FAA
Tiny Chihuahua Survives Blizzard With Drone Help
In Trixie’s case, the drone search effort helped support ground teams and responders during a critical window, providing aerial coverage
All Coverage
The full firehose — every story on DroneXL, newest first. Breaking news, deep dives, reviews, and the deals ticker archive.
8,689
Articles
285
Beats covered
14
Reporters on beat
Aug 26
Last updated
DJI Rumors
DJI Lito Rumors Hint at a New Lightweight Drone for 2026
DJI usually introduces new drones with glossy trailers, dramatic lighting, and enough slow motion propeller footage to convince you this thing will change your life. DJI Lito did not get that treatment. Instead, it appeared quietly in FCC documents, like a note slipped under the door that simply reads, “Approved,” and then disappears into the…
DJI
DJI Mavic 4 Pro New Firmware Won’t Fix Your Flying
If you own a DJI Mavic 4 Pro and just installed the latest firmware, congratulations. Your drone just got smoother. Now comes the awkward part. The footage still looks shaky? That part might be on you. DJI just rolled out firmware v01.00.0500 for its flagship folding drone, and while it does not add fireworks or…
Drone Research
Drones and Waves Reveal a Smarter Way to Measure Ocean Currents
Measuring how ocean water moves near the surface is more important than most people realize. Surface currents affect swimmer safety, oil spill response, pollution tracking, and even how coastlines change over time. The problem is that many traditional ways of measuring these currents are expensive, slow, or tied to fixed locations. Researchers at Texas A&M…
Skydio
Drones, live feeds and LPRs power Paterson’s new RTOC
Paterson, New Jersey has spent years under a microscope, following repeated allegations of corruption and excessive force that ultimately led to state oversight in 2023. Now, state officials say the city’s police department is entering a new phase, one built less on promises and more on screens, sensors, and software. Earlier this month, the Paterson…
Underwater drone
Ulysses’ Mako AUV and Fujitsu’s “Ocean Digital Twin” Are Exactly the Direction Underwater Drones Need
If you’ve ever wondered about what the the deepest point in the ocean actually looks like, a new AUV (Autonomous Underwater Vehicle) by Fujitsu may hold the answer. We have a ton of quadcopters on the consumer side, plus a (somewhat) healthy pipeline of professional and enterprise systems. Meanwhile, the underwater world still feels like…
DJI
Princeton Police Launches DJI Matrice 4T Drone Program
The Princeton Police Department just added serious eyes to the sky. The department has taken delivery of a DJI Matrice 4T, one of DJI’s most capable public safety drones, and officially launched a new Unmanned Aircraft System program aimed at improving officer safety and community protection, as WVVA reports. This is not a hobby drone…
DJI
FAA NOTAM Creates Mobile No-Fly Zones That Could Affect Drone Pilots Nationwide
Welcome to your weekly UAS news update. I have four stories for you this week. An FAA NOTAM is creating mobile no-fly zones, and it’s a bit of an issue. The FAA has reopened the comment period for BVLOS rulemaking under Part 108. SkyBrowse launches a new AI feature that improves 3D models at crash…
Sony
DJI RS 5 Global Launch Brings Z-Axis Stabilization and 50% More Motor Torque to Filmmakers
DJI RS 5 launches globally with Z-axis stabilization, 50% more motor torque, and AI tracking module. Priced from $569, the gimbal supports mirrorless cameras up to 6.6 lb.
US Air Force
Edwards Launches “Game of Drones” to Fast Track Drone Dominance
Experimental Test Force, working with the Defense Contract Management Agency’s US-X unit, hosted the first-ever “Game of Drones”
Specialist
Agri Spray Drones and WinField United Team Up
Agri Spray Drones and WinField United have entered a new co marketing agreement aimed squarely at accelerating the adoption of spray drones across modern agriculture, blending hardware, chemistry, and agronomic know how into a single, more polished pitch for growers, as Michigan Farm News reports. The partnership focuses on awareness, education, and practical deployment, which…
Skydio
Finnish Police Shoot Suspect Who Downed Their Drone In Nurmijärvi Standoff
A suspect in Nurmijärvi, Finland shot down a police surveillance drone during a standoff at a private residence. He then tried to leave the cordoned area while still armed. Police shot him. The suspect survived with non-life-threatening injuries. The drone did not. DroneXL Has Tracked This Pattern For Years Suspects shooting at police drones is…
Russia
Russia’s Starlink-Guided Shaheds Hit Moving Ukrainian Train, Kill 5: Musk Calls Polish FM ‘Drooling Imbecile’ For Demanding Action
You cannot hit a moving passenger train with a GPS coordinate. A pre-programmed Shahed-136 flies to a fixed point on a map and detonates. If the target moves, the drone misses. Three Shaheds hit the Barvinkove-Lviv-Chop train in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region on Tuesday anyway, striking not the locomotive but a passenger car in the center…
Department of Homeland Security
DHS Drone Video Accidentally Advertises DJI
The Department of Homeland Security recently released a short promotional video highlighting its drone operations, complete with soaring music, slow motion aircraft, and bold on screen language about innovation and airspace security, as reported by Futurism. It is exactly the kind of polished clip meant to project confidence, control, and technical dominance. Then someone noticed…
Russia
Western Chips Power Russia’s New Geran 5 Drone
Russia’s drone program just revealed another uncomfortable truth for the West. Even under heavy sanctions, American and European microchips are still showing up inside Russian weapons, this time inside a new high speed attack drone called the Geran 5, as Kyiv Independent reports. As we previously wrote on DroneXL, Ukrainian forces shot down two of…
Technology
Lasers Could Keep Military Drones Flying Forever
Lasers usually show up in military headlines as weapons, not as power supplies. PowerLight Technologies is flipping that expectation by using lasers to keep drones alive instead of shooting them down, as Techspot reports. The company has confirmed successful subsystem testing of its end to end laser power beaming system, designed to wirelessly recharge unmanned…
Ukraine
Ukraine’s Pay Per Kill Drone Program Scales Fast
Ukraine has quietly turned battlefield necessity into a brutally efficient incentive system. According to newly appointed Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, a pay per kill program targeting Russian Shahed style attack drones has helped Ukraine secure roughly 40,000 interceptor drones in a single month, as Business Insider reports. The idea is simple and ruthless in execution.…
Ukraine
Helsing And Stark Beat Rheinmetall For €600 Million German Loitering Munition Contracts
German defense startups Helsing and Stark Defence are set to receive €300 million each in military orders for loitering munitions, while defense giant Rheinmetall AG gets passed over after failing to deliver a working prototype, Bloomberg reports. Helsing’s HX-2 And Stark’s Virtus Outperformed In Testing Germany’s Bundeswehr tested both loitering munitions at a military combat…
Anduril
Anduril Launches AI Grand Prix: $500K Autonomous Drone Racing Competition Where Software Engineers Compete For Jobs
Anduril is launching the AI Grand Prix, an autonomous drone racing competition where humans don’t fly the drones—they write the software that does. The $500,000 prize pool comes with something potentially more valuable: a job offer that bypasses Anduril’s standard recruiting process, TechCrunch reports. Palmer Luckey’s Pitch: Autonomy Has Arrived The AI Grand Prix is…
Amazon
Antigravity A1 Adds Flight Simulator, Launches 15% Off Sale On The World’s First 8K 360 FPV Drone
Antigravity is adding a Flight Simulator to its A1 and running a global 15% discount from January 27 to February 9. The A1 isn’t just another FPV drone. It’s the first to capture 8K 360-degree video directly, with a built-in 360 camera that eliminates the need for external mounts or attachments. The Update: Antigravity’s new…
BVLOS
FAA Reopens BVLOS Comment Period With Tight Two-Week Deadline
The FAA is reopening the comment period for its Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) rulemaking, but operators have just two weeks to respond. Comments open January 28 and close February 11, 2026. The reopened comment period focuses specifically on electronic conspicuity — the technology that allows aircraft to see and be seen in shared…
FlytBase
EnBW to Share Dock-Based Drone Strategy for Solar Inspections in Free Webinar
EnBW, one of Germany’s largest energy companies, will reveal how it’s using autonomous dock-based drones for solar PV inspections in a free webinar this Thursday. The session, hosted jointly with drone autonomy platform FlytBase, runs January 29 at 3:00 PM CET (8:00 AM CT). EnBW tackles the solar inspection scaling problem Solar PV inspections look…
Anduril
Bessemer’s 2026 Defense Roadmap: Autonomous Drones Move From Testing to Combat
Bessemer Venture Partners just released its 2026 defense tech roadmap, and the message for the drone industry is clear: autonomous systems aren’t experimental anymore. They’re defining battlefield outcomes. The venture capital firm, which has backed companies across the defense sector, argues that defense technology has advanced more in the past 24 months than in the…
Pix4D
SkyeBrowse Launches AI Quality Control for Crash Scene 3D Mapping
SkyeBrowse, the drone-based 3D modeling platform used by law enforcement and first responders, just shipped a major update that addresses the biggest complaint I hear from public safety drone pilots: inconsistent model quality. The new “SkyeBrowse Thinking” feature uses AI to automatically detect when a 3D model doesn’t meet quality standards and re-processes it without…
— The DroneXL Briefing · Free
The drone industry moves fast. Stay ahead of it.
One email with the drone news that matters — DJI, FAA, public safety, and everything in between, straight from the newsroom. No spam, no fluff.
Free forever. Unsubscribe in one click.
8,400+
Articles published
340+
Beats & desks
2020
Covering drones since
100%
Independent