AUTOWAR25 No. 15A · Morning Edition
The container ship Contship Jet sank overnight after Wednesday's three-sea-drone attack off Bulgaria, and the Bulgarian navy chief says no forces were close enough to intercept. President Trump found that imported robotics and industrial machinery threaten national security, citing defense systems, but held off on tariffs. Russia launched 112 drones at Ukraine overnight, 40 of them jet-powered, while Moscow says 613 Ukrainian drones flew toward the capital, and Iran's Revolutionary Guards claim they downed a U.S. MQ-1 over the Strait of Hormuz.
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.
Sources: Reuters via Al Jazeera5. 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.
Sources: Iran International · PressTV (IRGC claim)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.
Sources: Interfax-Ukraine · Militarnyi11. 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.
Sources: Kyiv Independent12. 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.
Sources: Militarnyi · Interfax-Ukraine13. 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.
Sources: Defense Daily15. 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.
Sources: @Reuters post17. 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.
Sources: Naval News · Militarnyi19. 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.
Sources: arXiv21. 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.
Sources: HII · Defense War Room22. 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.
Sources: dronenr23. 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.
Sources: Unmanned Systems Technology24. 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.
Sources: Militarnyi25. 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.
Sources: Modern War Institute · @MWI_editor post
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How AUTOWAR25 ranks
Every edition, we scan official channels, news, industry, research, and social posts for the 25 most important developments in autonomous warfare: drones, counter-drone systems, uncrewed vessels and vehicles, and military AI.
Stories rank by source first:
- Official means governments, militaries, and their leaders speaking on the record.
- Premium/Press means established news outlets.
- Industry/Research means companies, think tanks, and published research.
- Social means notable posts from analysts, reporters, and practitioners.
Within each group, newer stories rank higher and engagement breaks ties. A company press release stays out of the top 10 until someone else reports on it. Ongoing marks a developing story, and Carryover marks one from a previous edition that's still moving. Claims from warring parties are labeled as claims, and anything we couldn't independently confirm is marked unverified.
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