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Wildfire
Motorola Solutions Buys D-Fend For $1.5 Billion, Turning Counter-Drone Takeover Tech Into A Public Safety Product
Motorola Solutions agreed on Monday to buy Israeli counter-drone company D-Fend Solutions for $1.5 billion, putting radio-frequency drone-takeover technology directly into the hands of the same company whose 911 command-center software already runs in more than 60 percent of North…
Alaska Drone Module Tracks Spot Fires To Contain Sawmill Creek Blaze At 14.8 Acres
The Alaska Division of Forestry and Fire Protection (DFFP) used its Unmanned Aerial Systems Module to identify hot spots and spot fires across the Gerstle River during the Sawmill Creek Fire, helping ground crews achieve 100 percent containment four days…
OCFA Tracks Rogue Drone Pilots By Remote ID At Garden Grove Chemical Tank Crisis
The Orange County Fire Authority says it can find the private drone operators buzzing the Garden Grove chemical tank emergency, and it is reading their Remote ID to do it. OCFA Capt. Brian Yau said the agency has counter-UAS gear…
Ontario Bans Chinese Drones For Sensitive OPP Work, Plans Broader Government Phase-Out
The Ontario government will ban the Ontario Provincial Police from using Chinese-made drones on highly sensitive operations and begin phasing out broader provincial government use of Chinese hardware, the Ministry of Public and Business Service Delivery and Procurement announced on…
China’s Hydrogen Fuel Cell Could Triple Industrial Drone Flight Time
China just moved a hydrogen fuel cell system for drones from the lab to the field. Researchers at the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, part of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, completed a successful demonstration flight and passed a national…
FAA Drops Section 2209 NPRM, DJI FCC Deadline Looms, and 218 Wildfire Drone Incursions in 2025
Welcome to your weekly UAS news update. I have five stories for you this week — it’s a longer one, but there’s a lot of important information packed in. FAA Files Long-Overdue Section 2209 NPRM First up, the FAA has…
218 Wildfire Drone Incursions Last Year, Most Ever Recorded
The U.S. Forest Service reported 218 drone sightings over active wildfires in 2025, more than the previous seven years combined. Most happened during the Eaton and Palisades fires in Los Angeles, where 184 drones entered restricted airspace, as the Rogue…
After Lahaina, Hawaiian Electric Bets on Drone Inspections
Two and a half years after a downed power line sparked the fire that killed 102 people and erased most of Lahaina, Hawaiian Electric is flying drones over every island it serves, as Maui News reported. The utility has contracted…
Airbus Flexrotor Takes Night Watch on Federal Wildfire Contract, Eyes Helicopter Hand-Off
Oregon-based firefighting operator Precision has integrated the Airbus Flexrotor into a federal wildfire contract, using the 25 kg (55 lb) uncrewed aircraft to fly continuous nighttime surveillance while crewed helicopter teams rest. Precision has operated the Flexrotor since 2014 and…
Okanagan Lake DJI Drone Pilot Fined CAD $5,000 After Helicopter Pilot Broke Off Firefighting to Chase Him
A British Columbia court has ordered Kelowna realtor Derek Leippi to pay a CAD $5,000 fine (roughly USD $3,600) for flying a DJI drone from a boat on Okanagan Lake during the 2023 McDougall Creek wildfire, an incident that pulled…
Harvard Students Build Fixed-Wing VTOL Drone to Track Sperm Whales in Dominica
Two Harvard mechanical engineering seniors have built a fixed-wing VTOL (vertical takeoff and landing) drone from scratch to help marine biologists locate sperm whales tagged with VHF (very high frequency) transmitters off the coast of Dominica, according to a project…
Oregon Tells FCC: Build Drone Test Sites in Mountains, Not Just Labs
The Oregon Department of Aviation (ODAV) has drafted an eight-point response to the Federal Communications Commission’s April 1 public notice on “Unleashing American Drone Dominance” (GN Docket No. 26-74), and it reads less like a bureaucratic comment filing and more…