The ongoing conflict in Ukraine is often described as the world's first drone war. It has led to a continuing huge growth in the production of military drones, both within and outside Ukraine. Before Russia's invasion of Ukraine Kseniia Kalmus was a floral artist. Now, she makes drones for use against the Russians. It was just an obvious decision for me, she tells the BBC from the Ukrainian capital.

DroneShield has announced it has signed a collaboration agreement with The Australian Missile Corporation (AMC), as the $1bn Guided Weapons and Explosive Ordnance (GWEO) enterprise enters the next phase. The AMC was one of the Australian-based GWEO enterprise panel partners invited by the Commonwealth Government in April to work with global missile manufacturing giants Lockheed Martin and Raytheon in establishing a local industry. Considered areas of cooperation between AMC and DroneShield include counterdrone security, prevalent in current battlefield as seen with the Ukraine war, as well as Electronic Warfare and associated Artificial Intelligence work. AMC's CEO, commented "We are pleased to cooperate with DroneShield, with its Australian sovereign capability, as we progress our GWEO program. Its world-leading technologies combined with its expertise in engineering and physics would be critical to the development of guided weapons in Australia."

It's been called'the future of warfare'. Off-the-shelf unmanned aerial systems (UAS), carrying a'payload' of explosives or biological material, flown by terrorists or enemy armed forces into a crowded building or military base. Now the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) and Sydney ASX-listed defence tech company DroneShield have produced next-generation drone technology to better identify threats from these aggressive UAS. In a partnership funded by the NSW and Australian Governments, UTS and DroneShield – an Australian developer of counter-UAS solutions – have produced an optical system for detection, identification and tracking of fast-moving threats such as nefarious UAS, comprised of a camera and Convolutional Neural Network (CNN). UTS and DroneShield began working together in October 2019 – just a month after one of the most recent examples of aggressive use of drones when the oil facilities at Abqaiq–Khurais in Saudi Arabia were attacked by a swarm of UAS.

A defence company has invented a new futuristic'rifle' that stops rogue drones by hacking into them - and forcing them to fly back to their pilots. DroneShield has developed a software similar to'Google Maps' for drones that instantly locates any drones - and sends them back to their pilots. The firm has previously worked with the British Army and provided assistance to the 2018 Korean Winter Olympics, and their tech is in use at airports. CEO Oleg Vornik remains tight-lipped on the exact cost of the system, but confirmed it ranges from five to seven figures. Mr Vornik also says the system could be used to protect airports from drone incursions - such as the one that brought chaos to Gatwick Airport, bringing it to a standstill for 33 hours before Christmas.

Anti-drone technology isn't just being used at airports or sensitive political and military locations. Law enforcement just relied on DroneShield's systems, including its anti-drone gun, to protect against UAVs during a NASCAR race series at the Texas Motor Speedway between April 5th and April 8th. The tech helped police watch out for drones, disable them and (if all else failed) knock them out of the air. There weren't any known incidents, but it's notable that the technology was involved in the first place -- it was the first time American law enforcers used all three of DroneShield's products. The company is also keen to tout that it's the "sole provider" of counter-drone hardware for NASCAR.

It was supposed to be an easy $1,000 job. All 25-year-old Jorge Edwin Rivera had to do was pilot a drone, carrying a lunchbox filled with 13 pounds of methamphetamine, from one side of the US-Mexico border to the other where an accomplice could retrieve the smuggled cargo. What he didn't count on was Border Patrol agents spotting the UAV in flight and tracking it back to his hiding spot, 2,000 yards from the national divide. This isn't the first time that smugglers have used commercially-available drones to carry contraband. In 2015, the Border Patrol caught a two people dropping off 28 pounds of heroin in Calexico, California, and, in the same year, caught another drug ring delivering 30 pounds of cannabis to San Luis, Arizona.

Both the Tokyo police and the Human-Interactive Robotics Lab at Michigan Tech are using nets to catch smaller hostile drones. The idea is very simple: shoot a net or lure a drone into a net, entangling it. This electromagnetic field gun can safely bring drones down to the ground. However, it's not commercially available yet, and radio jammers are illegal in the US. DroneShield's Omnidirectional Sensor and Long-Range Sensor can remotely detect drones that are undetectable by radar.

SINGAPORE – A boom in consumer drone sales has spawned a counter-industry of startups aiming to stop drones flying where they shouldn't, by disabling them or knocking them out of the sky. Dozens of startup firms are developing techniques -- from deploying birds of prey to firing gas through a bazooka -- to take on unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) that are being used to smuggle drugs, drop bombs, spy on enemy lines or buzz public spaces. The arms race is fed in part by the slow pace of government regulation for drones. In Australia, for example, different agencies regulate drones and counter-drone technologies. "There are potential privacy issues in operating remotely piloted aircraft, but the Civil Aviation Safety Authority's role is restricted to safety. Privacy is not in our remit," a CASA official said.

Government agencies, airport operators and law enforcement agencies looking to ground drones can now put the flying devices in their crosshairs. A company called DroneShield has introduced a 13-pound, rifle-shaped jammer that it says can take down drones from a distance as far as 1.2 miles away. The DroneGun isn't meant for drone hobbyists or their vengeful neighbors. The company says it could thwart drones carrying explosives intended to carry out a civilian or military attack, or stop those that venture illegally into restricted airspace or onto prohibited property. The gun's effect is not exactly obvious.

Drones are flying bundles of sensors and radio waves, sometimes put to nefarious purpose. In Iraq, the insurgent group ISIS put this combination to deadly effect, killing enemies and assembling a small aerial arsenal. Small, deadly drones used to kill are relatively new to battlefields, so companies are making new weapons to take drones down. The latest, from DroneShield, is the plainly-named "Dronegun." The company claims the weapon has a range of over a mile, and promises to immediately cease video transmission back to the drone operator.