News, deep dives, and analysis — every Department of Defense story, newest first.
Department of Defense drone coverage tracks Pentagon procurement, the office structures deciding where military drone money goes, and the hardware being cleared for military purchase.
Command structure changed meaningfully this year: a Pentagon drone czar memo hands the Defense Innovation Unit the front door to a $75 billion unmanned systems portfolio, centralizing authority that used to be split across service branches. The dollar figures moving through that structure are large: the Pentagon committed $1.3 billion to drones in two days, split between shoot-down systems and domestic parts manufacturing.
The Blue UAS list is where a lot of that procurement authority becomes concrete: Mountain Horse’s Talon DT-300 putting 100 pounds of payload capacity on the Blue UAS list is a direct expansion of what buyers can acquire without a separate security review. Domestic shipbuilding is following the same defense-dollar logic: Saronic is planning a $3 billion Texas shipyard for drone ships.
The broader US Government desk and FAA desk cover the civilian regulatory side of the same policy landscape. Every Department of Defense drone story is in the feed below.
Last updated September 3, 2026 — the feed below updates with every new story.
Aviv Shapira signed XTEND's JFB closing during a DroneXL interview. XTND trades on the NYSE Friday, Gauntlet II unscored. 'I think we did good,' he says.
XTEND AI Robotics starts trading on the NYSE as XTND on September 4. The Pentagon has not yet scored the Gauntlet II contest the valuation rests on.
Splash Industries' 11-foot Typhoon USV can now launch one-way attack drones from an Airstrike Pack module. The company hasn't said how many, or which ones.
A securities filing gives Eric Trump 6% of counter-drone firm Space-Eyes for his contacts as the $1M-revenue company heads for a $638M Nasdaq listing.
A STRATCOM official calls Ukraine's Operation Spiderweb 'utterly eye-opening' as the command running America's nuclear triad studies counter-drone defense.
Saildrone and Lockheed Martin fired two JAGM missiles from a Surveyor USV at RIMPAC 2026, the first missile launch from the company's uncrewed ships.
Sikorsky has completed the initial ground and flight test phase of its Nomad 100 tail-sitting drone for DARPA's EVADE program, sending the 18-foot hybrid-electric aircraft to a government facility for a more demanding multirole test campaign.
Zelenskyy told Laura Loomer that U.S.-Ukraine drone cooperation will include a factory on American soil, days before he meets Trump. F-Drones already broke ground in Ohio, and the export deal behind the announcement still rests on anonymous sources.
A Pentagon drone czar memo hands the Defense Innovation Unit the front door to a $75 billion unmanned systems portfolio, centralizing decision-making authority over a huge share of military drone spending that was previously spread across separate service branches.
Large and frequent. The Pentagon committed $1.3 billion to drones in two days, split between counter-drone systems and domestic component manufacturing, on top of continuing investment in new airframes and the Blue UAS approved-hardware list.
Blue UAS is the Defense Innovation Unit's list of drones cleared for military and government purchase without a case-by-case security review. Mountain Horse's Talon DT-300 putting 100 pounds of payload capacity on the Blue UAS list expands what buyers can procure off that list without added review.
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