Aurora Flight Sciences, a Boeing Company, recently completed a project to advance the capabilities of its Modular Intercept Drone Avionics Set (MIDAS) counter-unmanned aircraft system (C-UAS). Aurora engineers designed, implemented, and tested improvements to the drone engagement device (DED) and onboard autonomy, as well as to the speed and maneuverability of the vehicle platform. Using similar test parameters to last spring's demonstration for the Joint Counter-sUAS Office (JCO) and the Army Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office (RCCTO), MIDAS autonomously defeated 83% of small UAS targets. "Since our successful customer demos last year, we've continued to improve hardware and software systems on MIDAS to ensure we are prepared to meet the needs of future counter-sUAS programs," said Jason Grzywna, director of small UAS programs at Aurora. "The vehicle we used for the most recent tests included enhancements in agility and autonomy, which improved target acquisition, and in the bolos fired by the DED, which proved more effective in completely disabling the target."

Image: DroneShield RfPatrol body-worn C-UAS device with enrolled firmware upgrades. DroneShield has announced it has commenced a release of a ground-breaking software update across the global fleet of its C-UAS portable, vehicle/ship based and fixed site devices, deployed with military, intelligence community, Homeland Security, law enforcement, critical infrastructure and other users. Enrolled devices receive quarterly firmware updates of the proprietary DroneShield RFAI Artificial Intelligence engine, with periodic quarters being major enhancements, such as this 2Q22 release. Angus Bean, DroneShield Chief Technology Officer, commented, "DroneShield offers unparalleled C-UAS performance as the original pioneer in this sector. Ongoing R&D programs sustain the cutting-edge nature of our products, protecting and serving our user community. We are excited about the enhancements to the performance of our deployed fleet of devices, developed, field-tested, and rolled out in a highly expedient manner."

Despite the official policy of pacifism, which outlaws war as a means to settle international disputes, Japan is now looking to acquire attack drones for its arsenal. This comes amid Tokyo's increasing concerns over the Russian invasion of Ukraine and its territorial disputes with Moscow over the Kuril Islands. Japanese defense officials are considering buying drones as they believe these rudimentary weapons are not only impactful but also "cost-effective and easy to deploy," reported South China Morning Post. "There is no doubt that reconnaissance and attack functionality using a multitude of low-cost'swarm drones' would be militarily advantageous," Yoshihide Yoshida, chief of staff of the Ground Self-Defence Forces, was quoted by the news outlet. Japan had already taken the first step in this regard when it began using U.S.-built drones to identify and track ships across the Pacific last year.

The idea of a hub for drones and Jetsons-style flying taxis may sound like a concept from the latest science fiction blockbuster. But such a hub – known as a vertiport – became a reality this week, with the opening of the Air-One site in Coventry. Air-One is a centre for drones and electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, including flying cars and taxis, and will serve as a blueprint for more than 200 vertiports planned worldwide over the next five years, according to Urban-Air Port, the UK-based developer of Air-One. MailOnline attended the opening of the Air-One vertiport this week for a look at what the future of transport could be. From a central rising launch pad from which flying taxis could shuttle passengers on their journeys, to a futuristic vending machine where you can order items to be delivered by drones on demand, here's a look at the key features.

A pop-up urban port for delivery drones -- and one day, potentially flying taxis -- launched Monday in Britain, lifting a box of prosecco for a brief celebratory test flight hailed as groundbreaking. Air-One, a so-called "vertiport" for drones and future electric vehicles taking off and landing vertically, was proclaimed as the first of its kind by proponents and heralding a new era of low-emission futuristic air transport. Based in Coventry, a former car manufacturing powerhouse in central England, the site will be used for a month-long showcase of the burgeoning industry. The inaugural flight symbolically lifted the six-bottle box of sparkling wine, weighing around 12 kilograms, from the launch pad. The commercial drone used -- Malloy Aeronautics' T150, on loan from its day job doing logistics for the British military -- is the largest ever to fly in such an urban environment, according to Ricky Sandhu, founder and executive chairman of Urban-Air Port, the British firm behind the vertiport venture.

This paper considers the problem of finding a landing spot for a drone in a dense urban environment. The conflicting requirement of fast exploration and high resolution is solved using a multi-resolution approach, by which visual information is collected by the drone at decreasing altitudes so that spatial resolution of the acquired images increases monotonically. A probability distribution is used to capture the uncertainty of the decision process for each terrain patch. The distributions are updated as information from different altitudes is collected. When the confidence level for one of the patches becomes larger than a pre-specified threshold, suitability for landing is declared. One of the main building blocks of the approach is a semantic segmentation algorithm that attaches probabilities to each pixel of a single view. The decision algorithm combines these probabilities with a priori data and previous measurements to obtain the best estimates. Feasibility is illustrated by presenting a number of examples generated by a realistic closed-loop simulator.

The push by the United States to send artillery to Ukraine aims to degrade Russian forces -- not only on the immediate battlefield but over the longer term, according to US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and military experts. The United States, France, Czech Republic and other allies are sending scores of the long-range howitzers to help Ukraine blunt Russia's mounting offensive in the eastern Donbas region. Backed by better air defense, attack drones and Western intelligence, the allies hope that Kyiv will be able to destroy a large amount of Russia's firepower in the looming showdown. After returning from Kyiv, where he met Ukraine defense chiefs and President Volodymyr Zelensky, Austin told journalists in Poland early Monday that Washington's hopes are larger than that. Russia "has already lost a lot of military capability, and a lot of its troops, quite frankly. And we want to see them not have the capability to very quickly reproduce that capability," Austin said.

Fox News Flash top headlines are here. Check out what's clicking on Foxnews.com. The Biden administration is rolling out its first whole-of-government plan to counter threats posed by drones to the United States, as malicious actors are increasingly using unmanned aircraft systems to commit crimes and conduct illegal surveillance, industrial espionage and more, a senior administration official said Monday. The official said that over the last decade, drones, known as unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), have become a "regular feature of American life," noting they are used for recreation, research and for commerce. The official warned, though, that the proliferation of the technology has introduced "new risks" to public safety, privacy and homeland security.

From Harry Potter to The Jetsons, flying cars have been staple features of science fiction blockbusters for years. And with the futuristic vehicles rapidly getting closer to becoming a reality, the world's first vertiport has opened this week. The Air-One vertiport is located in Coventry and will be a hub for drones and electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircrafts, including flying cars and taxis. The site will serve as a blueprint for more than 200 vertiports planned worldwide over the next five years, according to Urban-Air Port, the UK-based developer of Air-One. 'The opening of Air-One is a momentous moment – the starting gun for a new age of transport, an age of zero-emission, congestion-free travel between and within cities that will make people healthier, happier and more connected than ever before,' said Ricky Sandhu, Founder and Executive Chairman of Urban-Air Port.

For years now, DJI has dominated the consumer drone space. A quick glance at our drone buying guide reveals that half of our picks, including the top three, are all DJI drones. DJI makes excellent products, but there has been a lack of competitors. Until this year, there just haven't been a lot of compelling drones available. Late in 2021, Autel released four drones designed to compete with the entire DJI line.