News, deep dives, and analysis — every Aerovironment story, newest first.
The US Navy just put a laser weapon on an aircraft carrier for the first time. On October 5, 2025, a palletized AeroVironment LOCUST system detected, tracked, and destroyed multiple drones in a live-fire test aboard the USS George H.W. Bush, as reported by News Nation Now. The Navy sat on the news for 197…
Pentagon’s FY27 budget earmarks $75B for drones, with $54.6B for DAWG, the largest year-over-year boost of any defense program. Full analysis and what’s next.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) gave the U.S. military formal clearance on Friday to use high-energy lasers against suspected drones in U.S. airspace, ending a two-month interagency dispute that twice shut down commercial flight operations over the Texas-Mexico border. FAA administrator Bryan Bedford said in a joint statement with the Defense Department that the agency…
AeroVironment just announced on a press release that has acquired Empirical Systems Aerospace in a transaction valued at approximately $200 million, adding a certified aerospace prototyping and manufacturing operation to a company that has spent the last twelve months aggressively reshaping itself into something much larger than a drone maker. The deal closed March 16…
The Army’s AMP-HEL counter-drone laser passed a joint FAA safety evaluation at White Sands Missile Range on March 7-8, 2026 — and an unplanned commercial aircraft triggered the automated shutoff that made the strongest case for the system’s safety. Here’s what the test revealed and what it means for U.S. airspace.
The U.S. Army’s decision to pair Trillium Engineering’s HD40 LVV imaging payload with AeroVironment’s P550 uncrewed aircraft system offers a clear look at how future reconnaissance missions are being shaped, as Unmanned Systems Technology reported. This is not a case of simply mounting a capable camera onto a capable drone. It is a deliberate alignment…
I predicted the FCC would need to walk back parts of its sweeping foreign drone ban. Sixteen days after adding all foreign-made drones to the Covered List, the Pentagon has carved out exemptions for Blue UAS platforms and domestically assembled drones. But here’s what the headlines aren’t telling you: these exemptions expire on January 1,…
Turkey’s drone industry has already turned heads with the Baykar Bayraktar TB2, and the Kizilelma “Red Apple” Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS). Now it is pushing firepower even closer to the front line with ALPAGU, a tiny, portable kamikaze drone that fits in a backpack and ends its mission by slamming into its target. If the…
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