Inside Unmanned Systems

The U.S. Capitol sits as a backdrop of the Evening Parade at Marine Barracks Washington, D.C., July 10, 2026. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Christopher Prelle) Palantir’s protest, filed under GAO docket B-424519.1, argued DIA was pursuing custom software development despite the availability of a commercial product capable of meeting the requirement.

Military leaders demonstrate engagement of a containerized open Counter UAS system, known as a Fly Away Kit, built to detect, track and intercept unmanned aircraft and autonomous drone systems during Falcon Peak 25.2, the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and U.S. Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) experimentation event at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, on September 18, 2025. (DOD Photo by Devon Bistarkey).

When Phoenix LiDAR Systems submitted its miniRANGER-3 Lite for Blue UAS review, the company did not get the system back in working order. The equipment had been taken apart too thoroughly to be economically rebuilt. Rob Dannenberg, Phoenix’s president, did not view that as a complaint about the process. He viewed it as evidence that the review had gone beyond paperwork. The reviewer was not simply asking who Phoenix said made the system. It was examining what was actually inside it.

The Anduril Ghost X (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Charlie Duke) On July 21, the FCC’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau extended two existing Covered List exemptions, made a third permanent, and opened a comment docket on a potential new import ban covering foreign-made drones by capability class.

U.S. Marine Corps Cpl. Hunter Zenoni, an unmanned aerial systems pilot and mechanic with the Marine Corps Drone Attack Team, pilots a small unmanned aircraft system during a drone demonstration at the Pentagon, July 10, 2025. The event was hosted to demonstrate the Secretary of Defense’s initiative of Unleashing U.S. Military Drone Dominance. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Alondra Y.

Uber Technologies and Zipline announced the strategic partnership August 17, with Uber Eats customers set to have the option of receiving orders via Zipline’s drones in existing Zipline markets, with plans to expand into dozens of additional U.S. cities. Uber will also make a strategic investment in Zipline as part of the deal. First deployments under the partnership are expected later this year.

Powerus, a West Palm Beach, Fla., start-up, has stood up a contract-manufacturing facility in the United Arab Emirates to produce its Guardian drone interceptor, according to reporting published Aug. 23. The facility, which came online in July, marks the company’s first Middle East manufacturing site and is central to its plan to become a global interceptor supplier.

DroneDominance.mil DDP Gauntlet Tracker, as of 8/25/26. But now, over five months later, the competition’s order-tracking website reveals just how ambitious those goals were—out of 22,320 FPVs collectively ordered, only 13,440 drones have been delivered. And only three out of 11 companies awarded contracts have completed deliveries; most of the rest appear to have delivered around 50%.

AVIDrone Inc., from Columbia, Md., pushed the limits of electric helicopter design to an incredible level of efficiency, setting an early competition benchmark with a 3.8:1 ratio. Source: DARPA | Paul Flacks Avidrone Aerospace said this week it will develop a new version of Katana, the single-rotor helicopter drone that won the top prize at DARPA’s Lift Challenge, held Aug. 4-9 at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in Dayton, Ohio.

This latest award reflects sustained demand for AEVEX’s mission-focused unmanned capabilities and expands the company’s role across priority operations. AEVEX continues to support critical operational demands, providing assets and mission-ready assistance to U.S. forces. “Our customers rely on AEVEX to provide precision-driven systems that can be fielded rapidly and perform reliably in complex operational conditions,” said Roger Wells, Chief Executive Officer at AEVEX.