AUTOWAR25 Afternoon Edition
1. Drones hit two tankers off Romania, one inside NATO territorial waters
Drones struck two chemical tankers anchored near the Sulina canal on the night of Oct. 14 and morning of Oct. 15, the first such hit inside a NATO member's territorial waters.
- Yara J (Comoros flag) was hit 8–10 nm southeast of Sulina inside Romanian waters; all crew safe.
- Wine Trader (San Marino flag) was hit one mile outside Romanian waters; five rescued, seven missing.
- Romanian President Nicusor Dan confirmed drones; a NATO military source told Reuters they were of Russian origin.
- Follows drone attacks on merchant ships near Bulgaria earlier this week; NATO's Rutte met Romanian and Bulgarian leaders.
Sources: Reuters via gCaptain · AP2. Hegseth: Project Agincourt is the road to a four-star Autonomous Warfare Command
At AUSA, the Secretary of War said Project Agincourt was always meant to end in AUTOWARCOM, a new functional combatant command for unmanned and autonomous warfare.
- Hegseth said the department plans to field hundreds of thousands of one-way attack systems this year, and millions in coming years.
- The Defense Autonomous Warfare Group is being folded into SOCOM's new Task Force Autonomous Warfare (Defense One).
- AUTOWARCOM is scheduled to activate by Oct. 1, 2027; Congress still has to sign off (Breaking Defense).
- Air Force Secretary Meink said autonomous fighters are already in experimental ops units at Creech AFB.
Sources: War.gov · Defense One3. First carrier strike group deploys with an unmanned surface vessel
Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao said the Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group deployed Oct. 8 with a medium unmanned surface vessel, a first for a CSG.
- Cao said the Navy used a Corsair unmanned vessel to recover two downed Apache pilots in the Strait of Hormuz area.
- He said UUVs were then used to demine that area.
- Comes weeks after the Navy's ~$1.2B production deals for 30 medium USVs from HII, Saronic and Galliano (USNI News, Sept. 29). Ongoing
4. Army redesignates its futures command as FASCOM, names Fort Rucker UAS Autonomy Center of Excellence
Acting Chief of Staff Gen. Christopher LaNeve turned Futures and Concepts Command into the Futures and Autonomous Systems Command, the Army's component under AUTOWARCOM.
- A three-star will lead it; first tasks are corps-level autonomous formations.
- Experiments: autonomous fires battery and watercraft company (I Corps), armored recon (III Corps), breaching (V Corps), aerial ISR and lift (XVIII Airborne), manned-unmanned rotary teaming (8th Army).
- Fort Rucker becomes the UAS Autonomy Center of Excellence.
Sources: Army.mil · DefenseScoop5. Trump picks Montana for a new "super range" to test autonomous weapons
At an Oct. 14 rally in Kalispell, the President said the Department of War will establish a super range for "potential autonomous weapons," space, electronic warfare, supersonics and hypersonics.
- No location, cost or start date was given.
- Montana already hosts the Montana Spaceport & Test Range and the Limestone Hills Innovation & Test Campus (Reuters).
- Separately, the Army is opening its own test ranges to drone and counter-drone companies (Defense One).
Sources: Reuters via Investing.com · Washington Times6. Russia launches 580 drones at Ukraine overnight
Ukraine's Air Force said Russia launched 580 drones (Shahed, Gerbera and decoys) plus two Kh-59 missiles overnight into Oct. 15.
- 536 drones were reported neutralized; impacts were recorded at 31 locations.
- A jet-powered Shahed hit a supermarket in the Odesa region, per Ukrainian officials.
- Kyiv Independent reports at least 17 killed across Ukraine in the day's attacks.
Sources: NV (Ukrainian Air Force figures) · Kyiv Independent7. Navy lands an uncrewed aircraft on a ship with no GPS and no pilot
NAWCAD Patuxent River autonomously navigated and landed an unmanned aircraft aboard a ship in a GPS-denied demo, using cameras, motion sensors and onboard electronics.
- Funded by ONR and the Naval Innovative Science and Engineering program.
- Next step is scaling to larger systems, such as tactical resupply drones for fleet platforms.
- The Navy plans to push it into program-office acquisition pipelines.
Sources: Inside Defense8. Starshield speed cap disrupts Ukraine's interceptor and strike drones
SpaceX capped Starshield military terminals in Ukraine at 160 km/h (100 mph) on Oct. 14 without warning, cutting into fast mid-range strike drones and interceptors.
- 7th Air Assault Corps said a drone unit had to cancel missions; service later stabilized with the cap still in place (Ukraine MoD).
- Musk said limits are decided by the U.S. military and ultimately the President, and that Starlink can't be used for offensive action.
- Ukrainian officials link it to U.S. pressure over strikes on Russian oil; no evidence was given and the White House hasn't commented.
Sources: Kyiv Independent · AP9. Russia builds a jet-drone launch base near Millerovo in six weeks
Satellite imagery reviewed by Reuters shows a roughly 0.9 km² Geran launch complex near Millerovo air base in Rostov, built from farmland since about Sept. 1.
- Eight launch platforms, with rails on some; imagery also shows drones being unloaded.
- Assessed as able to launch jet-powered Geran-4 and Geran-5 drones and possibly operational within weeks.
Sources: Kyiv Independent (Reuters imagery) · RUSI10. Army turned the Merops interceptor drone into a program of record in 142 days
At AUSA, the Army's G-TEAD director explained how Merops went from urgent request to formal program in 142 days, against a 180-day target.
- Merops uses Surveyor drones as interceptors that can fly autonomously or by remote control.
- 13,000 interceptors were bought with the Joint Interagency Task Force; former Army Secretary Driscoll put the cost at about $15,000 each.
- Fielded to NATO partners in about three weeks, then to a second theater.
Sources: The War Zone11. Pentagon stands up Task Force Easy for "adaptation dominance"
A new task force will rapidly iterate weaponized small drones and small UGVs, starting with FPV one-way attack drones.
- Also standing up a drone team for TTPs, training standards and combat training center evaluations.
- Goal stated as an institutional engine that learns and updates faster, not just buying 1,000 drones.
Sources: DefenseScoop12. UN First Committee: humans, not algorithms, must stay in control of force
At the UN General Assembly's disarmament committee, states across blocs converged on keeping human control over lethal autonomous weapons.
- The UK noted the CCW expert group agreed last month on elements for a possible future instrument on LAWS.
- Italy and Sri Lanka stressed human judgment through the weapon's lifecycle and full application of humanitarian law.
Sources: UN Press13. Army CTO: humans "on the loop" for superhuman-speed fights
Army CTO Alex Miller said counter-battery fire and air and missile defense happen at a speed and scale where humans should be on the loop rather than in it.
- "We want to enable them to be a crew chief for superintelligence and autonomy," he said.
- Defense One notes officials offered few specifics on how AUTOWARCOM will apply human judgment.
Sources: Defense One14. Drones and counter-drone are the soldier's "new basics," says 2nd Cavalry
2nd Cavalry Regiment leaders said sUAS, counter-UAS, UGVs and electromagnetic camouflage now sit alongside marksmanship and land navigation.
- Project Flytrap 5.0 in Lithuania tested more than 50 industry technologies with UK and Australian partners.
- Flytrap is expanding to a battalion-level operational capability.
Sources: Defense News15. Taiwan's coast guard buys U.S. Devil Ray T24 drone boats
Taiwan's coast guard is buying Martac Devil Ray T24 autonomous boats for its first dedicated USV program, to track rising Chinese vessel activity.
- Undisclosed quantity; production planned in both the U.S. and Taiwan.
- Chinese coast guard and government vessel sightings hit record levels in June–August, per Taiwan MND data analyzed by SCMP.
Sources: South China Morning Post16. Taiwan arrests two drone executives over mainland Chinese parts
Taoyuan prosecutors say Jiin Ming Industry and a subsidiary allegedly put mainland-made chips and camera lenses in drones supplied to Taiwan's military.
- Second such investigation in two months.
- Raises pressure on Taiwan's "non-red" drone supply-chain push.
Sources: South China Morning Post17. Ukrainian anti-aircraft FPV drone takes down a Mi-28NM helicopter
The 115th Mechanized Brigade released footage on Oct. 14 of an interceptor FPV drone hitting a Russian Mi-28NM attack helicopter in midair.
- Ukrainska Pravda's sources date the strike to Sept. 28, held back for security.
- Shows FPV interceptors being used against crewed rotary-wing aircraft, not just drones.
Sources: Ukrainska Pravda · Militarnyi18. Ukraine plans to scale strike ground robots "hundreds of times"
The commander of Ukraine's NC13 strike-UGV unit told Janes it will expand its capabilities sharply over the next six months.
- Switchable digital, analogue and encrypted links; he says UGVs can be controlled "from anywhere in the world."
- In Operation Vivaldi, Kyiv Independent reports UGVs carried much of the tactical logistics and casualty evacuation.
Sources: Janes · Kyiv Independent19. KAI's AAP-150 flies its first manned-unmanned teaming formation
Korea Aerospace Industries flew its 150 kg-class Adaptable Aerial Platform in formation with an FA-50 for 20 minutes on Oct. 8.
- 9–30 m separation at about 7,000 ft and 360 km/h; the drone's top speed is 790 km/h.
- Intended for recon, jamming, deception and strike alongside CCAs and fighters.
Sources: Janes20. Anduril unveils Steelfin, a modular interceptor family aimed at drones to hypersonics
Anduril revealed a two-stage surface-to-air interceptor family meant to fit existing Patriot, Mk 41 and Aegis launchers at lower cost than PAC-3 MSE.
- Ballistic testing done; flight tests planned for 2027.
- Unproven in flight so far.
Sources: Defense News21. Honeywell's counter-drone software fuses radar, camera and RF into one picture
Honeywell's SAMURAI software combines multiple sensor feeds into a single operator interface and is being adapted for Odys' Laila uncrewed aircraft.
Sources: Defense News22. IAI and SIG Sauer live-fire an armed VTOL drone with a machine gun
The FIRE STORM 250 pairs IAI's APUS 60 VTOL drone with SIG Sauer's remote weapon station and M250 machine gun; the firms say every shot needs human approval.
- Up to three hours endurance, 200 rounds.
- Drew public concern online about domestic use and the strength of human-control safeguards.
Sources: EDR Magazine23. Skapion raises $36M seed for a counter-swarm interceptor system
The D.C./Israel startup raised a seed round co-led by UP.Partners and Khosla Ventures for a many-to-many interceptor system.
- Claims 100+ simultaneous engagements and ~$10,000 per interceptor at scale; unvalidated.
- First live-fire test planned within weeks.
Sources: The Defense News24. Ondas and Palantir launch Regna AI for sovereign edge models
Regna AI, a standalone Ondas-owned venture built on Palantir's platform, will fine-tune open-weight models that run in customer-controlled environments and on edge hardware.
- Ondas is the first customer, for autonomous mission orchestration.
Sources: Calcalist Ctech25. Research: layered defenses for LLM-run drone swarms
A new arXiv paper implements a five-layer defense against attackers who manipulate the sensor reports an LLM uses to schedule a UAV swarm.
- Detection alone drove attack success near zero but raised mission cost when stale data was substituted.
- A deterministic fallback scheduler plus a starvation constraint recovered most of the damage.
Sources: arXiv 2610.03319