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Aug 29

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Bayraktar Akinci combat drone parked on a concrete apron with a Turkish flag on its tail

Turkey · Weaponized drones

Turkey Armed the Arab World With Drones After the US Refused To

A Saudi Akinci shot down over Yemen and two more spotted in eastern Libya show how far Turkish armed drones have spread into a gap Washington left open.

Haye KestelooAug 296 min read

Department of Justice

Iranian Operative Nabbed at LAX Over $70M Sudan Drone Deal

Prosecutors say the Woodland Hills resident spent years brokering Iranian weapons including a $70 million contract for Mohajer-6 armed drones

Rafael SuárezApr 22

Robotics

Kraken KATFISH Launches Itself From Turkish Navy Drone Boat

Kraken Robotics just pulled off something navies have been trying to make practical for years. The Canadian firm integrated its KATFISH towed sonar onto Sefine’s RD-22 unmanned surface vessel off the coast of Istanbul, then launched and recovered the system from the moving USV with no humans in the loop, as Unmanned Systems Technology reported.…

Rafael SuárezApr 19

Japan

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 ¥11.1 billion ($69.7 million) to buy five “wide-area UAVs” for the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force, as Defence Blog reported. The procurement is the first funded step in a plan to…

Rafael SuárezApr 14

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

Russia

Baykar Unveils K2: A Cruise Missile That Costs Like a Drone

Turkey’s Baykar unveiled the K2 Kamikaze UAV on March 14, and the promotional video was set to Shostakovich’s Waltz No. 2. That detail tells you something about how Baykar sees itself at this point, as QUWA reported. Five K2s lifted off from the Keşan Flight Training and Test Center in Edirne Province, flew sorties over…

Rafael SuárezMar 22

Weaponized drones

Egypt’s HAMZA-3 kamikaze drone can fly 1,100 miles and fake a jet’s radar signature

The HAMZA-3 has a trick most kamikaze drones don’t: modular Lüneberg lenses that inflate its radar cross-section to mimic a fighter jet. Enemy air defense systems burn through expensive interceptor missiles on a drone that costs a fraction of the aircraft it pretends to be. The HAMZA-3 fills the gap between FPV kamikaze drones and…

Haye KestelooFeb 10

Turkey

Turkey’s Drone Industry Faces a NATO Reality Check

Turkey did not wake up one morning and decide to dominate the global combat drone market. It crept there quietly, selling capable aircraft to buyers who wanted results fast, paperwork slow, and prices low, as War on The Rocks reports. Over the past decade, Turkish drones became a familiar sight from the Sahel to the…

Rafael SuárezFeb 2

Turkey

The drone industry moves fast. Stay ahead of it.