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Back to Defence & SecurityMilitary drones, uncrewed platforms and the boundaries of machine autonomy.
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The Ukrainian company says it is developing launch boxes for interceptor drones carried by ground robots. The proposal is at the development stage and its operational performance has not been established.
The MoD intends to raise the weight limit on the British Army's TIQUILA mini-drone contract from 20kg to 50kg without a new competition. It is a quick route to heavier drones, and a closed door for newer suppliers.
India's Defence Acquisition Council has cleared about Rs2.12 lakh crore of procurement proposals, with long-range kamikaze drones and counter-drone kit for tanks prominent. About 82% is to come from Indian industry, but these are first-stage approvals, not contracts.
Helsing has unveiled Contra, an AI-run air-defence system, and two container-launched interceptors it says will undercut existing missiles on price. The bigger ambition is the command layer that decides which interceptor fires.
Air Chief Marshal Harv Smyth has outlined an RAF in which crewed fighters work with autonomous aircraft. The practical test is how pilots set limits, share tasks and retain control.
Berlin is in talks to buy the Ukrainian jet-powered Bars for its own forces, according to a German official and earlier reporting. It would make a NATO army a customer of Ukraine's wartime arms industry rather than only its financier.
More than 570 merchant ships have been hit in the Black Sea this year, according to figures reported by the Financial Times, with attacks in the third quarter six times the Persian Gulf's rate. Insurers and port operators are pricing the drone war faster than navies can answer it.
Jet-powered Gerans were 92 of the 153 drones Russia launched overnight into 25 October. Ukraine's answer is a new class of jet interceptors priced in the thousands of dollars, while the US Army funds a ramjet missile for the same problem.
A pro-Russian commentator says one unit fired about 100 Lancet loitering munitions over three months and hit three targets, one of them a kiosk. It is a single, unverified claim, but it points at the number that matters: cost per hit.
XTEND's $40.5m order for 6,000 Striker close-quarters drones gives a third data point on what the Drone Dominance programme pays per airframe: roughly $5,400 to $7,100, depending on the vendor and what comes in the box.