• A Ukrainian brigade said it used an FPV drone to deliver an escape bike to a trapped soldier.
• Its chief of staff said it took three tries with a Heavy Shot drone to make a successful drop.
• It's one of the first recorded instances of an FPV drone being used for such logistics in a warzone.

A Ukrainian brigade said it used first-person-view drones to deliver e-bikes to a surrounded soldier, marking a rare instance where such devices were used to airlift a vehicle in battle.

In a video published on Wednesday, the "Rubizh" 4th Brigade of Ukraine's National Guard said it dropped the roughly 88-pound e-bikes so the soldier could escape mostly Russian-controlled territory.

While the brigade didn't say in the video when the operation occurred, it said the soldier had been trapped at a shelter near Siversk, a town in Donetsk, where fighting is still ongoing.

"The enemy was in front, behind, and on both flanks. Completely surrounded," Mykola Hrytsenko, a junior lieutenant serving as the brigade's chief of staff, said in the video.

The soldier, whom the brigade identified by the call sign Tankist, was the only survivor of four Ukrainian soldiers fighting in the area, Hrytsenko said.

"The Siversk direction is known for incredibly difficult logistics. Almost none exists there. Guys have to walk six to seven kilometers on foot to reach a position," he said.

Hrytsenko said his team crafted an evacuation plan that involved heavy cargo drones, such as the Baba Yaga or Heavy Shot, carrying a bicycle with an electric motor to the exhausted soldier's position.

Such drones are typically used in Ukraine as bombers and are designed to deliver payloads of about 40 to 50 pounds, though they can also airlift cargo.

Carrying a nearly 90-pound e-bike, Hrytsenko said, would push the drone to its limits and shorten its range to roughly 2 kilometers.

It took three attempts, brigade says

Hrytsenko said his team initially lost two drones trying to deliver e-bikes to the soldier. The first was shot down with the bike, while the second crashed because its motors burned out, he added.

But the "Rubizh" brigade published clips of the third drone carrying the bike via a winch system and the soldier appearing to receive the bike. Business Insider could not independently verify the authenticity of the brigade's footage.

Hrytsenko said the bike's parts were disassembled and brought to a nearby position on the frontline. Afterward, the vehicle was put together and flown to the soldier, he added.

"Everyone in HQ was shouting and crying like we'd just launched the first plane in the sky," Hrytsenko said of the moment when the bike arrived.

The brigade also showed surveillance drone footage of a soldier riding an e-bike through the battlefield.

Hrytsenko said that while the soldier later struck a land mine, he was able to walk several hundred meters to a nearby friendly position, where drone pilots flew in another e-bike so he could fully exit the combat zone.

"The operation cost us two lost e-bikes, around $100,000, and two lost HeavyShot drones, $15,000 each," Hrytsenko said.

The brigade said the soldier evacuated safely and showed interview clips of a man it said was Tankist. BI could not independently verify his identity.

Hrytsenko added that the e-bikes were funded via donations from volunteers, a common occurrence in Ukraine, where units have to crowdfund for drones and weapons.

"If you see a strange fundraiser for an e-bike, or a unicycle, don't be surprised. Maybe it will save a life," he said.

First-person-view, or FPV, drones have been used for many non-combat functions during the war, such as dropping small items on the battlefield or compelling soldiers to surrender via loudspeaker.

However, this marks one of the first times such a drone has been used to deliver a large asset like a vehicle during ongoing fighting. Given that the size of the payload may make a drone easier to spot while limiting its range, it's unclear if this tactic will become more commonplace.

• Newly released satellite images show Russia has built shelters to protect aircraft at several bases.
• Britain's defense ministry said these measures follow a string of Ukrainian drone attacks.
• Ukraine has relied on domestically produced drones to hit high-value military targets inside Russia.

Russia has built hardened shelters to protect its vulnerable aircraft at several bases following a string of long-range Ukrainian drone strikes, a new Western intelligence assessment suggests.

Britain's defense ministry this week published satellite imagery from early June, collected by the US company Planet Labs, that shows newly constructed shelters at three Russian air bases behind the front lines.

The shelters, which consist of dome-shaped rooftops and thick blast doors, were photographed at Russia's Millerovo, Kursk Vostochny, and Hvardiiske air bases. Some structures were seen covered with earth for added protection that could help shield against shrapnel or other debris.

The UK said in a Tuesday intelligence update that Russia had launched efforts to protect vulnerable aircraft at several bases "in response to numerous successful" Ukrainian drone attacks. Millerovo, just a few miles across the border, for instance, was targeted just last week.

"The construction of these hardened aircraft shelters provides a layer of protection to aircraft deployed to Russian airbases against future" Ukrainian drone attacks, the UK explained.

Hardened shelters are one of several tactics that Russia has turned to in an effort to protect its fighter jets from the Ukrainian attacks. Moscow has also painted decoy warplanes on the tarmac at its air bases and even covered its bomber aircraft with tires in an attempt to confuse Kyiv's targeting and mislead the drones. It's unclear, however, how effective these protective measures have been.

Ukraine's long-range drone attacks have been a bright spot for Kyiv during the three-and-a-half-year-long war, which has transitioned from a maneuver conflict to one of attrition, featuring largely static front lines and standoff strikes from distance.

The US long prevented Ukraine from using Western-provided missiles to strike across the border and inside Russian territory. That arsenal was also quite limited. As a workaround to these restrictions, Kyiv invested heavily in domestic drone production.

Over the past year, Ukraine has repeatedly used homemade long-range drones to strike a range of high-value military and energy targets inside Russia, including oil terminals, ammunition depots, weapons-making factories, and air bases.

Russian air bases have been a particular focus for the Ukrainian military, as Moscow uses these sites to stage deadly attacks against troops and civilians, relying on missiles and guided bombs.

On Tuesday, conflict analysts at the Institute for the Study of War, a US-based think tank, said in a battlefield assessment that Ukrainian forces "appear to be intensifying a long-range strike campaign against Russian military industrial facilities and transport networks."

• Small exploding drones have emerged as the main battlefield killer in Ukraine.
• Ukraine's special operators were once focused on artillery, but now they train to survive drones.
• An American instructor said he teaches soldiers to hide, move smart, and use their guns if needed.

Ukraine's special operators used to focus their training on surviving intense Russian artillery fire. Now, their attention has shifted to drones — the main battlefield killer.

"Things have changed drastically," an American instructor with the 4th Ranger Regiment of Ukraine's Special Operations Forces told Business Insider. He could only be identified by his call sign Scooter for security reasons.

"One of the main differences we see today is the prevalence of drones," he said. "In 2022, it was primarily artillery fire. There was a lot more of it." The Ukrainian Rangers are now learning better concealment tactics and how to shoot down drones with their service weapons as a last resort.

Artillery, long described as the "king of battle," has played a central role in Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, especially during the early years of the conflict, with both sides using the towed cannons and multiple launch rocket systems to attack the enemy.

The scale of the artillery duels could be seen in satellite imagery of the battlefield, where hundreds of craters peppered huge swaths of land and reduced buildings to rubble.

However, amid strained ammunition stockpiles and as the war transitioned from a maneuver-oriented conflict to one of attrition, with relatively static front lines, drones have emerged as the dominant battlefield threat, with some recent estimates suggesting that they are causing around 70% of Russian and Ukrainian casualties.

Scooter attributed the rise of drones to what has been called "shell hunger," explaining that Russia exhausted its stocks of artillery ammunition and began to rely on small quadcopter drones — known as first-person view, or FPV, drones — to fill the gaps. Ukraine also experienced a shortage of artillery rounds, turning to drones as an alternative.

"In 2022, we were trained to utilize terrain and structures to counter artillery fire," said Scooter, speaking to BI via video chat from an undisclosed location in central Ukraine.

"Now, we have to train people with the mentality that they are going to constantly be targeted by a loitering munition piloted by a human operator," he said.

'Move fast — don't move too fast'

FPV drones have emerged as a cheap way to deliver precision strikes against enemy trenches, personnel, and vehicles. Above Ukraine, these weapons are everywhere, with their tiny cameras giving human operators near-constant battlefield surveillance.

Russia and Ukraine have made the FPV drones even more of an issue over the past year by using fiber-optic cables to connect them to their operators, making the small aircraft resistant to most electronic warfare tactics.

"We have had to change our mentality with training completely," Scooter said. "How do I deal with FPVs? Not so much 'how do I deal with artillery fire?"

He said the first thing that he teaches Ukraine's special operators is how to blend in with their surroundings and practice better camouflage techniques. This means that every shiny object needs to be painted, removed, or taped over, with paint covering the hands and face.

Soldiers are also taught how to stay hidden using tree lines or thick forests to their advantage and to find heat sources, such as a car or generator, if they can, to blend in with their surroundings. A Russian drone operator piloting a surveillance drone may not be able to spot the difference between two white blobs on the screen.

Scooter said he trains soldiers in many of the same ways he would snipers or reconnaissance personnel.

"Move fast — don't move too fast," he said. "Don't draw unnecessary attention. The human eye sees movement, shape, and color — in that order. So move carefully, blend in with your surroundings."

"Basically, the same way you might hide from an enemy helicopter is the way you're going to hide from a drone," he added.

Instructors are also teaching Ukraine's special operators to fight the FPV drones with their service weapons — specifically shotguns — as a last resort.

However, these small targets are extremely difficult to hit, and if the drone is close enough, a direct impact could set off its explosive payload, and its forward momentum could spell trouble.

"Small arms fire is seldom effective" against an FPV drone, Scooter said. "But our mentality is that if I can do nothing else, something is better than nothing."

DJI barely sells drones in the United States anymore. The shelves are bare; resellers are jacking up prices. It appears an unofficial ban at US customs is to blame. But on Amazon, you can now buy a drone that's a a dead ringer for the DJI Mini 4 Pro - the SkyRover X1 - for a reasonable $758. And that's probably because DJI made it happen.

There's evidence suggesting so, and DJI was not able to deny the SkyRover X1 was a DJI product one day after we reached out.

As reported by DroneXL, security researchers have discovered the SkyRover X1 not only has the same specs, features, and an incredibly similar app to the one DJI provides for its dro …

Read the full story at The Verge.

• Ukraine is investing $72 million in drones to help counter Russian drone attacks.
• Russia often uses Iranian-designed Shahed drones, complicating Ukraine's air defense efforts.
• Interceptor drones offer a cost-effective defense against Russia's drone and missile threats.

Russia is regularly hammering Ukrainian cities with one-way attack drones. Kyiv, however, intends to meet that threat by pouring millions of dollars into interceptor drones designed to engage Russian threats.

In a statement posted to Telegram on Wednesday, Defense Minister Denys Shmyhal announced four contracts for drone intercept technology worth over $72 million.

"Special attention was given to drone interceptors capable of countering Russian Shaheds," Shmyhal said in the statement, which noted that Ukraine is also pursuing international partnerships for additional purchases.

Earlier in the month, the director of Ukraine's Defense Procurement Agency, Arsen Zhumadilov, told local media that the agency had contracts for tens of thousands of interceptor drones, weapons which are now being mass-produced. Zhumadilov did not provide a value for those contracts.

Interceptor drones have become an inexpensive option for defeating front-line loitering munitions and higher-end uncrewed reconnaissance assets, but the drones are increasingly being seen as an option for countering Shaheds, a term for a family of Iranian-designed attack drones that Russia also makes domestically.

Russia frequently deploys homemade versions of the Iranian-designed Shahed, called the Geran-2, to bolster its strike packages, mixing them in with decoy activity and missile attacks on Ukrainian cities. Such employment creates a more complicated threat for Ukrainian air defense systems, already stretched thin.

Ukraine has reported that Russia is arming its drones with bigger payloads and thermobaric warheads, increasingly operating them in ways that make them difficult to shoot down with inexpensive solutions, like mounted machine guns.

Ukraine has more sophisticated air defenses, but limited availability and prohibitive costs are pushing the country to find more innovative solutions.

Ukraine is believed to have about half a dozen operational Patriot batteries among its other air defenses. A Patriot battery consists of as many as eight launchers, which can hold up to 16 missiles. These weapons are useful for countering aircraft and ballistic missile threats. US lawmakers approved a decision to send more Patriot air defense systems to Germany last week after agreeing that Germany would frontload Patriot systems to boost Ukrainian defenses.

Each Patriot interceptor missile costs over $3 million. Missile production is limited, and overuse strains already limited stockpiles. That makes them less than ideal for combating drones.

Defensive interceptor drones function similarly to interceptor missiles, though drones are drastically cheaper and more easily produced.

Without other options, the continuous barrage of Shahed-style drones flooding Ukrainian airspace, coupled with missile strikes, is bound to overwhelm Ukraine's air defenses. Recent assessments by Western military experts suggest Russia is poised to overwhelm Ukrainian cities with thousands of drones in a single night.

In an effort to tout domestic drone production, Russian state media recently broadcast modified American-designed pickup trucks featuring a launch configuration for Shahed-style drones, which are capable of loitering in the air before diving onto a target.

Russia began using the Iranian-manufactured drones three years ago, but it quickly turned to its own domestic industries for producing the drones.

• Ukraine is turning its frontline into a proving ground for the West's newest prototype weapons.
• If firms send in their new tech and train Kyiv's troops to use it, they'll send a combat report back.
• Kyiv hopes this will also pave the way for its local manufacturers to partner with more outside firms.

Ukraine is inviting foreign arms manufacturers to send weapons prototypes for its troops to test in battle against Russian forces.

Its defense innovation unit, Brave1, on Thursday launched "Test in Ukraine," a program that it said would trial the new tech in combat and produce a detailed report for the defense contractor.

"This is an opportunity to gain experience that cannot be simulated in laboratories," said Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine's minister for digital transformation, at an arms conference in Wiesbaden.

Among the program's listed top priorities are uncrewed aerial systems, robot ground vehicles, missiles, and laser weapons.

"Test in Ukraine" will require the contractor to teach Ukrainian troops how to use the prototype, though this can optionally be done online, Brave1 said in a statement.

After that, Ukraine will assume control over how the tech is used on its frontline.

"You hand over your product to Brave1, and we take care of the rest," the organization said on its website.

Kyiv also hopes to pair the foreign arms makers with its own manufacturers to produce the tested weapons locally.

Ukraine is already a testbed for many NATO weapons against Russian capabilities, from armored vehicles to long-range missiles to anti-tank munitions.

But the announcement comes amid some concern in the greater arms industry that contractors may be developing new weapons after studying the Ukraine war, but aren't testing them in combat.

"If you are a drone company and you do not have your kit on the frontline in Ukraine, you might as well give up," Luke Pollard, the UK's minister of state for the armed forces, said in May.

One British defense executive, Justin Hedges, told Business Insider earlier this month that drones have to be tested daily in combat to avoid becoming obsolete.

"If your system is not in day-to-day use on the frontline of Ukraine, it becomes very quickly out of date," Hedges told BI's Mia Jankowicz.

Drone warfare has evolved drastically over the last three years of the war. First-person-view UAVs have come to dominate the battlefield, but electronic warfare is increasingly stifling their effectiveness.

As a result, unjammable fiber-optic drones are now on the rise, forcing both sides to rely more on low-tech defensive measures such as 12-gauge shotguns to destroy drones kinetically and fishing nets to entangle them mid-flight.

Last month, Ukraine debuted a new type of rifle bullet that can discharge fragment spreads at greater range to counter incoming FPV drones. Russian troops were producing their own DIY version months ago.

Meanwhile, Ukraine is going all in on bolstering its defense manufacturing industry, offering its local weapons-making experience to Western countries while ramping up production of domestic arms.

Its new testing initiative could also provide additional weapons supplies for its troops fighting against Russia's war of attrition, both in manpower and matériel.

A spokesperson for Brave1 did not respond to a request for comment sent outside regular business hours. Russia's defense and foreign affairs ministries also did not respond to a similar request sent by BI.

• More than 80 people are dead after catastrophic flooding hit central Texas, with many more missing.
• Local authorities say consumer drones are interfering with search and rescue efforts.
• Such drones disrupted emergency response in past disasters such as the LA wildfires early this year.

Search and rescue operations continue in central Texas, where catastrophic flooding on Friday has killed more than 80 people. Dozens are still missing.

During a Sunday press conference, after the usual updates, officials made what has become a familiar request during recent natural disasters: Don't fly your personal drones over the disaster area.

"We know that people want to volunteer, but what we are starting to see is personal drones flying," Kerrville City Manager Dalton Rice told reporters. "These personal drones flying is a danger to aircraft, which then risks further operations."

The Kerrville Police Department echoed Rice's remarks on Sunday.

"Media-operated drones are interfering with official search and rescue drones. There is a no-fly zone in Kerr County for private drones," the department said on its Facebook page. "We need cooperation in this matter. Let our first responders do their job."

During a press conference hosted by Gov. Greg Abbott on Sunday, Maj. Gen. Thomas M. Suelzer of the Texas National Guard said the department had launched an MQ-9 Reaper drone to perform assessment operations.

"It's truly an eye in the sky for our search and rescue people," Suelzer said.

Though drones are now commonly used in military and law enforcement operations, they are also popular among civilians, mostly for photography and shooting video but also for those looking to help search after disasters. During several recent disasters, however, officials have said those civilian drone operators have hindered rescue operations.

The Dixie fire

In 2021, the Dixie fire spread across Northern California. The flames ripped through communities, displacing residents and burning nearly a million acres of land.

That July, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said an unauthorized drone had impeded emergency operations.

"Yesterday, aircraft assigned to the #DixieFire were forced to land due to an unauthorized drone flying over the fire traffic area," the agency said on its official Facebook page. "Drones restrict firefighters' ability to protect lives, property, and natural resources. Remember, if you fly, we can't!"

Hurricane Helene

Hurricane Helene battered the southeastern US in late 2024.

After making landfall in Florida, it traveled up the coast through Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina. Heavy rainfall, strong winds, and flooding demolished homes and submerged vehicles.

Amid the search and rescue efforts, the US Department of Transportation shared an X post asking consumer drone operators to stay clear. At the time, the Federal Aviation Administration had issued a temporary flight restriction in certain areas.

"Do not fly your drone near or around rescue and recovery efforts for Hurricane Helene," the agency said. "Interfering with emergency response operations impacts search and rescue operations on the ground."

The FAADroneZone, the agency's site for drone services, said in a separate X post that "interfering with emergency response efforts may result in fines or criminal prosecution."

At the time, some online observers thought volunteer drone operators were being barred from assisting in relief efforts, which sparked a backlash.

The DOT later clarified that the FAA didn't ban consumer drones from providing assistance and relief.

"These restrictions occur at the request of local authorities or law enforcement. FAA does not put these into place without requests," a spokesperson told Fox News.

The agency added that "anyone looking to use a drone or other aircraft to assist in Hurricane Helene disaster relief and recovery efforts should coordinate with first responders and law enforcement on scene to ensure they do not disrupt life-saving operations."

Los Angeles wildfires

In January, a series of wildfires erupted across the Los Angeles region, causing widespread damage and forcing hundreds of thousands to evacuate their homes.

In addition to emergency firefighting efforts on the ground, officials deployed two Super Scoopers, which are amphibious aircraft that collect water to drop on wildfires.

An unauthorized civilian drone struck one Super Scooper, forcing it out of service.

"We would like to remind everyone that flying a drone in the midst of firefighting efforts is a federal crime and punishable by up to 12 months in prison or a fine of up to $75,000," a Los Angeles Fire Department spokesperson said at the time.

The incident prompted an investigation by the FAA, which said in a statement that "flying a drone near a wildfire is dangerous and can cost lives."

The Department of Justice said the drone operator agreed to plead guilty to one count of unsafe operation of an uncrewed aircraft. The plea agreement included the drone operator paying full restitution to the Government of Quebec, which supplied the aircraft, and completing 150 hours of community service.

• Last month, China unveiled a mosquito-like spy drone designed for covert military operations.
• The drone's size and weight could limit its uses on the battlefield, military analysts told BI.
• It could still prove to be an effective new surveillance tool, experts say.

Last month, China's National University of Defense Technology unveiled a new spy drone designed to look like a mosquito.

Showcased on the state-run CCTV-7 military broadcaster, the micro-drone appeared to be roughly the size of a human fingernail and featured tiny, leaf-like wings and thin, wiry legs.

While it may not look as impressive as some of the bigger unmanned systems coming out of Ukraine, its stick-thin body is said to be equipped for a range of covert surveillance and military operations.

"As a drone to surveil buildings, especially on the inside, I can imagine it being quite useful for video feeds," Herb Lin, a senior research scholar at Stanford's Center for International Security and Cooperation, told Business Insider.

But its small size may limit its uses on the battlefield.

"If it's real, and powered conventionally (with a battery), its longevity in the air will be limited by battery capacity," Lin said. "Also, it's very light, and therefore easily buffeted by winds. These factors suggest it isn't particularly useful for wide-area surveillance."

Drones can be highly sensitive to weather, in particular strong winds, rain, snow, cold weather, and fog.

And the smaller an aerial drone is, the more susceptible it is to such conditions, Samuel Bendett, an advisor with the Center for Naval Analyses and drone expert, said. "Even indoors, there can be conditions that could interfere with this drones' performance, such as even a slight breeze, an air flow from an AC, an open window, or other obstacles."

Communications are another issue to consider, Bendett continued, as the drone's size means it's unlikely to be able to carry much advanced equipment.

"While it is technically possible to build a tiny UAV like the one displayed by the Chinese developers, its actual performance is likely to greatly vary," he said.

Others say that the new drone is a sign of China's continuing innovation in the sector.

Michael Horowitz, a senior fellow for technology and innovation at the Council on Foreign Relations, said it showed "Chinese researchers in particular want to push forward technological innovation in drones."

It remains unclear how real the capability is, how soon China could field the tech, or the type of missions it could use them for, he added.

• The US Army secretary and a top general told BI about the service's plans for what it flies.
• In the coming years, the Army wants to operate far more unmanned aircraft than manned.
• US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wants the Army to reduce its crewed attack helicopter force and replace it with drones.

US Army leadership told Business Insider it wants to be flying a lot more uncrewed aircraft than crewed ones in the coming years. We are talking about a tremendous increase in the number of drones.

Its ambitions, which align with goals outlined by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth's recent directive, come from a vision for what Army officials and the Trump administration have described as a more lethal force ready for future warfare.

In an interview with Business Insider, US Secretary of the Army Daniel Driscoll and Gen. James Rainey, the commanding general of Army Futures Command, said that unprecedented changes in warfare are fueling plans to overhaul what the Army flies.

"We believe there's a role for some manned aircraft," Rainey explained, "Big picture-wise, right now, about 90% of the things we're flying have humans in them and 10% don't. And I believe over the next several years, we would like to invert that."

The plans to give every division 1,000 drones within the next two years, he added, speak to the "aggressiveness" with which the Army is going after the new uncrewed objectives.

Earlier this year, Hegseth sent out a memo on strategic transformations within the Army, laying out goals and timelines for the service, including force restructuring and cuts to certain programs and systems that altogether represent one of the largest Army revamps since the end of the Cold War. The push is estimated to cost around $36 billion over the next five years.

In the memo, Hegseth indicated that crewed attack helicopter formations would be reduced, restructured, and augmented with drone swarms capable of overwhelming adversaries.

War-winning Army capabilities and the ones that aren't

Driscoll said this big change, along with others identified in the DoD memo, is already underway and largely focused on examining what systems no longer make sense in the context of the Army's vision for its future and what systems will replace them.

He mentioned the AH-64D Apache attack helicopter as one platform that no longer aligns with plans for the transformation of the force. "The flying costs on that were $10,000 an hour," the secretary said of the older Deltas, pointing out that the figure is about twice the cost of the newer Echo variant of the aircraft.

"Those are the kinds of decisions that I think we had let linger and fester for too long as an Army for all sorts of reasons," Driscoll said. "What we are trying to do is take a hard look at these things," he explained, and decide whether they align with what the warfighter needs.

Last month, Lt. Gen. Joseph Ryan, the Army's deputy chief of staff for operations, plans, and training, said that the Deltas are no longer "a war-winning capability that we can fight with and win today." Even the more advanced Echos, he said, are "on the cusp of being capabilities where we don't necessarily see them contributing to the fight the way they have done perhaps in the past."

The Army plans to shelve the Delta variant and further examine other crewed aircraft that may no longer be sufficiently effective. It is also reviewing other helicopter models and plans to reduce the number of helos operated.

The future of war is robotic

More broadly, uncrewed aircraft are being seen as alternatives that soldiers can send forward on the battlefield to do missions that crewed aircraft have traditionally done.

There's still a place for crewed aircraft in the Army. Some helicopters, for example, still boast value for landing troops behind or around enemy positions to surprise and surround them. But future operations are expected to be a whole lot more robotic, with an Army aviation portfolio that more heavily relies on unmanned systems integrated with manned ones.

The Army sees itself at a turning point. Senior defense officials appointed by President Donald Trump have called out what they see as excessive spending, outdated systems and weapons, and a need to expedite changes to be prepared to deter or fight a future conflict. It's part of efforts to maximize readiness, increase lethality, and get soldiers what they need most.

Such aims aren't entirely new, though, and execution will be key. During the previous administration, for instance, the Army was already discussing the need for more uncrewed systems and changes to its aircraft fleet, especially with the cancellation of the Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft program.

Last year, Rainey told lawmakers that for scouting and recon missions "the right thing to do is to use unmanned systems and not put humans in harm's way."

A major motivator for many of the ongoing transformation efforts is China, which the Pentagon has referred to as a pacing challenge. Officials and lawmakers in Washington see China's meteoric military growth and modernization and are pursuing capabilities that will allow the US military to deter aggression and, if necessary, overcome that rapidly evolving fighting force in armed combat.

Drones, from pocket-sized aircraft to quadcopters to bigger warfighting assets, are a key part of these efforts, providing a range of combat capabilities en masse for a relatively low cost compared to some other US weapons programs.

The Pentagon has been working to expedite the development and deployment of uncrewed aerial systems across the services, recognizing their value as this technology sprints onto the scene in big ways. Army soldiers have been testing different types of reconnaissance and strike drones are being tested in areas like the Indo-Pacific region, learning how to adapt unmanned systems to the challenges of different missions and environments.

That's a key aspect of an ongoing "transformation in contact" initiative, which focuses on Army units being given free rein to use different capabilities during training and exercises to see how the systems might work best.

The value of drones, particularly the smaller systems, has been especially visible in the war in Ukraine, which Army leaders continue to study. Ukrainian operators fly drones for intelligence-gathering and strike missions, among others.

Due to extensive electronic warfare countermeasures on the battlefield, both sides are heavily relying on fiber-optic drones to maintain a stable connection between the operator and system while also exploring new technology, like AI-enabled drones that can resist jamming. The US is not in a similar situation, but it is looking to innovate as if it were.

DJI seems to be preparing three new drones for release in the coming months: a Mini 5 Pro, Avata 3, and a Neo 2, according to DroneXL. The site published leaked images and video of the drones, along with a new FCC filing that suggests DJI is also working on a new action camera called the DJI Osmo Nano.

DroneXL published a video showing two drones that may be follow-ups to the Avata 2 and the adorable DJI Neo. DroneXL notes a few differences, like that the Avata 3’s battery sits farther back and it’s got a larger camera unit up front. It also has four-blade propellers rather than the three-blade setup of the Avata 2. Next to the Avata 3 is what the outlet thinks is a Neo 2 prototype, although it’s hard to discern much more than that it appears to have redesigned propeller guards compared to the original.

Yesterday, DroneXL pointed to a new FCC filing that revealed some information about the unannounced Mini 5 Pro. The filing shows the Mini 5 Pro will pack a whopping 33.5Wh battery — a big improvement over the 18.9Wh of the Mini 4 Pro — and the outlet writes that the wireless transmissions specs support rumors that it could stream video from as far as 25 kilometers (15.5 miles) away, or 5 kilometers farther than its predecessor. That range edges it closer to that DJI Mavic 4 Pro that wasn’t supposed to launch in the US but somehow went on sale here, anyway. (We’d love to know why, but DJI won’t say.) The Mini 5 Pro is expected to launch in September.

Rounding out DroneXL’s rumor post is a newly-published FCC filing for the DJI Osmo Nano, a new wearable action camera that appears to have a modular display like the Action line. The outlet notes that the company is also expected to release a Mic 3 and Osmo 360 camera, though it doesn’t have any solid guesses about when they’re coming.

In 2019, DJI insisted to me that it wasn’t killing off the Phantom, its iconic line of oft-imitated drones that turned the Chinese company into the powerhouse it is today. And yet, DJI has just announced the end of life for its final two Phantom drones — the Phantom 4 Pro and Phantom 4 Advanced — with no new Phantom models in sight.

According to a support page, DJI actually produced its last Phantom in May 2018, and will now suspend service for its final two Phantom models on June 1st, 2025. Seven-plus years of support is a pretty decent run.

While DJI wasn’t the first maker of off-the-shelf flying quadcopter cameras — the first Phantom arrived in 2013, whereas Parrot’s AR Drone was already on shelves in 2010 — the Phantom was among the first ready-to-fly ones widely adopted by both consumers and video production pros. Other companies produced loads of Phantom clones and knockoff toys, and the unique pillow-and-legs silhouette of a Phantom soon became an instantly recognizable symbol for “drone.” I saw it on signs banning drones from public parks, for example.

But DJI doesn’t seem to need the Phantom brand anymore. Now, most of its drones are more rectangular packages with fold-down legs for portability, and it has many other brands to carry that torch, from the highest end Inspire down through the Mavic, Air, Mini, and the new entry level Flip line.

According to extensive leaks via the usual suspects (Jasper Ellens, OsitaLV), a new Mavic 4 Pro is imminent, and a Mini 5 is well on the way.

We’ve reached out to DJI for a statement on the end of the Phantom, and the company should get back to us by tomorrow.

The skies around Dallas are about to get a lot more interesting. No, DFW airport isn't planning any more expansions, nor does American Airlines have any more retro liveries to debut. This will be something different, something liable to make all the excitement around the supposed New Jersey drones look a bit quaint.

Zipline is launching its airborne delivery service for real, rolling it out in the Dallas-Fort Worth suburb of Mesquite ahead of a gradual spread that, if all goes according to plan, will also see its craft landing in Seattle before the end of the year. These automated drones can be loaded in seconds, carry small packages for miles, and deposit them with pinpoint accuracy at the end of a retractable tether.

It looks and sounds like the future, but this launch has been a decade in the making. Zipline has already flown more than 1.4 million deliveries and covered over 100 million miles, yet it feels like things are just getting started.

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