The full firehose — every story on DroneXL, newest first. Breaking news, deep dives, reviews, and the deals ticker archive.
California says its AI-enabled ALERTCalifornia cameras have flagged more than 900 fires before any 911 call, while FireSat satellites and drone programs deepen the state’s wildfire tech stack.
Spokane police say four Skydio X10 drones flew about 400 missions in three weeks, including a pursuit where the aircraft tracked suspects overhead after patrol cars backed off.
As Utah’s Babylon Fire nears full containment, incident teams say drones helped locate hot spots, monitor rough terrain, and confirm a fresh lightning strike before it could start another blaze.
Lincolnshire Police used its drone unit to track a mini moto rider across roads and footpaths in Gainsborough, ending the chase with an arrest instead of a dangerous ground pursuit.
Saronic says it will spend $3 billion to build Port Alpha in Brownsville, a Texas shipyard for autonomous and crewed vessels that could reshape the industrial scale of maritime drone production.
New York's $75 million LETECH program funds police drones and counter-drone gear, but an ICE clause locks out Rensselaer County, whose photographed fleet of DJI and Autel aircraft faces a federal squeeze of its own.
Anduril is in talks to raise funding at a roughly $100 billion valuation, per Reuters, just two months after its $5 billion round. Here is what the number really prices in.
Russ from 51 Drones says he got this one wrong. After arguing that DJI-style drones would keep reaching American buyers through shell companies, he now says the FCC’s latest proposal targeting nine covered UAS brands shows just how far regulators are willing to go, with the Sky Rover X1 and Xtra camera line directly in the crosshairs.
This week’s Pilot Institute update covers a Colorado drone pilot facing federal charges after grounding wildfire aircraft, a new FCC request for comment that could restrict some military-grade foreign-made drone imports, and the National Press Photographers Association’s warning that the FAA’s Section 2209 rule could create permanent restrictions with no clear way to challenge them.
DJI confirms the Osmo Pocket 4P worldwide launch for July 30, 2026 at 12:00 GMT. The dual-lens gimbal camera has no US path under the FCC Covered List.
Agri Spray Drones' new maintenance video shows how a worn battery terminal arcs, spreads damage to every charger and drone it touches, and can fuse mid-flight, and the five-minute daily inspection that prevents the crash.
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.
Maksim Filchenkov, the GRU officer sourcing Japanese components for Russian drones and missiles, has fled Japan after a press investigation blew his cover. The pipeline he built stays open.
The FCC extended Covered List exemptions for trusted drones through January 1, 2028, but in the same move proposed cutting off imports and sales of foreign-made thermal, LiDAR, docking, spraying, swarming, defense-integrated, and 55-pound-plus drones. That combination gives approved U.S.-aligned manufacturers more runway while putting public safety, agriculture, and survey fleets on notice.
Two hikers who went missing off the Dead Horse Gap track in Kosciuszko National Park were located within five hours after Fire and Rescue NSW deployed a drone team using AI-assisted detection software. The rescue is the agency's first operational AI find, and it offers a rare look at how human pilots and low-threshold machine vision actually work together in the field.
Israel Aerospace Industries has rolled out HYPNOSIS, a soft-kill counter-drone system built to jam and spoof satellite navigation across multiple GNSS bands instead of shooting threats down. The launch sharpens the cost argument for electronic warfare, but the unanswered questions on price, range, and real-world limits are still the important ones.
Cal Fire spent July 15 field-testing Seneca's autonomous firefighting drones with FireWERX in California, giving the nine-month-old startup its clearest public proving-ground yet with a state agency. The five-drone foam strike-team concept now has to prove it can survive real wildfire airspace and turn demos into contracts.
League City Police Department plans to launch a Drone as First Responder program by December after city council approved a Motorola Solutions pilot agreement built around BRINC aircraft, with the first year free and a six-year contract value of up to $1,759,980 if the city keeps the program.
Mikhail Svilanov shares the exact Insta360 Luna Ultra settings he uses for more cinematic footage, including why he sticks to 4K, locks ISO at 800 in I-Log, uses ND filters, and switches to Pure Video at night.
Russ from 51 Drones breaks down the FAA's DETER enforcement program, why first-time violators may face faster penalties, and why every drone pilot now needs to check airspace before every flight.
Mountain Horse Solutions is pitching the Talon DT-300 Drone Plus to U.S. government buyers with a simple argument: this fully electric tandem-rotor VTOL can lift 100 pounds and already sits on the Pentagon's Blue UAS Cleared List.
Beaver Dam police officers brought their drone unit into the city's Intro to Police Work summer school class, giving elementary-age students a hands-on look at how the department flies real public-safety missions.
A drone pilot in southern Colorado is facing federal charges after allegedly flying inside the temporary flight restriction over the Aspen Acres Fire, forcing firefighting aircraft to stop flying until the airspace was clear.
Ukrainian firms The Fourth Law and TAF Industries have certified the Kolibri 10 Advance, an FPV strike drone that can complete its final attack run autonomously after a human operator designates the target.
One email with the drone news that matters — DJI, FAA, public safety, and everything in between, straight from the newsroom. No spam, no fluff.
