News, deep dives, and analysis — every California story, newest first.
Palm Desert is the latest Coachella Valley community where police drones are moving from “something other cities do” to “something coming here,” and a local NBC Palm Springs commentary framed the arrival with the question every city eventually has to answer: smart safety tool, or one more eye in the sky? That’s the right question,…
HYFIX Spatial Intelligence is rolling out its H1P Positioning, Navigation, and Open-Compute Module for small unmanned systems, with samples and evaluation kits available immediately. The Santa Clara, California company is showcasing the H1P at AUVSI XPONENTIAL 2026 in Detroit this week, booth 34005. It’s the first product built on the company’s H1 Autonomous Systems Chip,…
The U.S. Army has a new answer to the drone threat, and it involves sending a drone to take care of it. Soldiers from the 10th Mountain Division recently trained with the Bumblebee V1 counter-drone system at Fort Drum, New York, in a session organized by Joint Interagency Task Force 401, the Department of War’s…
Another defense tech company has made the call on California. Knightwerx, a tactical drone developer that built its name making compact military UAS, has moved its headquarters from Camarillo to Scottsdale, and it’s already hiring, as Hoodline reported. The move drops the company squarely into the Phoenix metro’s expanding defense manufacturing corridor just as it…
Northrop Grumman has successfully flown the XRQ-73 SHEPARD, a hybrid-electric flying-wing UAS developed for DARPA’s Series Hybrid Electric Propulsion AiRcraft Demonstration program. The milestone flight took place in April 2026 at Edwards Air Force Base, California, after previous delays, as reported by Aviation Week. This experimental Group 3 UAS represents a significant step in testing…
The U.S. Coast Guard Great Lakes District is putting autonomous sail drones on the water starting this month. Running from May through October 2026, these uncrewed surface vehicles will patrol all five Great Lakes as part of a contract focused on maritime domain awareness, as reported by MLive. The mission: monitor vessel traffic, gather weather…
Wisk Aero flew its second Gen 6 autonomous air taxi on May 4 in Hollister, CA, putting two Boeing-backed certification aircraft into simultaneous flight test.
Tom BetGeorge has tried everything. He updated his pin on Google Maps. He put up a sign on the street. He explained the driveway situation to anyone who would listen. Nothing worked. So last week, the Linden, California homeowner did what any reasonable person would do: he launched a choreographed swarm of drones and spelled…
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