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Oct 6

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Two men signing documents at a table draped in a black Zing Drone Solutions cloth, under a banner reading Oregon Defense Tech Basecamp

South Korea · Remote ID

Zing Drone Solutions Tests Korean Radios as FCC Bars Foreign Parts

Zing is testing radio modules from Seoul's NUCODE for smaller Remote ID hardware, but the FCC Covered List makes no exception for an ally's parts.

Haye KestelooOct 63 min read

Two Amprius silicon-anode pouch cells on a red honeycomb-textured surface

Department of Defense

Amprius Gets $75M Pentagon Drone Battery Grant, Mostly Unfunded

Amprius will turn a U.S. EV battery line into a 12-million-cell drone factory. Its filing shows $22 million of the $75 million grant is funded so far.

Haye KestelooSep 30

Large quadcopter drone carrying a man suspended in midair

Counter-Drone

Korean Drug Lord's Drone Jailbreak Undone by a Viral Test Flight

Park Wang-yeol planned to fly out of a Philippine prison hanging from a 165-pound-capacity drone. A viral rehearsal clip killed the plot.

Haye KestelooSep 16

Hundreds of illuminated drones form glowing purple clusters in the night sky above the treeline of Central Park in New York, with rows of lit launch pads and spectators in the foreground.

FCC BAN

FCC Labels Drone Light Shows Military-Grade While US Operators Fly Korean And Chinese Fleets

The FCC's swarm rule names drone light shows as military-grade. The US industry flies Korean and Chinese hardware. Comments close September 2.

Haye KestelooAug 22

South Korea

South Korea To Train 500,000 Soldiers as Drone Warriors

South Korea’s defense minister Ahn Gyu-back said Friday that every member of the country’s armed forces, roughly 500,000 personnel across the army, navy, air force and marines, will be trained to operate drones as a standard personal weapon. The announcement, delivered in Seoul on June 26, 2026, frames cheap quadcopters and loitering munitions as core…

Rafael SuárezJun 27

Mexico

Mexico Downs Drone Over Korea’s World Cup Training

A drone flew over South Korea’s closed World Cup training session in Guadalajara on June 17, and Mexican forces brought it down before the team ran its tactical drills. Coach Hong Myung-bo confirmed the sighting a day later and called it unfortunate, two days before his side faced co-host Mexico. Whether the drone was spying…

Rafael SuárezJun 21

Drone Research

TU Delft’s SquirrelDrone Morphs Its Whole Body to Fly, Ditching the Bird Playbook Everyone Else Copies

A research team at Delft University of Technology has built a drone that changes the shape of its entire body in flight the way a flying squirrel does, and the data says the trick works. The aircraft, called the SquirrelDrone, stretches its limbs, bends its spine, flicks its tail, and lets a soft skin-like membrane…

Haye KestelooJun 6

Skydio

XDOWN’s STUD Drone Goes From Backpack to Airborne in 2 seconds Flat

US defense startup XDOWN has unveiled the STUD (Small Tactical Unmanned Drone), a hand-launched UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) designed to reach active flight from a stowed position in two seconds. According to NextGen Defense, a single soldier can carry 8 to 12 units in a standard tactical backpack, launch them by hand, and let the…

Rafael SuárezApr 10

South Korea

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