Industry & Contracts
Drone industry news from UASFeed — procurement awards, defense primes and startups, funding rounds, and the business of uncrewed systems.
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Industry & Contracts
UK Christens 'Storm Fighter' Autonomous Drone-Wingman Program in GBP300M CCA Push
The RAF has named its Collaborative Combat Aircraft effort 'Storm Fighter,' unveiling Storm Chrome and Storm Fire drone designs and backing the family with GBP300M inside a GBP298B Defence Investment Plan.
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Industry & Contracts
Elbit Pitches Turning Commercial Cargo Ships Into Floating Drone Carriers
Elbit Systems is marketing a concept to convert commercial vessels into floating drone bases carrying 9-12 Hermes 650 Spark aircraft, offering countries like Japan, Denmark and Germany a cheaper alternative to aircraft carriers for maritime surveillance.
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Industry & Contracts
Sam Altman-Backed Brinc Raises $125M to Put a 911 Response Drone on 80,000 Police and Fire Roofs
Motorola Solutions led a $125M round for public-safety drone maker Brinc on July 14, 2026, nearly doubling its valuation as a December 2025 FCC ruling froze DJI out of the U.S. market it's racing to capture.
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Industry & Contracts
Ondas Buys Military Drone Maker DZYNE Technologies for $875.8 Million, Forms Ondas Sentinel Defense Division
Nasdaq-listed Ondas finalized an $875.8M cash-and-stock deal for DZYNE Technologies, creating the Ondas Sentinel autonomous defense division and pushing 2026 revenue guidance up to $525M.
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Industry & Contracts
Cathie Wood's Ark Invest Piles Into Kratos Defense as Drone and Anti-Drone Budget Bets Pay Off
Ark Invest bought roughly $9.1 million of Kratos Defense stock in early July 2026, betting on a drone maker whose unmanned systems revenue is growing over 30% amid a proposed $70 billion Pentagon drone budget.
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Industry & Contracts
Thales Beats Safran to Buy French Underwater-Drone Maker Exail in $4.5 Billion Deal
Thales agreed to buy a 35.5% stake in Exail Technologies at a €3.9 billion ($4.5B) enterprise value, edging out Safran and consolidating France's unmanned mine-warfare and seabed-security drone industry.
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Industry & Contracts
Denmark's Battle-Tested Heidrun Beats US and European Rivals for a Dutch ISR Contract
The Netherlands has picked Danish firm Sky-Watch's combat-proven RQ-35 Heidrun over major US and European competitors to supply company-level ISR drones, with 2026 deliveries and seven years of sustainment.
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Industry & Contracts
South Korea Unveils First Homegrown Jet Engines Built for Combat and Recon Drones
South Korea publicly revealed its first indigenous aircraft engines — the KTF5500 turbofan and KTP1400 turboprop — at a Changwon ceremony, a bid to break free of MTCR/ITAR-restricted engine imports.
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Industry & Contracts
Kratos Adds 100,000+ Square Feet to Oklahoma City Plant to Scale Jet-Drone Output
Kratos is expanding its Oklahoma City campus by more than 100,000 square feet to push jet-drone output beyond 165 units a year, backing Valkyrie, Firejet and Taiwan's Mighty Hornet IV programs.
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Industry & Contracts
Thales Moves to Swallow Exail in $4.5 Billion Bet on Autonomous Underwater Warfare
Thales signed a binding deal July 6 to buy the Gorge family's 35.5% stake in Exail Technologies at 134 euros a share — a $4.5 billion enterprise value bet on unmanned mine-hunting and undersea autonomy.
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Industry & Contracts
Palladyne AI's GuideTech Wins $2.3M Deal to Arm a New Kinetic Counter-Drone Interceptor
GuideTech, a Palladyne AI subsidiary, secured a $2.3 million contract to supply its BRAIN flight computer and FLEX software to an undisclosed prime building a kinetic counter-UAS interceptor that has already completed flight testing.
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Industry & Contracts
Quantum Systems Raises $1.2 Billion in Europe's Largest-Ever Defense-Tech Financing
German drone maker Quantum Systems closed a $1.2 billion Series D at an $8 billion valuation on July 2, 2026, backed by Blackstone, Airbus and Advent, days after the U.S. Army tapped its Vector AI as a Company-Level sUAS candidate.
