
FAA Awards SMART Air Traffic Contract to Air Space Intelligence, Beating Palantir and Thales
The FAA awarded Air Space Intelligence an $875M, 12-year contract for SMART air traffic AI, beating Palantir and Thales. What it means for BVLOS drones.
Part 107, Remote ID, TRUST, waivers, and the rulemaking that shapes what every pilot in America is allowed to fly.

The FAA awarded Air Space Intelligence an $875M, 12-year contract for SMART air traffic AI, beating Palantir and Thales. What it means for BVLOS drones.

A federal grand jury in Georgia indicted twelve people for running drones over the walls of ten federal prisons in eight states, dropping drugs, cell phones, and saw blades at least 38 times. Prosecutors call it the largest federal case to date built around coordinated drone smuggling into prisons. The 17-count indictment, unsealed June 24…

Walmart is moving drone delivery into seven new markets, and Maricopa, Arizona is confirmed on the list. The company announced the expansion in early June 2026, naming Wing as its delivery partner for the greater Phoenix area push. No launch date exists yet. The whole project sits in the pre-application phase right now, working through…

I grabbed the Mini 4K Fly More Combo last month to see if it deserved the beginner hype, and I flew it for two weeks straight. What surprised me was not the camera quality or the gimbal stabilization, but how much less friction there is when you are actually ready to fly instead of still…

The Texas Department of Public Safety has seized eight drones flown inside the Federal Aviation Administration’s Temporary Flight Restriction zone around Houston 2026 FIFA World Cup venues since the tournament opened. One operator now faces felony charges, per KHOU, after DPS Air Ops tracked the aircraft to roughly 900 feet (274 m) over a restricted area. It is the first major US sporting event…

Welcome to your weekly UAS news update. We have three stories for you this week. First up, the FAA adds a new DHS authorization path for World Cup NOTAMs. A firefighting helicopter in Utah dodges an unauthorized drone. And AirData UAV and LeoSight are teaming up to bring live drone data to DFR programs. Let’s…

An Iran-linked hacker group called Handala claims it breached FBI first-person view (FPV) drones and used that access to threaten teams at the 2026 FIFA World Cup, which opened June 11 across the United States, Mexico, and Canada. The SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors extremist and state-linked propaganda, published the group’s statement on June 12.…

Phoenix is on the list. Wing and Walmart named seven new metropolitan areas this week for the largest drone delivery network in the country, and Arizona’s capital sits among them. The rollout is phased, with operations across the new markets targeted by 2027. For Phoenix shoppers, it points toward a near future where a tube…
One email with the drone news that matters — DJI, FAA, public safety, and everything in between, straight from the newsroom. No spam, no fluff.