During a two-week transit to RIMPAC 2026 in Hawaii, a containerized factory aboard the USS Essex 3D printed a dozen flight-ready drones, as well as over 1,000 parts including vital spares for Apache helicopters. 3D Printing Industry reports that this was the first maritime run of the xCell expeditionary manufacturing platform from Firestorm Labs. Furthermore, production wasn’t halted by the rough seas and up to 12 ft waves endured during the journey.

In Firestorm’s words, this additive manufacturing milestone using the xCell platform “just proved expeditionary manufacturing works in real conditions.” The 3D printers on board produced a plethora of useful things during the journey, on demand.

xCell’s containerized production line takes up just two expandable 20-foot ISO containers, or a single 40-foot equivalent. Inside are industrial HP Multi Jet Fusion polymer printers alongside semi-automated assembly stations.

Our headlining pick from the range of products that were manufactured at sea was the twelve quadcopter drones. These were Squall FPV drones, one of Firestorm Labs’ key products. The NDAA-compliant Squall is designed for U.S. forces to “Print. Build. Fly. Dominate.”

Squall has a range of up to 20 miles, a flight time of up to 42 minutes, a top speed of 80 mph, and can carry a 5.5-pound payload. These same drones were flown as adversary aircraft in a counter-UAS exercise when the USS Essex arrived at RIMPAC.

Drones might be the most newsworthy output from xCell, but other essentials that the crew printed en route to Hawaii included printed Apache helicopter rotor droop‑stops, designed to prevent $500,000 rotor damage during at‑sea operations. Another spare part highlighted by the source that was needed during the exercises was a 3D-printed custom vacuum‑hose coupling for life preserver testing.

Making up the 1,000+ 3D-printed parts and spares were crew-requested gadgets and gizmos like covers for electrical fittings, a bracket for mounting Starlink, gauges for checking deck tie-downs, and lots more. “Every part xCell printed on deck is one that doesn't need to be flown or shipped across contested waters — cutting the fuel, aircraft hours, and personnel it takes to keep a ship operational,” boasted Firestorm on social media. “Repairs that once meant days or weeks waiting on a resupply run can now happen in hours, on station.”

U.S. aerospace, defense and security giant Northrop Grumman thinks it has a solution that will provide short-range, layered air defense against the increasingly complex aerial threats we see in modern war. The new Raid Hunter uses the firm’s Chain Gun technology to defend targets from cruise missiles, drone swarms and other evolving threats. It thus addresses an area identified as a “critical short-range air defense gap.” Furthermore, the modular Raid Hunter can be rapidly deployed on the C-130 and other vehicles, with networking enabling sensor fusion and coordinated engagements.

We have seen in Ukraine, and more recently in the Middle East, that modern air defense systems are struggling with high-volume drone swarms and low-flying cruise missiles. The sheer amount of aerial threats is overwhelming defense systems that have traditionally been designed to knock out warplanes and cruise missiles. Moreover, expensive anti-air missiles such as the Patriot system seem inappropriate and imbalanced for stopping far cheaper and more numerous drones.

“War has evolved. Air Defenders need the ability to defend against large, complex raids designed to overwhelm traditional defense solutions,” said Kenn Todorov, VP and GM, command and control & weapons integration, at Northrop Grumman. This is the perceived gap Northrop Grumman hopes the Raid Hunter will fill.

Now that we have spelled out clearly what it is for, let’s look more closely at the Raid Hunter. Central to its proposed task is what Northrop Grumman calls its “proven Chain Gun technology, [and] precision‑guided 50mm ammunition.” This large-caliber and high-rate-of-fire gun is cost-effective, can be equipped with deep magazines, with fast reloads. It addresses “the economic challenge of massed swarming threats,” asserts the defense firm.

Raid Hunter is also easy to get into position, or move out of harm’s way, as a palletized modular design that can be vehicle-mounted or containerized.

This new counter-UAS solution’s abilities scale well, too. Northrop Grumman indicates that multiple Raid Hunter deployments can work as an integrated system in a networked, interoperable way. It also integrates with layered defense architectures – including other air and missile defense systems - to protect critical assets across a range of operations.

Tests of the Raid Hunter are going to continue this year to validate its counter-UAS and air defense capabilities. It is hoped that the tests will support accelerated fielding of these air defense systems.

The Trump administration has announced new tariffs on foreign-made drones and their components, according to the Financial Times. The move is said to secure domestic supply chains and curb reliance on foreign technology, particularly from China. The new duties target both commercial and unmanned aerial systems, signaling a major push in the tech trade war. The administration justified the newly introduced tariffs on the grounds of national security under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said that import penetration is “substantial" and the US is "too reliant" on foreign drone producers.

According to the report, the White House will slap a 100% tariff on sensitive foreign drones, specifically those weighing over 25 kilograms or equipped with thermal imaging capabilities. Smaller, non-sensitive drones having a maximum take-off weight of 25kg will face a 25% import duty. To ease the transition, Washington is offering lower tariff rates for close allies. Drones from the European Union, Japan, Switzerland, and Taiwan will face a 15% tariff, while the United Kingdom is subject to a 10% rate, provided the hardware and technology originate in those locations or the US.

The regulation comes as the White House separately accused more than 40 countries of actively helping Beijing circumvent US tariffs by rerouting products through third-party nations. According to Craig Singleton, a US-China technology competition expert at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, “It still primarily targets China, but it’s designed to stop supply-chain laundering." This allowed US companies to import and assemble millions of Chinese drone components like motors, rotors, and frames.

The tariffs are expected to force US commercial and government agencies into an immediate, capital-intensive pivot towards domestic or allied suppliers. Notably, US drone manufacturers, including AeroVironment Inc., Aevex Corp., and Unusual Machines Inc., saw their stock prices surge in post-market trading following the announcement.

Back in December 2025, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) had announced a sweeping ban on new drones and critical components produced in foreign countries. This included products from Chinese manufacturers such as DJI and Autel Robotics. The decision followed a White House national security determination that foreign-made unmanned aircraft systems could pose risks related to surveillance, data exfiltration, and potential disruptions.

Reducing (or completely eliminating) the charge time for drones has been a continual area of research, with some advancements, such as quantum batteries showcased earlier this year, showing a lot of promise. Researchers at the Civil Aviation University of China have made a major breakthrough in laser-based OTA (Over The Air) charging that can convert energy at 38.94% efficiency.

According to a study published in Matter & Light, scientists from the Civil Aviation University of China are testing a lightweight receiver that can harvest energy from a laser beam sent from the ground. The system uses a perovskite laser cell-thermoelectric (PLC-TE) tandem device, which combines two methods of generating electricity. The perovskite layer converts laser energy into electricity, while the thermoelectric layer recovers some of the resulting heat and turns it into additional power. Its output increases as the temperature difference between the laser-facing side and the cooler side grows.

The major challenge with this setup is that intense laser beams heat up the receivers to a blistering 80 to 90 degrees Celsius, degrading efficiency and causing damage to the aircraft itself. “That was much higher than we expected and made us realize that heat buildup was a far more serious problem than we had imagined,” explained Jianhua Han, the study's senior author.

To overcome this challenge, Han's team added special nanocrystals to the receiver. As the nanocrystals are poor heat conductors, it allows them to act as a thermal barrier and protect the perovskite and thermoelectric layers. The team also added air channels to the drone's wings. As the propellers spin, airflow passes through these channels and carries excess heat away, helping to keep the system cool. The combination of nanomaterials and aerodynamic cooling resulted in a respectable 38.49% energy conversion efficiency during testing, which is one of the highest reported for this class of technology.

While the system is yet to undergo outdoor flight tests, this breakthrough alone is a significant step toward practical continuous flight for drones. As Han noted, going from 1 to 100 will require solving complex tracking and safety challenges, but this research establishes an important starting point for the future of drones and UAVs.

HoverAir, makers of self-flying selfie drones, have just unveiled the HoverAir Versa, combining their existing aerial expertise with the convenience of a pocket camera. At its core, the Versa is a high-end stabilized pocket gimbal camera, like the DJI Osmo, but it can magnetically snap onto a drone body and transform into a cinematic selfie drone. It's designed to tackle two different product categories simultaneously, but with the same goal of making it as easy as possible to film yourself (or others).

The Versa is actually HoverAir's first-ever pocket camera. It features a three-axis gimbal, which means it can adjust for tilt, yawn, and pitch to make sure your footage turns out stable. Compared to other options on the market, no pocket camera offers more than two-axis stabilization. It has a rotating screen and the accompanying controls for the camera, along with RGB accent lighting that also works as a status indicator. Overall, it looks like a pretty run-of-the-mill, well-made pocket camera.

But the magic happens when you bring out the wings. A small, foldable drone body can magnetically attach to the camera unit via pogo pins located at the back of the device. Once connected, you just unfold the wings, gently tap the top, and it takes off right from your palm. There is no external controller needed because the device uses AI to track and follow you automatically. It has 10+ intelligent modes that can film you from any direction with AI-assisted framing, along with a neat 360° feature as well.

In this mode, called 3D Worlds, the drone flies around to snap pictures of the scene from different angles and composites them into a single 360° scene that can be explored and shared later. Technically, this would be the third audience the Versa is trying to cater to — the Insta360 crowd, though that's real-time 360° video recording that you can also generously manipulate in post, so not exactly comparable. Still, it's a neat trick, and we'll have to see how well HoverAir implements it.

We don't have a price or release date; just a bunch of teasers so far that say it's coming soon. As such, specs are also up in the air, but the company is touting class-leading performance with the best dynamic range in the category. From the promotional material, we can infer that it has a large lens, and the drone body looks very compact. If HoverAir's previous selfie drones are anything to go by, the Versa could have support for up to 8K video in 10-bit Log or HLG, along with rapid flying speeds of up to 45 km/h.

The test footage on HoverAir's website and the video we attached above look really impressive. The ingenuity of the concept warrants both excitement and skepticism, but it's undeniable that the Versa kind of feels magical. Nothing like it exists in the market today, and if the company can already ship excellent selfie drones like the X1 series, and pocket cameras aren't exactly rocket science, it stands to reason that harmonizing the two together is the only challenge for the Versa.

K3 Scout surveillance drones used by the UK’s Royal Navy contain components that have been secretly transmitting data to China, according to reports. The Telegraph’s revelations suggest that the sea drones include a camera component that would send the data to China. However, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) says that it has removed all internet connectivity from the cameras after discovering the breach. The transmitted data was also limited in scope, insists the MoD, which characterized the transmissions as “heartbeat communications” to simply verify the device is online and working normally.

Western governments have been seeking to minimize the ingress of Chinese technology into sensitive and critical infrastructure for some years now. The pushback started with investigations into rising telecom brands like Huawei and ZTE, which became very successful with their cheap and efficient equipment in the West.

More recently, we have seen pushback affecting Chinese drone companies, as the utility and value of drones have become incredibly clear in the Russia – Ukraine war. Western allies obviously don’t want drones with potential Chinese backdoors, killswitches, or so on inside them. However, even manufacturers in China’s fiercest foe, Taiwan, recently admitted that its drone-making operations were still dependent on Chinese components.

Returning to the topic of drones, specifically, the sea drones in the Telegraph story were reportedly acquired by a major British defense contractor, Kraken Technology Group. The same company “sourced the cameras from a third party who had given assurances about their security,” says the newspaper. But an unnamed Telegraph source told the paper that this security lapse was a “major failure,” meaning that confidence in the platform has been lost. It even goes on to say that there are concerns that these drones could have snooped on highly sensitive special military forces meetings, even when switched off.

An MoD spokesperson told The Telegraph that the issues with the Chinese cameras were identified during a routine cyber vulnerability assessment. That seems like evidence of good practice, showing proactive testing and assurance procedures are in place. Moreover, the investigation “found no evidence of MoD data or systems being accessed, compromised or transmitted externally.” That didn’t stop The Telegraph or shadow (opposition party) ministers from being “furious” about the revelations, though.

The K3 Scout drone can carry a 600kg payload at sea for 30 days continuously. The Royal Marines have been using a £12 million fleet of these drones since March and offered to deploy them to secure freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz.

U.S. Special Operations Command also has K3 Scout drones, and these drones have been used by allies in NATO trials in the Baltic Sea.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is moving to ban drones with LiDAR obstacle-avoidance features, a move that would remove a number of popular consumer drones from US shelves. In a public notice published in the Federal Register on August 3 (DA 26-758), the agency proposed retroactively banning the import and sale of any foreign-made drone on its Covered List that “contains or integrates” a LiDAR sensor, categorizing the technology under a broad “military-grade” umbrella.

The proposal builds on a ban the FCC set in motion late last year. On December 22, 2025, the agency added all foreign-made drones and their critical components to its Covered List — a roster of communications equipment that a U.S. national-security authority has determined poses an unacceptable risk. The listing blocked any new foreign drone model from receiving the FCC authorization it needed to be sold in the U.S., effectively banning sales of new models.

However, models that had already cleared authorization before the listing could continue to be imported and sold. The new DA 26-758 proposal seeks to retroactively strip sales clearance from previously approved drone models that ”escaped” the initial ban, starting with those it deems military-grade. The proposal is open for public comment until September 2, 2026, and if adopted as written, the ban on imports and sales would take effect roughly 180 days after publication.

LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) is a remote sensing technology that uses laser pulses to measure exact distances and build precise 3D maps of objects and environments. Drones, delivery bots, and self-driving cars all rely on it for obstacle avoidance. A ban would mean that popular consumer models such as DJI's Air 3S and Mini 5 Pro — both of which use LiDAR for obstacle detection — would no longer be available for sale in the US. The proposal would not affect existing owners, who could keep flying the drones they already have, but as DJI has warned, those owners could find official spare parts increasingly hard, or eventually impossible, to source over time.

Under the FCC's broad ”military-grade” classification, the ban would also reach drones that carry thermal imaging sensors, can dispense agricultural sprays (”economic poison” in the notice's language), weigh 55 pounds or more, include docking stations, integrate a defense article, or operate in coordinated swarms — a category the FCC defines widely enough to include synchronized drone light shows. U.S.-made drones and other drones not on the Covered List are not touched by the ban, regardless of whether they carry any of these features.

The FCC frames the move purely as a national security issue, leaning on an executive-branch determination that foreign-made drones pose an “unacceptable risk.” It tentatively concludes that the economic hit would be minor, as military-grade models are a small minority in a market dominated by recreational fliers. Conversely, the notice also details the billions that domestic drone makers like Skydio, which has committed $3.5 billion to US manufacturing, have raised since the original ban.

DJI, one of the manufacturers affected by the ban, has argued that the “military-grade” label is a category error, sweeping in civilian tools that first responders, farmers, and hobbyists rely on. Its core objection lands on the LiDAR clause, specifically arguing that the technology is a safety feature, not a weapon. DJI had earlier sued the FCC to overturn the December ban, claiming the agency exceeded its statutory authority.

The drone arms race is set to enter U.S. schools with Mithril Defense’s Campus Guardian Angel drones in at least nine schools across three states before the year is out. The Washington Post reports that the pilot program will be tested in Florida, Georgia, and Colorado schools with and without resource officers on campus. Securely siloed drones will be situated in key areas around campus, triggered by teachers via app or panic button, then fly to combat gun-toting attackers with a mix of strobes, sirens, pepper spray, and a 60 mph attacker-ramming capability.

If this is a successful initiative, it could go some way to lift the terrible specter of gun violence overshadowing U.S. students. The Washington Post notes that since Columbine in 1999, almost 400,000 students have experienced gun violence at school.

The Campus Guardian Angel drone rollout will be quite expensive. For example, the five schools in Georgia set to adopt drone defense will get $500,000 in backing to run the pilot program. However, politicians and legislators in that state appear to have passed the budget with ease.

This is how the Campus Guardian Angel drone system is designed to work:

• Drones are sited at secure locations around the campus,
• A teacher will trigger the drone deployment using an app or panic button,
• Remote pilots take control and distract, deter, and disable aggressors using a mix of strobes, sirens, pepper gel, and 60‑mph impacts,
• Drone system reaction speed is crucial.

Mithril Defense says that the Campus Guardian Angel drones can react and reach a shooter as quickly as 15 seconds. Justin Marston, Mithril’s founder and CEO, made a few other bold claims regarding his drone system’s reaction speed. For example, Marston said a drone like the Guardian Angel ‘might’ve saved lives in Uvalde.’ That’s a direct reference to the massacre at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, where 19 students and two teachers were killed in 2022.

The drone defense firm's CEO underlined that “the first 120 seconds are incredibly critical, because that’s when most of the shooting happens.” That implies that he thinks Campus Guardian Angel drones could be successfully deployed within that very narrow time window. But Uvalde was quite unusual, as responding law enforcement seemed paralyzed, waiting over an hour to enter the classroom.

These school-based drone systems are not without their critics. Some say that the funds may be better spent on prevention than cure. Even Mithril’s founder and CEO’s opinion seems to be that if these drones aren’t prompted into action within two minutes, they aren’t living up to their promise.

There is also the concern that drones could misidentify students or protection officers when controllers are under pressure. Others say that military-style drone systems aren’t appropriate for schools, and will cost a lot more than simple measures and routines regarding locked doors.

With the three states proceeding with pilot programs this year, we may see the true value and capabilities of the Campus Guardian Angel drones. If these drone-protected schools don’t suffer any terrible shooting incidents, then it may be claimed that the drones are at least a deterrent.

A Pro-Ukraine group claims it helped facilitate a cyberattack on a Russian BARS drone defense system near Moscow, resulting in the shooting down of an advanced Russian fighter jet. The Su-57 stealth fighter crashed spectacularly “during a routine training mission in the Moscow region on Thursday,” say reports published by Russian state media. The pilot ejected safely, and the jet smashed into an uninhabited area. However, what the Russians are characterizing as an accident due to “a technical malfunction,” some Ukrainian open-source intelligence (OSINT) agencies are claiming as successful sabotage.

Russian accident or Ukrainian scalp?

Above you can see that InformNapalm, a well‑known Ukrainian volunteer intelligence collective, claims that the Su-57 was “shot down” by the Russian ‘BARS Moscow’ air defense system. That would indeed be a kind of technical malfunction, as the Russians admit, but InformNapalm says that Ukrainian cyber specialists turned Moscow’s anti-drone shield against the Russian jet. Specifically, in this instance, the Russian anti-drone system shot down the confirmed crashed Su-57 stealth fighter.

The explosive-if-true claim from Ukrainian OSINT comes with a background story. InformNapalm says that it shared “secret documents from the Russian manufacturer of components for this aircraft's systems” last year. These were acquired and leaked by HUMINT and CYBINT operations backed by Ukrainian intelligence services. Additionally, the Ukrainians mounted a combined cognitive and cyber influence operation that affected the operation of the BARS Moscow air defense unit. The purported result was that the drone defense unit set up around Moscow in June shot down the Su-57.

InformNapalm attempts to add veracity to its claims by sharing some less sensitive but still relevant evidence of espionage. The video embedded in the Tweet (above) is purported to be footage from a training range where Russia's BARS Moscow crews were in training to counter Ukraine’s long-range drones. There’s also an intelligence brief excerpt mentioning Russian hardware, software, combat algorithms, and system vulnerabilities.

Russia is thought to only have a handful of these advanced Su-57 aircraft, which can launch Kh-59 and Kh-69 missiles, so efforts put into sabotaging them are high among Ukrainian military priorities. Ukraine has previously targeted and claimed successful strikes against Su-57s sitting on the ground at Akhtubinsk airfield (2024), and Shagol airfield (May this year).

Lockheed Martin has unveiled a counter-drone system that can “neutralize up to 50 enemy drones in a single mission.” The new Morfius X-Rotor is a ground-launched one-to-many drone-kill system designed to be sent up to neutralize large enemy drone swarms. This reusable and field‑recoverable drone utilizes a high‑power microwave to disable drones without explosives, reducing collateral damage. It boasts a “significantly low cost per kill.”

The video shared on social media looks impressive, with a trio of Morfius X-Rotor drones sent into the skies, the video of the target acquisition HUD, and then several microwave blasts. We don’t know whether the video contains any live-action test footage or is just a rendered animation.

The U.S. defense tech company notes that swarms of hostile drones are fast becoming the biggest threat to allied forces on today's battlefields, and this is why the Morfius X-Rotor was created. It also fits into the U.S. Department of War's 2025-2028 Rapid Response Counter-UAS Roadmap.

Lockheed claims the Morfius X-Rotor is also remarkable for being “the only ground-launched, field-reusable airborne HPM system capable of delivering more than 50 drone kills per flight using any command and control system and no dependence on fire control radars.” So, it doesn’t need dedicated radar or guidance sensors to acquire and take down targets, which could be a winning quality in heavy EW environments.

Another feather in this one-to-many drone-kill system’s cap is that it is built on a proven platform of Morfius variants which have been flying since 2017, with recent field tests taking place across several U.S. states. A Lockheed VP sums up that what we see in the video demo represents “a new benchmark for counter-drone capability - delivering a high kill rate while keeping the cost per kill low.”

We have reported on microwave anti-drone and weaponry systems before. Among the former was the ground vehicle-based Epirus Leonidas system, which "neutralized 61-of-61 drones" during a recent live fire trial in Indiana last year. We've also reported on an incredibly powerful 20-gigawatt microwave weapon designed in China, dubbed the TPG1000C, and described as “Starlink’s worst nightmare.”

Researchers from Northwestern University in Illinois have built a drone that rotates so fast that it is cloaked by motion blur. The new Phantom Twist drone spins at 25 times per second, which, thanks to a quirk of human vision, makes it appear like a faint smudge in the air. The video below shows it off to great effect, but I hope they can do something about the whiny noise.

The first demonstration of the Phantom Twist took place as part of a Robotics: Science and Systems 2026 presentation on Thursday. “Most efforts to hide drones focus on making them look like their surroundings,” said Northwestern’s Michael Rubenstein, who led the work. “Instead, we asked whether we could design the drone itself around the way humans perceive motion. This idea of low visibility through persistent motion is something few people have explored.”

The stationary photo of the Phantom Twist reveals a rather unique drone design, far removed from the now traditional quadcopter. It has just one motor and one propeller, and while the propeller spins in one direction, and the rest of the drone spins in the opposite direction, explains the Northwestern University blog.

AI was used to refine the design

The researchers tasked a computational model to generate roughly 20,000 drone configurations capable of stable flight. Subsequently, they applied AI and other optimization algorithms to repeatedly rearrange the drones’ major components, including a motor, propeller, circuit board, counterweight and batteries.

After narrowing down the candidates to around 500, the engineers superimposed simulated drones in flight over a hundred real-world backgrounds. A perception model then whittled down the designs based on their visibility scores. According to Rubenstein this entire process was automated, and only “when we were confident that a drone met all our criteria, we built it.” The demonstrated Phantom Twist drone is apparently “10 times less visually perceptible than a conventional quadcopter” according to the researcher’s visibility metrics.

Yes, the team knows that the Phantom Twist drone is rather noisy, and the visual impact of its wires and support rods could be reduced. Thus, work is planned to utilize more transparent materials and / or quieter propulsion systems in upcoming revisions.

Ukraine, which is fighting a years-long war of attrition against Russian aggression, has seen a lot of combat innovations, especially in drone warfare. But even as modern technologies like Starlink-powered long-range drones and jam-proof fiber optic drones enter the battlefield, troops on both sides are also relying on their own ingenuity and deploying “field upgrades” on their equipment. Just like during the Second World War, when some American tankers welded thick metal plates to increase the armor on their vehicles to counter the feared German Panzers, the Defence Blog reports that Russians are crudely installing $2 magnetic compasses on some Molniya drones to combat electronic warfare.

The Molniya is a cheap, medium-range drone that relies on the open-source ExpressLRS radio control system, which lets operators control it from a potential maximum range of up to 62 miles (100 kilometers). Some versions also used Starlink connections to combat the jamming efforts of Ukrainian electronic warfare units, but Ukraine’s requirement to register Starlink units in the country before they can be used has supposedly made this strategy unviable.

The drone can also be equipped with a fiber optic cable, which renders it impervious to any sort of electronic interference. Although this limits the potential range of the Molniya to just 18 miles (30 kilometers), it allows the drone to be more effective as it reduces the chances that the operator will lose control of the unit.

GPS jamming is also a common occurrence in Ukrainian airspace. This means that drone operators could potentially get lost on their way to their targets. Because of this, many frontline Russian units have started crudely installing magnetic compasses on their drones. This navigation tool is typically installed just below the FPV camera, allowing the operator to glance down to confirm their bearings. When combined with other telemetry data, the drone pilot could locate their relative location even without GPS.

One leaked image shows that the compass is just attached to the panel near the FPV camera with five Philips screws, suggesting that this isn’t a factory modification. Some people are mocking the development of this “add-on,” saying that it’s a step backward for the supposedly “advanced” Russian arsenal. But no matter how rough and primitive it looks, the fact that it helps the Russians achieve their missions means that it’s still a cheap, effective, and rather deadly modification.

A micro-drone designed to locate and eradicate mosquitoes has passed an important milestone. Tornyol Systems shared a video where the eponymous autonomous drone chalked up its first live air-to-air kill. For some reason (perhaps demonstration visibility), the 40g (1.4 ounce) drone’s first confirmed kill on video features a moth. Tornyol boldly claims that the demo shows a significant stride has been made “towards completely eradicating mosquitoes.”

Tornyol Systems co-founder Alex Toussaint shared the above Tweet, congratulating the engineering team that has worked alongside him on the project. On the company website, there is a mosquito-hostile manifesto laid out, which provides insight into the company’s primary drone development goal.

“Mosquitoes are one of humanity's oldest and worst enemies. They kill more than 700,000 people each year — more than all current wars,” according to the firm’s mission statement. “More than 700 million people contract a mosquito-borne disease each year. They impact many countries, including the West, with thousands of cases of West Nile Virus in the US alone.” It aims to use technology, including this “small, inexpensive, and yet very fast” micro-drone, to “completely eradicate mosquitoes from areas where humans live.”

The underlying motivation of Tornyol Systems first became apparent back at Hackaday Supercon 2024 when Toussaint shared a presentation about How to Detect (and Kill) Mosquitoes With Off-the-Shelf Electronics.

Tornyol's technology

Since those initial presentations, it looks like the tech has been significantly refined and miniaturized. Currently, the platform is dependent on the LeSonar2 phased array sonar base station with 380 smartphone microphones and an Artix-7 FPGA to map the world in 3D.

This feeds the drone enough information to measure 0.1 mm movements and identify mosquitoes through their unique wingbeat signature. The micro-drone is sent commands by a PC, which also leverages “car park assist sensors, and some clever DSP” to seek and kill mozzies up to 8m (~26 feet) away.

We’ve previously reported on ground-based AI-enhanced mosquito zappers, but this is the first time we’ve seen an air-to-air solution. Tornyol says that it is rolling out deployment on embedded hardware “in the next few weeks.” I guess that's removing the need for a PC.

U.S. residents interested in purchasing an autonomous Tornyol drone and base station are being asked to stump up a refundable $100 deposit. Then, there are two payment plans available. Choose a $50-a-month subscription or an “own it forever” $1,100 one-time fee.

Ukrainian FP-1 drones struck the Gazprom Neft oil refinery in Omsk, Siberia, on July 6 after flying roughly 2,500 km over more than 12 hours, halting operations at Russia's largest gasoline producer, according to a report from UK pub The Telegraph. It was the longest-range Ukrainian drone strike of the war, carried out by an aircraft built around a plywood load-bearing structure, foam wings, and a two-cylinder piston engine, at an estimated cost of $55,000 per unit.

Despite its lightweight structure, the drone managed to cause some pretty severe damage, setting fire to the CDU-10 crude distillation unit per Reuters, which handles 24,580 metric tons of crude per day and accounts for around 38% of the plant's processing capacity. A second unit, CDU-11, responsible for a further 37%, was shut down after network links vital to its operation were damaged. The refinery, which processed 22 million metric tons of crude (about 440,000 barrels per day) in 2024, stopped selling gasoline and diesel on the St. Petersburg International Mercantile Exchange the following day.

The FP-1, built by Kyiv-based Fire Point, is engineered not for sophistication or as cutting-edge drone tech, but for mass production. The airframe uses plywood structural elements and foam wings skinned in fiberglass or carbon fiber, with a twin-boom layout, a roughly five-meter wingspan, and no landing gear. A solid rocket booster launches it from a fixed platform or a truck, and a two-cylinder engine driving a propeller carries it the rest of the way.

The drone's original design range was 1,600 km with a warhead of up to 60 kg. At the Eurosatory defense exhibition in Paris last month, Fire Point showed an upgraded FP-1 with an additional fuel tank integrated into the wing, extending its range to 2,700 km. That variant put Omsk, and most of Russia's refining capacity, within reach. The Telegraph reported that the drones used in the strike were lightened, with lengthened wingspans and enlarged fuel tanks, and that Fire Point co-founder Denys Shtilerman said Ukrainian planners spent more than a week plotting a route around Russian air defenses. Navigation relies on a purpose-built algorithm designed to resist GPS spoofing, with inertial and satellite guidance layered together.

Fire Point produces around 100 FP-1s per day, and the aircraft now accounts for roughly 60% of Ukraine's deep strikes inside Russia, according to company CEO Iryna Terekh. Each drone costs less than a single interceptor missile fired by the multimillion-dollar S-400 and Pantsir batteries tasked with stopping it, and Russia simply can't field enough of those systems to cover a country spanning 11 time zones.

This design takes advantage of Russia's air defense network, which was designed to detect fast, high-flying jets and ballistic missiles, not slow, low-altitude aircraft with small radar signatures. Moscow scrambled Su-57 stealth fighters against the Omsk raid, but several drones still got through. Kyle Glen, an open-source investigator, told The Telegraph that Russia appears to concentrate its defenses around Moscow and St. Petersburg, leaving "almost nothing behind it to stop them" once drones penetrate the outer layer.

Ukraine's General Staff recorded 172 deep strikes last month, up from 85 in February, and Omsk was the sixth major Russian refinery forced to fully or partially shut down since the start of June. Last month, President Volodymyr Zelensky said that a new Fire Point drone can reach targets at 3,000 km, and the company's FP-5 Flamingo cruise missile, carrying a 1,150 kg warhead over the same distance, has begun striking Russian weapons facilities as air defenses thin out.

Quantum Systems Group reckons it has broken the flight speed record for an electric drone. During internal testing last month, the Munich-based firm recorded its Apex Recordhunter drone hitting a top speed of 699 km/h (434 mph) in straight and level flight. That incredible result convincingly outpaces the current world record holder with a recorded top speed of 657.59 km/h (409 mph). However, a Guinness World Record entry is pending, with a formal attempt to crack that achievement expected to take place in the coming weeks, reports ComputerBase (machine translation).

According to the official press release, the Apex Recordhunter drone was developed over the last year and serves as a technology demonstrator for next-gen electrically powered drones. Tellingly, Ukrainian engineers are also working on this project under the auspices of WIY Drones, a branch of Quantum Systems. It will also be attempting record-breaking speed challenges in Ukraine, as the Apex Recordhunter is being assessed for future interceptor drone programs.

Specifically, the WIY Drones plans include record attempts to break speed records for an FPV interceptor drone carrying a 0.5 kg payload, and for an anti-aircraft class FPV interceptor drone. These could well become the Ukrainian answer to the increasingly fast and maneuverable aerial threats that the Russians are sending over the border.

So, we might have a flurry of new drone speed records on the way, and it wouldn’t be a great surprise if the Apex Recordhunter drone pushes past the 700 km/h (435 mph) milestone.

Kiwi speed challengers

The Europeans aren’t the only ‘Recordhunters.’ In May, we reported on another unofficial drone world speed record. Drone builders Aidan and Ben from New Zealand recorded maximum speeds of up to 453 mph (730 km/h) in tests of their Blackbird drone, which leverages exotic sawtooth carbon fiber propeller blades.

Like with the Apex Recordhunter drone, the Blackbird speed record remains unofficial, as they haven’t had a verification that requires a certified independent observer, verified measurement equipment, documentation including a submission, followed by a controlled two-way run.

Batteries that can last decades between recharges or renewals are the stuff of tech enthusiast dreams. However, DARPA’s ‘Rads to Watts’ program could bring forth unrivaled portable power, lasting decades, via the development of a new class of radiovoltaic devices. Morgan State University recently won a $3.37M DARPA contract to advance this tech, and a report by Defense One suggests upcoming nuclear waste-powered batteries could last as long as 30 years and power next-gen drones.

Morgan State now has a considerable sum to keep its researchers employed on a project dubbed SYMPHONEE (Strontium-Yttrium Multi-junction PIN-based High-Density Output Nano-system for Extreme Environments). Radioisotope power sources have been used for quite some time in low-power draw applications such as smoke detectors and space systems for decades. However, the new initiative, led by Morgan State and with team members such as Northrop Grumman, PNNL, Project Omega, ARA, and Widetronix, aims to take the tech into the next generation. More specifically, under the auspices of (and with funds from) the 'Rads to Watts' program, they are aiming to build next‑generation radiovoltaic micro‑power systems for extreme environments.

The proposed next-gen power cells make use of radioisotopes extracted from nuclear waste, especially Strontium‑90. Research partner Project Omega has already made some devices and will build the DARPA prototype. We noticed that it has published a promotional video that highlights sea drones with a 10-year battery life, for example. Coordinated by Morgan State researchers, PNNL labs will handle nuclear materials/testing, Northrop Grumman and ARA will provide AI-driven modeling, with Widetronix designing nuclear micro‑generator radiovoltaic converter architectures.

“Our team is pushing the boundaries of radiovoltaic technology, developing high-power, long-life systems that were not previously achievable,” said Professor Michael Spencer, the technical lead for the project. “By integrating advanced materials, device engineering, and nuclear science, we are laying the foundation for a new generation of persistent power systems for extreme environments.”

With this research, development, and fabrication powerhouse assembled, it is hoped a step change will be achieved to boost radiovoltaic micro‑power system power density. The goal is to be able to power persistent autonomous operations in remote or difficult-to-access environments like space, underwater, and contested regions – for decades. A Northrop Grumman rep emphasized the potential of a ‘persistent power source’ becoming available for “next-generation defense systems.” Project Omega is also interested in developing “persistent underwater security systems” – sea drones.

It is also somewhat positive to imagine that substances long considered to be highly undesirable waste products could end up being strategic assets.