• Land Warfare

  “A new philosophy of defence”: ASELSAN sets out ambitions for the future

  14th November 2025

  In Conversation: Shephard’s Gerrard Cowan talks to ASELSAN CEO and President Ahmet Akyol about how the business has evolved and expanded over the past five decades, and its aim of becoming a top 30 global defence company by 2030.

• Air Warfare

  Leonardo UK “optimistic” on further Proteus funding, confirms international interest

  24th February 2026

  The Proteus demonstrator is being pitched as a key platform showcasing the UK’s capabilities to build autonomous systems, with Leonardo in ongoing discussions about the future of the programme with the Royal Navy and UK Ministry of Defence.

• Land Warfare

  Companies and militaries look to artificial intelligence to improve support of equipment

  22nd August 2025

  Companies are turning to rapidly advancing technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine-learning (ML) to to reduce maintenance times and costs and increase operational hours and tempo.

• Air Warfare

  February Drone Digest: US manufacturers face the Gauntlet and find success abroad

  25th February 2026

  The US launched the Gauntlet test in February as part of its accelerated attack drone procurement effort while also exploring various naval capabilities that could lead to procurements down the line. Shield AI’s V-Bat, meanwhile, has been stirring up global interest.

• Land Warfare

  World Defense Show 2026: MARSS displays new Nation Shield air defence C2 system

  10th February 2026

  Nation Shield is the latest iteration of the MARSS C2 system and is designed to provide C2 further forward along with more capable air defence.

• Air Warfare

  BAE explores AI enhancements for Eurofighter Typhoon pilots

  17th June 2025

  BAE is working with Swedish developer Avioniq to trial AI decision-making aids intended to protect the fighter jet against missiles and other beyond-visual-range threats.

• Air Warfare

  Embraer turns to AI solution for A-29 Super Tucano CUAS evolution

  9th March 2026

  The AI solution is called Gunslinger, which will be used to assist the pilot in decision-making for counter-drone operations.

• Naval Warfare

  New UK-Norway pact covers warship, missile and autonomous system collaboration

  5th December 2025

  The Lunna House Agreement represents multiple opportunities for cooperation between the two navies, and follows on from last year’s declaration of a joint strategic partnership between the countries.

• Digital Battlespace

  Babcock nears first customer for Nomad AI translation tool

  28th October 2025

  Nomad can provide militaries with real-time intelligence, saving critical time on the battlefield.

• Naval Warfare

  How the use of artificial intelligence will affect the US Coast Guard’s acquisitions

  25th November 2025

  The USCG is pursuing AI tools to improve the way the service conducts its procurement and fielding processes.

• Air Warfare

  “Dramatic leaps in processing capability”: how GDMS–UK is evolving mission systems for the modern battlespace

  2nd February 2026

  In Conversation... Shephard’s Gerrard Cowan talks to Sam Steggall, GDMS–UK’s Senior Director – Air and Naval UK, about the company’s extensive and proven in-country capability to deliver complex avionics solutions and its key role on major Royal Air Force and Royal Navy aircraft programmes.

• Air Warfare

  British Army seeks ACP to pair with Apache AH-64E helicopter

  13th August 2025

  The event notice to find this ACP solution will see a series of workshops run to assess problems sets for the wider Land Autonomous Collaborative Platform (LACP) programme.

• Digital Battlespace

  Thales looks to boost DigitalCrew system through AI and human-machine teaming trials

  22nd January 2026

  The Thales DigitalCrew package, first unveiled at last year’s Defence IQ International Armoured Vehicles conference, is designed to merge imaging and apply a layer of decision-making and observation algorithms to support crew and other personnel.

• Defence Notes

  European Council to deliver at “pace and scale” on European defence readiness 2030 roadmap

  27th October 2025

  Two of the concrete projects outlined in the readiness report, the European Air Shield and Space Shield, will aim to be launched by Q2 2026.

• Land Warfare

  The integration between drones and land vehicles is accelerating

  17th September 2025

  Drones and military ground vehicles are increasingly being designed to operate together as a single platform or even to convert crewed systems to automated ones.

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 ...