UAS

Our roundup of the main aerospace and defense stories making the news this week.

A job advert posted by Anduril indicates that work is underway on a vertical-takeoff-and-landing (VTOL) UAS in the Group 5 size category.

The agency’s Lift Challenge aims for at least a fourfold increase in drone payload-to-weight capability.

The Pentagon's Drone Dominance Program has set a goal of acquiring 340,000 weaponized small drones by 2028, positing major price drops as production ramps up.

U.S. Central Command plans to use one-way attack drones based on a copy of the Iranian Shahed-136, and has set up a new task force to deploy them.

Strategic decisions loom for some of the biggest Western airlift programs.

Daher has tested a modified TBM turboprop single to demonstrate autonomous flight capability.

The D18, with a 4,350-kg gross weight, is a member of Tengden’s Twin-Tailed Scorpion family of twin-boom uncrewed aircraft.

China’s state-owned engine manufacturer unveiled all-electric, hybrid-electric and hydrogen-combustion powerplants at the Aero Asia 2025 show in Zhuhai on Nov. 27-30.

Turkish industry has claimed a world first with the successful engagement of an aerial target with a beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile from a UAS.

Sweden has awarded GKN Aerospace a contract to build a clean-sheet turbojet-powered uncrewed aircraft system (UAS) demonstrator within 18 months to validate rapid development techniques.

A bipartisan group of House lawmakers is calling on the Pentagon to increase UAV collaboration with Ukraine.

The Netherlands is looking to add up to $4 billion to its counter-drone investment plan in response to a number of sightings of unidentified UAS in Europe.

A half century later, the channel wing aircraft concept has been revived by Maryland-based startup HopFlyt.

Sikorsky’s CEO discussed the company’s new uncrewed H-60 Black Hawk and the Nomad, a scalable rotor-blown-wing uncrewed system.

Cranfield Aerospace Solutions has put development of a hydrogen-electric powertrain retrofit for the Britten-Norman Islander on hold.

Beta Technologies has selected Near Earth Autonomy to support development of its MV250 autonomous hybrid-electric vertical-takeoff-and-landing cargo aircraft.

For years the question for the AAM market was about technology. Now the question is market viability.

China’s United Aircraft carried out the first flight of its R6000 large tiltrotor UAS, roughly a year after the initial prototype rolled off the assembly line.

Archer Aviation sees a deal to supply the hybrid power system to the Omen military drone being developed by Anduril and Edge Group as the beginning of a new revenue path for the company.

Airbus is gearing up to begin flight trials of its Sirtap tactical uncrewed air system while also looking to expand the system's customer set and capabilities.

An F-22 fighter and an uncrewed jet collaborated in the skies over a remote area of Nevada in a company-funded demonstration, GA-ASI says.

Venture capital funding in American defense startups is on track for its best year ever, according to private market data firm PitchBook.

A U.S. startup has adapted technology enabling airborne wind energy generation to develop a tethered drone.

XTI Aerospace, a developer of vertical flight technologies and VTOL aircraft, has paid $40 million to acquire Drone Nerds.