Haye Kesteloo

Haye Kesteloo is the Editor in Chief and Founder of DroneXL.co, where he covers all drone-related news, DJI rumors and writes drone reviews, and of EVXL.co, for all electric vehicle news. Haye can be reached at haye @ dronexl.co or @hayekesteloo. Also on LinkedIn, Muck Rack, Instagram and YouTube.

6,378

Articles

273

Beats covered

2020

Writing since

Sep 16

Latest story

Early DJI Investor Selling $108M London Property Portfolio Including Iconic Sky Pool Apartments

Counter-Drone

Cellebrite Locks Down SkySafe as Its Only Drone Forensics Partner, Betting Big on Counter-Drone Data

Cellebrite has become the exclusive digital forensics partner to SkySafe, expanding a relationship the two companies first built out through Cellebrite’s March 2026 acquisition of SCG Canada. The deal, announced Tuesday, ties Cellebrite’s mobile-device extraction platform directly into SkySafe’s drone detection and airspace intelligence feeds, giving investigators a single workflow that spans what

Haye KestelooJul 8

DJI

Canadian Drone Maker AVSS Hits 2,000 Systems Built This Year, Already Beating All of 2025

AVSS (Aerial Vehicle Safety Solutions) has manufactured more than 2,000 drone components and systems so far in its current fiscal year, the Fredericton, New Brunswick company announced today. That figure already exceeds the company’s full-year production total from the previous fiscal year, with several months still left on the calendar. AVSS builds parachute recovery systems,…

Haye KestelooJul 7

United Kingdom

Manna Hires Former DAA Chief Kenny Jacobs to Lead US and UK Push, One Month After Grounding Its Irish Fleet

Manna has appointed former DAA chief executive Kenny Jacobs as executive chairman and president, four weeks after the Irish drone delivery company grounded its home-market fleet and pointed its growth plans at the United States and the United Kingdom. The company said Jacobs arrives as it shifts focus to markets where regulation and local planning…

Haye KestelooJul 7

Auterion

Auterion CEO Says Drones Are Becoming Cell Phones. He’s Right, And He’s Selling The Operating System

Lorenz Meier picked a fight with half the defense industry on July 1. The Auterion founder, creator of the Pixhawk flight controller and the widely adopted open-source PX4 autopilot, published an essay arguing that the United States, Germany, and Ukraine now buy attack drones the way consumers buy cell phones: interchangeable hardware, replaced every two…

Haye KestelooJul 6

French Navy Receives New Naval Drone With Next Gen Sonar

Underwater drone

Thales Beats Safran To Exail With €3.9 Billion Bet On Underwater Drone Warfare

Thales agreed on Monday to buy the Gorgé family’s 35.51% stake in Exail Technologies for €134 per share ($153), the first step in a full takeover of the French maritime drone maker at an enterprise value of €3.9 billion ($4.45 billion). The agreement lands three days after rival Safran abandoned its own exclusive talks for…

Haye KestelooJul 6

Ukraine

Ukraine Wants Drone Deals With Seven NATO Countries By Year’s End, And Drones Are The Smallest Part

Ukraine plans to sign drone agreements with at least seven NATO countries before the end of 2026, and some signatures could come as soon as this week’s alliance summit in Ankara. Davyd Aloian, deputy secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, set the target in an interview published Monday. Six countries have already signed:…

Haye KestelooJul 6

Joby Aviation's Manhattan Demo Closes Quieter Than I Expected: A Witness Account From Blade Lounge East

Department of Transportation

FAA Breaks Ground On $8.3 Million V-PAR Range While The eVTOLs It Will Study Are Already Flying

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the Department of Transportation broke ground on June 25 on the Vertical Take-Off and Landing Procedures and Analysis Range, or V-PAR, at the Mike Monroney Aeronautical Center in Oklahoma City. The roughly $8.3 million facility gives the agency its first dedicated range for studying how electric and hybrid vertical…

Haye KestelooJul 6

Potensic Atom 3 First Flight: New Sub-249 Gram Drone Flies Like A DJI Mini For A Lot Less Money

DJI

FBI Seizes More Than 600 Drones At World Cup Venues After Months Of No Drone Zone Warnings

The FBI said Saturday it has seized more than 600 drones flying in restricted airspace around FIFA World Cup 2026 venues since the tournament opened on June 11, with confiscations recorded in all 11 U.S. host cities. Miami leads the tally at 99 seized drones, followed by Atlanta at 77 and Dallas at 63. The…

Haye KestelooJul 5

Haye Kesteloo

The drone industry moves fast. Stay ahead of it.