DefenceTalkThe United Arab Emirates is ploughing money into drones, robots and other unmanned weaponry as autonomous warfare becomes more and more widespread — including in attacks on the Gulf country by Yemeni rebels. Large, black drones with the orange logo of EDGE, the UAE’s arms consortium, were on display at this week’s Unmanned Systems Exhibition […]https://www.defencetalk.com/uae-invests-in-drones-robots-as-unmanned-warfare-takes-off-78036/

DefenceTalkUS Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered Pentagon officials Thursday to undertake reforms to reduce the number of civilian deaths from military strikes after multiple unjustified fatal incidents. “The protection of civilians is fundamentally consistent with the effective, efficient and decisive use of force in pursuit of US national interests,” Austin said in a directive issued […]https://www.defencetalk.com/pentagon-chief-orders-reforms-to-reduce-civilian-deaths-77785/

DefenceTalkArmed with battle-tested drones, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been deepening defence ties with African countries ahead of a major gathering of the continent’s leaders in Istanbul. The two-day Turkey-Africa partnership summit starting Friday comes fast on the heels of a top-level business forum in October that focused on investment and trade. The next […]https://www.defencetalk.com/armed-with-drones-turkey-explores-african-arms-sales-77592/

DefenceTalkResearchers, roboticists, and technologists deployed swarms of autonomous air and ground vehicles to test mission capabilities in the final field experiment (FX-6) of DARPA’s OFFensive Swarm-Enabled Tactics (OFFSET) program at the Cassidy Combined Arms Collective Training Facility (CACTF) in Fort Campbell, Tennessee. Since the program kicked off in 2017, OFFSET has held six field experiments […]https://www.defencetalk.com/offset-swarms-take-flight-in-final-field-experiment-77567/

DefenceTalkGeneral Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI) completed the transfer of two MQ-9A Reaper Block 5 Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) to the U.S. Marine Corps on October 15, 2021. The two aircraft have been operated by the USMC since 2018 under a Company Owned/Company Operated (COCO) lease agreement in support of an Urgent Operational Need. The […]

DefenceTalkChina on Tuesday showed off its increasingly sophisticated air power including surveillance drones, with an eye on disputed territories from Taiwan to the South China Sea and its rivalry with the United States. The country’s biggest airshow, in the southern coastal city of Zhuhai, comes as Beijing pushes to meet a 2035 deadline to retool […]

DefenceTalkNorthrop Grumman Australia has successfully delivered the Triton Network Integration Test Environment (NITE) to the Commonwealth of Australia ahead of schedule, marking another milestone in the Australian MQ-4C Triton program. Developed by Northrop Grumman and based at Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) Base Edinburgh, NITE will support Chief Information Officer Group (CIOG) to configure and […]

DefenceTalkIf you follow autonomous drone racing, you likely remember the crashes as much as the wins. In drone racing, teams compete to see which vehicle is better trained to fly fastest through an obstacle course. But the faster drones fly, the more unstable they become, and at high speeds their aerodynamics can be too complicated […]

DefenceTalkIsrael has used an airborne laser to shoot down drones in a series of tests, officials said Monday, calling it a “milestone” to update its already powerful defence systems. During the tests, which took place “over the last week,” a prototype of the high-power laser system carried on a small civilian plane “successfully intercepted several […]

DefenceTalkThe Iraqi army said Sunday two drones were destroyed above a base housing US troops, one month after the same base was targeted by an armed drone. The US military’s C-RAM defence system was activated to shoot down the drones above the Ain al-Assad base, located in Iraq’s western desert, the Iraqi military said. Several […]