Industry

Funding rounds, partnerships, layoffs, and the market math underneath the drone headlines.

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Oct 6

Last updated

A DJI Matrice 4T enterprise drone with its thermal and zoom camera payload, the class of thermal-equipped aircraft that falls into the new 100 percent tariff tier.

US Government

Trump Puts 100% Tariffs On Thermal Drones As His Sons' Drone Stocks Rally

Trump's Section 232 drone tariffs start September 3. Thermal aircraft pay 100%, everything else 25%, and two Trump-linked drone stocks jumped on the news.

Haye KestelooAug 15

DJI

FCC Scares A Republican Senator. Drone Pilots Know The Feeling

Sen. John Kennedy told the FCC's own lawyer the agency scares him. He meant television. Drone pilots staring down Docket 26-189 know the feeling.

Haye KestelooAug 10

A white DJI Phantom quadcopter hovers above the Hudson River in New York at dusk, with a pink and orange sunset glowing over the distant hills.

DJI

DJI Calls On American Drone Pilots To Fight FCC Ban On Already-Approved Drones

DJI is urging drone operators to file FCC comments before September 2 as the agency weighs cutting off imports and sales of previously approved drones with thermal, LiDAR, spray, and docking capabilities.

Haye KestelooAug 8

The NCSIST Mighty Hornet III, an X-wing configuration attack drone with a cylindrical fuselage and four angled wings, on display beside a banner advertising autonomous multi-aircraft swarm attack

Industry

Shield AI Teaches Taiwan's Attack Drones To Fly Themselves

Three NCSIST Mighty Hornet III attack drones flew a coordinated autonomous search under Shield AI's Hivemind — built and operated by Taiwanese engineers who reached independence in under three months.

Rafael SuárezAug 8

Skydio

Skydio And CentralSquare Wire DFR Into Police Dispatch

Skydio and CentralSquare announced a partnership on August 3 that builds Drone as First Responder operations natively into CentralSquare's computer-aided dispatch software, moving the drone launch button onto the screen every 911 dispatcher already watches.

Rafael SuárezAug 5

Japan

Japan Bets Combat Drones Can Hold The Line With China

Japan's defense ministry pushed four drone makers into navy testing under a rapid development program built on Ukraine's battlefield lessons, as Chinese carriers operate near Iwo Jima and Tokyo's own commercial drone market stays dominated by Chinese imports.

Rafael SuárezAug 5

NDAA-compliant drone motors and electronic speed controllers from Hoverfly Elements

Industry

Pentagon Billions Are Buying Military Drone Parts, And Commercial Operators Have Until January 1

The $820 million Office of Strategic Capital loan funds components for Group 1 and Group 2 military aircraft. Drone Dominance Phase II bars Chinese motors this month, the FCC carve-outs keeping commercial drones authorized expire January 1, 2027, and the startup building American motors for spray drones has an intern.

Haye KestelooAug 3

Technicians assembling unmanned aircraft systems at workbenches on a drone production floor

Counter-Drone

Pentagon Commits $1.3 Billion To Drones In Two Days: $500 Million To Shoot Them Down, $820 Million To Build Parts America Doesn't Make

JIATF-401 awarded CACI a $500 million counter-drone ceiling on Thursday. The Office of Strategic Capital signed an $820 million conditional loan with Performance Drone Works on Friday. Both halves now answer to the same deputy secretary, and neither number is money out the door yet.

Haye KestelooAug 2

Industry

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