief technology office (OUSW(R&E)) posted Oct. 24 that "the disruptive minds of Project Meridian" received briefings from department leaders and held working sessions at the Navy's Maritime Big Play, a day after Secretary Pete Hegseth said former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is co-leading the effort.

• The office: "The fight of 2040 is being shaped TODAY," and the Secretary's "120-day sprint mandate is driving bold thinking about the future of combat."
• Hegseth (DoW), personal X account, Oct. 23: the department "will dominate all domains of future fights"; Gingrich had spent an afternoon at the Pentagon on drones and autonomous vehicles.
• Hegseth reposted the technology office's update on Oct. 24.
• The Pentagon still hasn't published Project Meridian's membership, scope or budget.

2. Hegseth amplifies Project Agincourt's plan for an Autonomous Warfare Command with a one-word post: "AUTOWARCOM"

Pete Hegseth (DoW), personal X account, quoted Owen West's Oct. 23 summary of Project Agincourt on Oct. 24 with the single word "AUTOWARCOM"; the post drew about 60,000 views and 1,400 likes in its first hours.

• Owen West (DoW), personal X account: Agincourt will "prototype the fusion of development and operations, pushing money and decisions to operational units."
• The Oct. 21 war.gov release says the model measures success by how fast an operational problem gets a fielded, scalable solution.
• The open letter laying out the roadmap was signed by West and Senior Chief Max Strasiser.

3. Owen West says Drone Dominance "will soon expand in domain and size" as DIU lines up orders for 60,000 small attack drones from nine companies

Owen West (DoW), personal X account, wrote Oct. 24: "The U.S. invented drones. Yet our military failed to cheapen and scale for troops doing the fighting and dying. Drone Dominance will soon expand in domain and size."

• West: FPVs "were a fitting start to ensure grunts have an option beyond close contact and an endless air permission queue."
• DIU's Gauntlet II leaderboard sets up 30,000 drones in Deep Strike and 30,000 in Close Quarters Battle, per Defence Blog.
• Neros placed in both categories and says it is "delivering 14,000 drones and explosive payloads."
• West did not say which domains come next or when.

4. DIU and the Navy's DRPM RAS open SWAP-USV Sprint 2, a prize challenge for drone boats armed with hard-kill counter-air weapons, with proposals due Nov. 30

In "We are scaling distributed maritime air defense" (Oct. 23), the Navy's Direct Reporting Program Manager for Robotic and Autonomous Systems says it has launched SWAP Sprint 2 with DIU and DRPM UxS, and DIU's solicitation seeks production-ready USVs paired with mature counter-air effectors that can be fielded forward within 120 days.

• Four weapon tracks: Hellfire/JAGM, APKWS rockets, remote weapon stations with Stinger, machine guns or high-power lasers, and other mature effectors.
• Thresholds: 200 nautical miles of range, a 10-knot cruise and engagements beyond 3 nautical miles against Group 1–3 drones and helicopters, under human-in-the-loop control.
• Up to $40 million in prizes for Sprint 2, with $200 million budgeted for follow-on prototype or production deals; in-water testing is planned for early 2027 at Little Creek, Va.
• Project AVO (Autonomous Vehicle Orchestrator) is the primary command-and-control software.

5. Ukraine's General Staff says its drones hit the Togliattikauchuk synthetic-rubber plant deep in Russia; Moscow claims 1,297 Ukrainian drones downed in a day

Ukraine's General Staff says it struck the Togliattikauchuk petrochemical plant in Russia's Samara region overnight into Oct. 24, and Togliatti's mayor says several industrial facilities were damaged, Reuters reports.

• Kyiv says the plant, one of Russia's largest synthetic-rubber producers, supplies materials used in missile propellants; the mayor reported no deaths or injuries.
• The General Staff also reported hits on the Proton electronics plant in Oryol and an aircraft at Yeysk airfield; local officials confirmed only minor damage near Yeysk.
• Russia's Defense Ministry claims it destroyed 1,297 drones, a SCALP cruise missile and four Neptune missiles in 24 hours (claim, not independently verified).

6. Türkiye's navy runs TURNAs-2026, an uncrewed maritime exercise with 25 air, surface and underwater drones; an Aksungur drone drops sonobuoys and a Barkan robot joins a beach raid

Türkiye's Naval Forces Command says TURNAs-2026, running Oct. 19–27 in the Gulf of Antalya and eastern Mediterranean, puts uncrewed air, surface, underwater and amphibious systems into the same scenarios as crewed forces, Defence Blog reports.

• Nine UAVs, seven UUVs and nine USVs, including one-way attack boats, join 18 ships, 11 aircraft and 41 systems from 17 Turkish companies, per the Defense Ministry via Anadolu.
• Turkish Aerospace says its Aksungur long-endurance drone flew a mission with Aselsan's aselBUOY 100P sonobuoys for anti-submarine work.
• HAVELSAN's Barkan ground robot moved with troops in an amphibious raid and urban combat, then evacuated simulated wounded.
• Aselsan says it is building an AI center with the navy to train detection models on underwater acoustic data.

7. Japan's defense minister says the military's two-year-old AI policy can't keep up and needs review, including on leaving decisions to AI

Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi told the upper house budget committee that the 2024 basic policy on AI use by the Ministry of Defense and Self-Defense Forces needs review because the technology has moved faster than the rules, Defence Blog reports, citing the Nikkei.

• Koizumi: "I feel there is a need to review it." He gave no timeline.
• He said any review would address the question of leaving decisions to AI on its own.
• The 2024 policy names seven priority areas, including target detection, command and control and unmanned assets, and requires human involvement.
• Tokyo cites a shrinking population and SDF manpower shortages as a reason to lean on AI.

8. Bulgaria's defense minister proposes letting navy ship commanders and fighter pilots shoot down hostile drones without waiting for his order

Defense Minister Dimitar Stoyanov said Oct. 23 that draft amendments would delegate the decision to fire on a drone to lower-level commanders acting in self-defense, The Sofia Globe reports, citing Bulgarian National Radio.

• Today only the defense minister can authorize firing on a drone.
• The drone must be used as a weapon and flying over restricted areas such as military sites.
• Stoyanov: "if we wait ... for the Minister of Defence to give permission throughout the entire chain, it will simply be too late."
• The proposal follows several drone attacks on merchant ships off Bulgaria and Romania in recent weeks.

9. Russia launches 126 attack drones at Ukraine overnight, nearly half of them jet-powered; Ukraine's Air Force says 101 were shot down or suppressed

Ukraine's Air Force says Russia attacked overnight into Oct. 24 with 126 Shahed-type drones, including 61 jet-powered ones, plus Gerbera, Parody and other decoys, UNN reports.

• 101 were shot down or suppressed as of 8 a.m. local time, including 50 of the jet-powered drones; about eight were still in the air.
• Hits were recorded at 14 locations, with debris falling at five more.
• Launch areas included Shatalovo, Oryol, Bryansk, Kursk and Primorsko-Akhtarsk in Russia, plus occupied Donetsk and Crimea.
• Aviation, missile units, electronic warfare, unmanned systems units and mobile fire groups took part in the defense.

10. AUKUS partners run more than 40 crewed, uncrewed and autonomous systems off Southern California in Maritime Big Play Pacific, "from seafloor to space"

In "U.S., Australia, U.K. Launch Maritime Demonstration to Enhance Interoperability" (war.gov, Oct. 22), the Pentagon says the demonstration runs Oct. 5–26 and is testing how the three nations jointly operate uncrewed maritime systems and share maritime data in real time.

• Assistant Secretary of War for Critical Technologies Michael Dodd: "It's certainly all autonomous systems ... in the domains from seafloor to space."
• Dodd says the goal is to "deter major conflicts by creating a disparity of technological capability."
• Maritime Big Play was the first project under AUKUS Pillar 2's new model and led to its first signature project, announced in May: payloads and enabling systems for uncrewed undersea vehicles.
• Missions named include seabed infrastructure protection, anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare, mine countermeasures, electronic warfare and contested littoral maneuver.

11. JIATF-401 lays out its first-year counter-drone model: one buyer for the military and interagency, a drones.mil marketplace and layered "systems of systems"

In "JIATF-401 leads a new era in counter-sUAS defense" (Army Acquisition Support Center, Oct. 22), the Joint Interagency Task Force 401 describes how it buys and fields counter-drone systems for the services and federal partners.

• Col. Tony Lindh leads the task force's rapid acquisition work, using the drones.mil marketplace to move vetted systems to units quickly.
• The task force favors layered sensors, effectors and command-and-control over single-point solutions.
• Interagency partners, including CBP, the FAA, the FBI and DHS, are embedded with the task force to handle domestic authorities.

12. The Pentagon's APKWS framework would buy up to 25,000 drone-killing rocket kits a year for up to seven years; Duffey says it "flips the cost calculus"

Air & Space Forces Magazine's "Pentagon Bets Big on Drone-Killing APKWS Laser-Guided Rockets" (Chris Gordon) details the BAE Systems framework and why the services want it.

• Up to 25,000 kits a year, plus up to 10,000 more for international customers, at roughly $35,000 each.
• Under Secretary Michael Duffey says the cheap guided rockets "flip the cost calculus" against one-way attack drones.

13. Sen. Blumenthal opens a probe into the restrictions on Ukraine's Starshield service and asks Hegseth for answers by Nov. 5

The Kyiv Independent's "US Senator Blumenthal opens probe into Ukraine Starshield restrictions" reports his letter to the Secretary of War.

• A Ukrainian official says a 161 km/h speed cap on terminals, which affects drones, is still in place.
• The Institute for the Study of War says Ukrainian officials widely reported continued in-motion speed limits on Starlink and Starshield on Oct. 23, but that the situation remains unclear.

14. The Army is putting cyber and jamming payloads on small drones for its 11th Cyber Battalion to deliver "tailored cyber effects"

In "Army unit experimenting with small drones for 'tailored cyber effects'" (Breaking Defense, Oct. 22), Col. David Bergmann, the Army's project manager for cyber warfare, describes tests of the Radiofrequency Delivery Effects Platform (RDEP) on small drones.

• RDEP lets operators load exploits onto cards and deliver "digital bullets" to blind or gain access to adversary systems.
• The tests mix government-built and commercial payloads for spectrum monitoring and non-kinetic effects at the tactical edge.
• The results will shape standard equipment for the 11th Cyber Battalion and a forthcoming 12th Cyber Battalion.

15. The Army takes four retired Navy MQ-8C Fire Scout drone helicopters to use as sensor testbeds, saving about $70 million

Defence Blog's "U.S. Army takes over retired U.S. Navy drone helicopters" relays a Navy release: the Redstone Test Center will fly the MQ-8Cs to test sensors and payloads.

• The aircraft will operate from Dugway Proving Ground, Utah; the transfer took about 14 months.
• The Navy's Fire Scout program office (PMA-266, Col. Leigh Irwin) says reusing the airframes avoids about $70 million in new costs.
• Army CW4 Taylor Kiel is quoted on the testbed plan.

16. The Army's 2nd Cavalry Regiment in Germany starts fielding 26 AZAK robot carriers, using one to evacuate a casualty in a Grafenwoehr exercise

In "U.S. Army fields AZAK robotic wheel system in Germany" (Defence Blog, Oct. 24), citing Stars and Stripes, troops from 2nd Squadron, 2nd Cavalry Regiment used the S26-wheeled "Stoat" robot on Oct. 21 to carry a simulated casualty to the rear.

• The regiment received the first three of 26 vehicles last week through the Army's Global Tactical Edge Acquisition Directorate, after an Other Transaction Agreement.
• A mortarman drove one 8 km over rough ground at night with a 60 mm mortar and a Bangalore torpedo in just over an hour.
• Each S26 wheel holds a full EV drive: motor, controller, brakes and battery.
• AZAK says it is the first wide-scale rollout of the vehicle in the U.S. military.

17. L3Harris wins an Army contract worth up to $60 million to flight-test a ramjet-powered drone interceptor that reaches farther than Stinger

In "L3Harris to develop long-range drone killer for U.S. Army" (Defence Blog, Oct. 24), L3Harris says it has advanced to phase two of the Army's Xtended Range Counter-sUAS Missile (XRC) program at DEVCOM's Aviation & Missile Center.

• The three-year deal covers flight tests of a fully integrated interceptor; the full $60 million depends on continued funding.
• An air-breathing ramjet frees space for more fuel, extending engagement range against small and medium drones.
• The Army wants XRC to fire from the Stinger Vehicle Universal Launcher, including on M-SHORAD.
• Northrop Grumman got an $18.8 million XRC ramjet propulsion deal earlier this fall.

18. NATO special operations forces test counter-drone systems from 20 companies in Bulgaria's BOLD ADRA 26; Bulgarian commanders say some didn't perform as claimed

In "NATO Tests Counter-Drone Systems From 20 Defense Companies in Bulgaria" (AdriaDefense, Oct. 24), NATO's Allied Special Operations Forces Command ran the Oct. 19–23 exercise at Cheshnegirovo airfield near Plovdiv with units from 15 countries.

• Teams paired reconnaissance, logistics and FPV strike drones with fixed and mobile jammers, feeding targeting data into a common operating picture.
• Brig. Gen. Bozhidar Boykov said some technologies didn't perform as manufacturers claimed and called for testing before buying.
• Chief of Defense Adm. Emil Eftimov: countering drones takes integrated sensors, command and control and effectors, not a single weapon.
• No awards, selected suppliers or rankings were announced.

19. Drone strikes on energy sites black out much of occupied Crimea overnight, from Sevastopol to Yalta

In "Large-Scale Blackout Occurred in Crimea Following Drone Attack on Energy Facilities" (Militarnyi, Oct. 24), power went out overnight in Sevastopol, Simferopol, Yalta, Feodosia and other cities after drone attacks on energy infrastructure.

• A likely cause is damage to the 500/220 kV Taman substation in Russia's Krasnodar Krai, per the monitoring resource Exilenova+.
• NASA's FIRMS satellite service detected a thermal anomaly at the substation, a possible fire.
• Russia had not confirmed the cause of the outage.

20. DARPA tests a four-vehicle autonomous robot strike team at Fort Knox for EUCOM, which wants robots ahead of troops on NATO's eastern flank

In "US military tests robot strike teams to operate ahead of troops in Europe" (Stars and Stripes, Oct. 23), the Army and DARPA describe an Oct. 15 demonstration in which four uncrewed ground vehicles scouted, found a target and coordinated a simulated rocket strike about 300 yards away.

• DARPA adviser Jason Gregory: "All the mobility, all the movement, all the detections, all of that is autonomous ... But they don't pull the trigger until a human says pull the trigger."
• The lead vehicle carried a drone that could scout or be armed; photos show an Anduril drone over an Overland AI vehicle.
• EUCOM asked for the test under the Eastern Flank Deterrence Initiative, which envisions robots taking the first punch of an invasion.
• DARPA plans another round in December with soldiers giving feedback.

21. A cargo ship sinks off Romania's Constanța after a suspected drone strike; one crew member is dead and three are missing

Romanian authorities say the Comoros-flagged bulk carrier Khoryv sent a distress call around 10 a.m. local time Friday about 13 nautical miles off Constanța, Euronews and BTA report.

• Nine of 13 crew were rescued; the crew included 10 Ukrainians and three Azerbaijanis.
• The drone cause is reported and suspected; Romanian authorities have not officially attributed the sinking.
• It adds to a string of attacks on Black Sea shipping that drew new NATO patrols this week.

22. Spain's ATLAS 26 counter-drone exercise pits gun-armed vehicles and a jamming ground robot against drones at Huelva

In "Spain tests new anti-drone systems at army exercise" (Defence Blog, Oct. 24), EM&E Group says configurations of ARACNE, the counter-drone system it is building with Indra, detected and shot down several drones.

• Two 4x4s carried GUARDIAN 2.0 remote weapon stations; a FEROX 6x6 carried the GUARDIAN L-HIT station.
• The AUNAV LINK ground robot carried an electronic warfare kit that jams drone-to-operator links.
• ARACNE is a roughly €30 million program for 14 systems, seven fixed and seven mobile.
• EM&E gave no numbers or target details.

23. Long War Journal: Ukraine's intelligence service details Russia's Filin, a low-cost cruise missile built from drone parts that can outrun today's interceptor drones

In "Ukrainian intelligence details new low-cost Russian cruise missile" (FDD's Long War Journal, Oct. 23), John Hardie relays HUR's findings on the ground-launched Filin and what it means for Ukraine's interceptor drones.

• HUR: 1,200 km claimed range, 800 km/h, a 50- or 100-kg warhead and anti-jam satellite-inertial navigation; electronics share layouts with Russia's Garpiya Geran-2 drones.
• Russia builds about 4,000 jet-powered Geran-4/5s a month plus 2,000 Geran-2s; Ukraine downed just 55% of Geran-4/5s in September versus over 90% of Geran-2s.
• Ukraine's Air Force says faster interceptor drones won't be available in enough numbers until the end of November at the earliest.
• Some interceptors rely on Starshield, which Ukraine says is still disrupted.

24. Breaking Defense: Kyiv eyes ICEYE and Nokia "sovereign" communications satellites as Starshield limits on its drones persist

In "Kyiv eyes purchase of planned ICEYE, Nokia 'sovereign' communication sats" (Breaking Defense, Oct. 23), Ukraine's Defense Ministry letter of intent with the two Finnish firms is framed as a bid for comms it controls after the U.S. throttled Starshield.

• Zelensky: "We must all rely on capabilities that we can control."
• ICEYE says the letter "does not imply an ordering of any system for Ukraine"; the first satellite is planned for 2028.
• Zelensky told ABC News that Ukraine's Starshield speeds remain limited despite U.S. assurances.
• ICEYE supplies the satellite platform and Nokia the onboard secure networking.

25. BAE Systems says a T-150 heavy-lift drone armed with APKWS rockets shot down several attack drones in a single flight at Eglin

dronenr's "BAE's T-150 drone shoots down multiple attack drones in one flight" (Oct. 24) relays BAE's account of trials during the Under Secretary for Research and Engineering's Mission Capabilities Joint Readiness Experimentation, Sept. 21–25.

• The modified TRV-150 fired laser-guided 70 mm APKWS rockets from a three-pod launcher without landing or reloading.
• SURVICE Engineering adapted the drone to Army requirements; BAE's FalconWorks built the rocket kit.
• BAE didn't say how many rockets were fired, how many drones were hit or which targets were used.

1. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth says former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is co-leading "Project Meridian: The Future of Warfare" after a Pentagon session on drones and autonomous vehicles

Pete Hegseth (DoW), personal X account, wrote on Oct. 23: "honored to have you co-leading Project Meridian: The Future of Warfare. The @DeptofWar will dominate all domains of future fights," quoting Gingrich's post about a day at the Pentagon.

• Gingrich, Oct. 22: "I spent the afternoon in the Pentagon working on drones and autonomous vehicles."
• Gingrich called Hegseth's leadership on drones and autonomy "courageous and historic."
• The Pentagon has not published details of Project Meridian's scope, staffing or budget.
• Hegseth's post drew about 78,000 views and Gingrich's about 144,000 by Saturday morning.

2. DIU and the Navy's DRPM RAS open SWAP-USV Sprint 2, a prize challenge for drone boats armed with hard-kill counter-air weapons, with proposals due Nov. 30

In "We are scaling distributed maritime air defense" (Oct. 23), the Navy's Direct Reporting Program Manager for Robotic and Autonomous Systems says it has launched SWAP Sprint 2 with DIU and DRPM UxS, and DIU's solicitation seeks production-ready USVs paired with mature counter-air effectors that can be fielded forward within 120 days.

• Four weapon tracks: Hellfire/JAGM, APKWS rockets, remote weapon stations with Stinger, machine guns or high-power lasers, and other mature effectors.
• Thresholds: 200 nautical miles of range, a 10-knot cruise and engagements beyond 3 nautical miles against Group 1–3 drones and helicopters, under human-in-the-loop control.
• Up to $40 million in prizes for Sprint 2, with $200 million budgeted for follow-on prototype or production deals; in-water testing is planned for early 2027 at Little Creek, Va.
• Project AVO (Autonomous Vehicle Orchestrator) is the primary command-and-control software.

3. Bulgaria's defense minister proposes letting navy ship commanders and fighter pilots shoot down hostile drones without waiting for his order

Defense Minister Dimitar Stoyanov said Oct. 23 that draft amendments would delegate the decision to fire on a drone to lower-level commanders acting in self-defense, The Sofia Globe reports, citing Bulgarian National Radio.

• Today only the defense minister can authorize firing on a drone.
• The drone must be used as a weapon and flying over restricted areas such as military sites.
• Stoyanov: "if we wait ... for the Minister of Defence to give permission throughout the entire chain, it will simply be too late."
• The proposal follows several drone attacks on merchant ships off Bulgaria and Romania in recent weeks.

4. Russia launches 126 attack drones at Ukraine overnight, nearly half of them jet-powered; Ukraine's Air Force says 101 were shot down or suppressed

Ukraine's Air Force says Russia attacked overnight into Oct. 24 with 126 Shahed-type drones, including 61 jet-powered ones, plus Gerbera, Parody and other decoys, UNN reports.

• 101 were shot down or suppressed as of 8 a.m. local time, including 50 of the jet-powered drones; about eight were still in the air.
• Hits were recorded at 14 locations, with debris falling at five more.
• Launch areas included Shatalovo, Oryol, Bryansk, Kursk and Primorsko-Akhtarsk in Russia, plus occupied Donetsk and Crimea.
• Aviation, missile units, electronic warfare, unmanned systems units and mobile fire groups took part in the defense.

5. AUKUS partners run more than 40 crewed, uncrewed and autonomous systems off Southern California in Maritime Big Play Pacific, "from seafloor to space"

In "U.S., Australia, U.K. Launch Maritime Demonstration to Enhance Interoperability" (war.gov, Oct. 22), the Pentagon says the demonstration runs Oct. 5–26 and is testing how the three nations jointly operate uncrewed maritime systems and share maritime data in real time.

• Assistant Secretary of War for Critical Technologies Michael Dodd: "It's certainly all autonomous systems ... in the domains from seafloor to space."
• Dodd says the goal is to "deter major conflicts by creating a disparity of technological capability."
• Maritime Big Play was the first project under AUKUS Pillar 2's new model and led to its first signature project, announced in May: payloads and enabling systems for uncrewed undersea vehicles.
• Missions named include seabed infrastructure protection, anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare, mine countermeasures, electronic warfare and contested littoral maneuver.

6. Owen West: Project Agincourt will establish AUTOWARCOM and "prototype the fusion of development and operations," pushing money and decisions to operational units

Owen West (DoW), personal X account, restated Project Agincourt's plan on Oct. 23, two days after the open letter that laid out the roadmap for the Autonomous Warfare Command (AUTOWARCOM).

• West: Agincourt will "prototype the fusion of development and operations, pushing money and decisions to operational units."
• The Oct. 21 war.gov release says the model measures success by how fast an operational problem gets a fielded, scalable solution.
• The open letter was signed by West and Senior Chief Max Strasiser.

7. JIATF-401 lays out its first-year counter-drone model: one buyer for the military and interagency, a drones.mil marketplace and layered "systems of systems"

In "JIATF-401 leads a new era in counter-sUAS defense" (Army Acquisition Support Center, Oct. 22), the Joint Interagency Task Force 401 describes how it buys and fields counter-drone systems for the services and federal partners.

• Col. Tony Lindh leads the task force's rapid acquisition work, using the drones.mil marketplace to move vetted systems to units quickly.
• The task force favors layered sensors, effectors and command-and-control over single-point solutions.
• Interagency partners, including CBP, the FAA, the FBI and DHS, are embedded with the task force to handle domestic authorities.

8. The Pentagon's APKWS framework would buy up to 25,000 drone-killing rocket kits a year for up to seven years; Duffey says it "flips the cost calculus"

Air & Space Forces Magazine's "Pentagon Bets Big on Drone-Killing APKWS Laser-Guided Rockets" (Chris Gordon) details the BAE Systems framework and why the services want it.

• Up to 25,000 kits a year, plus up to 10,000 more for international customers, at roughly $35,000 each.
• Under Secretary Michael Duffey says the cheap guided rockets "flip the cost calculus" against one-way attack drones.

9. Sen. Blumenthal opens a probe into the restrictions on Ukraine's Starshield service and asks Hegseth for answers by Nov. 5

The Kyiv Independent's "US Senator Blumenthal opens probe into Ukraine Starshield restrictions" reports his letter to the Secretary of War.

• A Ukrainian official says a 161 km/h speed cap on terminals, which affects drones, is still in place.
• The Institute for the Study of War says Ukrainian officials widely reported continued in-motion speed limits on Starlink and Starshield on Oct. 23, but that the situation remains unclear.

10. The Army is putting cyber and jamming payloads on small drones for its 11th Cyber Battalion to deliver "tailored cyber effects"

In "Army unit experimenting with small drones for 'tailored cyber effects'" (Breaking Defense, Oct. 22), Col. David Bergmann, the Army's project manager for cyber warfare, describes tests of the Radiofrequency Delivery Effects Platform (RDEP) on small drones.

• RDEP lets operators load exploits onto cards and deliver "digital bullets" to blind or gain access to adversary systems.
• The tests mix government-built and commercial payloads for spectrum monitoring and non-kinetic effects at the tactical edge.
• The results will shape standard equipment for the 11th Cyber Battalion and a forthcoming 12th Cyber Battalion.

11. DIU's Drone Dominance program lines up orders for 60,000 small attack drones from nine companies after Gauntlet II, with Neros the only firm to place in both categories

Defence Blog's "U.S. orders 60,000 attack drones from nine companies" (11:40 AM ET) breaks down DIU's published Gauntlet II leaderboard: 30,000 drones in Deep Strike and 30,000 in Close Quarters Battle, scaled by rank.

• Deep Strike: Perennial Autonomy 8,000 (80.1 points), Hyperscale 7,000, Neros 6,000, Skycutter 5,000, Swarm Defense Technologies 4,000.
• Close Quarters Battle: Neros 8,000 (88.1 points), ORQA US 7,000, XTEND 6,000, Vector 5,000, ModalAI 4,000. Final quantities are set at contract award.
• Neros says it is "delivering 14,000 drones and explosive payloads" and adds: "Onward to Gauntlet III."
• Deep Strike lanes required hits at 15 km, against 10 km in Gauntlet I; scores also counted operator evaluations, production scale and supply-chain security.

12. The Army takes four retired Navy MQ-8C Fire Scout drone helicopters to use as sensor testbeds, saving about $70 million

Defence Blog's "U.S. Army takes over retired U.S. Navy drone helicopters" relays a Navy release: the Redstone Test Center will fly the MQ-8Cs to test sensors and payloads.

• The aircraft will operate from Dugway Proving Ground, Utah; the transfer took about 14 months.
• The Navy's Fire Scout program office (PMA-266, Col. Leigh Irwin) says reusing the airframes avoids about $70 million in new costs.
• Army CW4 Taylor Kiel is quoted on the testbed plan.

13. L3Harris wins an Army contract worth up to $60 million to flight-test a ramjet-powered drone interceptor that reaches farther than Stinger

In "L3Harris to develop long-range drone killer for U.S. Army" (Defence Blog, Oct. 24), L3Harris says it has advanced to phase two of the Army's Xtended Range Counter-sUAS Missile (XRC) program at DEVCOM's Aviation & Missile Center.

• The three-year deal covers flight tests of a fully integrated interceptor; the full $60 million depends on continued funding.
• An air-breathing ramjet frees space for more fuel, extending engagement range against small and medium drones.
• The Army wants XRC to fire from the Stinger Vehicle Universal Launcher, including on M-SHORAD.
• Northrop Grumman got an $18.8 million XRC ramjet propulsion deal earlier this fall.

14. NATO special operations forces test counter-drone systems from 20 companies in Bulgaria's BOLD ADRA 26; Bulgarian commanders say some didn't perform as claimed

In "NATO Tests Counter-Drone Systems From 20 Defense Companies in Bulgaria" (AdriaDefense, Oct. 24), NATO's Allied Special Operations Forces Command ran the Oct. 19–23 exercise at Cheshnegirovo airfield near Plovdiv with units from 15 countries.

• Teams paired reconnaissance, logistics and FPV strike drones with fixed and mobile jammers, feeding targeting data into a common operating picture.
• Brig. Gen. Bozhidar Boykov said some technologies didn't perform as manufacturers claimed and called for testing before buying.
• Chief of Defense Adm. Emil Eftimov: countering drones takes integrated sensors, command and control and effectors, not a single weapon.
• No awards, selected suppliers or rankings were announced.

15. Drone strikes on energy sites black out much of occupied Crimea overnight, from Sevastopol to Yalta

In "Large-Scale Blackout Occurred in Crimea Following Drone Attack on Energy Facilities" (Militarnyi, Oct. 24), power went out overnight in Sevastopol, Simferopol, Yalta, Feodosia and other cities after drone attacks on energy infrastructure.

• A likely cause is damage to the 500/220 kV Taman substation in Russia's Krasnodar Krai, per the monitoring resource Exilenova+.
• NASA's FIRMS satellite service detected a thermal anomaly at the substation, a possible fire.
• Militarnyi separately reports Ukrainian drones attacked the Tolyattikauchuk plant, which makes rocket-fuel components and gasoline additives.
• Russia had not confirmed the cause of the outage.

16. DARPA tests a four-vehicle autonomous robot strike team at Fort Knox for EUCOM, which wants robots ahead of troops on NATO's eastern flank

In "US military tests robot strike teams to operate ahead of troops in Europe" (Stars and Stripes, Oct. 23), the Army and DARPA describe an Oct. 15 demonstration in which four uncrewed ground vehicles scouted, found a target and coordinated a simulated rocket strike about 300 yards away.

• DARPA adviser Jason Gregory: "All the mobility, all the movement, all the detections, all of that is autonomous ... But they don't pull the trigger until a human says pull the trigger."
• The lead vehicle carried a drone that could scout or be armed; photos show an Anduril drone over an Overland AI vehicle.
• EUCOM asked for the test under the Eastern Flank Deterrence Initiative, which envisions robots taking the first punch of an invasion.
• DARPA plans another round in December with soldiers giving feedback.

17. A cargo ship sinks off Romania's Constanța after a suspected drone strike; one crew member is dead and three are missing

Romanian authorities say the Comoros-flagged bulk carrier Khoryv sent a distress call around 10 a.m. local time Friday about 13 nautical miles off Constanța, Euronews and BTA report.

• Nine of 13 crew were rescued; the crew included 10 Ukrainians and three Azerbaijanis.
• The drone cause is reported and suspected; Romanian authorities have not officially attributed the sinking.
• It adds to a string of attacks on Black Sea shipping that drew new NATO patrols this week.

18. A Ukrainian drone raid shuts all four Moscow airports; Moscow's mayor says 17 drones were shot down

In "Ukrainian drone attack triggers shut down of Moscow airports" (Kyiv Independent, Oct. 23), Russia's aviation authority halted flights at Sheremetyevo, Domodedovo, Vnukovo and Zhukovsky during an afternoon drone raid on the capital.

• FlightRadar24 counted 85 cancelled and 229 delayed flights at Sheremetyevo; photos allegedly show drone debris on the tarmac (unverified).
• Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said 17 drones were shot down heading for the city.
• Separately, a missile reportedly hit the Proton electronics plant in Oryol, about 350 km southwest of Moscow.
• Ukraine had not commented as of publication.

19. Spain's ATLAS 26 counter-drone exercise pits gun-armed vehicles and a jamming ground robot against drones at Huelva

In "Spain tests new anti-drone systems at army exercise" (Defence Blog, Oct. 24), EM&E Group says configurations of ARACNE, the counter-drone system it is building with Indra, detected and shot down several drones.

• Two 4x4s carried GUARDIAN 2.0 remote weapon stations; a FEROX 6x6 carried the GUARDIAN L-HIT station.
• The AUNAV LINK ground robot carried an electronic warfare kit that jams drone-to-operator links.
• ARACNE is a roughly €30 million program for 14 systems, seven fixed and seven mobile.
• EM&E gave no numbers or target details.

20. Long War Journal: Ukraine's intelligence service details Russia's Filin, a low-cost cruise missile built from drone parts that can outrun today's interceptor drones

In "Ukrainian intelligence details new low-cost Russian cruise missile" (FDD's Long War Journal, Oct. 23), John Hardie relays HUR's findings on the ground-launched Filin and what it means for Ukraine's interceptor drones.

• HUR: 1,200 km claimed range, 800 km/h, a 50- or 100-kg warhead and anti-jam satellite-inertial navigation; electronics share layouts with Russia's Garpiya Geran-2 drones.
• Russia builds about 4,000 jet-powered Geran-4/5s a month plus 2,000 Geran-2s; Ukraine downed just 55% of Geran-4/5s in September versus over 90% of Geran-2s.
• Ukraine's Air Force says faster interceptor drones won't be available in enough numbers until the end of November at the earliest.
• Some interceptors rely on Starshield, which Ukraine says is still disrupted.

21. Breaking Defense: Kyiv eyes ICEYE and Nokia "sovereign" communications satellites as Starshield limits on its drones persist

In "Kyiv eyes purchase of planned ICEYE, Nokia 'sovereign' communication sats" (Breaking Defense, Oct. 23), Ukraine's Defense Ministry letter of intent with the two Finnish firms is framed as a bid for comms it controls after the U.S. throttled Starshield.

• Zelensky: "We must all rely on capabilities that we can control."
• ICEYE says the letter "does not imply an ordering of any system for Ukraine"; the first satellite is planned for 2028.
• Zelensky told ABC News that Ukraine's Starshield speeds remain limited despite U.S. assurances.
• ICEYE supplies the satellite platform and Nokia the onboard secure networking.

22. NATO's main buying agency opens its contracts to Ukraine's defense industry, including its drone makers

In "NATO opens its contracts to Ukraine's defense industry" (Defence Blog, Oct. 23), the NATO Support and Procurement Agency says Ukraine has joined a procurement partnership that lets Ukrainian companies bid on agency contracts.

• The NSPA announced the move Oct. 22; Ukraine, not a NATO member, is the partnership's seventh member.
• It joins five allies and NATO headquarters in the partnership.

23. USNI News: October has the most attacks on ships in and near the Strait of Hormuz since the war began, with 27 so far

In "October Marks Highest Number of Strait of Hormuz Attacks" (Heather Mongilio, Oct. 22), USNI News cites International Maritime Organization counts: 27 attacks on commercial ships this month, against 22 in March.

• Analyst Noam Raydan says Iran aims to "hit as much as they can" to keep the route looking unsafe.
• CNA's Joshua Tallis says cheap one-way attack drones threaten pipelines as much as ships.
• Transits continue: 104 non-Iranian-linked vessels sailed Oct. 5–11, per Lloyd's List.

24. BAE Systems says a T-150 heavy-lift drone armed with APKWS rockets shot down several attack drones in a single flight at Eglin

dronenr's "BAE's T-150 drone shoots down multiple attack drones in one flight" (Oct. 24) relays BAE's account of trials during the Under Secretary for Research and Engineering's Mission Capabilities Joint Readiness Experimentation, Sept. 21–25.

• The modified TRV-150 fired laser-guided 70 mm APKWS rockets from a three-pod launcher without landing or reloading.
• SURVICE Engineering adapted the drone to Army requirements; BAE's FalconWorks built the rocket kit.
• BAE didn't say how many rockets were fired, how many drones were hit or which targets were used.

25. Small Wars Journal: "The Miniaturization of Military Robots" maps the race toward insect-sized drones, pocket ground robots and micro-swarms

Saba Sahar's essay (Oct. 23) surveys miniature robotics programs in the U.S., China, Europe, Russia, India and Pakistan.

• Examples include DARPA's SHRIMP microrobots, the 33-gram Black Hornet and a mosquito-sized drone from China's NUDT.
• It cites Russia's fiber-optic FPVs and small UGVs as proof of the shift from a few costly platforms to many cheap ones.
• Army Research Laboratory scientist Brian Sadler calls mixing large and small platforms "a tactical offset strategy for the Army."

1. DIU and the Navy's DRPM RAS open SWAP-USV Sprint 2, a prize challenge for drone boats armed with hard-kill counter-air weapons, with proposals due Nov. 30

In "We are scaling distributed maritime air defense" (Oct. 23), the Navy's Direct Reporting Program Manager for Robotic and Autonomous Systems says it has launched SWAP Sprint 2 with DIU and DRPM UxS, and DIU's solicitation seeks production-ready USVs paired with mature counter-air effectors that can be fielded forward within 120 days.

• Four weapon tracks: Hellfire/JAGM, APKWS rockets, remote weapon stations with Stinger, machine guns or high-power lasers, and other mature effectors.
• Thresholds: 200 nautical miles of range, a 10-knot cruise and engagements beyond 3 nautical miles against Group 1–3 drones and helicopters, under human-in-the-loop control.
• Up to $40 million in prizes for Sprint 2, with $200 million budgeted for follow-on prototype or production deals; in-water testing is planned for early 2027 at Little Creek, Va.
• Project AVO (Autonomous Vehicle Orchestrator) is the primary command-and-control software.

2. AUKUS partners run more than 40 crewed, uncrewed and autonomous systems off Southern California in Maritime Big Play Pacific, "from seafloor to space"

In "U.S., Australia, U.K. Launch Maritime Demonstration to Enhance Interoperability" (war.gov, Oct. 22), the Pentagon says the demonstration runs Oct. 5–26 and is testing how the three nations jointly operate uncrewed maritime systems and share maritime data in real time.

• Assistant Secretary of War for Critical Technologies Michael Dodd: "It's certainly all autonomous systems ... in the domains from seafloor to space."
• Dodd says the goal is to "deter major conflicts by creating a disparity of technological capability."
• Maritime Big Play was the first project under AUKUS Pillar 2's new model and led to its first signature project, announced in May: payloads and enabling systems for uncrewed undersea vehicles.
• Missions named include seabed infrastructure protection, anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare, mine countermeasures, electronic warfare and contested littoral maneuver.

3. Owen West: Project Agincourt will establish AUTOWARCOM and "prototype the fusion of development and operations," pushing money and decisions to operational units

Owen West (DoW), personal X account, restated Project Agincourt's plan on Oct. 23, two days after the open letter that laid out the roadmap for the Autonomous Warfare Command (AUTOWARCOM).

• West: Agincourt will "prototype the fusion of development and operations, pushing money and decisions to operational units."
• The Oct. 21 war.gov release says the model measures success by how fast an operational problem gets a fielded, scalable solution.
• The open letter was signed by West and Senior Chief Max Strasiser.

4. JIATF-401 lays out its first-year counter-drone model: one buyer for the military and interagency, a drones.mil marketplace and layered "systems of systems"

In "JIATF-401 leads a new era in counter-sUAS defense" (Army Acquisition Support Center, Oct. 22), the Joint Interagency Task Force 401 describes how it buys and fields counter-drone systems for the services and federal partners.

• Col. Tony Lindh leads the task force's rapid acquisition work, using the drones.mil marketplace to move vetted systems to units quickly.
• The task force favors layered sensors, effectors and command-and-control over single-point solutions.
• Interagency partners, including CBP, the FAA, the FBI and DHS, are embedded with the task force to handle domestic authorities.

5. The Pentagon's APKWS framework would buy up to 25,000 drone-killing rocket kits a year for up to seven years; Duffey says it "flips the cost calculus"

Air & Space Forces Magazine's "Pentagon Bets Big on Drone-Killing APKWS Laser-Guided Rockets" (Chris Gordon) details the BAE Systems framework and why the services want it.

• Up to 25,000 kits a year, plus up to 10,000 more for international customers, at roughly $35,000 each.
• Under Secretary Michael Duffey says the cheap guided rockets "flip the cost calculus" against one-way attack drones.

6. The Army is putting cyber and jamming payloads on small drones for its 11th Cyber Battalion to deliver "tailored cyber effects"

In "Army unit experimenting with small drones for 'tailored cyber effects'" (Breaking Defense, Oct. 22), Col. David Bergmann, the Army's project manager for cyber warfare, describes tests of the Radiofrequency Delivery Effects Platform (RDEP) on small drones.

• RDEP lets operators load exploits onto cards and deliver "digital bullets" to blind or gain access to adversary systems.
• The tests mix government-built and commercial payloads for spectrum monitoring and non-kinetic effects at the tactical edge.
• The results will shape standard equipment for the 11th Cyber Battalion and a forthcoming 12th Cyber Battalion.

7. The Army takes four retired Navy MQ-8C Fire Scout drone helicopters to use as sensor testbeds, saving about $70 million

Defence Blog's "U.S. Army takes over retired U.S. Navy drone helicopters" relays a Navy release: the Redstone Test Center will fly the MQ-8Cs to test sensors and payloads.

• The aircraft will operate from Dugway Proving Ground, Utah; the transfer took about 14 months.
• The Navy's Fire Scout program office (PMA-266, Col. Leigh Irwin) says reusing the airframes avoids about $70 million in new costs.
• Army CW4 Taylor Kiel is quoted on the testbed plan.

8. Ukraine's Defense Ministry says it has neutralized more than 400,000 Russian drones so far in 2026

Unmanned Airspace ("Ukraine neutralises more than 400k enemy drones, looks to expand air defence capabilities") relays Ukraine's Defense Ministry tally and its push for more air defense.

• The ministry's breakdown: about 248,000 fixed-wing drones, 25,000 multirotors and more than 35,000 Shahed-type drones.
• The DELTA battlefield system is used to coordinate detection and interception.
• Ukrainian officials also discussed air defense with Norway and met Lockheed Martin about F-16 and PAC-3 support.

9. Sen. Blumenthal opens a probe into the restrictions on Ukraine's Starshield service and asks Hegseth for answers by Nov. 5

The Kyiv Independent's "US Senator Blumenthal opens probe into Ukraine Starshield restrictions" reports his letter to the Secretary of War.

• A Ukrainian official says a 161 km/h speed cap on terminals, which affects drones, is still in place.

10. DIU's Drone Dominance program lines up orders for 60,000 small attack drones from nine companies after Gauntlet II, with Neros the only firm to place in both categories

Defence Blog's "U.S. orders 60,000 attack drones from nine companies" (11:40 AM ET) breaks down DIU's published Gauntlet II leaderboard: 30,000 drones in Deep Strike and 30,000 in Close Quarters Battle, scaled by rank.

• Deep Strike: Perennial Autonomy 8,000 (80.1 points), Hyperscale 7,000, Neros 6,000, Skycutter 5,000, Swarm Defense Technologies 4,000.
• Close Quarters Battle: Neros 8,000 (88.1 points), ORQA US 7,000, XTEND 6,000, Vector 5,000, ModalAI 4,000. Final quantities are set at contract award.
• Neros says it is "delivering 14,000 drones and explosive payloads" and adds: "Onward to Gauntlet III."
• Deep Strike lanes required hits at 15 km, against 10 km in Gauntlet I; scores also counted operator evaluations, production scale and supply-chain security.

11. DARPA tests a four-vehicle autonomous robot strike team at Fort Knox for EUCOM, which wants robots ahead of troops on NATO's eastern flank

In "US military tests robot strike teams to operate ahead of troops in Europe" (Stars and Stripes, Oct. 23), the Army and DARPA describe an Oct. 15 demonstration in which four uncrewed ground vehicles scouted, found a target and coordinated a simulated rocket strike about 300 yards away.

• DARPA adviser Jason Gregory: "All the mobility, all the movement, all the detections, all of that is autonomous ... But they don't pull the trigger until a human says pull the trigger."
• The lead vehicle carried a drone that could scout or be armed; photos show an Anduril drone over an Overland AI vehicle.
• EUCOM asked for the test under the Eastern Flank Deterrence Initiative, which envisions robots taking the first punch of an invasion.
• DARPA plans another round in December with soldiers giving feedback.

12. A Ukrainian drone raid shuts all four Moscow airports; Moscow's mayor says 17 drones were shot down

In "Ukrainian drone attack triggers shut down of Moscow airports" (Kyiv Independent, Oct. 23), Russia's aviation authority halted flights at Sheremetyevo, Domodedovo, Vnukovo and Zhukovsky during an afternoon drone raid on the capital.

• FlightRadar24 counted 85 cancelled and 229 delayed flights at Sheremetyevo; photos allegedly show drone debris on the tarmac (unverified).
• Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said 17 drones were shot down heading for the city.
• Separately, a missile reportedly hit the Proton electronics plant in Oryol, about 350 km southwest of Moscow.
• Ukraine had not commented as of publication.

13. Breaking Defense: Kyiv eyes ICEYE and Nokia "sovereign" communications satellites as Starshield limits on its drones persist

In "Kyiv eyes purchase of planned ICEYE, Nokia 'sovereign' communication sats" (Breaking Defense, Oct. 23), Ukraine's Defense Ministry letter of intent with the two Finnish firms is framed as a bid for comms it controls after the U.S. throttled Starshield.

• Zelensky: "We must all rely on capabilities that we can control."
• ICEYE says the letter "does not imply an ordering of any system for Ukraine"; the first satellite is planned for 2028.
• Zelensky told ABC News that Ukraine's Starshield speeds remain limited despite U.S. assurances.
• ICEYE supplies the satellite platform and Nokia the onboard secure networking.

14. Long War Journal: Ukraine's intelligence service details Russia's Filin, a low-cost cruise missile built from drone parts that can outrun today's interceptor drones

In "Ukrainian intelligence details new low-cost Russian cruise missile" (FDD's Long War Journal, Oct. 23), John Hardie relays HUR's findings on the ground-launched Filin and what it means for Ukraine's interceptor drones.

• HUR: 1,200 km claimed range, 800 km/h, a 50- or 100-kg warhead and anti-jam satellite-inertial navigation; electronics share layouts with Russia's Garpiya Geran-2 drones.
• Russia builds about 4,000 jet-powered Geran-4/5s a month plus 2,000 Geran-2s; Ukraine downed just 55% of Geran-4/5s in September versus over 90% of Geran-2s.
• Ukraine's Air Force says faster interceptor drones won't be available in enough numbers until the end of November at the earliest.
• Some interceptors rely on Starshield, which Ukraine says is still disrupted.

15. A cargo ship sinks off Romania's Constanța after a suspected drone strike; one crew member is dead and three are missing

Romanian authorities say the Comoros-flagged bulk carrier Khoryv sent a distress call around 10 a.m. local time Friday about 13 nautical miles off Constanța, Euronews and BTA report.

• Nine of 13 crew were rescued; the crew included 10 Ukrainians and three Azerbaijanis.
• The drone cause is reported and suspected; Romanian authorities have not officially attributed the sinking.
• It adds to a string of attacks on Black Sea shipping that drew new NATO patrols this week.

16. Ukraine launches F7 Litavr interceptor drones from Mi-8 helicopters, up to 12 per aircraft, in footage first shown by the New York Times

LB.ua ("NYT video shows Ukrainian F7 Litavr interceptor drones launched from Mi-8") says the F-Drones interceptors hang from the helicopter's hardpoints, letting crews engage Russian drones from tens of kilometers away.

• Litavr uses automatic terminal guidance (Last Mile or Pixel Lock): in the final approach the pilot controls only speed.
• Stated performance: 350 km/h top speed, 40 km radius, 9 km ceiling.
• @front_ukrainian's post of more footage drew more than 110,000 views.

17. NATO's main buying agency opens its contracts to Ukraine's defense industry, including its drone makers

In "NATO opens its contracts to Ukraine's defense industry" (Defence Blog, Oct. 23), the NATO Support and Procurement Agency says Ukraine has joined a procurement partnership that lets Ukrainian companies bid on agency contracts.

• The NSPA announced the move Oct. 22; Ukraine, not a NATO member, is the partnership's seventh member.
• It joins five allies and NATO headquarters in the partnership.

18. USNI News: October has the most attacks on ships in and near the Strait of Hormuz since the war began, with 27 so far

In "October Marks Highest Number of Strait of Hormuz Attacks" (Heather Mongilio, Oct. 22), USNI News cites International Maritime Organization counts: 27 attacks on commercial ships this month, against 22 in March.

• Analyst Noam Raydan says Iran aims to "hit as much as they can" to keep the route looking unsafe.
• CNA's Joshua Tallis says cheap one-way attack drones threaten pipelines as much as ships.
• Transits continue: 104 non-Iranian-linked vessels sailed Oct. 5–11, per Lloyd's List.

19. A U.S. drone boat runs a naval intercept demonstration at MCAS Iwakuni during the U.S.-Japan exercise Keen Sword 27

Defence Blog's "U.S. drone boat runs naval intercept demo in Japan" says Splash Industries' Typhoon, an 11-foot autonomous jet boat, ran the demo on Oct. 21.

• Typhoon tops 50 knots and has been tested past 70 knots, according to the article.
• It earlier made an autonomous well-deck entry into USS Essex at RIMPAC.
• Keen Sword runs Oct. 19–29 with about 45,000 Japanese and 12,000 U.S. personnel.

20. Kyiv Independent analysis: longer-range Russian FPV drones now reach all four cities of Ukraine's Donetsk "fortress belt"

"Analysis: Ukraine, Russia set stage for climax of Battle of Donbas" (Oct. 23) says Sloviansk, Kramatorsk, Druzhkivka and Kostiantynivka have been within range of Russian first-person-view drones for about a year.

• Ground advances plus technology extending FPV range have made Ukrainian logistics across the area noticeably harder in 2026.
• Drone pressure has also driven many remaining civilians from their homes.

21. Qatar's Barzan unveils FPV and VTOL drones and two drone boats at Milipol 2026, and a counter-drone joint venture with Ukraine's Carmine Sky

In "Qatari Barzan unveils aerial drones, unmanned surface vessels at Milipol 2026" (Breaking Defense, Oct. 23), the state-owned firm shows more than a dozen platforms in Doha.

• Three FPV quadcopters (7-, 10- and 15-inch, up to 4 kg payload and 20 km range) and an ISR VTOL-400.
• The Rasid jet-ski-style USV and a coast guard boat that runs crewed or uncrewed.
• A joint venture with Ukraine's Carmine Sky targets layered air defense against drones from FPVs to jet-powered UAVs.

22. Red Cat's Blue Ops launches a B-Series of drone boats, including an 18-foot one-way attack model designed for launch from littoral combat ships

Naval Today ("New B-series uncrewed surface vessels emerge in US market") covers the company announcement: the B-18, the B-26 (formerly Variant 7) and the 39-foot B-39, which is in low-rate production.

• The B-18 is for reconnaissance, shipboard launch and recovery, and one-way attack; the B-26 is in full-rate production in Valdosta, Georgia.
• Blue Ops President Barry Hinckley: the Navy needs "affordable, reliable systems that perform in real-world conditions and are available today."
• These are company claims; no new Navy contract was announced.

23. Silynx is developing a wearable AI drone detector that listens for drones, including fiber-optic-guided ones that don't emit radio signals

Unmanned Airspace ("Silynx developing AI-enabled wearable drone detection device") says the prototype analyzes acoustic signatures on the device and alerts the wearer.

• It works without tactical radios but can connect to them.
• A mesh capability in development would share one soldier's alert across a platoon.

24. arXiv: one swarm controller handles six mission types for 10 to 100 drones, and transfers zero-shot to real quadrotors in GPS-denied woodland

"Probabilistic Energy Modeling Unifies Versatile Swarm Control" (Sun Yat-sen University) encodes behaviors such as cohesion, collision avoidance and formation as reusable energy terms, then gates trained policies into one controller without retraining.

• Simulation success rates of 0.96 to 1.00 with 1–10 ms per-agent inference that doesn't grow with swarm size.
• Hardware tests ran up to 16 quadrotors, including GPS-denied woodland; the authors say 100-drone physical tests remain future work.

25. arXiv: MIT's WarpWeaver lets robots negotiate near-optimal joint plans in real time, cutting team travel time up to 37% against a decentralized baseline

"Dispersive Tree Agreements for Multi-Robot Coordination" (Shashank Deshpande, Blake Edwards, Jonathan How) has each robot search its own plans while the team negotiates prices on shared space.

• It cuts travel time up to 22% against centralized offline planners and keeps a team connected for communications better than a dedicated planner.
• Six ground robots ran it onboard over Wi-Fi in hardware tests.

1. AUKUS partners run more than 40 crewed, uncrewed and autonomous systems off Southern California in Maritime Big Play Pacific, "from seafloor to space"

In "U.S., Australia, U.K. Launch Maritime Demonstration to Enhance Interoperability" (war.gov, Oct. 22), the Pentagon says the demonstration runs Oct. 5–26 and is testing how the three nations jointly operate uncrewed maritime systems and share maritime data in real time.

• Assistant Secretary of War for Critical Technologies Michael Dodd: "It's certainly all autonomous systems ... in the domains from seafloor to space."
• Dodd says the goal is to "deter major conflicts by creating a disparity of technological capability."
• Maritime Big Play was the first project under AUKUS Pillar 2's new model and led to its first signature project, announced in May: payloads and enabling systems for uncrewed undersea vehicles.
• Missions named include seabed infrastructure protection, anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare, mine countermeasures, electronic warfare and contested littoral maneuver.

2. JIATF-401 lays out its first-year counter-drone model: one buyer for the military and interagency, a drones.mil marketplace and layered "systems of systems"

In "JIATF-401 leads a new era in counter-sUAS defense" (Army Acquisition Support Center, Oct. 22), the Joint Interagency Task Force 401 describes how it buys and fields counter-drone systems for the services and federal partners.

• Col. Tony Lindh leads the task force's rapid acquisition work, using the drones.mil marketplace to move vetted systems to units quickly.
• The task force favors layered sensors, effectors and command-and-control over single-point solutions.
• Interagency partners, including CBP, the FAA, the FBI and DHS, are embedded with the task force to handle domestic authorities.

3. The Pentagon's APKWS framework would buy up to 25,000 drone-killing rocket kits a year for up to seven years; Duffey says it "flips the cost calculus"

Air & Space Forces Magazine's "Pentagon Bets Big on Drone-Killing APKWS Laser-Guided Rockets" (Chris Gordon) details the BAE Systems framework and why the services want it.

• Up to 25,000 kits a year, plus up to 10,000 more for international customers, at roughly $35,000 each.
• Under Secretary Michael Duffey says the cheap guided rockets "flip the cost calculus" against one-way attack drones.

4. The Army is putting cyber and jamming payloads on small drones for its 11th Cyber Battalion to deliver "tailored cyber effects"

In "Army unit experimenting with small drones for 'tailored cyber effects'" (Breaking Defense, Oct. 22), Col. David Bergmann, the Army's project manager for cyber warfare, describes tests of the Radiofrequency Delivery Effects Platform (RDEP) on small drones.

• RDEP lets operators load exploits onto cards and deliver "digital bullets" to blind or gain access to adversary systems.
• The tests mix government-built and commercial payloads for spectrum monitoring and non-kinetic effects at the tactical edge.
• The results will shape standard equipment for the 11th Cyber Battalion and a forthcoming 12th Cyber Battalion.

5. The Army takes four retired Navy MQ-8C Fire Scout drone helicopters to use as sensor testbeds, saving about $70 million

Defence Blog's "U.S. Army takes over retired U.S. Navy drone helicopters" relays a Navy release: the Redstone Test Center will fly the MQ-8Cs to test sensors and payloads.

• The aircraft will operate from Dugway Proving Ground, Utah; the transfer took about 14 months.
• The Navy's Fire Scout program office (PMA-266, Col. Leigh Irwin) says reusing the airframes avoids about $70 million in new costs.
• Army CW4 Taylor Kiel is quoted on the testbed plan.

6. Ukraine's Defense Ministry says it has neutralized more than 400,000 Russian drones so far in 2026

Unmanned Airspace ("Ukraine neutralises more than 400k enemy drones, looks to expand air defence capabilities") relays Ukraine's Defense Ministry tally and its push for more air defense.

• The ministry's breakdown: about 248,000 fixed-wing drones, 25,000 multirotors and more than 35,000 Shahed-type drones.
• The DELTA battlefield system is used to coordinate detection and interception.
• Ukrainian officials also discussed air defense with Norway and met Lockheed Martin about F-16 and PAC-3 support.

7. Russia launches 176 drones overnight, 92 of them jet-powered, as strikes on energy sites kill at least eight people

Ukraine's Air Force says it downed 140 drones, including 68 jet-powered ones, with impacts at 19 locations, according to the Kyiv Independent ("Energy facilities across Ukraine targeted as Russian attacks kill at least 8, injure 67 over past day").

• Jet-powered drones made up more than half of the attack.
• Energy facilities in several regions were hit, causing outages.
• At least eight people were killed and 67 injured over the past day.

8. Sen. Blumenthal opens a probe into the restrictions on Ukraine's Starshield service and asks Hegseth for answers by Nov. 5

The Kyiv Independent's "US Senator Blumenthal opens probe into Ukraine Starshield restrictions" reports his letter to the Secretary of War.

• A Ukrainian official says a 161 km/h speed cap on terminals, which affects drones, is still in place.

9. Russia threatens Japan with "tough countermeasures" after Terra Drone's Ukrainian unit delivers interceptor drones to Kyiv

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called the delivery an openly hostile act on Oct. 21 and said Ukrainian drone plants are legitimate targets, according to Jiji Press and Taiwan Defence ("Russia threatens Japan with countermeasures after Terra Drone delivers interceptor drones to Ukraine").

• Terra Drone said Oct. 14 that a Ukrainian company in its group delivered small interceptor drones to Ukraine's government; local capacity is reported at more than 12,000 a year.
• Japan's acquisition agency signed a mass-production contract with Terra Drone for interceptor drones in August.
• Russia did not say what measures it would take.

10. DIU's Drone Dominance program lines up orders for 60,000 small attack drones from nine companies after Gauntlet II, with Neros the only firm to place in both categories

Defence Blog's "U.S. orders 60,000 attack drones from nine companies" (11:40 AM ET) breaks down DIU's published Gauntlet II leaderboard: 30,000 drones in Deep Strike and 30,000 in Close Quarters Battle, scaled by rank.

• Deep Strike: Perennial Autonomy 8,000 (80.1 points), Hyperscale 7,000, Neros 6,000, Skycutter 5,000, Swarm Defense Technologies 4,000.
• Close Quarters Battle: Neros 8,000 (88.1 points), ORQA US 7,000, XTEND 6,000, Vector 5,000, ModalAI 4,000. Final quantities are set at contract award.
• Neros says it is "delivering 14,000 drones and explosive payloads" and adds: "Onward to Gauntlet III."
• Deep Strike lanes required hits at 15 km, against 10 km in Gauntlet I; scores also counted operator evaluations, production scale and supply-chain security.

11. The Army picks nine finalists for autonomous island resupply, and their robot vehicles and a heavy-lift drone go before soldiers in Hawaii Nov. 4–15

Defence Blog's "U.S. Army to test robot supply vehicles in Hawaii" (11:54 AM ET) reports on G-TEAD USARPAC ACE 27-01: Autonomous Sustainment, run by the Global Tactical Edge Acquisition Directorate with U.S. Army Pacific and Army xTech.

• The live soldier exercise is at the Joint Pacific Multinational Readiness Center in Hawaii.
• Ground finalists: Ark Robotics M4, BlueSky Innovations Jekyll US, Cyborg Autonomy, Dataspeed TWEEDLE, Hypercraft Razorback, Raptor Defense PIT VIPER, Stridar Siderunner Pro and Swarmbotics AI FIREANT.
• Phenix Solutions' Ultra 2XL heavy-lift drone is the only air finalist.
• The Army frames it around supply lines that are vulnerable across dispersed Pacific islands.

12. Iran's army airs its first footage of an underground line building Arash one-way attack drones, and state TV says a new version carries a 100-kilogram warhead

Iranian army chief Maj. Gen. Amir Hatami toured the site, according to Iranian media relayed by Dunya News ("Iran unveils advanced indigenous drones as army chief declares readiness for war").

• Hatami: "We have reached a significant level of maturity in the field of drones and unmanned systems in general," and more drones will be unveiled.
• He says drones, unmanned surface vessels and micro-drones have a growing role.
• The army did not give the site's location or production capacity. The 100-kg warhead figure is a state-TV claim; X summaries citing AI-guided targeting were not confirmed.

13. A U.S. drone boat runs a naval intercept demonstration at MCAS Iwakuni during the U.S.-Japan exercise Keen Sword 27

Defence Blog's "U.S. drone boat runs naval intercept demo in Japan" says Splash Industries' Typhoon, an 11-foot autonomous jet boat, ran the demo on Oct. 21.

• Typhoon tops 50 knots and has been tested past 70 knots, according to the article.
• It earlier made an autonomous well-deck entry into USS Essex at RIMPAC.
• Keen Sword runs Oct. 19–29 with about 45,000 Japanese and 12,000 U.S. personnel.

14. A cargo ship sinks off Romania's Constanța after a suspected drone strike; one crew member is dead and three are missing

Romanian authorities say the Comoros-flagged bulk carrier Khoryv sent a distress call around 10 a.m. local time today about 13 nautical miles off Constanța, Euronews and BTA report.

• Nine of 13 crew were rescued; the crew included 10 Ukrainians and three Azerbaijanis.
• The drone cause is reported and suspected; Romanian authorities have not officially attributed the sinking.
• It adds to a string of attacks on Black Sea shipping that drew new NATO patrols this week.

15. Ukraine launches F7 Litavr interceptor drones from Mi-8 helicopters, up to 12 per aircraft, in footage first shown by the New York Times

LB.ua ("NYT video shows Ukrainian F7 Litavr interceptor drones launched from Mi-8") says the F-Drones interceptors hang from the helicopter's hardpoints, letting crews engage Russian drones from tens of kilometers away.

• Litavr uses automatic terminal guidance (Last Mile or Pixel Lock): in the final approach the pilot controls only speed.
• Stated performance: 350 km/h top speed, 40 km radius, 9 km ceiling.
• @front_ukrainian's post of more footage drew more than 110,000 views.

16. USNI News: October has the most attacks on ships in and near the Strait of Hormuz since the war began, with 27 so far

In "October Marks Highest Number of Strait of Hormuz Attacks" (Heather Mongilio, Oct. 22), USNI News cites International Maritime Organization counts: 27 attacks on commercial ships this month, against 22 in March.

• Analyst Noam Raydan says Iran aims to "hit as much as they can" to keep the route looking unsafe.
• CNA's Joshua Tallis says cheap one-way attack drones threaten pipelines as much as ships.
• Transits continue: 104 non-Iranian-linked vessels sailed Oct. 5–11, per Lloyd's List.

17. Military Aerospace on Project Agincourt's open letter: competitions, exercises and combat will decide which autonomous systems scale, ahead of an Oct. 1, 2027 target for AUTOWARCOM

In "DoD's 'Project Agincourt' aims to accelerate autonomous warfare acquisition" (Jamie Whitney, Oct. 22), Military Aerospace summarizes the Oct. 21 letter from Owen West and Navy SEAL Senior Chief Max Strasiser.

• The letter pairs technology companies with operational units and moves buying decisions and money closer to frontline warfighters.
• Success is measured by how fast an operational problem gets a fielded solution that can be evaluated for scale.
• Congress must pass legislation to create the command, which the Pentagon wants by Oct. 1, 2027. MeriTalk also covered the letter.

18. ICEYE and Nokia sign a letter of intent with Ukraine's Defense Ministry to build a sovereign satellite communications system as Starlink limits persist

The Kyiv Independent's "Amid Starlink crisis, Finnish tech giants announce plan to help Ukraine build its own sovereign satellite system" says the LOI was signed Oct. 22 during Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo's visit to Kyiv.

• The planned low Earth orbit system would give Ukraine ownership of satellites, ground stations and terminals.
• Starlink has been essential for front-line communications, mid-range drone strikes and air defense, the outlet notes.
• ICEYE CEO Rafal Modrzewski: "Ukraine needs secure, sovereign, and high-performance satellite communications systems that it controls."

19. TWZ: the Air Force says bombers could take on a major air-to-air role, as collaborative combat aircraft reshape fighter force plans

In "USAF Confirms Bombers Could Have A Major Air-To-Air Combat Role" (Joseph Trevithick, Oct. 22), The War Zone reports on a new Air Force fighter force structure report described by Aviation Week.

• Air Force officials said the introduction of CCAs would influence future fighter force structure, though the scale is unclear.
• TWZ notes the B-21 has long been discussed as a possible air-to-air platform working with a family of systems.

20. Kyiv Independent analysis: longer-range Russian FPV drones now reach all four cities of Ukraine's Donetsk "fortress belt"

"Analysis: Ukraine, Russia set stage for climax of Battle of Donbas" (Oct. 23) says Sloviansk, Kramatorsk, Druzhkivka and Kostiantynivka have been within range of Russian first-person-view drones for about a year.

• Ground advances plus technology extending FPV range have made Ukrainian logistics across the area noticeably harder in 2026.
• Drone pressure has also driven many remaining civilians from their homes.

21. TWZ: first photos of Zone 5's ground-launched Rusty Dagger low-cost cruise missile, aimed at a Pentagon program for more than 10,000 missiles

In "Ground-Launched Rusty Dagger Low-Cost Cruise Missile Seen For The First Time" (Oct. 22), The War Zone shows the Block 40 version fitted with a booster for launch from land and sea.

• The Low-Cost Containerized Missile program aims to buy more than 10,000 cheap cruise missiles over three years from 2027; Zone 5, Anduril, CoAspire and Leidos hold framework agreements.
• Zone 5 says versions have been picked for separate Army and Navy programs, and it calls Rusty Dagger the only publicly reported missile of its class in Ukrainian service.

22. Red Cat's Blue Ops launches a B-Series of drone boats, including an 18-foot one-way attack model designed for launch from littoral combat ships

Naval Today ("New B-series uncrewed surface vessels emerge in US market") covers the company announcement: the B-18, the B-26 (formerly Variant 7) and the 39-foot B-39, which is in low-rate production.

• The B-18 is for reconnaissance, shipboard launch and recovery, and one-way attack; the B-26 is in full-rate production in Valdosta, Georgia.
• Blue Ops President Barry Hinckley: the Navy needs "affordable, reliable systems that perform in real-world conditions and are available today."
• These are company claims; no new Navy contract was announced.

23. Silynx is developing a wearable AI drone detector that listens for drones, including fiber-optic-guided ones that don't emit radio signals

Unmanned Airspace ("Silynx developing AI-enabled wearable drone detection device") says the prototype analyzes acoustic signatures on the device and alerts the wearer.

• It works without tactical radios but can connect to them.
• A mesh capability in development would share one soldier's alert across a platoon.

24. arXiv: one swarm controller handles six mission types for 10 to 100 drones, and transfers zero-shot to real quadrotors in GPS-denied woodland

"Probabilistic Energy Modeling Unifies Versatile Swarm Control" (Sun Yat-sen University) encodes behaviors such as cohesion, collision avoidance and formation as reusable energy terms, then gates trained policies into one controller without retraining.

• Simulation success rates of 0.96 to 1.00 with 1–10 ms per-agent inference that doesn't grow with swarm size.
• Hardware tests ran up to 16 quadrotors, including GPS-denied woodland; the authors say 100-drone physical tests remain future work.

25. arXiv: MIT's WarpWeaver lets robots negotiate near-optimal joint plans in real time, cutting team travel time up to 37% against a decentralized baseline

"Dispersive Tree Agreements for Multi-Robot Coordination" (Shashank Deshpande, Blake Edwards, Jonathan How) has each robot search its own plans while the team negotiates prices on shared space.

• It cuts travel time up to 22% against centralized offline planners and keeps a team connected for communications better than a dedicated planner.
• Six ground robots ran it onboard over Wi-Fi in hardware tests.

1. DIU's Drone Dominance program lines up orders for 60,000 small attack drones from nine companies after Gauntlet II, with Neros the only firm to place in both categories

Defence Blog's "U.S. orders 60,000 attack drones from nine companies" (11:40 AM ET) breaks down DIU's published Gauntlet II leaderboard: 30,000 drones in Deep Strike and 30,000 in Close Quarters Battle, scaled by rank.

• Deep Strike: Perennial Autonomy 8,000 (80.1 points), Hyperscale 7,000, Neros 6,000, Skycutter 5,000, Swarm Defense Technologies 4,000.
• Close Quarters Battle: Neros 8,000 (88.1 points), ORQA US 7,000, XTEND 6,000, Vector 5,000, ModalAI 4,000. Final quantities are set at contract award.
• Neros says it is "delivering 14,000 drones and explosive payloads" and adds: "Onward to Gauntlet III."
• Deep Strike lanes required hits at 15 km, against 10 km in Gauntlet I; scores also counted operator evaluations, production scale and supply-chain security.

2. DIU and the Pentagon's unmanned-systems portfolio office want armed drone boats that can shoot down drones and helicopters with Hellfire, JAGM, APKWS or Stinger, fielded within 120 days

Naval News ("Pentagon Launches 120-Day 'Sprint' to Field Counter-UAS Armed USVs," 3:16 PM ET) details DIU's SWAP-USV Sprint 2 solicitation, run with the Direct Reporting Portfolio Manager for Unmanned Systems; DIU lists it as closing Nov. 30.

• DIU: "The cost-exchange ratio ... is heavily skewed in favor of the adversary." Targets include explosive USVs, Group 1–3 drones, attack helicopters and go-fast boats.
• Boats need at least 200 nautical miles of range, 10 knots cruise, autonomous navigation, station-keeping and collision avoidance, and 360-degree sensors; engagement range must exceed 3 nautical miles.
• Weapons use stays under human supervision, in GPS- and comms-degraded conditions; two-person field rearming is "highly desired."
• It's part of a three-phase, 12-month prize challenge worth up to $100 million, with up to $40 million for the counter-air phase.

3. The Army picks nine finalists for autonomous island resupply, and their robot vehicles and a heavy-lift drone go before soldiers in Hawaii Nov. 4–15

Defence Blog's "U.S. Army to test robot supply vehicles in Hawaii" (11:54 AM ET) reports on G-TEAD USARPAC ACE 27-01: Autonomous Sustainment, run by the Global Tactical Edge Acquisition Directorate with U.S. Army Pacific and Army xTech.

• The live soldier exercise is at the Joint Pacific Multinational Readiness Center in Hawaii.
• Ground finalists: Ark Robotics M4, BlueSky Innovations Jekyll US, Cyborg Autonomy, Dataspeed TWEEDLE, Hypercraft Razorback, Raptor Defense PIT VIPER, Stridar Siderunner Pro and Swarmbotics AI FIREANT.
• Phenix Solutions' Ultra 2XL heavy-lift drone is the only air finalist.
• The Army frames it around supply lines that are vulnerable across dispersed Pacific islands.

4. The Army is putting cyber and jamming payloads on small drones for its 11th Cyber Battalion to deliver "tailored cyber effects"

In "Army unit experimenting with small drones for 'tailored cyber effects'" (Breaking Defense, 9:59 AM ET), Col. David Bergmann, the Army's project manager for cyber warfare, describes tests of the Radiofrequency Delivery Effects Platform (RDEP) on small drones.

• RDEP lets operators load exploits onto cards and deliver "digital bullets" to blind or gain access to adversary systems.
• The tests mix government-built and commercial payloads for real-time spectrum monitoring and non-kinetic effects at the tactical edge.
• The experiments will shape standard equipment for the 11th Cyber Battalion and a forthcoming 12th Cyber Battalion.

5. JIATF-401's science and technology chief says its counter-drone marketplace will badge systems to show which are tested and which rest on vendor claims

Autonomy Global's "JIATF-401's Push to Build a Faster Counter-UAS Marketplace" (6:00 AM ET) covers Col. Scott Humr's keynote at the Counter-UAS Accelerator Working Group in Grand Forks, N.D.

• Humr: "We aim to have a number of badges next to systems to distinguish their capabilities."
• An approved marketplace listing doesn't necessarily mean a system passed rigorous government testing; buyers of less-tested systems are asked to send feedback.
• A repository called Tech Arsenal would consolidate test results and approvals so organizations don't repeat work.
• The keynote was Oct. 8; the write-up ran today.

6. Ukraine's General Staff says it hit a Russian electronic warfare station in Bryansk Oblast and a drone control point in Zaporizhzhia Oblast

The Kyiv Independent's "Ukraine strikes Russian electronic warfare station, General Staff says" (12:54 PM ET) covers strikes on Oct. 21 and overnight into Oct. 22.

• The EW station was near Gulevka; the General Staff says hitting Russian EW improves Ukraine's ability to use drones.
• It also reports hitting a drone control point near Lankove and a command and observation post near Vyshneve.
• These are Ukrainian military claims; the Kyiv Independent did not report independent confirmation.

7. Iran's army airs its first footage of an underground line building Arash one-way attack drones, and state TV says a new version carries a 100-kilogram warhead

Iranian army chief Maj. Gen. Amir Hatami toured the site, according to Iranian media relayed by Dunya News ("Iran unveils advanced indigenous drones as army chief declares readiness for war").

• Hatami: "We have reached a significant level of maturity in the field of drones and unmanned systems in general," and more drones will be unveiled.
• He says drones, unmanned surface vessels and micro-drones have a growing role.
• The army did not give the site's location or production capacity. The 100-kg warhead figure is a state-TV claim; X summaries citing AI-guided targeting were not confirmed.

8. AFRL: "There would be no CCA without the Air Force Research Laboratory," says Brig. Gen. Timothy Helfrich

@AFResearchLab quoted Helfrich at the Ohio Defense and Aerospace forum in Dayton and promoted its "Discovery to Delivery" video series on AFRL's role in Collaborative Combat Aircraft (8:00 AM ET).

• The post is AFRL's official account speaking about its own program.

9. DIU's COO Matthew Shortal represents the U.S. at the NATO DIANA board meeting in Sofia

@DIU_x says its leadership was "front and center" at the board meeting of NATO's Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic, with Shortal as principal U.S. representative (8:53 AM ET).

• DIU says it backs the alliance and an "America First" arms transfer strategy.

10. Kyiv Independent: Ukrainian researchers found a magnetometer in a Russian Geran that could keep the drone on course when satellite navigation is jammed

"Inside the institution where Ukraine races to counter Russia's evolving drones" (9:04 AM ET) is a rare look inside a Defense Ministry lab that dismantles Russian weapons.

• Researchers call the magnetometer "the most recent component we found, about a week or two ago," and are still checking whether Russia can deploy it at scale.
• They estimate a countermeasure takes four to six months to develop, while Russia can modify its drones every two or three.
• The institution and its staff are not named, a condition of access.

11. The Navy awards Applied Intuition $25 million to put AI sensor fusion on five destroyers, with data feeding models for crewed and uncrewed vessels

Breaking Defense's "Navy awards Applied Intuition $25M to deploy AI sensor fusion at sea" (11:43 AM ET) says the Intelligent Perception System starts on five Arleigh Burke-class destroyers and could expand "across the fleet."

• IPS fuses camera and infrared feeds into one picture and offers automated alerts, such as for a vessel on a collision course.
• It records sensor data and sends it ashore to train improved AI models for manned and unmanned vessels.
• Ships can take over-the-air updates at sea. The award was announced by the company.

12. DroneXL: the FCC blocks a dash cam and a wireless video transmitter over Huawei HiSilicon chips, its first case under the parts rules that also hit DJI and Autel components in U.S. drones

"FCC Catches Huawei Surveillance Chips in Its First Parts Ban Case" (1:55 PM ET) says the Commission announced the action Oct. 22 as the first enforcement of its Covered List component rules, in effect since Oct. 13.

• The same rules stop a new U.S.-built drone from getting FCC authorization if it contains a covered DJI or Autel logic-bearing part.
• The FCC named no manufacturer, model or chip part number.
• HiSilicon isn't on the Covered List by name; Huawei is, and the list's footnote covers subsidiaries.

13. Breaking Defense op-ed: "The Pentagon has gone too far in using the Other Transaction Authority. Congress should act."

Researcher Julia Gledhill argues OTAs, the fast-contracting tool behind much drone and autonomy buying, have become the Pentagon's predominant approach "at great risk to taxpayers" (12:58 PM ET).

• She says contractors under OTAs are exempt from FAR competition, cost-data and accounting rules.
• She wants Congress to limit OTs to research and development.

14. DefenseScoop: SOCOM seeks an integrated contracting vehicle for a shared platform-as-a-service environment to test and field new tech near MacDill

"SOCOM seeks common PaaS environment to support testing and fielding of new tech" (2:28 PM ET) is based on a draft performance work statement posted Wednesday night.

• SOF AT&L wants a vehicle to "rapidly discover, assess, prototype, integrate, test, and field" software-heavy capabilities across several PEOs.
• It would support Joint Acquisition Task Force experimentation and the PEOs for SOF Digital Applications and Tactical Information Systems.

15. Inside Defense: "Striveworks scales up Army work with $700 million agreement"

Inside Defense reports a $700 million Army agreement for Striveworks, a maker of AI model-operations software (10:00 AM ET).

• The article is behind a paywall; only the headline was confirmed.

16. Naval News: Elbit Systems' purchase of International Submarine Engineering expands its underwater and maritime autonomy business

"Elbit Systems Expands Underwater and Maritime Autonomy Capabilities with Acquisition of ISE" (9:20 AM ET) follows Wednesday's announcement.

• ISE is a Vancouver maker of autonomous and remotely operated undersea vehicles.
• The coverage is based on the company's announcement.

17. Breaking Defense (sponsored): how networks of uncrewed surface vessels can build persistent maritime awareness in the Indo-Pacific

"How uncrewed surface vessels performing ISR help build persistent maritime awareness" (8:23 AM ET) argues for treating sensing as a network rather than as individual USVs.

• Ben Pinx of Lyntris: "It's easy to see something's moving ... Now I need to shoot at those dots."
• The piece is industry-sponsored content.

18. arXiv: a method that separates "reproducing" an autonomous system's failure from "avoiding" it, for black-box neural components

"Sufficient and Necessary Causal Explanations for the Analysis of Autonomous Systems" (arXiv:2610.29724) argues earlier causal explanations support reproducing failures but not preventing them.

• It's aimed at systems whose behavior depends on neural networks, a core test-and-evaluation problem for military autonomy.

19. arXiv: dynamic microsegmentation isolates a compromised node in a multi-robot network in real time while the rest keep working

"Implementation of Dynamic Microsegmentation for a Multi-Robot Network" (arXiv:2610.30102) is a lab demonstration using a commercial software-defined segmentation tool.

• Segments adapt to each asset's function and health tags, and policies are applied automatically.

20. arXiv: QSelect compresses onboard language models for space robots while keeping behavior close to the validated full-precision model

"Compressing Onboard Language Models for Space Robots under a Behavioral-Fidelity Requirement" (arXiv:2610.29302) treats compression as a ground-segment step under configuration control.

• It builds one static low-bit model from AWQ, GPTQ and AutoRound checkpoints to fit a fixed memory budget.

21. arXiv: feeding a distance field into a reinforcement-learning policy gives robots more reactive, robust collision avoidance from simulation to hardware

"Distance Field Driven Reinforcement Learning for Reactive and Robust Collision Avoidance" (arXiv:2610.29452) puts a Euclidean distance field directly in the agent's observations.

• The authors say this allows a simpler reward and better sim-to-real transfer on manipulators.

22. @prestonstew_ shares the Drone Dominance Gauntlet II results with his followers

Preston Stewart, who makes videos on war and national security, posted "Results from the most recent Drone Dominance competition" (7:19 AM ET).

• The post has ~3.1K views.

23. @bsware on the planned Autonomous Warfare Command pushing buying money to frontline units: "That's the right test"

The former CISA cyber lead writes that judging success by speed to the battlefield works because "units that use the gear know fastest what works and what to buy more of" (11:49 AM ET).

• Opinion; personal X account.

24. @SOFNewsUpdate: the Autonomous Warfare Command is a chance to reorganize forces for unmanned systems at every level, including staff functions

SOF News Update writes that the command should bring changes to traditional staff functions and refine tactics for unmanned systems at the tactical, operational and strategic levels (7:23 AM ET).

• Opinion.

25. @MartelDefense, a kinetic-interceptor maker: "JIATF 401 puts kinetic defeat last in its counter-drone sequence ... and we agree"

Martel Defense writes that "a kinetic layer earns its place when the other layers run out" (1:25 PM ET).

• Vendor commentary.

1. Russia fires 210 drones, 110 of them jet-powered, and a mix of ballistic and cruise missiles at Ukraine overnight, with Kyiv the main target; attacks kill at least nine across the country

Ukraine's Air Force says Russia launched Iskander-M, S-400, Zircon and Onyx missiles plus 210 drones, and air defenses shot down 181 drones, including 87 jet-powered ones (Kyiv Independent, "Russian attacks kill at least 9, injure 57 across Ukraine as Kyiv hit by mass missile, drone attack," 3:38 AM ET).

• Strikes were recorded at 32 locations, and debris fell at eight more. Zelensky says Russia fired 21 missiles and that two people were killed and 34 injured in Kyiv and Kyiv Oblast.
• Presidential adviser Serhii "Flash" Beskrestnov says one Iskander carried a K5 cluster warhead, built to hit people and equipment across a 400-by-400-meter area.
• In Kyiv, a paramedic station was damaged and six ambulances were wrecked, and Metro infrastructure on the Southern Bridge was hit. In Chernihiv, Russian forces twice attacked an enterprise with Banderol drones, killing one person.
• @KyivIndependent's post (3:43 AM ET) has ~13K views.

2. The Army's top Pacific logistics general says its watercraft are "moving into the autonomous lane," with retrofit kits that could eventually make existing vessels fully uncrewed

In "How The U.S. Army's 'Navy' Aims To Go More Autonomous With Its Vessels In The Pacific" (TWZ, 7:30 PM ET), Maj. Gen. Frederick Crist, who commands the 8th Theater Sustainment Command, lays out plans he presented at AUSA.

• Crist: "Put on retrofitting kits to be able to conduct navigation, and then eventually propulsion and engine room activities, and eventually get to a fully autonomous system."
• In August, U.S. Army Pacific tested a Sea Machines SM300 autonomy kit on the commercial offshore vessel HOS Resolution, which took nine days to integrate.
• The Army is standing up a second composite watercraft company at Yokohama North Dock in Japan. His predecessor said in June that he wanted as many as 100 USVs, including larger ones that carry eight to 10 shipping containers.
• TWZ's post has ~5.7K views.

3. Moscow's mayor says 630 drones headed for the Moscow region overnight, as Russian outlets report drones and missiles hitting the 75th Arsenal weapons plant in Serpukhov

Mayor Sergei Sobyanin says most of the 630 drones were intercepted, including 163 destroyed as they approached Moscow, and two people were injured in Voronovskoye (Kyiv Independent, "Ukrainian forces reportedly strike Moscow Oblast weapons plant," 11:15 PM ET).

• Eyewitnesses told the independent Russian outlet Astra that drones, then missiles, struck the 75th Arsenal, which makes and repairs weapons for the Russian army. Ukraine, the U.S. and the EU have all sanctioned it.
• Earlier, Ukrainian drones caused explosions in Lipetsk, about 335 km from the border. Gov. Igor Artamonov says homes and a closed clinic were damaged.
• Both sides' figures are claims; the Kyiv Independent couldn't verify them. @KyivIndependent's Lipetsk post has ~22K views.

4. AFMC commander: "We're just starting to develop the sustainment framework" for Collaborative Combat Aircraft, with 500 CCAs planned by 2032

Lt. Gen. Linda Hurry, who leads Air Force Materiel Command, told a Mitchell Institute event that planning for the CCA life-cycle sustainment plan has started early but "is not fully fleshed out" (DefenseScoop, "Air Force starting to game out sustainment framework for CCA drones," 4:21 PM ET).

• She wants supply-chain and lower-tier suppliers lined up "so that if the Air Force chooses to buy a certain number of aircraft, we can be ready."
• Anduril and General Atomics build the first increment, and Shield AI and Collins Aerospace supply mission autonomy.
• AFMC has about 8,200 vacant billets and faces a $14 billion spare-parts "hole." It's using the PANDA AI tool for predictive maintenance.

5. Saudi Arabia says debris from a drone shot down near Aramco's Shaybah oil field killed two workers, as the coalition reports seven Houthi drones intercepted in a day

The Saudi Press Agency's "Air Defenses Intercept Drone Attempting to Target Shaybah Field; Two Residents Killed and Two Injured by Falling Debris" says the drone was aimed at a processing facility.

• The energy ministry says a Filipino and a Nepali were killed and a Pakistani and an Indian were injured. A contractor's vehicle caught fire outside the perimeter, and operations weren't affected.
• Coalition spokesman Maj. Gen. Turki Al-Maliki reported seven drones intercepted on Wednesday, including over the Madinah region and the Eastern Province (Arab News).
• The State Department ordered non-emergency U.S. government staff and their families to leave Saudi Arabia, citing increased Houthi attacks (The National).

6. The Army fires three XM1180 hit-to-kill artillery rounds at a tank to test a seeker that images the target area, finds the vehicle and steers the shell onto it

The Army's "Hit to kill: Guided munition tested at U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground" (Oct. 20) covers the second Guided Test Vehicle phase of the 155 mm C-DAEM Armor program, which Defence Blog wrote up this morning (2:21 AM ET).

• A test engineer explains the sequence: in open-loop shots, the seeker searches without acting, and in closed-loop shots, it guides the round to the target.
• Operational Evaluation Command's Casey Scharenbroich: "It would be a huge advantage on the battlefield for commanders, allowing them to engage targets that have moved or are on the move."
• Next up are GPS-denied tests and fitting the seeker to the XM1230 Extended Range Artillery Projectile, with firings at Yuma in the next few months. The Army hasn't said whether the rounds hit.

7. Special Forces leaders say demand for the Army's new 390A robotics technicians is "huge" as the job goes Army-wide

Brig. Gen. Joseph Wortham, who leads 1st Special Forces Command, told DefenseScoop ("Army Special Forces leaders see promise, high demand for new robotics technician integrator job," 6:25 PM ET): "The demand just inside of our formation is huge."

• The integrators, who graduated Oct. 2, will also go to the experimental autonomy units of the new Futures and Autonomous Systems Command. The schoolhouse is "doing that math right now" on throughput.
• The 19-week course covers operating, programming and fixing aerial drones, ground robots and sensors, so units rely less on contractor field service representatives "that we can't take into modern combat."
• Command Sgt. Maj. Joshua King says access to the software is "almost like a pre-req" from industry, "because the enemy is doing the same thing."

8. At a UN-hosted meeting in Geneva, 21 countries voice "grave concern" over Sudan's escalating drone war, as peacekeepers in Abyei step up patrols after the Amiet market strike

Participants in the Sixth Consultative Meeting on Enhancing Coordination of Peace Initiatives and Efforts in Sudan urged foreign states not to fuel the war with mercenaries, military equipment, drones or money (Mathrubhumi, 12:13 AM ET).

• UN envoy Pekka Haavisto says both sides still believe they can win militarily: "The solution has to be found from diplomatic talks and discussions." Neither the army nor the RSF attended.
• UNISFA (Oct. 21) says it has intensified day and night patrols and urges all parties to refrain from retaliation. Secretary-General Guterres's statement says "there will need to be accountability."
• The local toll stands at 153. Victims included Sudanese, South Sudanese, Ethiopians and Somalis.

9. Ukraine's Khartiia Corps says troops moved about 15 km through gas pipelines to get behind Russian lines near Kupiansk: "When the battlefield became transparent, the war went underground"

The National Guard's 2nd Khartiia Corps says Operation Veles combined the underground advance with operations above ground, including drone strikes (Kyiv Independent, 4:42 AM ET).

• Commander Brig. Gen. Ihor Obolienskyi: "The Russians intended to use the gas routes to penetrate the rear of our forces. So we went underground ourselves."
• The corps claims more than 30 Russian soldiers were captured and more than 100 casualties. The Kyiv Independent couldn't verify those figures.
• Russian troops have used pipelines around Kupiansk before, including about 50 soldiers in the Soyuz pipeline in January.

10. Seventeen former senior officials, including Avril Haines, Susan Rice and Jake Sullivan, urge the D.C. Circuit to rehear Anthropic's challenge to its Pentagon supply-chain-risk label

DefenseScoop ("Former U.S. officials urge D.C. Circuit to reconsider decision in Anthropic-Pentagon fight," Brandi Vincent, 6:17 PM ET) reports the 26-page brief warns that "left undisturbed that ruling will threaten all defense contractors."

• The dispute is over Anthropic's refusal to allow "all lawful use cases," including mass domestic surveillance and autonomous weapons that attack without human intervention.
• The brief: DoD "has not explained why DOD should have the first, much less how it could exercise it lawfully. Nor has DOD reconciled the second" with U.S. commitments on military AI.
• A D.C. Circuit panel ruled 2-1 for the Pentagon last month, while a San Francisco judge had ruled for Anthropic. Pentagon spokespeople didn't comment before publication.

11. A Hegseth memo lends DHS the military's Active Denial System "heat ray" for seven months, and says it "shall not be operated by DoW personnel"

Military.com ("DOD Memo Greenlights DHS Use of Military 'Heat Ray' at US-Mexico Border," 3:44 PM ET) follows CNN's report on the memo Hegseth signed last month, which leaves DHS solely responsible for employing the weapon and developing its tactics.

• The 95 GHz millimeter-wave beam reaches more than half a mile and causes a burning sensation that officials say lasts 10 to 15 minutes. DHS can ask to extend the loan.
• A Pentagon spokesperson deferred to DHS. CBP says it is "continually evaluating new technology, especially technology that can save lives."
• The system went to Afghanistan and came home in 2010 without being used in combat. CNN reports that CBP considered it in 2018 and then-DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen rejected the idea.

12. BBC: Google DeepMind staff are resigning over the company's military AI contracts; one engineer says the work makes her "ashamed to work at Google"

"Google staff resign in backlash over its AI contracts with military" (BBC Eye Investigations, Christopher Giles, 11:41 AM ET Wednesday) quotes London-based research engineer Sofia Liguori, who quit this week.

• The BBC says Google's Pentagon contract allows "any lawful government purpose," but not domestic mass surveillance or autonomous weapons, "including target selection," "without appropriate human oversight and control."
• Researcher Andreas Kirsch, who also left this month: "Google seems to have no power to control or veto how the Pentagon uses its AI."
• Retired Lt. Gen. Jack Shanahan, the former Project Maven chief, says the philosophy seems to be to deploy fast and widely, even at the cost of rigorous testing. Google says it follows a consistent contract review process.

13. Calcalist: the IDF sets up a Robotics Division to speed autonomous ground and air systems, alongside a Space Division aiming for dozens, then hundreds, of satellites

"Israel's military wants hundreds of satellites and a new generation of war robots" (Ctech by Calcalist, Yuval Azulay, 2:02 AM ET) says the Robotics Division sits in the Depth Corps under Maj. Gen. Dan Goldfus.

• Its remit includes ground robots working with drones and other uncrewed systems on defensive and offensive missions.
• A senior Finance Ministry official: "We expect them to tell us where the money for this is supposed to come from, because we certainly don't know."
• Calcalist says Ondas, which has bought more than 20 mostly Israeli drone and autonomy firms, won a place in the IDF's Digital Bat tactical attack-drone program.

14. USNI News: Australia's Ghost Shark can carry up to 12 sea mines and at least 24 Altius-600 drones, and some payloads are in this week's AUKUS exercise in San Diego

"Royal Australian Navy's Ghost Shark UUVs Will Have Minelaying, UAV Payloads" (Aaron-Matthew Lariosa, 3:12 PM ET Wednesday) ties the payloads to AUKUS Pillar II's Maritime Big Play Pacific.

• Defense Industry Minister Pat Conroy says the contract covers "dozens and dozens" of Ghost Sharks, which are "now rolling off the line at an increasing rate."
• Altius drones can be set up for reconnaissance or one-way attack. By 2027, Pillar II aims to deliver UUV payloads that fit undersea drones from all three nations.

15. Small Wars Journal: "The New Kalashnikov" argues cheap autonomous drones need supply-side controls, not just UN treaty talks

In "The New Kalashnikov: Governing Autonomous Drone Proliferation" (Oct. 20, posted by @smallwars at 8:46 PM ET), Gerald Mako says commercial drones with off-the-shelf guidance software give militias and proxies precision strike "once reserved for States."

• He says the UN weapons talks in Geneva weren't built to police dual-use parts that become weapons only after conversion.
• His fix: tighter controls on the hardware that enables onboard autonomy, obligations on manufacturers whose platforms are routinely militarized, and a small coalition of component-producing allies.

16. War on the Rocks: a former Pokrovsk command-post officer argues deception now has to fool the enemy's automated sensing and targeting chain, not just its commanders

In "Deception in Mass Autonomous Warfare" (3:30 AM ET), Édouard R. Maurin describes a fake radio call at Pokrovsk that drew Russian soldiers out under a drone's thermal camera.

• He proposes nesting deception from section to corps, and measuring it by whether the enemy spends more to engage a decoy than the decoy costs.
• Russia's Gerbera and Parodiya decoys, reportedly about half of some Shahed swarms, cost under $10,000, while Western interceptors cost hundreds of thousands to millions.
• He says the effect on automated classifiers is his proposal, not an observed result. He founded Fog Defence, which builds decoys.

17. General Dynamics shows PERCH 2.0, a bolt-on box that lets Abrams tanks and Strykers launch Switchblade 300 loitering munitions

Defence Blog ("Abrams tanks get kamikaze drone launcher," 4:47 AM ET) reports General Dynamics Land Systems announced the AeroVironment-developed upgrade on X with a test video.

• The kit is built for the M1A2 SEPv3 and the Stryker. On the Abrams, it replaces the loader's sponson box and bolts on without welding or cutting.
• In 2025, GD said the canister held one Switchblade 600 and three Switchblade 300s. The 2026 announcement focuses on the 300.
• These are company claims.

18. IWI delivers its ARBEL anti-drone fire-control kit to Thailand, fitted into rifles the army already has, and says a follow-on order is under discussion

Defence Blog ("Israel's IWI arms Thai soldiers with anti-drone rifles," 2:33 AM ET) says IWI swapped each rifle's lower receiver in-country and trained Thai soldiers on site.

• ARBEL doesn't aim the rifle. It times follow-up shots while the trigger is held, to improve the odds of hitting a small, erratic drone.
• IWI quotes about 400 grams and ranges of up to 450 m by day and about 250 m at night. Thailand is its first announced operational customer in Asia.
• These are company claims.

19. Voyant shows the UK Ministry of Defence radar-based navigation that lets an autonomous boat fix its position without GPS

Naval News ("Voyant Successfully Demonstrates GNSS-denied Navigation for UK MoD," 3:51 AM ET) says the trial ran aboard a Kraken K3 Scout autonomous surface vessel in the Solent.

• The software uses particle filter algorithms to match live radar imagery against reference maps, and it reports how uncertain its position estimate is.
• The trial is part of a wider MOD effort on navigation in jammed or spoofed environments. These are company claims.

20. Ocius's diesel-hybrid Bluebottle drone boat makes its first Navy exercise appearance at Maritime Big Play Pacific, carrying ThayerMahan acoustic sensors to track undersea threats

Naval News ("OCIUS' New Bluebottle Hybrid USV Demonstrates Capability at Maritime Big Play Pacific," 4:50 PM ET) says two Bluebottle Hybrids are in the AUKUS exercise, which runs through October.

• A diesel generator supplements the boat's renewable power for low-light, high-latitude winters and higher-power payloads.
• CEO Robert Dane says the exercise shows "the increasingly important role autonomous and uncrewed systems are playing" for AUKUS navies. These are company statements.

21. War on the Rocks: drone batteries are fuel, ammunition and perishable stock at once, so the Pentagon needs protected production and a rotating reserve

"Establishing Battery Supply Chain Resilience for Drones" (Morgan Bazilian, Alex Gilbert and Aashutosh Mistry; promoted by @WarOnTheRocks at 5:15 PM ET) says militaries are only starting to treat batteries as seriously as fuel and ammunition.

• A reconnaissance drone's battery behaves like fuel, while a one-way attack drone's battery is expended with the weapon.
• The authors say "some battery dependencies the Pentagon can ride out," but the few that would ground its drones need protected production. Stockpiles may mean rotating packs into the field before they go stale.

22. ASTM International is drafting WK90326, a human-factors standard for drone ground control stations

Unmanned Airspace ("ASTM developing proposed human factors standard for UAS ground control stations," 4:23 AM ET) says the standard will set minimum requirements for remote pilot interfaces, alerts, display formatting, controls, situational awareness and workload.

• ASTM says it is aimed especially at smaller UAS developers who aren't sure how existing human-factors standards apply to control station design.

23. arXiv: HyperDrone renders millions of frames per second on consumer GPUs to train drone vision policies purely in simulation

"HyperDrone: Simulation-to-Reality Transfer at Millions of Frames per Second" (Jonas Eschmann and Giuseppe Loianno) says it is more than 20 times faster than existing batch quadrotor simulators.

• Its HyperLux ray-tracing engine renders RGB, depth, segmentation and optical flow entirely on the GPU.
• A vision-based yaw-control policy trained only in simulation ran onboard a real Crazyflie quadrotor. It's from the Oct. 22 listing.

24. arXiv: AirPlayground offers 94 photorealistic environments and 94,000 expert flights for benchmarking drone navigation

"AirPlayground: Benchmarking Aerial Navigation across Diverse Reconstructed Environments" (Zhang et al.) builds the environments with 3D Gaussian Splatting across indoor, urban and vegetation settings.

• It has 46.5 million observation-state-action samples at 50 Hz and benchmarks seven baselines.
• Training on 70 scenes instead of 5 raised median success in unseen environments from 16.8% to 29.4%. It's from the Oct. 22 listing.

25. @TimOnPoint: "Autonomy is also a discussion about human scarcity"

@TimOnPoint (personal account, 3:45 PM ET Wednesday): "Human scarcity is the condition in which available human attention, access, or response time is insufficient to maintain every required transition in a continuing operation."

• It's an opinion post from the AUTOWAR25 founder.

1. Project Agincourt publishes an open letter on the road to a four-star Autonomous Warfare Command: "urgency does not excuse imprecision"

The Department of War release "Department of War's Project Agincourt Accelerates Autonomous Warfare Command to Drive Battlefield Adaptation at Scale" says Project Agincourt leaders Owen West and Navy SEAL Senior Chief Max Strasiser released an open letter to the Joint Force and industry setting out the operational roadmap to AUTOWARCOM.

• The letter describes a combat-first model that pushes procurement decisions and dollars to frontline units and measures success by how fast an operational problem gets "a fielded, scalable solution." Competitions, exercises and combat performance decide which systems scale; failing systems can be dropped.
• "To flip the cost exchange, every auditable dollar we spend should reduce cost-per-kill or risk-to-force." Also: "The ideal Pacific portfolio is not right for Europe" and "We will not replace one bureaucracy with another" (NewsNation, IANS).
• The command is due by Oct. 1, 2027. A senior DoW official told NewsNation, which got the letter early (9:00 AM ET): "This new four-star command is here to stay." Inside Defense reports the pair wrote "We are on the clock" as a plan-of-action deadline approaches.
• @DOWAgincourt posted the letter (11:13 AM ET, ~23K views), and DoW deputy press secretary @JacobBlissDOW's post (10:14 AM ET) has ~24K.

2. DIU says Drone Dominance Gauntlet II orders are "in the works," with Perennial Autonomy and Neros each getting the maximum initial order of 8,000 drones

@DIU_x (9:18 AM ET, ~11K views): "Perennial Autonomy received the top award for the Deep Strike mission area, and Neros Technologies took top marks in the Close Quarters Battle mission area... Congratulations to all the winners. Now, it's time to deliver."

• DIU lists the other top performers as Hyperscale, Skycutter, Swarm Defense Technologies, ORQA US, XTEND Reality, Vector and ModalAI, each getting orders from the 60,000-drone pool based on performance.
• Defence Blog's earlier leaderboard tally shows 7,000 to 4,000 drones for the second- through fifth-place finishers in each event, with Neros at 14,000 in total across both.
• Dronedominance.mil lists Gauntlet 2.5, a bomber-platform mission, for about November 2026 and says the program intends to buy more than 200,000 drones by 2027.

3. Army CTO Alex Miller says the Army's drone marketplace has handled more than $800 million in purchases and now covers ground, maritime and counter-drone systems

In a Breaking Defense video interview ("Army's tech chief talks autonomy, acquisition and the future of drones," 9:06 AM ET), Miller talks with land warfare reporter Carley Welch about the service's autonomy plans.

• He discusses the newly reflagged Futures and Autonomous Systems Command and how it fits with the Pentagon's wider autonomy push.
• The marketplace started with Army drones and has expanded to ground, maritime and counter-drone systems.
• He says the Army sees autonomy supporting battlefield protection and logistics, including ammunition, food, fuel, water and medical supplies.

4. The toll from Monday's drone strike on Abyei's Amiet market stands at 153 and "may increase any time," and sources say Sudanese army drones killed about 150 more in West Kordofan

Abyei's interim information minister, Yohana Akol, told AFP: "The number of casualties is 153 and it may increase any time from now because some victims burned to ashes" (Arab News, 9:53 AM ET).

• A witness told AFP: "A swarm of drones was hovering over the Amiet Market." A military source told the BBC the army carried out the strike, calling the market an RSF fuel supply site.
• The Sudan War Observatory told the BBC that army drones hit a truck carrying about 200 mourners and a funeral tent in Al-Dabab, West Kordofan, on Sunday evening, killing about 150. That brings reported deaths across the strikes to more than 300.
• ABC News reports that South Sudan summoned Sudan's ambassador and that about 8,000 people were displaced. MSF says it has treated more than 20 wounded at Ameth Bek Hospital.

5. Denmark guarantees a $113 million loan for the Danish subsidiary of Fire Point, the Ukrainian maker of FP-1 long-range attack drones

The Danish government announced the 750 million kroner guarantee, routed through its Export and Investment Fund (EIFO), on Oct. 21, the Kyiv Independent reports (11:25 AM ET).

• Defense Minister Jeppe Bruus: "When Denmark supports the Ukrainian defense industry, the combat power of Ukraine's defense increases." He says production outside Ukraine makes it more resilient to Russian attacks.
• The state backs the loan because the war keeps Fire Point from borrowing on ordinary terms. Its Danish plant for long-range missile fuel is due to open by the end of 2027.
• In August, Fire Point signed deals with more than a dozen European firms for its Freyja air defense project, meant as a domestic alternative to Patriot.

6. The Army will test up to 15 counter-drone systems in Morocco next spring, including sensors for radio-silent drones, and aims to field winners within 180 days

Army officials told Task & Purpose ("Army wants to test and field new drone defenses in under six months," 9:58 AM ET) that the tests focus on protecting temporary command posts and remote positions.

• A Southern European Task Force, Africa spokesperson says the Army wants to detect and identify small, radio-silent drones from nearly a mile away, day or night, and track large drones from 5 miles and smaller ones from about 2 miles.
• Testing runs in Tan-Tan in February–March 2027, then during African Lion 2027 in April–May. An Army spokesperson: "Africa's dispersed, bandwidth-limited environment demands low-cost, scalable systems that work in degraded conditions."
• The 180-day clock refers to getting approved equipment to soldiers after the evaluation.

7. CENTCOM shows Marines flying small drones off the flight deck of USS Portland in the Arabian Sea

@CENTCOM (2:00 PM ET, ~41K views): "As an innovation battle lab, CENTCOM fields a variety of emerging technologies to rapidly equip deployed service members with cutting edge capabilities."

• The four photos show small unmanned aircraft training aboard the amphibious transport dock USS Portland (LPD 27).
• CENTCOM didn't name the drone models or the unit.

8. GAO: the Pentagon's Responsible AI Division had filled only three of its 10 authorized positions, and its working council went months without meeting

GAO's report "Artificial Intelligence: Actions and Opportunities to Implement Responsible Use in DOD" (GAO-27-107837, released Oct. 14) says the CDAO's Responsible AI Working Council didn't meet from late 2024 until August 2025, and Defense News and Military Times covered it today (11:55 AM ET).

• GAO says the council has no charter defining roles or meeting frequency, so it "is at risk of lapsing again." Defense News adds that 29 of 64 efforts in DoD's Responsible AI strategy were still incomplete as of April 2026.
• GAO recommends a charter and filling the division's workforce needs. DoD concurred with both. GAO also asks Congress to direct DoD to act on earlier AI collaboration and workforce recommendations.
• CSET's Owen Daniels told Defense News: "Responsible AI should be considered the same as operationally effective AI."

9. Reuters: European governments weigh letting utilities and infrastructure operators jam and shoot down drones themselves, and France wants a push-button automated response

Reuters ("Europe weighs giving utilities, infrastructure companies more powers to bring down drones," via C4ISRNET, 7:07 AM ET) interviewed more than 30 executives, officials and drone experts and found detection and defeat technology "maturing faster than the rules on who may use it."

• France passed a law in August letting approved infrastructure operators and contractors detect, jam and shoot down drones near designated sites. A government test program at Brétigny-sur-Orge has catalogued three integrators and 17 counter-drone systems.
• A senior French official says utility security staff should eventually be able to launch an automated response "at the press of a button." Austria plans similar powers, and Poland already lets designated operator security units destroy or take control of drones.
• Germany's interior ministry is reviewing the question. Finland's Fingrid says the job should stay with authorities, and Rheinmetall calls civilian demand a "very fast-growing" segment.

10. TWZ: new Anduril video shows Ghost Shark surfacing and launching an Altius-type drone from a 12-tube launcher

"Ghost Shark Uncrewed Submarine Shown Launching Aerial Drones For The First Time" (TWZ, 1:10 PM ET) says the footage also reveals two deployable masts not seen on the extra-large autonomous undersea vehicle before.

• A second launcher sits in the other upper payload bay, so a single sortie could carry about two dozen aerial drones, TWZ notes. The video doesn't identify the Altius variant.
• @anduriltech (12:16 AM ET, ~191K views) quoted Australia's defense industry minister @PatConroy1: "Ghost Shark has teeth now," adding that "Ghost Sharks are rolling off the production line. Payload testing is active."

11. Elbit Systems buys International Submarine Engineering, a Vancouver maker of autonomous and remotely operated undersea vehicles

Breaking Defense ("Israel's Elbit acquires Canadian company focused on autonomous underwater systems," 1:29 PM ET) reports that ISE, founded in 1974, has "delivered over 250 underwater vehicles to customers in more than 20 countries."

• Elbit Naval Systems' Saar Koursh says ISE complements Elbit's Seagull USV and will let it offer "a complete multi-domain autonomous ecosystem, integrating UAVs, USVs and AUVs into a single mission framework."
• Elbit expects the deal to grow its underwater ISR, mine countermeasures and anti-submarine work. It called the price "not material."

12. Military Times on the Marine Corps' service-wide Maven access: DoD officials say Maven helped identify and strike more than 2,000 targets in Iran in the first 96 hours of Operation Epic Fury

"US Marine Corps makes Maven available service-wide" (Daniel Terrill, 8:54 AM ET) covers the Marine Corps message that gives all assigned and attached personnel in covered commands access to Maven Smart System accounts.

• Military Times describes Maven as a government-owned, Palantir-developed platform that fuses intelligence reports, drone video, satellite imagery and maps for real-time decisions.
• The Epic Fury figure comes from DoD officials as cited by Military Times.

13. The Kyiv Independent trains with "Chipa," a one-shot, $67 net gun built so civilians in front-line "kill zones" can stop FPV drones

Jakub Laichter (9:04 AM ET) watched soldiers from the National Guard's Omega unit practice with BlueBird Tech's net gun, which entangles an incoming drone's propellers.

• The launcher costs about Hr 3,000 (~$67), fires once and works best at 10–20 meters. It's classified as a non-firearm, so civilians can buy it without a permit.
• Omega soldiers carry it alongside shotguns, preferring the net up close. Netted drones can still explode. "The farther away, the better," one soldier says.
• The training pairs it with a handheld Chuika detector that can display an incoming drone's video feed.

14. National Defense: the Marine Corps' Ground Combat Element 2040 plan sees AI and robotic systems augmenting, and sometimes replacing, maneuver elements by 2036–2040

"Marine Corps Maps Out Intersection of Humans, Tech" (Laura Heckmann, 8:07 AM ET) covers the roadmap the Corps released in August, which keeps the force "human-centric" while moving toward AI-enabled command and control and human-machine teaming.

• Lt. Gen. Jay Bargeron: the ability of squads, platoons and companies "to defend themselves against one-way attack systems is really maybe one of the biggest holes in our swing." The Corps is fielding MADIS counter-drone systems on JLTVs.
• Infantry battalions are standing up a fires and reconnaissance company that combines crewed and uncrewed sensors with organic fires.
• The Atlantic Council's Sean Welch questions sustainment: "We're buying enough to have a capability, but we're not buying enough to have a sustainable capability."

15. The Army's I Corps commander says the NGC2 rollout timeline "is based on resources available," with $904 million requested for FY27

Defense News ("Timing to roll out US Army's NGC2 depends on funds, commander says," 9:59 AM ET) quotes Lt. Gen. Matt McFarlane from an Oct. 13 roundtable: "Scaling and speed up is based on resources available. That's not in my job jar."

• NGC2 is meant to let weapons, sensors and applications across the force share one network, including in communication-contested environments.
• Anduril holds a contract worth up to $1.8 billion for NGC2's common data baseline, working with Palantir, Raft and Striveworks. Funding is waiting on the NDAA while Congress is in recess.

16. DroneXL: Sen. Rick Scott pushes the FCC to keep DJI and Autel on the Covered List, as Florida's own Chinese-drone ban idled an estimated $200 million fleet

DroneXL (9:12 AM ET) reports Scott used a Monday press release to promote his Oct. 14 letter asking FCC Chairman Brendan Carr to reject DJI's petition for reconsideration and Autel's application for review.

• Florida's 2021 ban grounded police and local-government drones that state Sen. Tom Wright estimated cost at least $200 million. The Legislature set aside $25 million to replace them.
• Wright said in 2023 that replacements would cost at least twice that, because U.S. manufacturers had doubled their prices.

17. BAE Systems says a rocket-armed TRV-150 cargo drone shot down several one-way attack drones in a single flight during a Pentagon experiment at Eglin

Defence Blog ("Britain's cargo drone becomes a low-cost drone interceptor," 6:46 AM ET) reports BAE's Oct. 21 statement that the adapted Malloy T-150 fired APKWS laser-guided rockets from a three-pod launcher at multiple targets without landing to reload.

• The test was part of the Joint Readiness Experimentation exercise run by the Under Secretary of War for Research and Engineering's office at Eglin AFB, Sept. 21–25. SURVICE Engineering adapted the drone for Army requirements.
• BAE wants to take the setup to sea next to protect ships. It hasn't said when an armed TRV-150 could enter service.
• These are company claims. Defence Blog's post has ~4.5K views.

18. Austin startup Stellios Technologies comes out of stealth with $5 million and $2 million in signed orders for high-power microwave counter-drone systems

DroneLife (9:07 AM ET) reports the oversubscribed pre-seed round, announced Oct. 20, included Shervin Pishevar's Sofreh Capital, Wave Function Ventures and Cubit Capital.

• Stellios builds klystrons, gyrotrons and the high-voltage power systems behind MW-class high-power microwave weapons. Its first commercial focus is counter-drone defense.
• Founder Richard Starson previously co-founded Escape Dynamics, where team members ran a 100 kW-class gyrotron.
• These are company claims from a press release.

19. Elistair adds a tether module for Parrot's ANAFI UKR micro-drone, for hours of uninterrupted ISR overwatch

DroneLife (9:11 AM ET) reports the module connects the ANAFI UKR to Elistair's Safe-T and Ligh-T tether stations, which supply continuous power through a micro-tether.

• Elistair says the system is ready to fly in under two minutes and targets force protection, perimeter and border surveillance.
• Elistair says more than 2,000 of its tether stations are deployed in more than 70 countries. These are company claims.

20. Russia's United Aircraft Corporation says it is evaluating AI tools to design new aircraft faster, including a GigaChat generative-design pilot

Defence Blog ("Russia wants AI to help design its next aircraft," Dylan Malyasov, 6:32 AM ET) cites a UAC social media statement and general designer Sergey Korotkov's Oct. 13 remarks.

• In May, UAC's CEO said a pilot with Sberbank's GigaChat model was handling early-stage generative design of a new aircraft.
• Sanctions pushed UAC onto Russian design software. It says about 4,000 engineering workstations have been switched over. These are company statements.

21. arXiv: a quadrotor controller that learns only a small wind-disturbance correction online keeps tracking accurate in gusty, spatially varying wakes

"Real-Time Disturbance-Aware Koopman Model Predictive Control for Quadrotors in Spatially Varying Winds" (Kombo, Haseli, Stefan-Zavala, Renn, Gharib and Burdick) keeps an offline-learned model fixed and adds a lightweight online residual ensemble inside MPC.

• Hardware tests on a nano-quadrotor in uniform wind and a spatially varying wake show better multi-step prediction and trajectory tracking as model mismatch grows, while still running in real time.
• It's from the Oct. 20 evening listing.

22. arXiv: ten methods for judging which robot suits which task "frequently disagree," even on identical multi-robot scenarios

"Robot-Task Suitability in Heterogeneous Multi-Robot Task Allocation" (Weiner and Korpan) compares ten deterministic methods and two LLM-based variants on common robot and task profiles.

• Generic similarity measures can break the properties expected of requirement-based suitability, and LLM scoring adds randomness and sensitivity to wording. The authors say suitability should be an explicit modeling choice.
• It's from the Oct. 20 evening listing.

23. @PatrickWeaverPA: "The border is now a military installation and a battle lab for testing new systems, to include directed energy weapons"

Patrick Weaver, deputy chief of staff to the Secretary of War (personal X account, 8:16 AM ET, ~23K views), tagged @DoWCTO and added: "The border is locked down!"

• @TimOnPoint (personal account, 10:43 AM ET) quoted it: "It uses microwaves to heat the top millimeter of exposed skin. Apparently, quite effective."
• Neither post names the system, and DoW hasn't published details.

24. @VanHipp on the new command: "long overdue, but it must have the authority, resources and flexibility to move at the speed of modern warfare"

Van Hipp, chairman of American Defense International and a former deputy assistant secretary of the Army (personal X account, 12:20 PM ET), linked his Newsmax op-ed: "The nature of warfare is changing faster than our military's traditional processes can accommodate."

• It's an opinion post.

25. @TimOnPoint on Ghost Shark's payloads: "I'm wondering about the future of SDV Teams"

@TimOnPoint (personal account, 10:12 AM ET, ~1K views) quoted @anduriltech's Ghost Shark payload video, referring to the Navy's SEAL Delivery Vehicle teams.

• It's an opinion post.

1. Hegseth on Ukraine's Starshield: "We haven't pulled anything back," pointing to "terms of service," as WSJ and CBS report that Musk ordered the slowdown

Speaking to reporters at Riverside Machine & Engineering in Eau Claire, Wis., on Oct. 20, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said: "We haven't pulled anything back. There are terms of service that ultimately need to be complied to, and that's where Starlink has the option to make those decisions, but nothing's changed from our view. We haven't made any directives or anything like that" (CBS News, Washington Examiner).

• The Wall Street Journal ("Musk Ordered Starlink Slowdown That Blindsided Ukraine," 4:25 PM ET), citing U.S. officials, reports that Musk ordered the Starshield slowdown; The Verge relays WSJ sources saying "Musk acted unilaterally." CBS News (Jennifer Jacobs, updated 9:17 PM ET) says Musk held multiple conversations with administration officials before the order, and "it's not clear how Musk's order to curtail service was executed." Last week Musk wrote that "any limits on speed or usage are decided by the US military and ultimately POTUS."
• CBS reports that Ukrainian units saw links drop at speeds as low as 90 km/h, while Starshield-equipped strike drones cruise at 160 km/h or faster. Trump said Monday: "I don't know who it was, but I'd like to find out."
• On interceptors, per @DOWResponse (4:50 PM ET): "We haven't changed our posture in ANY WAY TOWARDS THE UKRAINIANS. Certainly, with things like interceptors—we want to make sure our guys have as many as possible as well."
• @WSJ's post (4:27 PM ET) has ~2.5M views, and @atrupar's clip of the terms-of-service answer (4:00 PM ET) has ~553K.

2. Russia launches 186 drones and Iskander-K cruise missiles overnight; a drone hits a Kyiv high-rise, and attacks kill at least nine across Ukraine in a day

Ukraine's Air Force says the attack began at 18:00 on Oct. 20 (11 AM ET) with Iskander-K cruise missiles fired from Rostov Oblast airspace and 186 Shahed (88 of them jet-powered), Gerbera, S-8000 Banderol/Dan-T and Parodiya decoy drones. By 08:30 (1:30 AM ET), air defenses had downed or jammed 150 drones, including 63 jet-powered ones (Ukrainska Pravda).

• The Air Force recorded hits at 27 locations and debris at 13, with 10 drones still airborne at report time. It didn't say how many missiles were launched or intercepted.
• In Kyiv, the city military administration says at least two people were killed and two injured. A drone hit a 24-story apartment building in Sviatoshynskyi District and started a fire on the 20th floor, per the Kyiv Independent (Ukrainska Pravda, citing Mayor Klitschko, says the 19th floor). A transport-infrastructure site in Solomianskyi District also caught fire.
• In Korotych, Kharkiv region, drones killed an 81-year-old woman and an 83-year-old man (Gov. Oleh Syniehubov). A drone also hit a university building in Kremenchuk. Across Ukraine, attacks killed at least nine people and injured 45 over the past day (Kyiv Independent, 4:58 AM ET).

3. NATO sends more maritime patrol aircraft, radars, drones and explosive-exploitation teams to the Black Sea after drone attacks on ships

After the North Atlantic Council met in Brussels on Oct. 20, SHAPE spokesman U.S. Army Col. Martin O'Donnell said: "Allies have or will send additional maritime patrol aircraft, radar systems, explosive exploitation teams, intelligence personnel, drones, and more to the Black Sea" (Stars and Stripes; Kyiv Independent, 10:23 PM ET).

• O'Donnell said the top priority is situational awareness "through increased sensors and data sharing." NATO spokesperson Allison Hart: "NATO has already strengthened our posture along the eastern flank, including with counter-drone capabilities."
• On Oct. 13, drones hit the Chelsea 3 off Byala, and the HS Dignity sank near Krapets with 11 crew missing. Seven sailors are missing after the tanker Wine Trader caught fire near Sulina, Romania, amid reported drone activity. Bulgarian authorities recovered suspected drone fragments from the Chelsea 3.
• NATO hasn't said who it thinks is responsible. Romania's defense minister said the drones its F-16s shot down on Oct. 17 were believed to be Russian-made Geran-4s. NATO hasn't announced an escort mission (Stars and Stripes).
• Stripes notes a U.S. Navy P-8A arrived in Varna on Sunday from Sigonella, and it's unclear whether that's part of the reinforcement. @KyivIndependent's post (10:35 PM ET) has ~24K views.

4. The Saudi-led coalition intercepts five more drones over the Madinah and Eastern regions, as Britain commits RAF Typhoons to shoot down Houthi drones and missiles over the kingdom

Arab News ("Saudi coalition intercepts 5 drones in Eastern, Madinah regions," updated 3:25 AM ET) reports the latest interceptions. Separately, the UK Ministry of Defence's "Operational update 20 October – UK military support to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia" says RAF Typhoons will "fly defensive counter air missions to support the protection of Saudi cities and critical national infrastructure against aerial attack."

• The MoD: "These aircraft will operate in a defensive role and will not conduct offensive strikes against the Houthis." The UK is also sending an RAF A400M and military advisers, and it's extending air-to-air refueling (by 90 days, per the BBC).
• Defence Secretary Wes Streeting: "RAF Typhoons will fly defensive air missions to help protect Saudi airspace from drones and missiles."
• AP, via Arab News, cites a regional official who says Egypt will deploy air defense systems and aircraft to help repel missiles and drones fired at Saudi Arabia, pending parliamentary approval. U.S. envoy Tom Barrack said Trump "supports Saudi Arabia, and the backing that they need logistically we'll supply."

5. Russia's Defense Ministry claims it downed 373 Ukrainian drones overnight over 10 regions, the Moscow region, Krasnodar, Crimea and the Black Sea

The ministry says air defenses destroyed the fixed-wing drones between 20:00 Moscow time on Oct. 20 and 08:00 on Oct. 21 (1 PM to 1 AM ET). It lists the Novgorod, Tver, Bryansk, Belgorod, Kursk, Smolensk, Kaluga, Oryol, Tula and Ryazan regions, plus the Moscow region, Krasnodar Krai, occupied Crimea and the Black Sea (RIA Novosti; PRM.ua).

• This is a warring-party claim. The ministry gave no breakdown by region and reported no damage.
• Ukraine hasn't said what it targeted. Monitoring channels separately reported strikes in occupied Donetsk and Crimea.

6. Taiwan's army chief puts drone units on combat-readiness duty and says every tactical action should now be combined with drones

Taiwan Defence ("Taiwan's army chief orders drone units folded into its combat-readiness forces," 9:43 PM ET Oct. 20) reports, citing the military's Youth Daily News, that army commander Gen. Lu Kun-hsiu gave the order Oct. 20 while inspecting drone training in central Taiwan.

• He told headquarters departments to set training subjects, items and timetables for the drone units, and called for more classrooms and training areas and a higher share of soldiers with operator certificates.
• The Liberty Times reports the army now has a drone battalion in each of the three main-island theaters and a drone company in each regional command, with counter-drone systems on outlying islands and at key garrisons. The counter-drone system is being put out to tender again.
• Lu noted the drone units went from training their first operators to tactical use in a little over a year. The former drone training center is now an Unmanned Systems Training Command for all three services.

7. Zelensky confirms U.S. ballistic missile early warning is working again: "this morning began with positive signals from the American side"

At a press conference in Oslo with Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre and Finnish President Alexander Stubb, Zelensky said: "This is very important for our people, as we can know when a Russian ballistic missile is incoming" (Kyiv Independent, 5:34 PM ET).

• Ukraine had reported missed alerts in recent days. White House officials blamed "bad weather conditions," and Rubio cited a software malfunction.
• Zelensky on energy strikes: "We are ready not to hit sensitive parts of Russia's energy sector if Russia stops hitting ours. Putin said no."
• U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff joined the Oslo meetings, then met Putin in Russia overnight (Kyiv Independent).

8. MARADMIN 505/26: "Maven Smart System Available to Marine Corps Across All Networks"

The message, signed Oct. 20 and effective Oct. 1, says the Marine Corps "is licensed for unlimited access to MSS via all applicable networks for all commands and organizations." All assigned and attached personnel at any echelon in the covered commands can get accounts.

• It calls MSS "a government-owned, contractor-operated, commercial software platform containing Department of War (DoW)-owned data and interfaces that enable integration of strategic, operational, and tactical data to support all Joint functions." Marine Forces Reserve Command is newly covered.
• Its references include an urgent needs statement for an "AI-Enabled Battle Management Command and Control (BMC2) platform" and a Deputy Secretary of War memo, "Paths Forward for Maven Smart System and Combined Joint All-Domain Command and Control in the Artificial Intelligence Era."
• DefenseScoop (Brandi Vincent, 5:12 PM ET) quotes a source who says the change gives the Corps "unfettered access to MSS unclassified secret and top secret" capabilities. MSS fuses data that includes computer-vision detections from drone video. Last year DoD raised its Palantir MSS contract ceiling to nearly $1.3 billion through 2029.

9. DARPA previews the Triage Challenge Finals, where "the world's most advanced autonomous triage platforms" will compete in a few weeks

@DARPA (3:37 PM ET, ~5.3K views): "From robotic standoff vitals detection to predictive trauma algorithms, meet the teams taking on the DARPA Triage Challenge Finals." The finals will be held at Disaster City in College Station, Texas.

• DARPA's teams page says the finalists, from universities and research institutes to startups, are developing "AI- and sensor-driven solutions to assess casualties and support medical responders." Some teams are self-funded and some are DARPA-funded.
• DARPA didn't give an exact date, and the team list didn't load for us.

10. "Very difficult to defeat": the Kyiv Independent explains how Russia uses mesh radios to fly long-range drones like FPVs over Kyiv

Polina Moroziuk (2:43 AM ET) reports that after SpaceX blocked unauthorized Starlink terminals used by Russian forces in early February, Russia began fitting fixed-wing drones with mesh radios, including the Chinese-made XK-F358, to relay control and live video far beyond a direct radio link.

• Serhii "Flash" Beskrestnov, an adviser to Ukraine's president, says a Geran-5 jet drone hit Kyiv's Inkom business center on Sept. 29 while a second jet-powered Shahed circled at nearly 3 km, relaying the signal and filming. He also believes "enemy mesh radio relays are being activated in Kyiv... Perhaps one to three."
• Melrose Networks CEO Mark Hay says the XK-F358 supports networks of up to 63 hops. RAND's Michael Bohnert says mesh can let Russia fly drones "two, three, maybe even four times further" than over a direct link. A Calibre Defence analysis puts live control at up to 150–175 km from the farthest ground station.
• Some Gerans carry both mesh radios and cellular modems, and Belarusian LTE could act as a gateway. Russia's 50th Separate Unmanned Systems Brigade "Varyag" leads the tactic, and some of the radios cost more than $8,000 each.
• @KyivIndependent's post (5:25 AM ET) has ~11K views.

11. TWZ: Wild Hornets, which makes the Sting Shahed interceptor, is rethinking how much it will rely on Starlink after the speed cap

"Major Ukrainian Arms Maker Rethinking Future Reliance On Starlink" (Howard Altman, 5:30 PM ET) quotes Wild Hornets spokesman Mike Orliuk: "I believe, in any case, depending on a single solution is very risky. Especially if you don't have full control over it."

• Orliuk says current operations aren't affected, because Starlink only links the command center to the ground station that controls the interceptors. Drones that carry a terminal at high speed can't work under the cap, though, so the company is rethinking projects such as "launching interceptors from aerial platforms" and will test alternatives. He also points to growing interest in Eutelsat.
• Georgian Legion commander Mamuka Mamulashvili says Starlink also kept switching on and off, which disrupted drone systems beyond those flying faster than ~160 km/h.
• A U.S. official told TWZ on Monday that "no such request was ever made by the president." The Pentagon declined further comment.

12. At Spain's Atlas 26 counter-drone exercise, an ASCOD tracked carrier shows up fitted with launchers for Bandit-X interceptor drones

Defence Blog ("Spanish tracked carrier turns into a heavy drone hunter," Dylan Malyasov, 6:09 AM ET) reports the GDELS vehicle appeared at the exercise. Spain's Defence Staff is running it Oct. 19–23 at the Médano del Loro range in Huelva, with the army, navy, air and space force, Civil Guard and National Police under a single command.

• The army's Anti-Aircraft Artillery Command is running the exercise, which tests both jamming/spoofing and hard-kill weapons alongside companies and universities.
• ARMMO says Bandit-X flies faster than 360 km/h, carries up to 0.8 kg, reaches 50–60 km, and has autonomous navigation, terminal guidance that works without satellite navigation, and swarm capability. Those are company claims.
• The photo is a screengrab from social media video shared by Spanish defense watcher ArmaduraXXI.

13. The German Army gets its first heavy-lift cargo drone, a TEKEVER aircraft, to test autonomous resupply

Defence Blog ("German Army gets its first heavy-lift cargo drone," 5:30 AM ET) reports that the 131st Supply Battalion in Bad Frankenhausen, Thuringia, took delivery. The Bundeswehr in Thuringia announced the handover on Oct. 13.

• The battalion will test what jobs the drone can take on and how autonomous cargo flights fit into Army logistics. TEKEVER is opening a German subsidiary in Munich.
• Defence Blog doesn't name the model. TEKEVER says its AR6 family can carry about 200 kg more than 500 km, which is a company claim.

14. The Army pilots AI-Assisted Maintenance, which has digitized 200 to 250 technical manuals so soldiers can ask it repair questions

DefenseScoop ("Army pilots AI-backed maintenance program to digitize manuals, streamline repairs," Drew F. Lawrence, 6:02 PM ET) reports that CECOM's AIAM lets soldiers look up repair references, document problems for supervisors, reach civilian logistics assistance representatives and check parts inventory.

• Col. Cory Armstead says early versions that simply combined publications with AI produced "a lot of hallucinations," so the AI now navigates the digitized publications and pulls answers directly from them.
• About 4,000 users have given feedback. It runs as a web app on phones, tablets and laptops, and the goal is predictive maintenance.
• This is back-office AI, not autonomous weapons.

15. Monitoring channels report Ukrainian drone strikes on energy sites in occupied Chystiakove, a Luhansk telecom site and Crimea

The Kyiv Independent (7:25 PM ET) cites the monitoring channel Exilenova Plus, which reported a mass drone attack on Chystiakove in Donetsk Oblast and a strike on a Luhansk site that the Russian-installed provider Lugacom uses. The pro-Ukrainian channel Crimean Wind reported drone strikes near a train station in Crimea's Krasnoperekopskyi district, followed by power outages.

• Ukrainian officials haven't confirmed the strikes.

16. ISW: the Starshield speed cap has "significantly degraded" Ukraine's mid-range strike campaign, according to Unmanned Systems Forces data

@TheStudyofWar (10:21 PM ET, ~57K views): "Ukrainian forces continue to face in-motion speed restrictions to SpaceX's low-earth orbit satellite communication technology (Starlink and Starshield) that limit Ukraine's ability to counter Russian piston engine-driven and jet-powered strike drones."

• Citing Beskrestnov (Oct. 19), ISW says the 160 km/h cap is still in place. It disrupts data to interceptors chasing piston-engine Gerans, which fly faster than that, and limits jet-powered interceptor drones.
• ISW says Unmanned Systems Forces data from July 1 to Oct. 19 indicate the cap, first reported Oct. 14, has "significantly degraded" the mid-range strike campaign against Russian logistics.
• We read the post, not the full report.

17. Lockheed Martin floats a Ukraine-specific F-16 with an AESA radar to spot low-flying drones and cruise missiles sooner, company sources tell Defence Blog

Defence Blog ("Lockheed Martin offers Ukraine its own version of the F-16," 3:12 AM ET) reports that the idea includes longer range and deeper integration of European weapons.

• The sources say no concrete negotiations are under way, and any program would need Washington's approval.
• After meeting a Lockheed team in Kyiv on Oct. 19, Zelensky said: "during massive attacks with Shaheds, the F-16s destroy them."
• This rests on company sources. Defence Blog's post has ~3.9K views.

18. Indian startup Apollyon Dynamics teases its Nightshade Mk-2 jet drone and plans to deliver a target-drone version to the Indian Army by December

Defence Blog ("Indian startup shows first look at new jet-powered drone," 6:02 AM ET) reports that CEO Jayant Khatri shared the first photo, and the company says the Mk-2 is coming "SOON."

• The company says the earlier Nightshade ADX-1 flies at 600–700 km/h, carries up to 5 kg of explosives, reaches more than 100 km, and navigates by inertial and terrain-following methods when GPS is jammed. Those are company claims.
• The startup grew out of a BITS Pilani student project and was founded in May 2025. Its $480,000 pre-seed round was led by Naandi Ventures, and it's seeking a $5 million seed round.
• The company hasn't released Mk-2 performance figures or a first-flight date.

19. CoverTech says its 9 mm DroneBullets destroyed DJI Mavics at the Falcon Peak 26.2 counter-drone experiment at Yuma

@Drone_Bullet (8:13 PM ET): "CoverTech's 9mm DroneBulletsTM destroyed DJI Mavics during the DoW/JIATF 401 Falcon Peak 26.2 event at Yuma Proving Ground (Cibola Range Site 17)... And yes ... we integrated with Anduril Lattice."

• A DVIDS photo from Sept. 16 by Staff Sgt. Colten Tessness shows a destroyed Mavic hit by the round. DVIDS describes Falcon Peak 26.2 as a NORAD and U.S. Northern Command counter-small-drone experiment focused on low-collateral defeat.
• The Lattice integration and the JIATF 401 framing are company claims, and the post has few views.

20. arXiv: "safe interruption does not guarantee safe handback" when a pilot or detect-and-avoid system overrides a drone's learned navigation policy

In "Interruption-Aware Recurrent Reinforcement Learning for UAS Navigation Under Temporary Overrides" (Conrad, Panda, Guo and Tsourdos), interruptions make task information harder to recover from a recurrent policy's memory, which raises collision risk after control is handed back.

• The best of three interruption-aware designs cut post-interruption collisions by 74% and interruption-induced mission failures by 69% compared with the standard recurrent baseline, without hurting uninterrupted performance.
• It's simulation-only, from the Oct. 20 evening listing.

21. arXiv: a "Safe Wrapper" lets robot swarms stop trusting communication links that have been compromised

"Safe Multi-Robot Collaboration With Uniform Exclusion Using Trust" (Kaminsky, Vékássy, Izhar and Nedić) runs trust values from each robot's anomaly detector through a statistical test to decide which incoming links to use.

• With a high probability the user chooses, it excludes every compromised link for all time while quickly learning to trust legitimate ones. The detector only needs to be better than chance.
• Hardware tests used 3 LoCoBots and 8 GoPiGo robots, and simulations scaled to swarms of hundreds. It's from the Oct. 20 evening listing.

22. @Aviation_Intel on the WSJ report: "I have real reservations about this claim"

Tyler Rogoway, TWZ's editor-in-chief (personal X account, 5:41 PM ET, ~153K views), quoted @Osinttechnical's summary of the WSJ story (5:17 PM ET, ~232K views): "Starshield is bound by mountains of terms of service between the Pentagon on SpaceX. The idea that Musk just ... told the watch worker to put up a speed gate on terminals around Ukraine sounds like a massive problem for the Pentagon as well as Ukraine."

• It's an opinion post.

23. @TimOnPoint on the WSJ report: "You guys know how military satellite systems are controlled, right?"

@TimOnPoint (personal account, 7:46 PM ET, ~3.5K views) quoted @Osinttechnical's WSJ summary: "The Wall Street Journal cites unnamed sources who say that Elon Musk unilaterally lowered the throughput of Starshield satellites… huh?"

• He also replied "Yup" to @Aviation_Intel's post.
• Both are opinion posts.

24. @smallwars recaps ASW Derrick Anderson: an autonomy accelerator cut an 18-to-24-month acquisition process to two months, and DAWG is moving into a SOCOM task force

Small Wars Journal (4:00 PM ET) posted: "Assistant Secretary Derek Anderson (@ASWAndersonSOF) said an autonomy accelerator reduced an 18-to-24-month acquisition process to two months through 30-day white papers and same-day contract awards. The Defense Autonomous Warfare Group will transfer into a Special Operations Command task force."

• It recaps the Oct. 14 AUSA Project Agincourt panel (SWJ article dated Oct. 18). The same thread says autonomous fighters reached experimental units at Creech AFB "two years after their first flight." War.gov quotes SecAF Troy Meink as saying it took a year from first flight to integration and two years to build the first one.
• Breaking Defense reported Oct. 14 that DAWG is being absorbed into a new Task Force Autonomous Warfare inside SOCOM. The post has few views.

25. @TimOnPoint rounds up "some good posts about autonomous warfare today"

@TimOnPoint (7:53 PM ET, ~990 views) threaded his Oct. 20 posts on the Greywolf brigade's drone lessons, the Army's stratospheric balloons, "skins and nets," Ukraine's drone-ambush "waiters," and the Abyei strike.

• It's a curation post with no new claims.

1. A U.S. armored brigade's own account: Ukrainian drone operators caused about 70% of its casualties in the first three days of an exercise in Germany

In Military Review's "Conducting the Offense Through Drone-Enabled Maneuver in Europe," Col. Michael Ziegelhofer, who commands the 1st Cavalry Division's 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team ("Greywolf"), and six of his officers describe Combined Resolve 26-07 at Hohenfels. A detachment from Ukraine's 412th Unmanned Systems Regiment ("Nemesis") reinforced the opposing force.

• Drones caused about 70% of the brigade's casualties in the first three days. By the end of day three the share was below 30%. "The enemy did not reduce its effort over ten days; instead, Greywolf changed how it fought." The enemy opened contact with drones more than 750 times.
• On the offense, the brigade flew more than 700 drones from platoon to brigade level. Thanks to repeater drones, nearly all of the attached drone battalion's systems could reach at least 25–40 km. The authors write that the headquarters "never maintained a complete picture of how many unmanned systems were in flight."
• "Roughly 60 percent of the counter-UAS fight at the brigade level is fieldcraft and battle drills." Static jammers left moving units exposed and worked less well against fiber-optic drones. Crews shut off Blue Force Tracker and even Starshield to shrink their signature, and resupply took twice as long as planned.
• They recommend intent-based management of sensors, delegated strike authority, multifunctional strike troops with three drone platoons, a single shared drone picture modeled on Ukraine's Delta system, and counter-drone defense that works on the move. Defence Blog's post (8:21 AM ET) has ~181K views, and UNITED24 followed at 9:59 AM ET. Related: Oct. 19 AM #4 (the 1st Armored Division's drone strike platoons at Combined Resolve).

2. Abyei market drone strike toll rises to 153, and a Sudanese military source tells the BBC the army hit what it called an RSF fuel site

The BBC ("Sudan army drones hit mourners and fuel market killing more than 300 people, sources say") reports that Abyei's information minister, Yohana Akol Ngor, told AP and Reuters on Tuesday that the toll from Monday's drone strike on Amiet Market had risen from 73 to 153.

• A military source told the BBC the army carried out the Abyei attack, "saying the market was a fuel supply site for the RSF." The army hasn't formally responded, but it says it doesn't attack civilians.
• BBC Verify's satellite images show extensive burned buildings in the market's northeast corner. Verified video shows at least one petrol tanker and two large fires. The strike hit around 11:30 local time (5:30 AM ET Monday), about 10 km from Abyei town.
• The Sudan War Observatory says Sunday's strikes in West Kordofan killed 150, including 145 on a truck carrying mourners into Al-Dabab, and that the drones likely flew from army-held Kadugli. That's the strike PM Oct. 19 #16 spelled "Al-Dibab."
• UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said Monday: "We are alarmed by the continued deadly drone strikes across the country that are killing civilians, including children." South Sudan has summoned Sudan's ambassador. Updates AM #3.

3. Daytime Russian drone strikes hit a Kyiv hospital's operating room and injure 12 across the city; power is out in parts of 12 regions

The Kyiv Independent ("Russian drones strike Kyiv hospital, injure 12 across the city," 10:23 AM ET, updated 3:03 PM ET) reports that drones repeatedly hit Kyiv on Oct. 20. They damaged a hospital in Solomianskyi District and a medical facility in Holosiivskyi District.

• The strike hit the operating room of the Strazheska Institute and injured one patient. "This is the second time. Last year, the attack hit the fourth floor of the institute, and now it is on the sixth floor," said Serhii Koretskyi, whom the Kyiv Independent identifies as prime minister.
• National Police put the city's injured at 12, citing the State Emergency Service. Fires broke out near the Northern Bridge (city officials say the bridge wasn't hit) and at a garage cooperative. Mayor Klitschko said a later afternoon attack hit an energy facility in Shevchenkivskyi District.
• Ukrenergo reported new outages in 12 oblasts Tuesday morning. First Deputy Energy Minister Artem Nekrasov said Russia continues to "systematically and purposefully attack" the energy sector, hitting facilities in seven oblasts, including Lviv and Odesa, overnight and in the morning.
• Earlier Tuesday, at least three people were killed when a drone hit morning commuter traffic near the Kyiv–Odesa highway. Updates AM #1 (the 165-drone overnight wave).

4. Poland's Tusk will ask Ukraine to explain the drone that exploded in Lithuania after allegedly crossing Polish territory

At a government meeting, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said (via RMF24 and the Kyiv Independent, 11:00 AM ET): "We will investigate all circumstances. I count on the full cooperation of the Ukrainian side so that we can precisely explain what happened... Without emotion, without ill intentions."

• "Poland does not allow operations to be conducted on or over our territory without the explicit consent of the Polish state. That will not change, no matter who might be conducting those operations."
• Polish authorities haven't confirmed that the drone entered Poland's airspace. It exploded in Lithuania on Oct. 18 and damaged a moving car. No one was hurt.
• Ukraine apologized and said Russian jamming may have diverted one of its drones. Vilnius says it was probably part of a Ukrainian attack on St. Petersburg. Tusk is hosting Lithuanian President Nausėda in Warsaw.
• Updates AM #4 (Lithuania's push for radar-only shootdowns).

5. Rubio says interceptor delays to Ukraine aren't "some deliberate political directive," and Sikorski says Poland has no Patriots left to give

Speaking to reporters in India, Rubio acknowledged that a batch of interceptors may have been held up: "Every country in the world would like interceptors... It's probably the most in-demand product right now in the defense field" (Kyiv Independent, 11:53 AM ET).

• "So when a country doesn't get interceptors from the United States, it's not because we're denying. We have our own needs, too." He added that "there has not been some deliberate political directive to go out and harm Ukraine."
• He said he had a 45-minute call with Zelensky earlier Tuesday (AM #2). On Oct. 19 a Ukrainian official told the Kyiv Independent that Hegseth "has the contracts for Patriot missiles on his desk. He is not signing off on them."
• In an interview with PAP published Oct. 19, Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski said Poland can't supply Patriots and that the interceptor shortage worsened after the attacks on Iran: "This is a genuine problem." Zelensky has said the U.S. now supplies 12 Patriot interceptors a month.
• Updates AM #2.

6. The Saudi-led coalition shoots down a Houthi ballistic missile and then a drone near Riyadh, after the kingdom postponed its flagship investment conference

Anadolu ("Saudi-led coalition intercepts drone in Riyadh region in 2nd Tuesday attack") reports that the coalition said on X it intercepted and destroyed a drone in the Riyadh region. Earlier Tuesday it intercepted a ballistic missile fired toward the capital, after a security warning and explosions in the city.

• The coalition gave no further details.
• Xinhua reports Saudi Arabia on Monday pushed the 10th Future Investment Initiative, set for Oct. 26–29 in Riyadh, to 2027.
• Houthi spokesman Yahya Sarea claimed six attacks over 48 hours on Aramco facilities in Yanbu, the Shaybah field, King Khalid International Airport and other sites (PM Oct. 19 #17). That's a warring-party claim, and per Xinhua there was no immediate Saudi comment.
• Egypt's parliament postponed until Oct. 26 a vote on authorizing military support for Saudi Arabia.

7. Australia reveals Ghost Shark can lay 12 sea mines and launch Altius drones, and TWZ gets the first look inside its payload bay

At Anduril Australia's Sydney facility, Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy said: "The Ghost Shark now has teeth and will have the ability to inflict damage on any potential adversary." The government release is "Australia advances undersea warfare capabilities" (Oct. 19).

• The three previously secret payloads are sea mines (12 per mission), seabed supply caches being developed by Australia's Defence Science and Technology Group, and Anduril's Altius drones for reconnaissance or strike. Conroy said Bluebottle drone boats will also get a thin-line towed array sonar to hunt submarines.
• Some of the payloads will be used in the ongoing Maritime Big Play Pacific in San Diego, an AUKUS Pillar II exercise. RAN chief Vice Adm. Matt Buckley: uncrewed systems add "numbers to our fleets." Australia plans to spend up to A$5.8 billion over the decade on uncrewed undersea capabilities, including A$1.7 billion for Ghost Shark.
• TWZ (12:53 PM ET) says the bay on display held what look like plywood spacers, so it may be ballast or a mockup. The Rheinmetall Asteria mine displayed beside it wasn't installed, and the compatible Altius variants haven't been disclosed.
• First covered PM Oct. 19 #4 (the AUKUS demo). Breaking Defense reported the payloads at 10:01 AM ET.

8. Hegseth on his Arsenal of Freedom tour: he wants to "kick the door WIDE OPEN for commercial disruptors, nontraditional vendors, and venture-backed builders"

Speaking at Riverside Machine in Eau Claire, Wis., Hegseth said, per @DOWResponse (3:17 PM ET): "My job at the Department of War is to kick the door WIDE OPEN for commercial disruptors, nontraditional vendors, and venture-backed builders... Modern deterrence relies on true commercial speed."

• At Sierra Nevada Corp.'s Aviation Innovation and Technology Center near Dayton (war.gov, "Hegseth Praises Ohio Aerospace Workers During Arsenal of Freedom Tour"): "I don't care what name is on the side of the plane, or on the side of the missile. I want the very best. I want innovators."
• He said SNC is working with the Air Force "to quickly turn existing transport planes into flying communication platforms that can transmit secure data over any available signal, even when the enemy is jamming their communications" (@DOWResponse, 12:04 PM ET).
• War.gov says he argued that predictable demand signals let industry "hyperscale" production. We found no drone announcement at either stop.
• @DeptofWar livestreamed both stops (11:16 AM and 2:43 PM ET).

9. The DoW CIO backs new NIST–NSA–CISA practices for "super intelligence control incidents," when AI agents take actions no one told them to

@DoW_CIO (10:13 AM ET) "commends the collaborative effort of @NSACyber, @NIST, and @CISAgov in delivering practical guidance for managing the risks associated with super intelligence control incidents." The document is "Key Practices for Incident Readiness and Response in Super Intelligence Training and Evaluation" (Oct. 16).

• The focus is incidents in which one or more SI agents "take significant uninstructed actions that compromise explicit or implicit policies, controls, or security measures imposed by the operator to define the intended task scope or to ensure human oversight" (NIST).
• The ten voluntary practices span five stages: preparation, detection, response, recovery and reporting. The authors are NIST's Center for Advancing Innovation and Standards for Super Intelligence (CAISSI), NSA's Super Intelligence Security Center and CISA.
• "SI" replaces "AI" under President Trump's Sept. 29 executive order. Defense One (1:42 PM ET) reports a State Department cable dated Monday that tells staff to use "Super Intelligence" and rename AI programs. The order defines SI as the same technologies the existing statutory definition of AI covers.
• It's written for the frontier SI industry's training and evaluation work, not for weapons. Defense One says the cable also renames the American AI Exports Program the American SI Exports Program.

10. Epirus's Leonidas high-power microwave weapon is now on JIATF 401's Counter-UAS Marketplace

Defence Blog ("Microwave drone killer now on Pentagon's online store," Dylan Malyasov, 7:59 AM ET) reports Epirus said Leonidas met the criteria to join the marketplace run by Joint Interagency Task Force 401. That gives U.S. military units and federal agencies a faster way to order it.

• Defence Blog says the marketplace lists only systems that pass the task force's testing and validation. It opened in February, and its first four purchases ($13 million combined) were announced in April.
• Epirus didn't say which customers are interested, and a listing doesn't mean anyone has bought the system.
• Epirus says Leonidas works against radio-controlled, fiber-optic and autonomous drones; that's a company claim. On Oct. 5 the department chose Leonidas as the only microwave system among the four in JIATF 401's homeland directed-energy pilot. JIATF 401 director Brig. Gen. Matt Ross said then: "There is no silver bullet, or one size fits all solution to countering the threat of drones."

11. A Pentagon official on rebuilding Middle East bases: "nothing's a sanctuary anymore," and with drones around, "I can't pour four [feet] of concrete over everything"

Breaking Defense ("Pentagon weighs force posture, costs of rebuilding Middle East bases," Ashley Roque, 2:06 PM ET) quotes a senior defense official at a Defense Writers Group breakfast: "We're meeting with CENTCOM and doing the assessments right now from an installation perspective."

• "The installation is the weapon system, and I have to have a mindset that I treat it like it's a weapon system, not just a piece of real estate."
• Because drones and cruise missiles keep spreading, the department is working on "a different strategy" for making bases resilient and defensible. That includes working with the Golden Dome team on which sites to protect first. The official had no cost estimate.
• The story also notes Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao told The Epoch Times "they blew the hell out of Bahrain," and that strikes reportedly knocked out the air operations center at Al Udeid.
• It's labeled Premium/Press because the official spoke on background.

12. The Navy quadruples Gecko Robotics' contract ceiling to $300 million for its wall-climbing robots, drones and AI ship inspections

DefenseScoop ("Navy expands contract ceiling for AI-enabled repair robots," Brandi Vincent, 7:33 AM ET) reports the original five-year agreement from March had a $71 million ceiling and covered 18 Pacific Fleet ships. The expansion will take the work to the Atlantic Surface Fleet.

• Defense News (11:15 AM ET) describes the original deal as a $54 million IDIQ, so the two outlets give different starting figures.
• Gecko says its technology can save the Navy "up to $8 million in repair costs per ship" and spot structural problems "up to 50 times faster." Those are company claims.
• Co-founder Troy Demmer said the Komodo robot uses electromagnetic acoustic transducers to measure the steel under a deck coating, so repairs can be scoped while the ship is still in the water. "Historically, the U.S. Navy is not necessarily known for moving quickly."
• The Navy is aiming for 80% fleet readiness by 2027 (Defense News).

13. A U.S. Navy P-8A circles off Bulgaria a week after drone attacks sank a cargo ship there

Defence Blog (8:39 AM ET) reports that flight-tracking data (Itamilradar, using Flightradar24) shows a P-8A Poseidon crossing Bulgaria, passing over the Varna area and circling low off Burgas.

• On Oct. 13, drones hit two cargo ships in Bulgaria's exclusive economic zone. One sank off Krapets with 11 crew missing. The crew of the other, the Chelsea 3, said three drones attacked it.
• Officials haven't established whether aerial drones or drone boats hit the ships, or where they came from. Bulgarian reports say aerial drones. Russian Telegram channels posted a hull mark they attributed to a drone boat.
• Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev said "logic indicates that the result is in favour of the Russian Federation." The Navy hasn't said why the plane flew there.
• Continues the Black Sea coverage in Oct. 17 AM #10 and Oct. 18 AM #6. Defence Blog itself frames the attacks as Russian.

14. A strike destroys a telecom data center in occupied Donetsk as Kyiv and Moscow keep targeting each other's data centers

The Kyiv Independent (9:41 AM ET) cites Petro Andriushchenko, head of the Center for the Study of the Occupation. He says an overnight attack destroyed a data center at Postysheva St. 60 belonging to Ugletelecom and Elecom, the main telecom operator in occupied Donetsk.

• Alexey Kulemzin, head of Russia's proxy administration in Donetsk city, reported a Ukrainian attack and posted video of the same building. Ukrainian officials haven't confirmed it, and the story doesn't name the weapon.
• From Oct. 8 to 18, Ukrainian drones hit three Yandex data centers, a Sberbank facility under construction and a VK data center. Verstka reported that the Yandex strikes disrupted dozens of Russian court hearings.
• The Kyiv Independent says the strikes could set back Russia's AI development and affect its military technology.

15. Air & Space Forces Magazine: the Air Force has given airmen "more than 300 AI tools," and a former Air Force CIO says it's "completely out of control"

"AI Adoption: Are Air Force and Space Force Ready and Willing?" (Todd South, 1:57 PM ET) weighs leaders' push for AI against worries about governance.

• Retired Lt. Gen. William Bender, the former Air Force CIO, who now advises the AI governance firm Kosmoy: "Two things can be true at once: we're measuring it, we're watching it, and setting objectives and … it's completely out of control."
• The magazine reports that by mid-June the Army had used up its 100 million-token yearly allotment on the Sage AI platform.
• The Pentagon says more than half of the 3.3 million DoD personnel with access have used GenAI.mil. The Department of the Air Force tracks AI use cases in an inventory called CLARA.
• The story is mostly about back-office AI, not autonomous weapons.

16. A Ukrainian think tank tells Taiwan to stockpile 1,600 to 5,000 drone boats before a war, and to expect to lose half or more

National Defense ("JUST IN: Taiwan Can Learn from Ukraine's Maritime Drone Strategy, Report Finds," Tabitha Reeves) covers the Serpens Center's report "The Black Sea Blueprint for Taiwan," which was presented at an FDD event on Oct. 20.

• The report says: "USVs matter not because they are revolutionary technologies, but because they are scalable instruments of disruption."
• Lead author Catarina Buchatskiy said Taiwan should plan to lose at least 50 to 60% of the drones it deploys. The report treats 25% as the best case and 75% as pessimistic but possible.
• The report puts Taiwan's pre-war fleet at about 1,600 boats by around 2030 at the low end and about 5,000 at the high end. FDD's Mark Montgomery: "The U.S. is the worst at this. We go with exquisite, high-end stuff."
• @NationalDefense posted the story at 2:58 PM ET.

17. Quantum Systems says its battery-powered Apex Recordhunter flew 777 km/h, faster than Russia's jet-powered attack drones

Defence Blog ("German electric drone hits 483 mph in record attempt," 7:56 AM ET) reports that Chief Revenue Officer Martin Karkour announced the run. It isn't an official record yet because the return leg still has to be flown.

• Karkour: "Push that hard and physics pushes back... everything we learned yesterday goes into the next flight."
• Co-CEO Sven Kruck tied the work to Russia's jet-powered Geran drones, which he said can reportedly fly 500–600 km/h: "Russia is accelerating the threat. We are engineering the response."
• The company says the record drone isn't a weapon and shares no hardware with combat systems. Quantum has an order for 15,000 WIY Strila interceptor drones for Ukraine's National Guard.
• These are company claims relayed by press. Defence Blog's post has ~6.6K views.

18. Skyfly raises $10 million to turn its two-seat eVTOL into Longbow, a 400-mile hybrid cargo drone that can fly off ships

Defence Blog ("UK startup turns two-seat eVTOL into 400-mile cargo drone," 7:50 AM ET) reports that HICO Investment Group led the seed round, with Archangel, a defense-only venture fund, taking part.

• Longbow is designed to carry 200 kg more than 640 km and take off from ships, fields or forward bases. A turbine generator burning Jet A-1, JP-8 or diesel recharges its batteries in flight.
• Skyfly is enrolled in the UK Ministry of Defence's Uncrewed Air Systems Heavy Lift Capability framework.
• DroneLife (2:57 PM ET) notes that Longbow is still in development with no delivery schedule. The round also pays for FAA light-sport certification of the piloted Axe.
• These are company claims.

19. HAVELSAN shows a drone taking off on its own from a drone boat and dropping a 60 mm mortar round on a target

Naval News (2:40 PM ET) published a HAVELSAN press release; Turkish outlet ha-ber first reported the demo on Oct. 12. VN Maritime's USV-12 boat navigated autonomously, and ASİSGUARD's SAGAN drone took off from it on its own, dropped a 60 mm mortar round on a designated target and completed its mission.

• The company says the target was engaged "under operator control," using HAVELSAN's command-and-control and autonomy software.
• No date, location or test conditions were given. Army Recognition also wrote it up, but it rests on the company's account.

20. Cross Water's plug-in navy RIB, already in service with an unnamed NATO navy, is set to get remote operation in 2027

Defence Blog ("One boat, many missions: Cross Water's plug-in navy RIB," 7:42 AM ET) reports that in September the Swedish-Estonian builder's XW Modular 750 carried a Lobster Robotics seabed drone at REPMUS 2026, NATO's uncrewed maritime exercise in Portugal.

• CEO Jürgen Visnapuu: "Autonomy is an upgrade, not a new boat."
• The company plans remote operation in 2027, followed by autonomous, optionally crewed operation through its Vessel Manager software. A 60-knot, 10.5 m model is due in spring 2027.
• These are company claims, and the NATO customer isn't named.

21. ISW: Russia's long-range strikes keep wearing down Ukraine's energy sector, and daytime strikes are causing significant civilian casualties

@TheStudyofWar posted (9:03 AM ET, ~23K views): "Russia's ongoing long-range strike campaign against Ukrainian energy infrastructure continues to degrade Ukraine's energy sector and disproportionately harms civilians. Daytime Russian strikes are also inflicting significant civilian casualties."

• The post quotes its Oct. 19 assessment post (AM #16).
• We read the post, not the full report.

22. arXiv: RuleGraph lets an LLM-driven robot refuse the harmful part of an instruction and still finish the rest

In "Refuse the Harm, Complete the Task via Graph-of-Rules Planning for LLM-Enabled Robots" (Taheri et al.), five cooperating agents turn general safety principles into rules for a specific setting, then check candidate plans against them.

• It cut the attack success rate to 0% on both benchmarks. Task success was 98.57% on the RoboGuard benchmark and 84.54% on the authors' long-horizon compound instructions.
• It's from the Oct. 20 cs.RO listing and wasn't used this morning. The next listing posts after 8 PM ET.

23. arXiv: a drone keeps tracking small ground robots through occlusions by fusing in their own position data

"A Heterogeneous UAV UGV Methodology for Aerial Tracking of Mini Autonomous Cars" (Fernandez et al.) combines a drone camera's YOLO detections with state data from the ground robots, so it can hold its estimate when it loses sight of them.

• Over 600 simulation runs, it cut localization error by 37.3% to 64.2% across four scenarios compared with vision-only tracking.
• It's simulation-only (ROS 2 and Gazebo), from the Oct. 20 listing.

24. @TimOnPoint on the Greywolf lessons: "This is why we must constantly practice against a competent opposition force"

@TimOnPoint (personal account, 2:23 PM ET, ~680 views) quoted Defence Blog's post on #1, including the authors' estimate that "roughly 60% of the counter-drone fight at brigade level is fieldcraft and drills."

• Earlier (10:28 AM ET, ~3.4K views), he quoted @WarMonitor3 on Ukraine's drone-ambush "waiters": "I think the Ukrainian Army has become too complex with this idea. There's a much easier/cheaper way to do this ambush effectively." He didn't say what that way is.
• Both are opinion posts.

25. @TimOnPoint on Abyei: "wait until the whole of Africa commits to drone warfare"

@TimOnPoint (9:46 AM ET, ~2.2K views) quoted @Reuters' post on the Abyei strike (#2): "If you think it's wild in Ukraine, wait until the whole of Africa commits to drone warfare."

• It's an opinion post.

1. Russia launches 165 drones overnight, 105 of them jet-powered; strikes near Kyiv kill at least seven

Ukraine's Air Force says Russia launched 165 Shahed, Gerbera, S-8000 Banderol/Dan-T and Parodiya decoy drones starting at 18:00 on Oct. 19 (11 AM ET). Air defenses had downed or suppressed 115 by 08:00 (1 AM ET), including 73 of the jet-powered ones.

• The Air Force recorded hits at 30 locations and debris at 13, with 20 drones still airborne at report time. Launch areas included Oryol, Kursk, Primorsko-Akhtarsk, occupied Donetsk and Crimea, and the Sea of Azov (Ukrainska Pravda).
• Kyiv: a drone hit rush-hour traffic near a gas station in Holosiivskyi District, killing at least one and injuring six (Mayor Vitali Klitschko, via Kyiv Independent). In Obukhiv district, a strike on a warehouse killed three and injured six (State Emergency Service).
• Hromadske also cites the Kyiv Regional Prosecutor's Office: three killed and four injured when a drone hit vehicles on the Kyiv–Odesa highway near Chabany. Hromadske's total is "at least seven."
• Western Ukraine: drones hit three energy facilities in Ternopil region and a critical infrastructure site near Novoiavorivsk (Lviv), plus an industrial facility in Khmelnytskyi. Five were injured in Izium. Updates PM #3.

2. Zelensky presses Rubio on interceptors, early warning and Starlink/Starshield, as WaPo reports Patriot transfers are waiting on Hegseth

Zelensky posted (2:44 AM ET, ~468K views) that he spoke with @SecRubio: "First, ballistic missile interceptors, which are needed to protect lives. Second, early warning of Russian ballistic missile attacks, which is vital. Third, the situation with Starlink/Starshield, which needs to be restored."

• The Washington Post (Birnbaum, Ebel and Hudson, 6:33 PM ET) reports the administration "has not approved the transfer of interceptor missiles to Ukraine that are needed to protect the country from Russian missile and drone attacks." Some of the transfers come from partner countries and need Hegseth's sign-off. Officials say he hasn't rejected them but hasn't finished the approval steps.
• A senior Pentagon official told the Post "there has been no change to Department of War policy regarding intelligence sharing." The official said the program that lets NATO allies send U.S.-built weapons to Ukraine "continues unaltered."
• In a Corriere della Sera interview he posted at 4:03 AM ET, Zelensky said: "if you cannot rein Putin in, then give us interceptor missiles so I can protect our energy infrastructure." He also said Italian manufacturers get Ukrainian feedback "on which Italian-made and European-made weapons work and which do not."
• Trump on Monday, per @KyivIndependent (4:27 PM ET, ~171K views): "Russia, frankly, has been fine on Ukraine. They haven't been doing much." @RALee85 shared the Post story. Updates AM Oct. 19 #1.

3. A drone strike on a market in disputed Abyei kills at least 73, a local minister says

Reuters reports that Abyei's caretaker information minister, Yohana Akol Ngor, said drones struck a market in the region Sudan and South Sudan jointly administer on Monday. He blamed Sudan's army: "Around 73 people have been killed and 19 have been wounded ... a number of drones were shot yesterday by the Sudanese armed forces."

• He gave no evidence of who carried out the attack.
• South Sudan's foreign ministry said drones hit a market north of Abyei town and summoned Sudan's ambassador. It didn't give casualty figures.
• MSF said it was treating more than 20 wounded at Ameth Bek Hospital, including burn patients.
• This is separate from the Al-Dibab strike in West Kordofan (PM #16). The toll hasn't been independently confirmed.

4. Lithuania asks NATO to allow drone shootdowns on radar alone, without visual confirmation, and deploys new U.S.-made radars

Prime Minister Mindaugas Sinkevičius told LRT he has asked for NATO consultations on letting aircraft shoot down airspace violators that radar detects but pilots can't see: "I requested that we start consultations with NATO. [...] That will probably be implemented within a month, so that we can review that algorithm."

• On Sunday, NATO jets were scrambled when a drone came in from Poland. Clouds kept the pilots from confirming it was a drone, so they didn't fire. Explosion debris was later found in Juodžioniai, in Pasvalys district.
• @Lithuanian_MoD posted (2:45 AM ET, ~6.2K views) that Lithuania is deploying Lockheed Martin AN/TPS-77 MRR mobile radars that "will provide real-time data to NATO's integrated air and missile defence system." The post doesn't tie the radars to Sunday's drone.
• Updates PM #7 (Poland's radar review) and AM Oct. 19 #2.

5. The Army's Multi-Domain Command–Europe chief wants 200 to 300 high-altitude balloons at a time to launch drones, act as decoys and relay data

In TWZ's "Army's Plan To Launch Hundreds Of Balloons Into Enemy Territory If A Future Conflict Breaks Out" (Howard Altman, 3:49 PM ET), Brig. Gen. Steven Carpenter says: "We would like to proliferate the stratosphere with high-altitude balloons, but I mean 200, 300 at a time."

• He listed the roles: "decoys, a lot of decoys," communications relay, electronic sensing and attack, and air-launched effects (drones dropped from the balloons). Many would carry Link 16.
• He said balloon-launched drones could go after targets from "an adversary ballistic missile radar" up to "a ballistic missile system."
• "Our operating concept is proven," he said. Getting to scale depends on "money to go ahead and bring them into theater."
• He spoke to TWZ at AUSA last week. TWZ also cites Army G-2's Andrew Evans telling Breaking Defense that Army balloons supported CENTCOM operations.

6. Ukraine's DELTA Mission Control has logged more than 3 million drone strike missions since March, plus 168,000 ground-robot logistics runs

Ukraine's defense ministry, in "Drone warfare in Ukraine: what is DELTA Mission Control, which has recorded more than 3 million strike missions?", says troops logged more than 1.8 million mission results in September, up from about 196,000 a month at the start of the year.

• The totals as of Oct. 1 are nearly 3.6 million reconnaissance reports, more than 3 million strike missions, more than 1.02 million drone logistics missions, nearly 168,000 UGV logistics missions, nearly 500,000 aerial interception missions and nearly 370,000 remote mining missions.
• The module records results from drone and artillery use so they can feed into planning. Air defense and Army Aviation are starting to use it too.
• The ministry previously said DELTA was recording more than 6,600 enemy targets hit a day as of July.
• The release is dated Oct. 19 (6:58 AM ET). @DefenceU posted it at 6:24 AM ET today.

7. Ukrainian drones set a fire at a Druzhba-line oil pumping station in Tambov; Russia claims 136 drones downed over 14 regions

Tambov governor Yevgeny Pervyshov said a Ukrainian drone attack caused a fire "on the territory of one of the enterprises" in Michurinsky District. Monitoring channels and the outlet ASTRA point to Transneft's Nikolskoye station (Kyiv Independent).

• He said four drones were shot down and no one was hurt. Ukraine hasn't confirmed the attack, and the Kyiv Independent couldn't verify the fire.
• @Osinttechnical (1:54 AM ET, ~49K views) wrote that drones hit "the Nikolskoye LPDS, a major fuel pumping and storage hub in Russia's Tambov region, setting it ablaze."
• Russia's defense ministry (TASS) claims 136 "fixed-wing" drones were destroyed between 8 PM and 8 AM Moscow time (1 PM–1 AM ET) over 14 regions, including Moscow, Tambov and Pskov. That's a warring-party claim.
• Ukraine's Unmanned Systems Forces hit the same station on Aug. 18, 2025, per the Kyiv Independent.

8. Iran's IRGC claims it shot down a 54th U.S. MQ-9 over the Strait of Hormuz; no U.S. confirmation

Mehr News reports the IRGC said its Aerospace Force air defenses "intercepted and destroyed a U.S. MQ-9 drone over the Strait of Hormuz early today," and called it the 54th MQ-9 destroyed.

• The IRGC credited "new advanced air defense systems under the country's integrated air defense network."
• This is a warring-party claim. We found no CENTCOM or Pentagon statement, wreckage or location details.

9. Vice CNO Kilby calls the 60/40 uncrewed-to-crewed fleet goal "a little cute," while the Marines field thousands of one-way attack drones

National Defense ("Sea Services Weigh How to Embrace Autonomous, Attritable Tech," Tabitha Reeves, Oct. 19) reports on testimony by Adm. James Kilby and Gen. Bradford Gering to the National Commission on the Future of the Navy.

• Kilby: "Ukraine doesn't have to travel 8,000 miles across the ocean to bring it to the adversary." He said the new RAS Warfighting Development Center can "force some of those enabling technologies together, as opposed to having a bunch of bespoke solutions."
• Gering said the Marines are fielding thousands of one-way attack drones under Drone Dominance: "not everything is a major defense acquisition program that you hold on to for 40 years." He also pushed for standard user interfaces.
• Kilby: "It is the effect and the capability I should prize, not necessarily the complete buy." On his earlier call for a fleet that's 60% uncrewed: "I think that's a little cute."
• The article says only that the testimony took place in October.

10. U.S.-China commission chair Schriver in Taipei: the Taiwan Strait "hellscape" is "very aspirational... We haven't built it out"

Taipei Times (with CNA) reports that Randall Schriver, chair of the congressional U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, told a Taipei forum that Taiwan and the U.S. haven't yet built the unmanned "hellscape" Adm. Samuel Paparo described in 2024.

• Schriver: "We need to think about not only building things, but the operational concepts, and doing so with some sense of urgency."
• He framed modern warfare as a race to scale AI and counter-drone technology fastest, not to own the most advanced versions. He also cited an "aircraft carrier gap" left by the Iran conflict.
• Taiwan's legislature approved a NT$240 billion (US$7.37 billion) special budget. The cabinet has proposed NT$145.7 billion more, with NT$55.9 billion for uncrewed systems. The FY2026 NDAA directs a joint U.S.–Taiwan uncrewed and counter-uncrewed program.

11. AFRICOM: the SETAF-AF commander says counter-UAS is his "number one innovation priority"

@USAfricaCommand posted a thread (4:03 AM ET, ~2.2K views): "Africa is the ultimate proving ground for Army innovation." It links an africom.mil article on the SETAF-AF, G-TEAD and USAREUR-AF roundtable at AUSA.

• Maj. Gen. Matthew Brown: "Counter-UAS capability is my current number one innovation priority."
• The first Accelerated Capability Event is set for spring 2027 in Tan-Tan, Morocco. It will focus on defending command posts and operating locations against Group 1–3 drones.
• G-TEAD director Col. Christopher Hill said about 15 vendors go to a Soldier-led demonstration. Roughly five then advance through a 45-day improvement window.
• First covered AM Oct. 17 #3. It's back for the new AFRICOM post and article details.

12. Army Europe and Africa wraps Avenger Triad 26, linking drones and sensors to shooters through Maven

In "USAREUR-AF, NATO Allies conclude Exercise Avenger Triad 26," the Army says the 10-day, roughly 4,000-person command post exercise put NATO's Eastern Flank Deterrence Initiative into practice. EFDI pairs "advanced sensors, unmanned aerial systems, cloud computing and shared data environments to shorten the time between threat detection and target engagement."

• Command posts used the Maven Smart System for a shared operating picture across dispersed national headquarters.
• Brig. Gen. Thomas Lowin of NATO's Allied Land Command: "we proved that we can connect distributed sensors to effectors through a resilient digital backbone."
• The article is dated Oct. 15. @USArmyEURAF resurfaced it at 6:00 AM ET.

13. TWZ: Germany drops its direct MQ-28 Ghost Bat buy, making the 2029 CCA goal "increasingly uncertain"

In "Germany Drops Boeing MQ-28 Ghost Bat Rapid Procurement Plan" (Thomas Newdick, 5:32 PM ET), TWZ reports Berlin is moving to a broader competition. Citing Politico, it says flight tests would start in 2027, with the capability arriving in the early 2030s.

• A Boeing spokesperson said the company "stands ready to support" the German customer. The German defense ministry declined to discuss the decision.
• Other contenders include Airbus/Kratos's U740 Valkyrie (first flight a week earlier), Anduril, General Atomics with INTEC, Lockheed Martin, and Helsing/Hensoldt's CA-1 Europa.
• TWZ sees signs Germany is putting strike first and air-to-air second, "essentially the reverse of the U.S. Air Force's CCA effort."
• First covered PM Oct. 16 #14 via Breaking Defense.

14. Ukraine's drone medevac goes global: Janes calls it the first documented UAV casualty evacuation

Janes ("Ukraine conflict: Ukraine records first ever UAV casualty evacuation," Gareth Jennings) names the units involved: the 10th Army Corps, the 92nd Separate Assault Brigade's Unmanned Ground Systems Company, and elements of the 30th and 14th Mechanised Brigades.

• Janes cites Gurzuf Defence: the hexacopter recently set a Ukrainian payload record, lifting 130 kg to 15 meters for 15 minutes.
• ABC (Australia): Gurzuf says the man had spent almost a year and a half at the position. "Any attempt to reach him would have meant a deadly risk for the rescue team." The drone carried him to a safer spot for onward evacuation.
• Euronews: the brigade says mines and Russian drones made a conventional evacuation impossible. It hasn't said when or where it happened.
• Janes spells the drone "Audag-6," while ABC uses "Ayudag-6." Updates PM #6.

15. Skapion plans a live-fire test of up to 50 autonomous interceptors within weeks and targets $10,000 a round

UAS Vision (citing The Jerusalem Post and C-TECH) reports the Israeli startup will test its system against Class 2 and Class 3 drones using a proximity kill mechanism, with an operational test evaluation planned next year.

• CEO Ido Bar-On says its AI command-and-control can run "autonomously end-to-end or with a single human operator in the loop, depending on customer policy."
• The company claims more than 100 simultaneous engagements at a 97%+ intercept rate. It says about 40 systems and 3,500 interceptors would cost about $400 million.
• Those are company claims relayed by trade press, so the story stays out of the top 10. First covered PM Oct. 15 #23 ($36M seed).

16. ISW: Ukrainian officials keep reporting disruptions to U.S. assistance, and Russia's Oct. 18–19 drone and missile strikes killed at least four

@TheStudyofWar posted its daily assessment (9:27 PM ET, ~46K views): "Ukrainian officials continue to report disruptions to US assistance to Ukraine."

• ISW says the overnight Oct. 18–19 drone and missile strikes "heavily damaged energy and civilian infrastructure across Ukraine — killing at least four and wounding at least 55," and daytime strikes are also causing significant civilian casualties.
• It also calls recent Russian military satellite maneuvers "a continuation of Russia's space policy against third country satellites since at least 2022."
• We read the post, not the full report.

17. arXiv: a small autonomous boat drives at night on thermal and radar alone

"Context-Aware RGB-Thermal-Radar Obstacle Perception for Resource-Constrained ASVs" (Kedia, Redhead, Hamann) fuses visible-light and long-wave infrared cameras, mmWave radar and inertial data. It passes the navigation controller calibrated obstacle probabilities and flags when a sensor has dropped out.

• In a 24-leg lake pilot (351 m, including four night legs), the vessel navigated on thermal and radar alone when the cameras were useless.
• In low light, the fused model scored 0.869 average precision, against 0.673 for rule-based fusion. Visible-light cameras alone scored 0.903 when they were usable.

18. arXiv: AeroIntent, a benchmark for working out what an incoming drone's mission is

"AeroIntent: A Synchronized Multimodal Benchmark for UAV Mission Intent Recognition" (Chen et al.) offers 990 simulated sequences across five mission intents, with radar, RGB, infrared and depth data. It's aimed at low-altitude airspace surveillance and security.

• The authors' AeroMIR reasoner hits 71.56% mean accuracy on flight patterns it hasn't seen. That beats the best trajectory-only baseline by 7.79 Macro-F1 points.
• It's simulation-only. The paper's code link is anonymized.

19. arXiv: "Self-Crystallizing Behavior Trees" let an AI model patch a drone's failures, then lock the fixes into fixed, predictable control logic

In "Self-Crystallizing Behavior Trees: Amortizing Foundation-Model Reasoning into Deterministic Control for Autonomous Drones" (Moradi), the LLM acts as a compiler rather than flying the drone. It proposes patches when a node fails, and only patches that demonstrably recover get admitted.

• In Microsoft Project AirSim, with wind-gust and battery failures, the crystallized trees reached 97±2% mission success. That compares with 12% for the unpatched tree and 98% for a hand-coded expert tree.
• It needed about 11 LLM calls during learning. The final trees reproduce their decision traces exactly. Simulation only.

20. arXiv: stress-testing vision-language models as drone navigation copilots

"Stress-Query and Temporal Reliability of Vision-Language Models as copilots in Autonomous UAV Navigation" (Sodre et al., accepted at LARS 2026) benchmarks model size against hardware limits and flight stability.

• Small models hallucinate in ways that "break deterministic state machines." Large models cause overcorrections because of inference lag.
• A mid-size model gave the best balance on both a workstation and an integrated-graphics laptop.

21. arXiv: a guaranteed-capture steering law for a turn-limited pursuer chasing an unpredictable target

"Finite-Time Capture by a Dubins Pursuer Against Unknown Evader Strategies" (Patra, Jha, Hota) gives a single-gain turn-rate feedback law. It guarantees capture of a slower evader that can change heading instantly.

• The paper derives an explicit capture-time bound and a speed ceiling that can be computed from the pursuer's parameters alone.
• It's theoretical, with numerical simulations only. It's relevant to interceptor guidance.

22. arXiv: AQUAACT, which records human pilots' joystick commands so underwater robots can learn to fly themselves

"AQUAACT: A Joystick-Level Underwater Teleoperation Dataset and Closed-Loop Benchmark" (Wu et al.) pairs camera images with human joystick commands and language annotations. The authors say it's the first public dataset of its kind.

• It has 1.9 hours of real-world and 17.9 hours of simulated demonstrations, and the simulated data cuts how many real demonstrations a policy needs.
• In a benchmark of seven policies, none completed more than a fifth of episodes. Pretraining on land data gave large vision-language-action models no edge.

23. @TimOnPoint answers DIU's "wide but not deep" drone industry: components, stockpiles and surge assembly

@TimOnPoint (personal account) quoted @DIU_x's Travis Metz podcast post (PM #8): "Agree that the U.S. drone industry is 'wide but not deep.' Only three things will build the depth that actually matters."

• His three are standardized, redundant components ("components, components, components"), deep inventories ("Depth means stockpiles, the same way we treat bullets"), and low-overhead assembly shops for wartime surge.
• He says Gauntlet stays "organized around complete platforms" and asks DIU and Project Agincourt "what is being done specifically to drive component standardization, deep inventories, and rapid assembly capacity?"
• Posted 5:38 PM ET; ~1.1K views. Opinion post.

24. @NOELreports: Ukraine's 55th Artillery Brigade splits the work, with drones hitting assault troops in the open and artillery hitting those who reach cover

@NOELreports (4:15 PM ET, ~20K views): the brigade "says it thwarted several Russian infiltration attempts on the Novopavlivka axis over the past week. Drone crews target assault troops in open terrain, while artillery engages those reaching wooded areas and shelters."

• It's included for the specific drone-and-artillery division of labor, not the footage.
• It's the brigade's claim relayed by an aggregator. We didn't watch the 2:23 video.

25. @NOELreports: satellite analysis says FP-1 drone strikes hit both of the Salavat refinery's primary processing units

@NOELreports (5:08 PM ET, ~19.6K views) relays DniproOsint imagery analysis of the Oct. 8 strike: repair cranes near the AVT-4 unit and damage to an overpass near AVT-6.

• It says the two units have a combined capacity of about 10 million tonnes a year and provide "100% of the refinery's primary processing capacity."
• It's third-party open-source analysis, and we didn't see the original imagery.

1. Pentagon and BAE sign a framework for up to 25,000 APKWS counter-drone interceptor kits a year for up to seven years

In "Department of War and BAE Systems Sign Framework Agreement to Surge Counter-Drone Production to 25,000 Precision Interceptors Annually," the department says it will buy up to 25,000 APKWS guidance sections a year for up to seven years, pending congressional authorization and appropriations.

• Under Secretary Michael Duffey: "By securing multi-year demand, this agreement keeps production lines running at capacity, provides our forces with interceptor inventory, and flips the cost calculus in the taxpayer's favor."
• The framework lays out a path to 35,000 a year for allies once partners file Foreign Military Sales Letters of Request. The Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps all signed on.
• Military Times: the kits turn unguided 2.75-inch rockets into laser-guided munitions and have become a cheaper alternative to air-to-air missiles against drones. Neither side gave a cost, and 25,000 matches capacity BAE has cited since 2023.
• Context (Military Times): the Navy's current five-year APKWS contract (Aug. 2025) is worth up to $1.74 billion for up to 55,000 kits. Saudi Arabia was cleared in July for up to 20,000 kits, and Italy is weighing 5,031.

2. USS Ronald Reagan controls an MQ-25A Stingray 2,100 miles away over a satellite link, a first for an underway carrier

In "Unmanned Aerial Refueler Remotely Controlled By At-Sea Aircraft Carrier Control Station," the Navy says Reagan's Unmanned Air Warfare Center used its MD-5C ground control station to connect beyond line of sight, over a proliferated low-Earth-orbit (pLEO) satellite network, to an MQ-25A at Boeing's Mascoutah, Ill., site while the ship was underway in the Pacific.

• Acting SECNAV Hung Cao posted video (11:01 AM ET, ~20K views): "Unmanned aerial refueling transforms naval power projection. We're testing remote connections, flight profiles, and more."
• PMA-268 program manager Capt. Daniel Fucito: "This first-ever underway connection between a carrier-based UAWC and an MQ-25A aircraft proves that the Carrier Air Wing of tomorrow is a reality today."
• The MD-5C pairs the Navy's C4I network with Lockheed Martin's MDCX hardware and software. It's meant to control future unmanned carrier aircraft too. The test was a preliminary sea trial in a series of build-up events.
• Context: FlightGlobal (Oct. 13) reported Reagan and Theodore Roosevelt both have control stations, but no date is set for carrier flight trials. Initial operational capability is projected for 2029.

3. A Shahed hits a park in Nova Vodolaha, killing six including children; Zelensky says 28 energy sites were hit and presses Lockheed and Congress on jet-Shahed defense

Zelensky posted (12:51 PM ET, ~1.05M views): "A horrific Russian strike in the Kharkiv region. A 'shahed' struck people directly – in a park near an ordinary café. Pure atrocity. Six people were killed, including children."

• Kyiv Independent: Kharkiv Oblast prosecutors say preliminary findings point to a Geran-3. Governor Oleh Syniehubov reported at least 15 injured, including seven children. Victims' ages differ between Zelensky's post and the governor's figures.
• Earlier (9:01 AM ET), Zelensky said 28 substations and other energy facilities were hit in the overnight waves. Kyiv Independent reports at least 550,000 households lost power. Updates AM #1.
• He met Lockheed Martin in Kyiv (1:11 PM ET, ~158K views): Patriot and F-16s "play an important role in defending against Russian ballistic missiles and jet-powered 'shaheds.' And things are not easy with either right now."
• At 3:14 PM ET he thanked Sens. Blumenthal and Tillis for a meeting with members of both parties and both chambers, where he briefed them on the strike. The post doesn't say where the meeting took place.

4. AUKUS stages its "largest ever" interoperable maritime-autonomy demo in San Diego; the U.S. Critical Technologies chief and Royal Navy weigh in

In "AUKUS nations showcase cutting-edge maritime technology in major demonstration event," the Royal Navy says Maritime Big Play is the three nations' largest-ever demonstration of interoperable maritime autonomous systems. More than 40 government and industry technologies are on show across anti-submarine warfare, lethality, contested resupply and seabed warfare.

• The UK leads the anti-submarine strand with uncrewed surface vessels, underwater gliders, drones and subsea vehicles. Second Sea Lord Vice Adm. Paul Beattie: it's "about proving that our forces can operate together seamlessly."
• Assistant Secretary of War for Critical Technologies Mike Dodd (@ASWCTDoddFather, 10:14 AM ET): "One fight. Zero seams… my team is joining forces with our UK and Australian partners to turn critical technology into combat capability." His office (OUSW(R&E) CT) sponsors the event, per DefSec Wire.
• Australia's ministers say payloads for Ghost Shark, Speartooth and Bluebottle are being unveiled, and some will be in the exercise (search-indexed text; the page still returns a server error). Updates AM #3.
• The exercise runs Oct. 5–25. The Navy hasn't named the specific systems (Stars and Stripes, Oct. 9).

5. Zelensky orders more AI-assisted anti-Shahed turrets and asks for faster production

LIGA.net reports that after a conference call with Defense Minister Yevhen Khmara, Commander-in-Chief Mykhailo Drapaty and Air Force commander Anatoliy Kryvonozhko, Zelensky said turret orders will grow because they've proven effective against Shaheds.

• Zelensky (via LIGA, from his Telegram): "We're increasing our orders, and it's important to speed up all processes—organizational, financial, and production—as much as possible."
• Kyiv is talking with the Baltic states about logistics, with the Foreign Ministry handling it.
• LIGA notes that on Oct. 4, adviser Serhii "Flash" Beskrestnov said 12 Ukrainian-made AI-controlled turrets had been installed in Kyiv. They use machine guns to down drones.
• We didn't open Zelensky's Telegram post. Turret numbers weren't given.

6. Drone medevac follow-up: a 62 km, 74-minute flight by a Heavy Shot Ayudag-6; TWZ urges caution and the clip tops 1.8M views

Kyiv Independent, citing Gurzuf Defense and the military, reports the mission lasted 1 hour, 14 minutes and 36 seconds over 62 km (39 miles). The soldier had spent nearly 500 days at the position and clipped into a winch-equipped hexacopter.

• Gurzuf co-founder Pavlo Feldblium: "Air rescue is a last resort when there is no other way to save a person." A serviceman with the call sign Napalm: "Now the serious, systematic work begins to ensure that such missions take place on a regular basis."
• TWZ ("Aerial Drones Appear To Be Picking Up Wounded Off The Battlefield In Ukraine," Thomas Newdick): the footage "could depict a staged demonstration," and the date, location and world-first claim aren't verified.
• The numbers don't line up: Kyiv Independent cites Ukrainska Pravda for a platform range of up to 25 km, and TWZ cites up to 15 miles. That conflicts with the 62 km figure.
• @WarMonitor3's post of the video (6:20 AM ET) has ~1.82M views. See #25 for @TimOnPoint's take. Updates AM #6.

7. Poland's defense ministry "categorically" denies a report that the Lithuania drone launched from Lithuanian soil and orders a radar review

In a "Komunikat MON" on gov.pl, the ministry rejects a Polsatnews.pl report, attributed to anonymous ministry sources, that the drone took off inside Lithuania. It says the drone was Ukrainian and that Ukraine apologized.

• The defense minister ordered the operational commander to analyze radar data from the night of Oct. 17–18 along the Lithuanian and Ukrainian borders, jointly with Lithuania. Results are pending.
• LRT: presidential adviser Deividas Matulionis says Lithuania has "credible evidence that the drone crossed the Polish border." Defence Minister Robertas Kaunas called the Polsat report "a kind of misunderstanding."
• Updates AM #2 (PM: Ukrainian FPV carrying explosives).

8. DIU's acting director Travis Metz on "War Talk": Gauntlet, a US drone industry that's "wide but not deep," and autonomy under EW

@DIU_x posted (8:49 AM ET) that Acting Director Travis Metz "joined the latest 'War Talk' podcast, providing a deep dive into the @DeptofWar's blueprint for achieving American Drone Dominance," with Jordan Schneider, Bryan Clark and Justin McIntosh.

• Hudson Institute's summary (3:23 PM ET) says the episode covers how Gauntlet uses "real orders, competition, and falling prices" to build a drone industry that can scale.
• Also covered, per Hudson: lessons from Ukraine, why the industry is "wide but not deep," and why drone warfare depends on systems that "operate autonomously under electronic attack."
• Metz is a watchlisted leader without a confirmed X account. We haven't listened to the episode, so the quotes come from the posts.

9. Breaking Defense picks up DIU's SWAP-USV Sprint 2: up to $40M for USVs that shoot down drones, plus a $200M follow-on budget

In "DIU unveils next phase in unmanned vessel competition" (Diana Stancy, 3:03 PM ET), Breaking Defense reports the second sprint wants USVs with "mature hard-kill Counter-Air effectors and clutter-resilient sensor suites" that can be fielded within 120 days.

• DIU's solicitation page lists four effector lanes: Hellfire/JAGM, APKWS (see #1), remote weapon stations with Stinger, guns or high-power lasers, and other mature systems. It also names Project AVO as the primary C2 orchestrator.
• Thresholds: 200 nm range and a 10-knot sustained cruise, with engagements beyond 3 nm against Group 1–3 UAS and helicopters. Submissions are due Nov. 30.
• The page says the government has budgeted $200M for follow-on prototype or production OTs. Live testing (Test Event 2) runs three weeks at Little Creek, Va.
• First covered AM Oct. 17 #4. It's back because of independent coverage, and the page still loads.

10. Qatar's deputy PM says a new regional defense partnership against drones, missiles and cyberattacks is coming soon