AUTOWAR25 No. 20A · Morning Edition
OpenAI hired former Army Secretary Dan Driscoll to advise on using AI for national security with U.S. allies, and Saab unveiled its own AI agents for air combat, flight-tested on a Gripen E. Perseus Defense released video of a sub-$10,000 interceptor hitting a drone, Euronaval opened in Paris with a record 700 exhibitors, and Russia is fitting drones with bigger anti-jam antennas to beat Ukraine's electronic warfare. Overnight, Russia fired 289 drones at Ukraine while Ukrainian drones set fire to the Yaroslavl refinery.
1. The Pentagon's Office of Strategic Capital commits up to $450 million in loans to Neros to build drones and their components in the U.S., aiming at a million drones a year by 2028
The Department of War's Office of Strategic Capital (OSC) signed a conditional loan commitment of up to $450 million with Neros, the Torrance, California, maker of low-cost FPV and strike drones, to expand vertically integrated U.S. manufacturing.
- Neros adds $165 million of its own equity, for a $615 million project covering complete drones, ground control systems, motors, radios, flight electronics, thermal sensors and batteries.
- OSC Director David A. Lorch said the money will "turbocharge" production; the commitment ties to Executive Order 14307, Unleashing American Drone Dominance.
- Components will also be supplied to other U.S. and allied drone makers; the deal includes a government equity stake, Defense Daily reports.
- The loan still has to clear financial, legal, technical and due-diligence conditions before closing; Neros competes in the $1.1 billion Drone Dominance program.
2. OpenAI hires former Army Secretary Dan Driscoll as its first Senior Counselor for National Security Modernization
OpenAI said Monday that Driscoll, the 26th Secretary of the Army, will advise its leadership and outside partners on how advanced AI can strengthen national and cyber security, with a focus on U.S. allies, Reuters and CNBC report.
- The role is newly created; he will also help OpenAI teams understand the operational needs of national security institutions, building on OpenAI's Daybreak cyber-resilience program, CNBC reports.
- "I'm joining OpenAI to help the U.S. and our allies put this technology to work responsibly, for the people who keep us safe," Driscoll said.
- As Army secretary he pushed to expand allied access to drone and counter-drone technology, according to an earlier Army announcement.
- He stepped down earlier this year after months of reported tensions with Secretary of War Pete Hegseth.
3. Saab unveils its own family of AI agents for air combat, flight-tested on a Gripen E and built to fly with a pilot or from an uncrewed aircraft
Saab says its in-house AI agents handle tactical decision-making and were tested on a Gripen E fighter, mostly in beyond-visual-range combat, Breaking Defense reports.
- A new AI Fighter Jet Pilot Academy will "create, train and evaluate" the agents, which can work alongside a pilot in the cockpit or run their own uncrewed aircraft.
- Saab plans to use the technology in its A1, A2 and A3 uncrewed aircraft, on the path to a loyal wingman drone.
- Training compute comes from Sferical AI, an Nvidia DGX SuperPOD effort Saab helped found; one simulated hour equals about a billion human flight hours, Saab's Peter Nilsson said.
- It follows 2025 flights in which Helsing's Centaur AI flew a Gripen through BVR maneuvers.
Sources: Breaking Defense4. The Army flies its VICTOR drone on a 3D-printed rotary engine that burns jet fuel, and hands VICTOR and a swarm concept called PULSAR to military partners
DEVCOM Army Research Laboratory says years of research ended in a successful flight of a 3D-printed, air-cooled heavy-fuel rotary engine driving a 400-volt series-hybrid system in VICTOR, a Group 3 vertical-takeoff drone built with Griffon Aerospace.
- The engine runs a generator that powers electric motors, aimed at longer, faster, higher flights with heavier payloads and less fuel logistics, program manager Chol-Bum "Mike" Kweon said.
- Lessons feed PULSAR, a concept for swarms of VICTOR drones for logistics, strike, autonomy and reconnaissance.
- Both will be made available to military partners for more experimentation; the Army didn't release flight date or performance figures.
- The program worked with more than 30 universities, 13 federal labs and 20 companies.
Sources: DVIDS (ARL release) · Defence Blog5. NORAD and Northern Command say high-energy lasers are now part of the counter-drone shield around Mar-a-Lago
A U.S. military spokesperson told the directed-energy outlet Laser Wars that NORAD and USNORTHCOM deployed ground-based air defense, the C-UAS Flyway Kit and "High Energy Lasers (HEL)" in and around Mar-a-Lago at the Secret Service's request.
- Laser Wars identified one system in an Oct. 31 photo as a 20-kilowatt Army AMP-HEL, built around AeroVironment's LOCUST laser, Defence Blog reports.
- It is described as the first publicly known case of the Pentagon fielding a laser weapon to protect a sitting president.
- Avenger systems with Stinger missiles sit on a barge in Lake Worth Lagoon and on the beach; the Anduril-built Flyway Kit uses RF sensing, jamming and interceptor drones.
- The commands had confirmed the wider deployment last week without naming systems.
Sources: Defence Blog · The War Zone6. Iran's Revolutionary Guard claims it shot down two U.S. LUCAS one-way attack drones over Bandar Khamir near the Strait of Hormuz
The IRGC said Tuesday its air defenses in Hormozgan province destroyed two American LUCAS drones over Bandar Khamir, Iranian outlets report.
- Tasnim says the IRGC Navy also reported downing a drone over the Strait of Hormuz the night before.
- This follows Iran's army claim last month that it downed a LUCAS over nearby Bandar Abbas.
- The claims come from a warring party and have not been independently confirmed; the reports carried no U.S. comment.
Sources: Iran International · Tasnim (Persian)7. Russia fires 289 drones and about 60 missiles at Ukraine overnight; Ukraine's Air Force says 257 drones and 49 cruise missiles were downed
The attack began at 6 p.m. on Nov. 2 and mainly targeted the Kyiv, Kharkiv, Vinnytsia and Dnipropetrovsk regions, with Shaheds (120 of them jet-powered), Gerbera and Parodiya decoys, plus 59 cruise missiles and ballistic missiles, the Air Force said.
- Air defenses downed or suppressed 257 drones, including 89 jet-powered Shaheds, and 49 cruise missiles by 9 a.m.
- Hits were recorded at 23 locations; in Dnipro a heat and power plant was struck and 15 people were injured.
- In Kharkiv, guided bombs hit a medical facility and at least 73 people were injured.
8. Ukrainian drones set fire to the Yaroslavl refinery, one of Russia's largest, as Moscow claims it downed 856 drones overnight
Yaroslavl governor Mikhail Yevrayev said air defenses repelled a 124-drone attack on the Slavneft-YANOS refinery, about 250 km northeast of Moscow, but its infrastructure was damaged and two employees were injured, Reuters reports.
- The Russian military said it downed 856 Ukrainian drones across the country overnight; that figure is Moscow's claim.
- YANOS processes about 15 million tons of crude a year; Ukraine last hit it on Sept. 17, damaging its AVT-3 unit, Ukraine's General Staff said.
9. The Saudi-led coalition says it intercepted and destroyed a drone over the Mecca region
Coalition spokesperson Maj. Gen. Turki Al-Malki announced the interception on Nov. 3, a day after two drones were destroyed over the Riyadh region, the Saudi Press Agency reports.
- The statement gave no further details, including who launched the drone.
- Anadolu describes it as part of an escalation with the Houthis, who have claimed drone attacks on Dammam.
- The U.S. Embassy in Riyadh issued a new security alert on Nov. 2.
10. The FBI's National Counter-UAS Training Center graduates its largest class yet: 32 police officers from 30 agencies in seven states
The FBI Critical Incident Response Group said its National Counter-UAS Training Center (NCUTC) graduated its first class of fiscal 2027 on Nov. 2.
- It was the center's largest class so far, CIRG said.
- Graduates came from 30 agencies across seven states.
Sources: FBI CIRG on X11. Russia is fitting drones and missiles with bigger anti-jam antenna arrays, up to 32 elements on Shaheds, to beat Ukraine's electronic warfare
Russia's Kometa navigation modules use arrays of patch antennas to keep satellite navigation working through jamming; 16-element arrays are in use at scale and 20-element arrays are entering serial production, Ukraine's military intelligence says, Defense News reports.
- Shaheds with 32-element antennas have been found attacking Kyiv, said Serhii "Flash" Beskrestnov, an adviser to President Zelenskyy.
- "It is easier for the enemy to increase the number of elements on an antenna than it is for us to add electronic warfare sites," he said.
- Ukrainian units say multi-band jamming (L1 plus L2/L5) and networked GPS spoofing can still defeat them.
- Russian firms ordered more than 100,000 Kometa modules this year, HUR says.
Sources: Defense News12. Perseus Defense releases video of its two-foot Harpe interceptor, aimed at under $10,000 a shot, knocking a drone out of the sky
CEO Jason Cornelius posted the eight-second clip on Nov. 2, calling it the first drone kill by an "attritable" missile, Defence Blog reports.
- Harpe is about 61 cm long with a stated 2 km range; the company targets a price below $10,000 per shot.
- The "first" label is the company's own; laser-guided rockets have also downed drones, Defence Blog notes.
- In September Perseus fired its Mk-III, which it says cost about $2,500 each to build, at Falcon Peak 26.2, a NORTHCOM, NORAD and JIATF-401 counter-drone experiment.
- The Texas startup went through Y Combinator in 2025 and has raised $6.5 million in seed funding.
Sources: Defence Blog13. As Euronaval opens with a record 700 exhibitors, former French admirals warn navies that are slow to adopt drones "die"
"If you're too slow, you die," retired Rear Adm. Guillaume Merveilleux du Vignaux told The National, as Paris's Euronaval show opens this week with 700 companies, up 70% from 2024.
- Vice Adm. Didier Maleterre, former French commander in Abu Dhabi, describes a coming "hybrid fleet" of crewed warships with drone ships and submarines, driven by threats at chokepoints like Hormuz and the Red Sea.
- A crewed frigate costs about €200,000 a day to deploy, officers in Toulon said, versus far less for drones.
- Systems on show include Naval Group's Seaquest boats with Rampart missiles, Exail's Drix and submarine-launched aerial drones.
- Merveilleux du Vignaux cautions that large uncrewed platforms will struggle in rough seas without people aboard.
Sources: The National14. Zodiac Milpro, the military inflatable-boat maker, unveils its first uncrewed surface vessel, the 40-knot Equinox 930, at Euronaval
The 9.3-meter, 5.5-tonne Equinox 930 carries more than 800 kg of payload, tops 40 knots and has a range of more than 600 nautical miles, Mer et Marine reports.
- Its Vessel Control System handles remote control, waypoint programming and platform monitoring, and is built to work with different autonomy software.
- A configurable mission bay and 360-degree optronic surveillance target ISR and protection missions.
- It is built for automatic launch and recovery by davit and can move by road, in a 40-foot ISO container, from a ship or by air.
Sources: Mer et Marine (French)15. Oshkosh Defense teams with Grid Aero to mass-produce the Lifter, an autonomous cargo and ISR aircraft hauling thousands of pounds over thousands of miles
Oshkosh Defense and California startup Grid Aero will work on "design for manufacturability, production planning, supply chain optimization, and ultimately building Lifter aircraft at scale," Breaking Defense reports.
- Grid Aero CEO Arthur Dubois says the Lifter is a modular "pickup truck" for a few thousand pounds over a few thousand miles, for cargo, ISR and other missions.
- The goal is hundreds, if not thousands, of aircraft by the early 2030s; a pilot line at Oshkosh could start in about a year.
- Six to 12 months of prototype testing remain, and the airframe will be redesigned around parts that can be bought in volume.
- The Pentagon is pushing for affordable Group 4 and 5 autonomous aircraft bought in bulk.
16. Reaper pilots flying Africa Command surveillance missions move from Africa to North Dakota
General Atomics opened a remote-split operations center near Grand Forks, North Dakota, where contractor crews will fly MQ-9A Reapers for AFRICOM's counterterrorism mission instead of deploying to Africa, Stars and Stripes reports.
- The move is expected to save AFRICOM more than $10 million a year and create about 50 jobs, Sen. John Hoeven said.
- Small forward crews will still handle launch, recovery and maintenance in Africa.
- AFRICOM deputy commander Lt. Gen. John Brennan said it allows "more agile and sustained" surveillance across Africa.
Sources: Stars and Stripes · GA-ASI17. A pocket-sized Ukrainian receiver pulls live video off Russian drones, including the band Molniya strike drones moved to
Kyiv's CODE380 built the D·Vision SDR, a 290-gram software-defined radio that sweeps 500 MHz to 8.7 GHz for drone signals and turns them into video, Defense News reports.
- It shows analog drone video from up to 10 km away on lower bands and 3.5–5 km on higher ones, per maker figures reported by Militarnyi.
- Its sweep covers the 4.1–4.5 GHz band Russia's Molniya drones began using in June, which many detectors miss.
- It is a passive sensor, so it doesn't give away a unit's position.
- Adviser Serhii "Flash" Beskrestnov warns digital video could eventually make such receivers useless.
Sources: Defense News18. Leonardo DRS joins AeroVironment on the Army's first production laser weapon program, aimed at drones
Leonardo DRS won a subcontract to provide "rugged integration expertise" to prime AeroVironment on the Army's Enduring-High Energy Laser (E-HEL) program, DefenseScoop reports.
- AV won a nearly $500 million E-HEL contract in September and expects to deliver "well into the dozens" of LOCUST X3 lasers.
- Leonardo DRS will work on vehicle integration and power and thermal management for JLTV, Infantry Squad Vehicle or palletized setups.
- The subcontract's value wasn't disclosed; JIATF-401 plans a directed-energy shoot-off later this year.
Sources: DefenseScoop19. Aevex wins $41.6 million in Navy mine-hunting work for systems launched from small uncrewed boats, built for the Strait of Hormuz
Aevex's SightGlass mine-hunting and Fisher mine-neutralizing systems deploy from its GARC, Lynx and Chaser small USVs, Tectonic reports.
- $26 million came through a DIU OTA for Fisher and $15.6 million through the GARC contract for SightGlass, the company said.
- An Aevex executive says the systems have been operating overseas for weeks.
- The awards came days after Bloomberg reported the Navy had suspended GARC orders; Aevex says no orders were halted after delivering 325 GARCs in 2025.
Sources: Tectonic20. Naval Group unveils Seaquest M, a 37-meter uncrewed surface vessel built to run 10 days without human intervention
Naval Group showed the design of its Seaquest M medium uncrewed surface vessel, with a fully containerized combat system and Steeris mission management, ahead of Euronaval, Naval News reports.
- It can operate alone or as a "loyal wingman" to crewed ships, and is derived from a civilian design so several shipyards can build it.
- Renderings show container mission bays and effectors such as the Rampart launcher.
- Sea trials of initial capabilities are planned within a couple of months.
- The French Navy told Naval News armed medium USVs are "later increments" on its roadmap.
Sources: Naval News21. Ukraine's ZIRKA machine-vision interceptor drone downs a jet-powered Geran-5 at 3,500 meters
An upgraded ZIRKA interceptor flown by the "Retro" crew of the 412th Nemesis Brigade's Darknode Battalion destroyed a Russian jet-powered Geran-5 at about 400 km/h, developer ZRK.tech says, LB.ua reports.
- ZIRKA, made by Noctis, uses automatic guidance; its machine vision detects air targets up to 1 km away.
- Developers say the first version flies about 340 km/h, climbs 40 m/s to as high as 6 km, and has a 30 km range.
- A backup positioning system keeps it oriented if radar tracking is lost.
Sources: LB.ua22. WHO chief Tedros says drone attacks on civilians have become "tragically frequent" across Ethiopia and are pushing the north's health system toward collapse
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called on Nov. 2 for protection of civilians after weekend drone strikes in Amhara and Tigray, UN News reports.
- Children, including a newborn, were reportedly among those killed at the Jaari 2 displacement camp in Amhara; in Rama, Tigray, several people were reportedly killed while seeking food.
- Hospitals face shortages of staff, medicines and equipment, and insecurity is blocking some medical deliveries, he said.
- UN Secretary-General António Guterres has urged an immediate cessation of hostilities; fighting resumed in September.
23. Ukraine's Unmanned Systems Forces report 255,605 combat missions in October, one target hit every 41 seconds
USF commander Robert "Magyar" Brovdi said on Telegram that his units flew 151,500 strike missions and 104,000 reconnaissance sorties in October and hit 64,807 targets, Ukrinform reports.
- He reported 16,796 Russian personnel killed or wounded, a record and 24.7% more than September.
- About 69.5% of those losses came in the Dobropillia-Pokrovsk, Oleksandrivka and Huliaipole sectors.
- Brovdi said the figures cover only USF units and were verified in the DELTA situational-awareness system.
24. a16z spotlights Tutor Intelligence, whose AI robots work in U.S. factories by the hour, and a forecast of 1.4 billion robot sales a year by 2050
In an a16z podcast clip, Tutor Intelligence CEO Josh Gruenstein says a robot's value is simply "how much work a robot can do... divide[d] by its cost," and that the market is "all physical work done."
- Tutor builds its robots in Massachusetts and charges by the hour with no upfront cost; when the AI gets stuck, a remote human "tutor" takes over and teaches it the task, creating training data.
- a16z cites one Wall Street firm's forecast of annual robot sales: 29 million in 2026, 93 million in 2030, 605 million in 2040 and 1.4 billion in 2050.
- Gruenstein says Tutor goes from a first sales call to a working robot in about three months.
- The full episode with a16z's Martin Casado and Raghu Raghuram also covers real-world reinforcement learning on a 100-robot fleet.
25. Neya Systems gets $3.3 million to put autonomy kits on Navy Seabee bulldozers and loaders for airfield and port repair
The National Advanced Mobility Consortium awarded Pittsburgh's Neya Systems a $3.3 million contract, administered for Army Contracting Command–Detroit Arsenal, for an Autonomous Construction Equipment (ACE) kit for the Naval Construction Force.
- ACE goes on existing bulldozers, forklifts, front-end loaders and skid steers.
- It is designed for GPS-denied, degraded and intermittent environments.
- The aim is to keep personnel out of hazardous repair work at airfields and ports.
Sources: Pennsylvania Business Report
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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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