• Naval Warfare

  Taiwan entrusts USVs with task of deterring a PLA amphibious invasion

  23rd August 2025

  Drawing lessons from Ukraine’s Black Sea experience, Taiwan is investing heavily in unmanned surface vessels to strengthen its asymmetric defence strategy against potential PLA amphibious assaults.

• Land Warfare

  Canada lines up over-the-horizon radar purchase from Australia

  7th April 2025

  Ottawa is planning to procure a version of Australia’s Jindalee Operational Radar Network (JORN), which gives an over-the-horizon radar (OTHR) capability reaching approximately 3,000km for detection of air and sea targets.

• Land Warfare

  CV90 revels in northern exposure while looking for new customers (updated April 2025)

  25th April 2025

  The BAE Systems Hägglunds’ CV90 IFV has been around for decades but continual refreshing to maintain power and relevance, along with a healthy market at home in Sweden and neighbouring countries, has led to more than 1,700 vehicle orders with 10 countries.

• Air Warfare

  Spanish Air Force receives first converted A330 MRTT

  14th April 2025

  The second and third Airbus A330 MRTT for the Spanish Air Force have been undergoing conversion in Getafe, Madrid.

• Land Warfare

  Canada unveils plans for mobile artillery

  27th May 2025

  Canada did deploy the US M109 155mm/39 cal tracked self-propelled artillery system as its only mobile weapon for many years but these were finally declared surplus in 2005.

• Land Warfare

  DSEI 2025: Versatile 8×8 vehicles taste success as new versions rolled out

  8th September 2025

  From protected mobility, infantry fighting and reconnaissance to armoured personnel carrier, armoured vehicles and amphibious assault, the 8×8 vehicle is a jack-of-all-trades. In theory, it allows a single vehicle type to fulfil varied roles while providing commonality, and the European market and vehicle types are growing rapidly.

• Land Warfare

  QinetiQ to play pivotal role in US Army’s next-generation target acquisition system

  26th February 2025

  The Future Advanced Long-range Common Optical/Netted-fires Sensor (FALCONS) is a next-generation target acquisition system which is designed to provide enhanced all-weather target detection and identification at long range.

• Naval Warfare

  BAE Systems’ Herne XLAUV set to hunt for underwater intelligence

  13th November 2024

  The Herne is modular, highly configurable underwater autonomous platform, with potential for both ISR missions in the short term and self-determined assistance surveillance later.

• Air Warfare

  Sikorsky advances Black Hawk modernisation with new engine ground tests

  6th February 2025

  The UH-60 helicopter ground run test of the T901 engine is the first in a set of tests for boosting the helicopter’s range and lift capacity. The first flight of the improved engine Black Hawk is anticipated for later in 2025.

• Defence Notes

  Can the Trump administration overcome the Pentagon's multiple capability integration issues?

  23rd January 2025

  Better integration of systems and sensors across the branches will be critical to ensuring deterrence and readiness.

• Naval Warfare

  As Indonesia doubles up its order, who else is looking at the Arrowhead 140 frigate design?

  28th January 2026

  The adaptable design of Babcock’s Arrowhead 140 frigate, already selected by the UK Royal Navy and Poland, has led to more orders from Indonesia while other countries continue to weigh it up.

• Naval Warfare

  MBDA-led DragonFire’s latest trials move the LDEW system closer to UK navy integration

  21st November 2025

  The DragonFire lines up with other European laser-directed energy weapons being developed in collaboration with MBDA.

• Defence Notes

  Foreshadowing of UK defence review suggests it is light on programme details

  2nd June 2025

  The UK’s Strategic Defence Review (SDR) was designed to answer two questions: What is needed to fix UK defence and make it fit for the 2040s, and what do you get for a fixed financial profile? The SDR outlines that work still needs to be done on specifics.

• Air Warfare

  AeroVironment unveils new one-way attack drone Red Dragon and Titan 4 C-UAS

  8th May 2025

  The two new platforms form part of AeroVironment’s growing portfolio of UAS and C-UAS solutions, following its acquisition of BlueHalo in May to scale its technology and business.

• Air Warfare

  XTEND wins contract for precision strike drone

  20th December 2024

  XTEND is supplying its Scorpio UAS to meet a US DoD requirement for an indoor/outdoor strike drone.

Programme Results - Defence Insight

• Military UAS - fixed-wing, Military UAS - MALE

  Skyborg [USA]

  Background Programme Intention Skyborg was one of three USAF Vanguard programs outlined in the Air Force Science and Technology 2030 initiative. The program aimed to develop ...

• Military UAS - mini, Military UAS - rotary-wing

  FPV Drones [Lithuania]

  Programme Background Ukraine FPV Drones On 5 April 2024, the Lithuanian MoD announced it would purchase around 3,000 Lithuanian-made FPV drones to give to Ukraine ...

• Military UAS - fixed-wing, Military UAS - small

  V-Bat [India]

  Background Make In India The ‘Make In India’ is an initiative by the Indian government to grow the domestic manufacturing industry. In the defence context, ...

• Military UAS - mini, Military UAS - rotary-wing

  FPV Drones [Moldova]

  Programme Background Lithuanian Drones Lithuania's Minister of National Defense, Laurynas Kasciunas, announced that Lithuanian-produced thermal night vision devices and FPV drones had begun being delivered to Moldova during ...

• Loitering munitions, Military UAS - mini, Military UAS - rotary-wing

  FPV Drones (Ukraine Aid) [Lithuania]

  Programme Background 3000 FPV Drones On 5 April 2024, the Lithuanian MoD announced it would purchase around 3,000 Lithuanian-made FPV drones to give to Ukraine to ...

• Military UAS - fixed-wing, Military UAS - tactical

  V-Bat [USN]

  Background Core Requirement Fundamentally, the USN requires a UAV that can be flown from its ships in austere environments without dedicated launch or recovery equipment.  ...

• Light attack, Trainer

  IA-63 Pampa III -(Follow-On) [Argentina]

  Programme Background After the previous procurement of six AI-63 Pampa III aircraft from 2018 and 2019 agreements, Argentina was left with a further need for 34 aircraft. ...

• Military UAS - fixed-wing, Military UAS - MALE

  KF-21 Loyal Wingman [South Korea]

  Background KF-21 Boramae Crewed Fighter The Republic of Korea’s Air Force (ROKAF) plans to acquire the KF-21 Boramae fighter, replacing F-4E Phantom II and F-5E/F fighters in the ROKAF. ...

• Military UAS - fixed-wing, Military UAS - small

  V-Bat [Netherlands]

  Background Contract Award On 9 July 2025, Shield AI announced that the Netherlands MoD had acquired eight V-Bat, specifically the V-Bat 400, aircraft to enhance the maritime intelligence, surveillance ...

• Military UAS - fixed-wing, Military UAS - rotary-wing, Military UAS - tactical

  V-Bat 128 (Brazil)

  Programme Background On 7 February 2022, Sheild AI announced on its website that it had signed a contract with VSK Tactical which included the 'purchase of [the] V-Bat ...

• Military UAS - fixed-wing, Military UAS - MALE

  Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) [Japan]

  Background Drone Appetite Released in December 2022, the Defence Building Program (DBP) tasked the Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF) with replacing some human assets with uncrewed ones ...

• Military UAS - fixed-wing, Military UAS - MALE

  Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) (Increment 1) [USAF]

  Background Requirements The programme's requirements are based on the USAF's belief that mass is necessary to compete effectively against an adversary in symmetrical warfare. However, ...

• Military UAS - mini, Military UAS - rotary-wing

  Group Unmanned Isr DronE (GUIDE) [Netherlands]

  Background Competition On 14 March 2025, the Netherlands announced a competition on the EU tendering website for the future procurement of 514 UAVs for intelligence, surveillance, ...

• Military UAS - fixed-wing, Military UAS - small

  Penguin C VTOL [Croatia]

  Background Announcment Redwire Corporation announced on 12 November 2025 that its wholly owned subsidiary, Edge Autonomy, had been contracted to deliver the Penguin C VTOL ...

• Military UAS - fixed-wing, Military UAS - small

  Shield AI UAVs [Saudi Arabia]

  Background Reported Talks Reporting from the World Defence Show (WDS) 2026, the Middle East Eye (MEE) noted that, according to two sources, Saudi Arabia was ...

Equipment Results - Defence Insight

• Loitering munitions

  Viper 10

  The Viper 10 is a rotary-wing first-person view (FPV) drone from Baltic Viper. The loitering munition quadcopter has a 4kg payload, a reinforced communication system, and ...

• UAS: flight control systems

  Hivemind

  Developed by Shield AI, Hivemind is an ecosystem of tightly integrated AI software tools and interfaces that leverages several factors to deliver  intelligent and resilient autonomy ...

• Military UAS - mini, Military UAS - rotary-wing

  Netra 5

  Launched at Aero India 2025, the Netra 5 is a rotary-wing UAV manufactured by ideaForge. It can host a 900g EO/IR camera and drop a ...

• Loitering munitions, Military UAS - mini, Military UAS - rotary-wing

  GA-10FPV-AI

  The GA-10FPV-AI is a Lithuanian FPV quadcopter drone manufactured by Granta Autonomy. The drone can carry a 3kg payload and operate in GNSS-denied environments. In September 2024, Granta Autonomy ...

• Military UAS - micro, Military UAS - rotary-wing

  TETTRON TM-450

  The Tettron TM-450 is a micro rotary-wing UAV manufactured by Thunder Tiger. The primary mission of the drone is to provide short-range reconnaissance (SRR), particularly ...

• Military - USVs

  Liberty Class USV

  The Liberty is an uncrewed surface vessel (USV) designed by Blue Water Autonomy in partnership with Damen. The vessel operates with level four autonomy and ...

• Naval: Combat Management Systems

  INTeACT

  Developed by BAE Systems, INTeACT is a next-generation combat management system for surface vessels with a dedicated software development kit (SDK). Notably, it includes AI-powered ...

• UAS: flight control systems

  Lattice

  Unveiled by Anduril in 2023, Lattice for Mission Autonomy is a hardware-agnostic, end-to-end software platform that enables teams of diverse robotic assets to collaborate under ...

• Landing craft and hovercraft

  Sea Dagger

  The Sea Dagger is a conceptual, optionally-crewed commando insertion craft (CIC) developed by Leidos. Leidos unveiled the design at DSEI 2025.  It was designed to ...

• Military - USVs

  Romulus

  The Romulus is an uncrewed surface vessel (USV) designed by Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII).  According to HII, the Romulus USV was designed as a force ...

• Military - USVs

  Cipher

  Cipher is an Autonomous Surface Vessel (ASV) designed by Saronic Technologies. It is intended for the movement of critical systems or cargo and, according to the ...

• Military UAS - rotary-wing, Military UAS - small

  VAPOR CLE

  Unveiled at AUSA 2025, the VAPOR Combat Long Endurance (CLE) is the newest version of AeroVironment's (AV) rotary-wing VAPOR offerings.  Compared to the older versions, VAPOR ...

• Military UAS - fixed-wing, Military UAS - tactical

  UAS Concept 1

  In July 2022, BAE Systems revealed two UAV concepts. The UAS Concept 1 is described as a small, versatile aircraft designed to augment existing forces ...

• Loitering munitions

  FWD-LM01

  The FWD-LM01 is a loitering munition unveiled by Flying Wedge Defence & Aerospace at the Paris Air Show 2025. The manufacturer states the drone is built for ...

• Military UAS - fixed-wing, Military UAS - small

  Jump 20-X

  Unveiled at IDEX 2025, the Jump 20-X is an advancement of AeroVironment's Jump 20 UAV. It is a small (Group 3), fixed-wing, VTOL-capable aircraft with a heavy-fuel ...