drones Archives

A Scan Eagle unmanned aerial vehicle launches from the amphibious dock landing ship USS Comstock. (Photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Joseph Buliavac)

Navy identifies 4 vendors to compete for COCO drone ISR services

AeroVironment (AV), Shield AI, Insitu and Textron are expected to compete for delivery orders.

5 days ago By Jon Harper

A team of Department of Defense drone operators and experts test the technical capabilities of various Uncrewed Aerial Systems (UAS) during a Defense Innovation Unit led prize challenge to identify platforms, components, and capabilities for Blue UAS, which clears and validates flying platforms are safe to fly, cyber-secure, and meet DOD requirements, at Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center, Twentynine Palms, California, on Nov. 2-6, 2024. (DOD photo by Devon Bistarkey, Defense Innovation Unit)

Pentagon’s growing list of ‘made in America’ drones has a loophole for certain parts made in China

Multiple sources told DefenseScoop that the majority of the drones cleared through the Blue UAS effort have motors that are sourced in China.

Nov 20, 2025 By Brandi Vincent

Heven AeroTech’s Z1 drone (Credit: Heven AeroTech)

DIU approves hydrogen-powered drone for Blue UAS list

Heven AeroTech's Z1 drone is the first system that uses hydrogen fuel to be approved for the Pentagon's Blue UAS Cleared List.

Nov 20, 2025 By Mikayla Easley

U.S. Marine Corps Staff Sgt. Shay Burnett, an instructor with Advanced Infantry Training Battalion, School of Infantry – East, and a native of Texas, controls a Neros Archer small unmanned aircraft system during a kinetic first-person view drone range on Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, Sept. 12, 2025. The range was conducted to validate a scalable, repeatable methodology for enabling FPV strike operations and used as a reference to support cost-effective training and eventual kinetic employment. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Zachariah Ferraro)

SOCOM solicits industry to train commandos to build and fly FPV drones

The chosen contractor is expected to provide a 10-day course of instruction on assembling and operating First Person View small UAS.

Nov 12, 2025 By Jon Harper

The Albatross II attack and surveillance unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) drone developed by the National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology (NCSIST) and its American partner, is on display at the Taipei Aerospace & Defense Technology Exhibition 2025 (TADTE), in Taipei, Taiwan, on September 19, 2025. (Photo by Daniel Ceng/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Taiwan moves to counter China’s drone dominance

Defense experts discussed Taiwan's plans to grow its domestic drone production pipelines and its military’s adoption of such systems.

Nov 5, 2025 By Brandi Vincent

An instructor with Expeditionary Operations Training Group, I Marine Expeditionary Force, engages targets from a U.S. Army UH-60 Black Hawk assigned to Bravo Company, 1-140th Aviation Regiment, during Advanced Sniper Course 25-2 hosted by EOTG, I MEF, on Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, California, Sept. 19, 2025. ASC is designed to train personnel in the marksmanship skills necessary to provide sniper support to expeditionary operations. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Oliver Nisbet)

Marines’ Force Design plan urges modernization to tackle ‘the changing character of war’

The Marine Corps commandant's 24-page plan was released Thursday.

Oct 23, 2025 By Brandi Vincent

Shield AI reveals VTOL autonomous fighter jet dubbed X-BAT

The company expects to conduct first vertical-take-off-and-landing (VTOL) flight tests of X-BAT sometime next year.

Oct 22, 2025 By Mikayla Easley

Artists rendering of the Boeing Collaborative Transformational Rotorcraft (Credit: Boeing)

The Army wants its own fleet of loyal wingman drones

“As we go forward, we’re watching closely in our experimentation to develop a full requirement [and] potentially deliver a capability over the next couple of years," said…

Oct 20, 2025 By Mikayla Easley

Startup unveils mobile charging station to transform drone operations

“One of the things that makes it unique — and really what drove us into the space — is having a mobile platform for docking stations," Nick…

Oct 17, 2025 By Mikayla Easley

A C100 drone flies on Fort Hood, Texas, Sept. 17, 2025. The 1st Cavalry Division is currently modernizing its formation with updated drone training as a part of its “Pegasus Charge” transforming in contact initiative. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Jacob Nunnenkamp)

Army ‘on a path’ to meeting Hegseth’s ambitious drone goals

DefenseScoop interviewed Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology Brent Ingraham on the sidelines of the AUSA conference.

Oct 16, 2025 By Jon Harper