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China
China Drones: Chinese UAV manufacturers, DJI, domestic regulations, export policies, and the growing influence of Chinese-made drones in global markets.
Japan Drops Apaches, Bets $70M on Drones Instead
Japan just put real money behind the idea that attack helicopters are finished. The country’s fiscal year 2026 defense budget, enacted on April 7, includes ยฅ11.1 billion ($69.7 million) to buy five “wide-area UAVs” for the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force,โฆ

DJI Power 1000 Mini Global Launch Set for April 20
DJI’s newest addition to its Power lineup is officially going global. The DJI Power 1000 Mini, a more compact, feature-packed portable power station, launches worldwide on April 20, following its China-exclusive debut earlier this year. DJI Teases the Power 1000โฆ

Ukraine’s Petcube Founder Built AI Drones That Strike Without a Pilot, and Investors Are Lining Up
Yaroslav Azhnyuk went from building a smartphone-controlled laser toy for bored pets to manufacturing AI-guided kamikaze drones that fly their final attack run without human input. The New York Times profiled Azhnyuk and his two defense companies today, documenting howโฆ

DJI Osmo Pocket 4 Photographed Up Close by OsitaLV Ahead of Expected April Launch
The DJI Osmo Pocket 4 showed up in close-up photos posted today by OsitaLV (@OsitaLV on X), a verified DJI BBS pilot and aerial filmmaker with 24,000 followers. The two images show the camera body and quick-start guide inside whatโฆ
First DJI Pocket 4 Unboxing Points to April 16 Launch
The DJI Osmo Pocket 4 just went from packaging leaks to hands-on video. The first unboxing footage of the upcoming gimbal camera has surfaced on YouTube, and it includes a specific claim: the official launch date is April 16, 2026.โฆ

Hermeus raises $350M to build the fastest unmanned aircraft in the world
Hermeus, the Atlanta-based defense aviation company developing high-Mach unmanned aircraft, has closed a $350 million Series C round that values the company at $1 billion. The round, announced today, was led by Khosla Ventures and brings Hermeus’ total capital raisedโฆ

WSJ exposes Chinese parts inside America’s humanoid robots, and Congress is already running the DJI playbook
The Wall Street Journal published an investigation this week revealing that America’s most prominent humanoid robots, including Tesla’s Optimus and products from Figure AI, depend heavily on Chinese-manufactured components for their most basic physical functions. The WSJ report (paywall) byโฆ

Chinese Researchers Release Open-Source Flight Control Software for Bamboo Drones
Researchers at Northwestern Polytechnical University’s (NPU) School of Civil Aviation in Xi’an, China have published what they describe as the world’s first open-source flight control system built specifically for bamboo-frame unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), releasing the software and hardware configurationโฆ
China built the world’s drone industry, now it’s grounding its own pilots
China is imposing some of the harshest drone restrictions on the planet, even as its government pours billions into building a “low-altitude economy” around the same technology. The New York Times reports that new regulations taking effect in May willโฆ
House Passes ACERO Act Unanimously, Sending Drone Wildfire Bill to Senate
The U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 390, the Advanced Capabilities for Emergency Response Operations (ACERO) Act, by a unanimous vote on February 24, 2026, sending the bipartisan wildfire drone bill to the Senate. Sponsored by Rep. Vince Fong (R-CA-20)โฆ

DJI Avata 360 Launches, DJI Sues Insta360, BRINC Unveils Guardian Drone, and Micro-Drones Explore Fukushima Reactor
Welcome to your weekly UAS news update. We have four stories for you this week. The Avata 360 is finally out. We also have DJI suing Insta360, and then we have BRINC launching a new Guardian drone with Starlink integration.โฆ

General Cherry Built Ukraine’s Counter-Drone Stack From Scratch. Now It’s Selling to the World.
The business card on the table at XPONENTIAL Europe 2026 in Dรผsseldorf read “General Cherry / Vlad Polikashkin / Marketing Director.” The booth behind it was the largest standalone Ukrainian stand on the floor โ backlit walls, Ukrainian military unitโฆ