Washington and the drone industry: legislation, procurement, security reviews, and agency policy beyond the FAA.
Operation Epic Fury has cost the US Air Force 24 MQ-9 Reaper drones since late February. At roughly $30 million per airframe, the losses add up to around $720 million in hardware alone, as National Interest reports. Iranian surface-to-air missiles are doing most of the shooting, and the clusters of lost drones map almost perfectly…
DJI Lito X1 launches on April 23. That’s in four days. Somebody apparently forgot to tell Speedy Drone in Toronto, because their product page for the Lito X1 has been live for a while now, complete with a full spec sheet, a comparison chart, an FAQ section, and sample photos allegedly shot on the drone…
The Federal Aviation Administration announced a new drone enforcement program on April 16, 2026, that offers first-time individual violators reduced civil penalties or shorter certificate suspensions in exchange for admitting liability and surrendering their right to appeal. The Drone Expedited and Targeted Enforcement Response program, known as DETER, was published in a press release the…
A Tokyo defense startup just put a $450 fixed-wing drone on the Japanese market, and the airframe is made of wood. JISDA, short for Japan Integrated Security Design Agency, announced the ACM-01 Shiraha on April 14 in Tokyo. It’s a 6.2-foot wingspan trainer built to be flown hard, crashed, and replaced without anyone wincing at…
So, let me get this straight, and you tell me if I’m way off here, but DJI drones are dangerous enough to block future models, but not dangerous enough to ban the estimated 2 million that are flying around in this country right now. Because that’s exactly what this situation is starting to look like.…
Soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division launched a Textron Systems Aerosonde unmanned aircraft system during a Joint Readiness Training Center rotation at Fort Polk, Louisiana on April 9, 2026, as DVIDS reported. The deployment puts one of the Army’s leading tactical drone candidates into a realistic combat training environment alongside the service’s most storied light…
FAA issues FDC 6/2824 replacing the ICE NOTAM: drops blanket drone ban and National Defense Airspace classification, adds Department of War and DOJ to covered agencies.
The DJI Lito 1 and DJI Lito X1 are real, they’re coming on April 23, and we now have our clearest look yet at what DJI has been cooking behind closed doors. Leaked images of both drones and their retail packaging have surfaced, and the details confirm a brand-new product family that slots between the…
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