Funding rounds, partnerships, layoffs, and the market math underneath the drone headlines.
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.
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.
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.
German drone maker CiS says European demand for its ORKA Dock and drone now exceeds what its 30-person Rostock factory can build.
Skydio's X10, Dock for X10, and R10 join the X10D on the Blue UAS Cleared List, unlocking federal grant eligibility and cementing its DFR lead while rivals stay locked out.
Lucid Bots wants transitioning veterans flying its cleaning drones, and it’s working through a veteran nonprofit to get them there. On July 7, the Charlotte-based manufacturer announced an official sponsorship of Vets to Drones, a nonprofit that trains former service members to fly commercially. The pitch is a path from military service to small-business ownership…
A senior figure in Japan’s drone industry is pushing for Japan and Taiwan to align their drone rules and deepen manufacturing cooperation, arguing that mismatched regulations and Japan’s limits on defense work are holding the sector back. Kakuya Iwata, executive director of the Japan UAS Industrial Development Association, made the case in an interview with…
Lorenz Meier picked a fight with half the defense industry on July 1. The Auterion founder, creator of the Pixhawk flight controller and the widely adopted open-source PX4 autopilot, published an essay arguing that the United States, Germany, and Ukraine now buy attack drones the way consumers buy cell phones: interchangeable hardware, replaced every two…
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