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The full firehose — every story on DroneXL, newest first. Breaking news, deep dives, reviews, and the deals ticker archive.

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Oct 7

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View from a Russian drone camera looking down on a paved road in Kherson, with pedestrians walking along it and a recording overlay showing REC, 1.5x zoom and a running timer

Legal

Yale Expert: Civilian Drone Builders Risk Losing Legal Protection

Two drone experts warn that civilians who build and move attack drones may forfeit noncombatant status, and the texts deciding it date to 2009.

Haye KestelooSep 15

Tail section of a crashed drone lying on a sandy beach beside the water

Counter-Drone

NATO Jets Down a Drone Over Lithuania, Days After Chasing Birds

Italian Typhoons shot down a drone over Lithuania early Tuesday, the first ever downed in Lithuanian airspace. Two days earlier, the alert was birds.

Haye KestelooSep 15

UPS Airlines Airbus A300 N148UP taking off from San Jose International Airport

Drone Incidents

UPS Pilot Reported A Drone At 5,000 Feet. It Was A Bird.

A UPS crew told ATC they hit a drone or balloon at 5,000 feet. UPS confirmed a bird. Why drone is now the first word pilots reach for.

Haye KestelooSep 14

Louisiana

Prison Drone Flew $31,000 of Meth Back to Its Launch Site

A Grant Parish deputy found the drone on the ground with the meth still strapped to it. A dying battery had flown it home, and two Texas men are in jail.

Haye KestelooSep 14

Pilot Institute 90-plus day drone training plan thumbnail with drone graphic

Drone Service Providers

The Drone Industry Is at a Crossroads: What Drone Service Providers Should Do Right Now

I sat down with revenue operations specialist Amy Wiegand to talk through the drone market squeeze, the Part 108 question mark, and the decisions drone service providers should be making today.

Greg ReverdiauSep 14

Two Dexa technicians in hi-vis vests standing beside a hexacopter delivery drone and a Dexa-branded trailer

Drone Delivery

Dexa Takes Its FAA-Certified Drone Airline To TechCrunch Disrupt

Dexa, the Dayton drone delivery operator with a Part 135 certificate, made TechCrunch's Startup Battlefield 200 and pitches at Disrupt in October.

Haye KestelooSep 14

Amazon

Amazon Brought a Drone to a Car Show. Tracy Got No Comment Period

Amazon displayed its MK30 at a Tracy car show before launch. The FAA has published no environmental assessment for the site, and no comment period opened.

Haye KestelooSep 14

Squamish Search and Rescue rescuer roped on a cliff face on the Stawamus Chief at night, viewed through a drone's targeting crosshair.

Drones for Good

Two Drones Flew a Rope to a Climber on a 10-Inch Ledge at Night

Squamish Search and Rescue flew a floodlight drone and a line-delivery drone to get a roped-out climber off the Stawamus Chief. Here is how it worked.

Haye KestelooSep 14

An Amazon Prime Air MK30 delivery drone on a painted outdoor launch pad at a UK site, with a worker in an orange high-visibility vest walking behind it carrying a yellow handling bar.

Drone Delivery

Amazon Made 500 Drone Flights. Now It Wants a Whole UK Town

Amazon asked the CAA to fly Prime Air across all of Darlington after 500 flights, against a permission that already allows 100 deliveries a weekday.

Haye KestelooSep 13

A dense flock of European starlings swirling against a purple dusk sky above a tower

Counter-Drone

NATO Jet Scrambled, Vilnius Airport Closed. It Was a Flock of Birds

A NATO jet scrambled and Vilnius airport shut for 38 minutes over a radar contact that turned out to be birds. Poland made the same call eight days ago.

Haye KestelooSep 13

A DJI Mavic 4 Pro hovering between pine trees, the class of consumer drone Beijing residents must give up before November 15

China

Beijing Bans Owning A Drone, Then Offers To Buy Yours Back

Beijing bans drone possession citywide on November 15, voiding the May registration deal and paying owners subsidies to sell at designated buyback sites.

Haye KestelooSep 13

DJI teaser graphic for the 'Go Small, Connect All' event on September 17, 2026, showing a small black device with two antennas on a dark stage

DJI

DJI SDR Transmission 2 Hits Amsterdam. US Crews Still Can't Buy It

DJI is showing SDR Transmission 2 at IBC in Amsterdam, with pricing due September 17. China pays 1,999 yuan. The FCC Covered List keeps US crews at zero.

Haye KestelooSep 12

Amazon

Amazon Drone Lands Itself Beside a Baton Rouge Road, Two Months In

An Amazon MK30 set itself down on a Florida Boulevard grass strip Friday, props intact, as storms crossed the parish. Amazon has not said why.

Haye KestelooSep 12

Ukrainian FPV strike quadcopter hovering low over a forest track with a payload module on its back, illustrating Anthropic's report on Russian developers using Claude Code to build autonomous kamikaze drone swarm software

Ukraine

Anthropic Catches Russians Using Claude to Code Self-Targeting Drones

Anthropic says a freelance Russian team used Claude Code to build kamikaze drone swarm software that picks targets, including people, with no human veto.

Haye KestelooSep 12

Zipline

Zipline Taught Its Drones to Dive for Speed, and They Got Quieter

A Zipline software update has its drones dive to build speed and climb to brake. Here is why gravity makes them faster, quieter and cooler.

Haye KestelooSep 11

DJI FlyCart 100 drone prepared by ground crew and a Nepal Army soldier on rocky terrain for flood relief supply delivery

Disaster Response

DJI FlyCart 100s Feed Nepal Flood Survivors As US Taxes Them 100%

China answered Nepal's plea with four DJI FlyCart 100s flying up to 16 relief runs a day. The US put the same aircraft in a 100% tariff bracket on Sept. 3.

Haye KestelooSep 11

Pilot Institute's Greg presents the DroneXL weekly drone news update, week 382

DJI

Zipline Drone Comes Down Under Parachute Near Houston, TSA Delays Part 108 Security Talks, and FCC Proposal Draws 3,829 Comments

Welcome to your weekly UAS news update. We have three stories for you this week: a Zipline drone has a mishap near Houston, a Part 108 progress update from the TSA and OIRA, and the FCC gets over 3,800 comments on its military-grade drone proposal. Let's get to it.

Greg ReverdiauSep 11

Close-up of a person in a plaid shirt holding an olive-green Ukrainian interceptor drone with yellow fins and twin rear rotors

Ukraine

Eric Schmidt Warns Ukraine's Drone Edge Is Gone. He Sells the Fix

Schmidt's Washington Post op-ed says Ukraine's innovation edge is losing to Russian mass. His byline omits Swift Beat, the drone maker he runs.

Haye KestelooSep 11

Vic Moss speaking into a microphone on stage at Commercial UAV Expo 2026 in Las Vegas

Industry

Vic Moss: The Drone Photo Mistakes Quietly Costing Pilots Clients

Vic Moss, a commercial photographer since 1988, told Commercial UAV Expo which planning, camera, editing and business mistakes cost drone pilots clients.

Haye KestelooSep 10

Four Swarmer engineers in black company shirts assemble quadcopter drones on a crowded workbench in a small blue-walled workshop

Ukraine

Erik Prince's Swarmer Buys Ukraine's Ratel Robotics for Up to $224M

Nasdaq-listed Swarmer, chaired by Blackwater founder Erik Prince, is buying Ukraine's Ratel Robotics for up to $224 million, mostly in stock.

Haye KestelooSep 10

Five attendees in suits stand beside an easel sign reading Welcome to the White House, Drone Dominance Event, in a marble-floored Eisenhower Executive Office Building hallway

US Government

White House Drone List: Three Trump-Family Firms In, Ten Winners Out

The White House list for its Drone Dominance event names 40 entries. All three Trump-family drone firms made it. Ten of eleven Gauntlet I winners did not.

Haye KestelooSep 10