Military Drones

The UK’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) is seeking to accelerate development of a heavy-lift drone in support of the Royal Navy’s vision to revolutionize its resupplying of ships at sea by using UAVs rather than traditional aircraft like helicopters.

Even as the ink dries on a $48 million deal to supply Norway with intelligence-gathering Black Hornet drones, California’s Teledyne Technologies is also moving quickly to make delivery on over 100 ground robots it has contracted with Germany’s army.

In case anyone needed additional proof of just how grim and merciless the invasion of Ukraine has become, contributors to a few Reddit subreddits have helpfully provided new evidence. Yesterday, a video was posted featuring footage from a purported Ukraine drone as it hovers over, then drops a grenade near a Russian soldier as he tries to empty his bowels – immediately generating bountiful commentary, none of it sympathetic.

In a move that may get Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, and other Internal Revenue Service-averse billionaires contemplating a move into the armed forces, legislation has been tabled in the US seeking to extend many remote operators of military drones the same tax-exempt combat compensation that troops in combat battle receive.

The UK’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) will be deploying specialized drones to protect next month’s Commonwealth Games against potential Russian attacks, in what officials fear could be retaliatory action against London’s staunch support of Ukraine amid Moscow’s continuing invasion.

Planners in the UK’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) are drawing consequences from the enormous effects of small commercial drones deployed in Ukraine’s defense against Russian invaders, and are turning to top-drawer consumer tech specialists like Skydio to muscle up their own UAV assets.

California startup Realtime Robotics is introducing a portable, relatively heavy-lift drone called Hera that the company says beats rivals as a situational awareness asset for first responders, as well as a munitions delivery device for security and defense forces. As such it also sounds like something likely to find numerous takers in Ukraine just now.

New video evidence of how smaller drones are significantly strengthening Ukraine’s efforts to repel invading Russian forces has surfaced showing a self-made UAV using simple grenades to take out a $3 million Russian tank.

US security and defense company AeroVironment is upping its assistance to forces in Ukraine battling Russia’s invasion by donating more than 100 of its Quantrix Recon drones for intelligence gathering and monitoring movement of enemy troops.

Despite the intense and increasingly deadly invasion of their country by Russia, defense forces in Ukraine haven’t lost their sense of humor, and are now using it to mock the reputedly formidable Russian Orlan-10 drone as a DIY assemblage of foreign parts.

Footage apparently shot by one of Ukraine’s Turkish-built Bayraktar TB2 drones shows the routing of an ambushed Russian convoy as it neared Kyiv this week, forcing the diminished column to beat a hasty retreat – and offering an example of the determined and often successful counterattacks defenders have inflicted on invading troops during the three-week conflict.

Reversing a position it took last year, Canada’s government says it is sending cutting-edge surveillance cameras for use on Turkish military drones in armed conflict ­– this time in Ukraine.

Among the large number of heroes in the Ukraine’s determination to repel invading Russian armed forces is a mid-size, locally made drone known as the Punisher – something of a weaponized step-up vehicle from consumer craft to the formidable Turkish-built Bayraktar TB2 UAVs also being flown in the country’s defense. As Team Putin might woefully attest, the pint-size Punisher has been living up to its name.

Researchers supported by France’s Defense Ministry are working to develop a more effective surveillance drone that’s also less prone to detection by its imitation of birds or insects.

Drone manufacturer and automated flight specialist Skydio says it has won a contract to supply its X2D UAVs to the US Army’s Short-Range Reconnaissance Program (SRR). Valued at $20.2 million annually, the fixed-price provisionment agreement is expected to be worth $99.8 million over its five-year duration.

We’ve all been there – or at least those of us who fly drones. Maybe you catch a tree, a component fails, or you just plain make a mistake. But the odds are you’ve crashed your drone, especially if you’re flying FPV. But take comfort in the fact that even if you’re facing a costly repair, it’s not the $130 million price tag for a recent military drone crash in North Dakota.

Arms and ammo are often said to be the lifeblood of fighting forces – one reason why militaries around the world have deployed uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAV) to re-supply troops locked in prolonged combat situations. But for wounded soldiers, actual plasma is even more important than munitions, which is why the UK’s Royal Navy is testing drone delivery of blood to battlefields. 

The US Marine Corps are testing tiny drones capable of performing a range of duties – including striking remote enemy targets with military-grade grenades. The application adds another reason to react fast to any buzzing sounds swiftly approaching from above.

In a world first, Israel is hosting an international drone training exercise. Called the “Blue Guardian,” the military exercise is seeing participation from the United States, France, Italy, Germany, and the United Kingdom.

There’s been an attack targeting US troops in Iraq. And it appears to have likely used modified Enterprise-style drones that were packed with explosives. Reports are still emerging, but it appears the device was brought down outside the walls of the airport compound.

The US military has come up with a new, highly effective weapon for zapping enemy drones out of the skies. Pardon the wonky, technical terminology, but what the Mobile Force Protection (MFP) system does is hock a big loogie of plastic pink stuff that looks suspiciously like Silly String at targeted craft, and down goes Frazier.