US Army

Drones are big business right now if you’re a defense contractor, building drones, designing new drones, and trying to compete with drones coming out of Ukraine and Russia. However, the bigger concern is countering drones, and the Army has a new toy to test out.

American drone company Red Cat is teaming up with Empirical Systems Aerospace (ESAero) to ramp up production of its military-grade Black Widow drone. The move comes as demand for the compact reconnaissance drone grows both in the US and abroad.

As nations continue to learn and develop new systems, the US military is starting to change its purchasing tactics away from more tanks to more drones. Both the US Army and Marines have various test units working through new squad formations, drone equipment, and tactics to learn from Ukraine’s success with drones on the battlefield.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has been going on for four years now, and just as the Spanish Civil War was a testing ground for tactics eventually used in World War II, Russia’s invasion has served as a testing ground for how drones will play a role in potential future wars (that we hope never happen). The U.S. Army has already begun taking notes and implementing changes to its brigade structures.

The US Army held an anti-drone shoot out at Fort Drum, New York earlier this month to test out various systems for taking down drone attacks. This comes as every nation seems to be increasing its drone war plans as continued use of them in battle aren’t slowing down.

Members of the House of Representative tabled legislation this month that included a proposal to create a new branch of the US Army dedicated to the rapidly expanding deployment of drones in conflict situations. This week, the country’s top military brass made it very clear they don’t support the idea.

Specialized public safety and emergency responder consultancy Skyfire has announced its SF2 drone has been selected by Thales USA for its operations in North Dakota’s advanced UAV network.

The US Army will be receiving considerable reinforcements of tactical Black Hornet micro drones to its current fleet, under a nearly $94 million agreement Washington has signed with producer Teledyne FLIR Defense that also involves an undisclosed number of the tiny reconnaissance UAVs heading to Ukraine.

The US Army has tested an app that allows smartphones to serve as counter-UAV assets by providing visual information and location data of suspicious drones to central authorities.

Defense and security UAV specialist group Red Cat Holdings says its cutting-edge Teal Drones affiliate has obtained a further $1.2 million to develop a new, portable UAV as standard issue equipment for soldiers, under the US Army’s Short Range Reconnaissance (SRR) program.

It’s no secret Russia’s cakewalking expectations to invade and quickly take over Ukraine were upended in large part by defenders’ wide-ranging and extremely effective repurposing of comparatively cheap consumer UAVs into munitions-dropping strike vehicles. Now the US Army is moving to replicate that example, representing a potential boon for small drone partners.

So close, but in the end, no superlative cigar. After 64 straight days of solar-powered flight, the US Army’s Airbus-built Zephyr UAV reportedly plunged from the skies over Arizona, just hours shy of breaking the all-time record for continuous navigation by an aircraft.

There’s no longer any question about whether the US Army’s experimental flight of the solar-powered Zephyr UAV will break the aerial endurance record, only by how much the craft will shatter that mark with each additional day it remains aloft.

Utah-based security UAV specialist Teal Drones has been selected to develop a prototype craft in a final stage of the US Army’s Short Range Reconnaissance Tranche 2 (SRR T2) Program, which aims to create a powerful but portable small craft for surveillance and reconnaissance missions.

Radar platform specialist Echodyne on Tuesday announced delivery of its metamaterial detection systems providing enhanced ground and aerial security and defense capabilities to the US Army as part of a multi-year program supply contract.

Drone manufacturer and automated flight specialist Skydio says it has won a contract to supply its X2D UAVs to the US Army’s Short-Range Reconnaissance Program (SRR). Valued at $20.2 million annually, the fixed-price provisionment agreement is expected to be worth $99.8 million over its five-year duration.