Daily digest, 26 September 2026

Priority 1. UAVs, counter-UAV, military AI

update Geran-4 — Ukrainian teardown: a Chinese mesh modem with a 300 km range and SIM cards from operators in four countries

The Ukrainian side has taken apart a jet Geran-4. The main finding is a control channel designed to operate far beyond the front line. The vehicle is controlled via a Chinese mesh modem (a mesh radio network in which each node relays its neighbors) with a range of up to 300 km and SIM cards from Ukrainian, Russian, Belarusian and European operators source.

The turbojet engine is Chinese, but localized Russian ones are also found. The camera works in day, night and infrared modes with 10–32x zoom and allows the terrain to be surveyed from an altitude of about 8 km. The electronics include Western components, for example Texas Instruments.

In parallel, journalists from Skhemy obtained an intact "Geran-4 seeker" and showed what makes it faster, more maneuverable and more accurate than the gasoline-powered Geran-2 source. Interception tactics are changing too: a Ukrainian MiG-29 shot down a Geran-4 over Odesa Oblast with fire from its 30 mm GSh-30-1 cannon source. Following the F-16, the Soviet aircraft has also started using its cannon against jet drones.

Autumn changes the conditions for the Gerans: cloud cover hinders jet ones, cold helps thermal-imaging ones

Weather is becoming a criterion for the Russian side in choosing a strike asset. According to AFU (Armed Forces of Ukraine) Major Andrii Tkachuk, jet drones find it harder to operate in dense cloud cover: they are guided to the target by optics and come in from high altitude source. In clear weather Russia can use expensive jet vehicles more often, and in cloudy weather cheap gasoline-powered ones.

Cold works in the opposite direction. Serhii "Flash" warns that as it gets colder, all warm objects — mini-CHP plants, generator stations, locomotives — will become clearly visible to "Geran seekers" with thermal imagers. In the published frame, a diesel locomotive was filmed by a "Shahed" operator from 5–6 km source.

This directly concerns winter energy. CEPA analysts advise Ukraine to replace large plants with hundreds of small cogeneration units and generators source. But each such point is a thermal signature visible from 5–6 km.

Ukraine is setting up its own production of jet engines for interceptors

Zelensky announced "new decisions" on producing jet engines of various types in Ukraine and on accelerating the production of interceptors against jet "Shaheds" source. The problem is obvious: propeller-driven interceptors honed on the Geran-2 cannot catch turbojet targets, and Ukraine still did not have its own engine for high-speed interceptors.

The Ukrainian engineering community criticizes the delay. The Victory Drones channel recalls that the first jet "Shaheds" appeared at least a year ago, but countermeasures were not prepared at the time. According to them, after the president announced the creation of the "Engineering Stavka", officials of the OP (Office of the President) quickly pushed volunteers and engineers aside source.

update Geran-5 — according to Russian channels, hit the Datagroup data center; strikes on Kyiv data centers hit the connectivity of the entire capital

Russia continues to knock out Kyiv's digital infrastructure, and the count now involves major providers. Russian channels are publishing footage of a Geran-5 hitting the Inkom business center, which houses the DC (data center) of the provider Datagroup. The provider COSMONOVA confirmed a strike on its data center in the Protasov business center source. According to preliminary Ukrainian data, three people were killed at Inkom and seven more injured source.

Network monitoring records outages at all operators connected through Datagroup source. The Financial Times writes about a systematic intensification of attacks on data centers and communications facilities. The Russian MoD claims that Datagroup "provided processing and transmission of intelligence data in the interests of the AFU" source; there is no independent confirmation of this.

A signal for the future: a Russian channel is already publishing a list of "potential targets for the Geran-5" in Poland. Besides air bases and ports, it names the Beyond data center in Poznań and Equinix in Warsaw source.

update Gerbera-2 — shot down by an M134D six-barreled machine gun from a Ukrainian PZL M28 anti-drone gunship

The Ukrainian side is mounting an M134D machine gun on the PZL M28 light transport (the Polish variant of the An-28) and hunting drones from it. In the onboard camera footage, the new Gerbera-2 is visible in detail source. A slow gunship is cheaper per flight hour than a fighter and stays in the patrol area for a long time. Against slow decoy drones, this is a rational answer.

Moldova: a planted story about a "plane with drones for Ukraine" a few hours before Russian UAVs flew through

Before Russian UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) flew through Moldova on September 24, pro-Russian channels synchronously spread a story about drones being unloaded at Chișinău airport. Curiously, the versions differ even on the aircraft type. One channel names an An-12 with registration UR-CBG belonging to CAVOC AIR source, another an An-22 of the same company source.

According to Moldovan fact-checkers cited by InformNapalm, the aircraft did not fly to Chișinău that day source. A few hours later, Russian drones actually violated Moldova's airspace. The "first a pretext, then the overflight" pattern has the hallmarks of a pre-planned information operation.

Ukrainian long-range strikes: 592–594 drones in one night and a strike on the Russian missile production chain

The raid on the night of September 25 stands out for its choice of targets: it fell not only on oil refining but also on various links of missile industry cooperation. The Russian MoD reported 592 UAVs intercepted over 20 regions — from Belgorod Oblast to Udmurtia and Perm source.

The targets were distributed as follows:

• The Iskra plant in Ulyanovsk produces power electronics, microwave modules and LTCC ceramics for Kh-59M2/M2A missiles and the "Pantsir-S1" gun-missile air defense system. More than ten hits were recorded source.

• Voronezhsintezkauchuk and the Efremov Synthetic Rubber Plant, according to the AFU General Staff, are part of the production chain for solid rocket propellant, including for the "Iskander" tactical ballistic missile system source.

• At the Perm refinery, the AVT-5 unit (atmospheric-vacuum tubular unit) is on fire. It accounts for about 34% of the plant's primary processing; the strike was delivered by Liutyi drones source.

• The Novoshakhtinsk refinery has been stopped. According to Reuters, this is the third Russian refinery knocked out in a week source.

Dnipro OSINT makes an important caveat. The Liutyi lacks the warhead power to reliably destroy equipment inside workshops, although it strikes refineries accurately source. A separate signal: the Russian side reported jet UAVs 700 km from the border source. If this is confirmed, Ukraine has acquired a jet long-range strike capability that is much harder to intercept.

Starlink on Ukrainian long-range drones: the Russian side shows the R-15 and the "FP" aircraft

Russian channels increasingly record Starlink terminals on Ukrainian long-range strike vehicles. Rogozin published a frame from the camera of an interceptor of the Stalingrad unit a moment before ramming. It shows a Ukrainian R-15 drone with a claimed range of up to 700 km, outwardly similar to the Rubaka, carrying a Starlink antenna source.

A Russian channel gives the specifications of a Ukrainian aircraft referred to simply as "FP" source:

• range up to 700 km, altitude 2 km, flight endurance up to 6 hours;

• maximum speed 205 km/h, cruising speed 140 km/h;

• takeoff weight 178 kg, payload up to 50 kg;

• wingspan 5.6 m, length about 4 m;

• GPS, Galileo and BeiDou navigation.

According to the same channel, the aircraft flies via Starlink and is used as a "mothership" — a carrier of small drones source. There is a contradiction here. Finnish President Stubb publicly asked Musk to allow Ukraine to use Starlink for strikes deep into Russia, including on areas where missile launchers are deployed source. So the restrictions on coverage zones apparently remain, although Russian channels claim that Starlink is installed on "practically all" Ukrainian strike drones.

update Rubikon — almost half of the targets hit are already unmanned systems

Statistics from the Russian Rubikon center show that the drone war at the tactical level is increasingly turning into drones hunting each other. These are data from publications on the center's official channel. Of 50,000 published episodes, 46.9% involve unmanned systems: 28.8% multicopters, 12.5% fixed-wing UAVs and 5.6% UGVs (unmanned ground robotic systems) source.

The pace of publications has grown 12-fold. The first 5000 episodes took 297 days, the last 5000 took 24 days. On tanks, Rubikon reports 250 vehicles hit. By its count, since the beginning of 2026 the AFU has lost 111 tanks, 2.5 times fewer than in the same period of 2025 source. The reason, according to the center, is that tanks have moved to concealed positions and shelters: of 71 episodes of strikes on them, 33 ended in destruction.

Western media say the opposite about the fighting near Dobropillia: tanks are returning to the battlefield source. One does not contradict the other if tanks are used less often, but from shelters and as artillery. In Rubikon's videos, the targets are dominated by the "Baba Yaga" (Ukrainian heavy hexacopters), Starlink terminals, patch antennas and UGVs. Interceptions of long-range FP-2, Liutyi and "Maya" are shown separately source.

Countering small drones: detectors, microphones, nets and fiber-optic "choppers"

Several close-in solutions appeared within a single day, and almost all of them move away from the radio spectrum toward sound and passive detection.

• Alissum-SK — a sector UAV detector from Kvadro Kod, first shown at an exhibition in Minsk; the first batch is already in operation source. [TECH] The post has full specifications: range 300–8000 MHz; detection distance of at least 1000 m in line of sight; detects FPV (first-person view drones), including those with video signal inversion and scrambling, as well as DJI, Autel, Walksnail, Silvus and Hornet; threat sector 45°; PoE power (Power over Ethernet — power over a network cable) 48 V and 30 W; control via REST API (a programming interface for integration); IP55 protection; weight up to 6 kg.

• NABAT-3 — new detector firmware has learned to see drones with Walksnail video links, except for the Ascent system; it is promised to be added later source. The detectors lagging behind Ascent is a vulnerability that is already being exploited.

• Ptashka Drones (Ukraine) has installed microphones on all of its FPV drones and introduced a "Multi-Waiter" mode. Operators detect vehicles and infantry by ear, and an unlimited number of drones in ambush mode can be connected to a single ground station source.

• Remote ID versus acoustics. Western companies are integrating Remote ID receivers (broadcast drone identification), but this method does not see FPVs without the corresponding module. The Russian acoustic network "Pauk" is being prepared for series production with a claimed FPV detection range of up to 200 m source.

• Russian FPV interceptors at the Krasnooskolskoye Reservoir strike not the small drones but the "mothership" carriers, after which the suspended drones fall together with them source.

• A Ukrainian fiber-optic "chopper": a barrier based on "Egoza" razor wire, onto which the unspooling fiber descends and gets cut. A Russian channel rightly notes that the barrier's drive is visible from a "Mavic" and the very first FPV will knock it out source.

• Passive protection of industrial sites. A Sber "Gigafactory" tender, canceled two days later, revealed requirements for shelters for 20 people: B45 concrete, walls of 150–200 mm, fragment protection of class BR-4/BR-5, steel mesh with a 400×400 mm cell and a second layer of polyurethane netting with a cell of up to 150×150 mm to catch FPVs source.

update Kurier — a Russian UGV with a twin PKT shoots down drones, another with a mine plow covered 5–6 km

The Kurier UGV is turning from a cargo platform into an element of short-range air defense. An upgraded Kurier with a twin PKT machine gun, controlled by an operator of the 14th Spetsnaz Brigade as part of an MFG (mobile fire group), hit a gasoline-powered UAV, a Hornet and, according to the channel, a "new low-observable UAV B-2" source. What this item is has not been disclosed.

Another Kurier with a mine plow cleared a 5–6 km trail in the Orikhiv direction. It covered it in 500 m segments because of the constant threat of Ukrainian drone attacks source.

[TECH] Quantum Systems Vector: the German reconnaissance drone from the inside — a computer instead of a flight controller

A Russian channel took apart the wreckage of a German Vector VTOL reconnaissance drone (vertical takeoff and landing), which is supplied in series to European armies. The key point: this is not a drone built on a conventional flight controller but an onboard computer that plans its own route, recognizes targets and is updated over the air source.

[TECH] The post gives a block-by-block architecture:

• The brain — an Auterion Skynode with a TechNexion PICO-IMX8M Mini compute module on a quad-core NXP processor and its own OS.

• Motor control boards on three NXP S32K144 microcontrollers; the entire aircraft communicates over a CAN bus (an industrial bus, as in cars).

• A power distribution board on the STM32F405, the same chip as in FPV drones.

• Silvus SC4200 — a military MIMO modem (multi-antenna transmission) with frequency hopping and a mesh network between aircraft.

• A u-blox ZED-F9P GPS receiver with dual-frequency RTK (real-time kinematics, centimeter accuracy) and a helical antenna for stable reception during the transition from vertical to horizontal flight.

The memory card turned out to be empty; logs are written to the module's internal memory. The Russian side is looking for a working donor Skynode to read it. If this succeeds, it will have data on missions and, possibly, on the recognition logic.

SPECTR — the Ukrainian MoD is testing an AI assistant for headquarters

Ukraine is moving AI from the drone level to the level of operational planning. The A1 Artificial Intelligence Center, created under the Ministry of Defense in March 2026 with UK support, is developing the SPECTR platform. It analyzes combat data, looks for patterns, suggests scenarios and forecasts likely actions by the Russian side source.

Several combat units are already testing the system source. Sensitive data does not leave for external services; the platform can run locally on devices. The A1 center also works on AI in weapons. A personnel signal: DELTA system architect Artem Martynenko has become deputy to Commander-in-Chief Drapatyi source.

Avengers Labs — British companies will train AI on Ukrainian combat data without taking it out

Ukraine is opening access to combat data, but without handing over the data itself. The UK has become the first partner of the Avengers Labs platform. Up to 12 British companies will be able to train and test models on an anonymized dataset of more than 5 million labeled frames, mostly from the DELTA system; downloading the data will not be possible source.

The priority is autonomy with weak communications and without stable GNSS (global navigation satellite system): drone coordination, target detection, less dependence on the operator source. For British developers, this is access to data that no Western test range has. For Ukraine, it is leverage over which models appear on the market.

Demand from Ukrainian troops: 590 thousand drones via Brave1 Market, interceptors in the lead

Since the beginning of 2026, Ukrainian units have ordered more than 590,000 drones through the Brave1 Market marketplace source. Interceptors are chosen most often — against reconnaissance drones and specialized "anti-Shaheds" — with strike FPVs in second place.

Demand is growing fastest for fixed-wing kamikaze drones: at the peak, six times more of them were ordered than at the beginning of the year. The average monthly order volume has more than doubled. Payment is made in points for completed combat tasks, so effective units receive more equipment.

Anthropic is blocking military use of Claude; a court upheld the exclusion of Claude from Pentagon supply chains

Civilian AI models are increasingly being used in weapons development. According to a retelling by the Russian channel TsBST, Anthropic blocked a Houthi-linked group that was writing navigation software for ballistic missiles, as well as a team "allegedly from Russia" that was developing an autonomous swarm of kamikaze drones. Among those blocked, according to the same version, were also users from China preparing specifications for anti-torpedo systems for the PLA source. This is a secondhand retelling; the details of the report have not been verified.

In parallel, a district judge for the District of Columbia upheld the Pentagon's decision to exclude Anthropic and Claude from supply chains as a "significant threat to national security". The reasons have not been publicly disclosed source.

Data and AI in the war over perception: data engineers in Operation "Vivaldi" and Russian "neuro-flag-planters"

Both sides acknowledge that work with data and generative content directly affects the course of fighting. Ukraine's Third Army Corps said that disinformation for Operation "Vivaldi" was prepared by a separate team of IT specialists, analysts and data engineers. It calculated what information the Russian side would believe, and Biletskyi's public statements about the previous Operation "Delfin" became part of the bluff source.

On the Russian side, Rybar admits that reports on the clearing of Lyman and neighboring villages did not match reality. Some of the "liberations", according to it, were made with the help of neural networks — "neuro-flag-planters". The AFU used the gray zone to bring up reserves through villages "liberated" on paper source. A generated victory report deceives first and foremost one's own command.

Priority 2. Military innovation

PHASA-35: ARIA has ordered a system for recharging a stratospheric pseudo-satellite with a microwave beam from the ground

The British agency ARIA has signed a contract for a wireless power transmission system for the PHASA-35 stratospheric pseudo-satellite: wingspan 35 m, weight 150 kg, altitude over 20 km source. A ground station will direct a microwave beam at the aircraft and remove the main drawback of solar platforms — the lack of energy at night and in winter. Fewer batteries on board means more mass for a reconnaissance or communications payload and potentially year-round station-keeping.

Skydio F10 Lightrunner and MegaDock — an autonomous fixed-wing drone with a robotic station for five aircraft

Skydio has unveiled its first fixed-wing drone, the F10 Lightrunner: speed of about 160 km/h, up to 2 hours of flight, 48 km radius source. The MegaDock station services five aircraft without personnel: it launches, recovers and charges them. The RTOL (robotic takeoff and landing) system with a vacuum gripper lifts the drone into the air in 20 seconds.

Six navigation cameras detect obstacles at a distance of up to 90 m at speeds of up to 160 km/h. Formally this is an infrastructure product; in fact, it is a ready-made template for continuous autonomous patrolling of a base perimeter or a border: one aircraft in the air, a second at launch, the rest charging.

XV Excalibur — a British underwater drone launched a heavyweight torpedo for the first time, according to experts a Mk 48

On September 13, at the BUTEC range, the British 19-ton experimental underwater vehicle XV Excalibur launched a standard torpedo as part of AUKUS source. The drone has no standard torpedo tubes, so the torpedo was carried on an external mount under the hull.

Experts agree that this is the Mk 48 Mod 7 CBASS, an American-Australian development: 533 mm caliber, weight about 1580 kg, warhead about 295 kg, range of up to 50 km at speeds of up to 55 knots. This is the first practical step toward an uncrewed carrier of heavyweight anti-submarine weapons.

Barracuda for Latvia — Riga is negotiating cheap Anduril cruise missiles

Latvian President Rinkēvičs, after a visit to Anduril, announced the intention to buy Barracuda cruise missiles; so far a memorandum has been signed source. The family is produced in three variants — 100, 250 and 500. The senior Barracuda-500 carries a warhead of more than 45 kg over a range of more than 900 km. Anduril is designing joint missions in which some missiles scout or distract while the rest strike source.

For a small army, this is long-range strike at the price of a mass-produced munition. In parallel, the Latvian defense minister studied counter-drone systems in Israel and watched their demonstration source.

LORA from a German frigate — ballistic missiles from a helicopter deck at 430 km

In early September, two Israeli LORA tactical ballistic missiles were launched from the frigate Sachsen-Anhalt in the North Atlantic and hit targets at a range of about 430 km source. The launch containers were placed on the helicopter deck without modifying the ship. A modular strike system turns an ordinary frigate into a ballistic missile carrier.

TRIDENT boats for Ukraine — carriers of K-STER C mine countermeasure drones

The boats are designed to launch K-STER C naval mine countermeasure drones source. Against the backdrop of the blockade of Black Sea ports, clearing the approaches is becoming a precondition for any maritime logistics.

Drone Deal and Drone Dominance: the Ukrainian drone ecosystem is entering foreign markets

Eleven countries have already joined the Drone Deal format: Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the UAE, Azerbaijan, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway and Finland source. Ukraine is offering not individual drones but an ecosystem: interceptors, EW (electronic warfare), radars, software, training and localization of production. InformNapalm soberly cautions that a framework agreement does not yet mean a factory or serial production.

In the Middle East, practice opened the door to the market: Ukrainian military personnel helped Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the UAE, Kuwait and Jordan build defenses against Iranian drones. In the US, Ukrainian companies are participating in the Pentagon's Drone Dominance program. Seventeen companies have been invited to the October bomber drone stage at the Camp Grayling range, including Ukrainian ones and partners with Ukrainian products source. Ukrainian EW manufacturer Unwave showed four developments at Fort Carson source.

Ukrainian UGVs: a combat-ready "Desantnik" in 10 days and the heavy cargo Protector

The Alter Ego UGV (unmanned ground vehicle) battalion of the 93rd brigade has developed the "Desantnik" kamikaze UGV and a way to drop it precisely behind Russian positions from a bomber drone. Ten days passed from idea to combat use; the system already has destroyed shelters and personnel to its credit source. National Guard corps have received an additional batch of Protector UGVs with a payload capacity of 1480 kg source.

Air defense in the Middle East: US lasers in Hormuz and European contingents in Yanbu

According to media reports, the US has deployed laser counter-drone systems worth more than $500 million in the Strait of Hormuz area source. A Russian commentator notes that the laser for now complements SAM systems rather than replacing them.

In Saudi Arabia, a Greek Patriot battery shot down a Houthi ballistic missile and drone near Yanbu on September 24 source. France is sending military personnel, radars and air defense assets, and Britain a Voyager tanker. The reason is pragmatic: Yanbu is a bypass export route while Hormuz is closed.

Russia: ERA-GLONASS becomes a filter for civilian drone flights, the UAS national project will receive 103.3 billion rubles

From October 1, 2026, the flight plan of a civilian UAV without an active account in ERA-GLONASS will be automatically rejected source. So far 1027 users and 1205 aircraft are connected. For the "Unmanned Aircraft Systems" national project, the Ministry of Finance is earmarking 103.3 billion rubles for 2027–2029 source.

Other

• The Maryland National Guard has formed the 628th Military Intelligence and EW Battalion as part of the 28th Infantry Division source.

• A deployment scheme of the 302nd Military Intelligence and EW Battalion of the US 101st Airborne Division across the rear, close and deep areas has been published source.

• Ethiopia has become the first foreign operator of the Russian Orion-E strike UAV source.

• Azerbaijan has received Turkish SİVRİSİNEK loitering munitions from Baykar source.

• India, according to a former head of DRDO, has supplied Akash SAM systems to Tajikistan and Turkmenistan — the first entry of Indian air defense into Central Asia source.

• Victory Drones urges Ukraine to start importing and testing humanoid robots now, against the backdrop of Japan's plans to partially replace military personnel with them source.

Priority 3. The conflict around Ukraine: trends and signals

update Patriot — according to Zelensky, Trump confirmed a license to produce missiles, but it is unclear for which ones

Zelensky relays Trump's words: "Ukraine will receive licenses to produce Patriot missiles" source. According to Suspilne, negotiations are under way on both the PAC-2 and the PAC-3 source. A Ukrainian channel notes that Zelensky named Raytheon as ready to cooperate. It produces the PAC-2 GEM-T, a cheaper missile with an effectiveness of about 50% against ballistic targets, whereas the PAC-3 is made by Lockheed Martin source.

The shortage remains real: Patriot missiles were not included in the new $307 million US aid package source. The US is ramping up output: GM Defense delivered the first PAC-3 MSE airframe components to Lockheed 22 days after the contract, and Lockheed itself is investing $8–9 billion in expanding production source.

Other signals

• Front. The Russian side has claimed the capture of Dobropillia source. According to a count based on DeepState maps, in September Ukraine is losing on average 3.3 km² per day versus 8.6 km² in September 2025 source. Near Lyman the AFU is counterattacking; Rybar admits a threat to the northern flank of the "South" grouping and the postponement of the assault on Sloviansk source.

• Economic war. ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih is halting operations after four missile strikes in five weeks source. The Russian MoD claims hits on 15 dry cargo ships and three tankers in a week source. In Krasnodar Krai, a state of emergency has been declared because of strikes on ports; grain exports in July–August fell by 31% source.

• Money for drones. According to Zelensky, about a third of the $27 billion defense budget gap is needed for drones for January–March. They must be ordered and paid for in October–November, otherwise there will be a failure in winter source.

• Negotiations. Putin claims that Kyiv is raising the issue of a ceasefire in energy, in the air and at sea source; the US is proposing a trilateral meeting in the UAE. A Russian commentator plainly formulates Moscow's logic: until spring, Russia has an advantage thanks to jet drones and the air defense crisis among Ukraine's allies, so pauses do not benefit it source.

• North Korea. NK Pro, using satellite imagery, records the rebuilding of two training ranges for urban combat, including more than 10 new structures at Base No. 60 near Pyongyang. This is happening against the backdrop of reports of the possible dispatch of several thousand more troops to Russia source.

• Cuba. According to CBS, the US is planning an operation within 3–4 months; Southern Command has requested military police, medics and support units source.

What to watch

1. Jet Gerans are controlled via a 300 km mesh modem and SIM cards from four countries. This gives Ukraine and its neighbors two points of leverage — relays and cellular networks.
2. Autumn is shifting the drone war into a weather-and-heat regime. Cloud cover reduces the effectiveness of jet drones with optical terminal guidance, while cold turns every small generation unit into a thermal target, which undermines the strategy of decentralized energy for the winter.
3. Ukrainian long-range strikes have switched to missile production chains: electronics for the Kh-59 and Pantsirs, rubber for Iskander solid propellant. The Russian side reports Ukrainian jet UAVs 700 km from the border.
4. Ukraine is opening access to combat data without giving it away: Avengers Labs opens 5 million frames to the British only inside a secure environment, and SPECTR raises AI to the level of headquarters planning.
5. Countering small drones is moving from the radio spectrum to sound: microphones on FPVs, acoustic networks and detectors that are still lagging behind Walksnail Ascent.

What's new in UAVs and counter-UAV

• [upd] Geran-4 — 300 km mesh modem, SIM cards from four countries, 10–32x zoom; a Ukrainian MiG-29 shoots it down with its cannon.

• [upd] Gerbera-2 — shot down by an M134D from a Ukrainian PZL M28 gunship.

• [upd] Geran-5 — according to Russian channels, a strike on the Datagroup data center in Kyiv.

• R-15 (Ukraine) — range of up to 700 km, Starlink antenna, downed by a Russian interceptor by ramming.

• "FP" aircraft (Ukraine) — 700 km, 50 kg payload, Starlink, "mothership" role.

• [upd] Kurier (Russia) — twin PKT against drones; a mine plow over 5–6 km.

• Alissum-SK — a 300–8000 MHz sector detector with 1000 m range.

• NABAT-3 — detection of Walksnail, except Ascent.

• Ptashka Drones (Ukraine) — microphones on all FPVs and a "Multi-Waiter" mode.

• "Desantnik" (Ukraine) — a kamikaze UGV dropped from a bomber drone.

• Quantum Systems Vector (Germany) — architecture based on Auterion Skynode, Silvus and RTK.

• Ukraine — decision on its own production of jet engines for interceptors.

Military space and space-based data

• [upd] Rassvet — Bureau 1440 has begun building next-generation satellites for its low-orbit communications system, refining the current ones based on test data with customers source. Ukrainian specialists allow for the use of Rassvet to control Russian long-range UAVs in flight, but there is no confirmed use source.

• The fire at a Starlink ground station in Poland has been recognized as arson. Investigators are examining the version of sabotage and a terrorist act on behalf of the Russian special services source.

• The UK has openly moved to active operations in space. According to The Aviationist, the Royal Air Force has been jamming satellites of adversary states for about a year, including to protect nuclear deterrence source. At the same time, its own reconnaissance is weak: of military observation satellites, only one demonstrator remains in orbit, Tyche, with a resolution of less than a meter. The Oberon SAR satellite (synthetic aperture radar imaging) from Airbus for £127 million is promised only by the end of 2027, and London buys signals intelligence from the American HawkEye 360 source.

• France has awarded Airbus and Unseenlabs the CASSIOPÉE contract to replace the three-satellite CERES electronic intelligence constellation on the S250 platform. By 2032 the system will become the basis of the CELESTE program for passive detection of air defenses, radars and communication nodes source.

• According to US intelligence, Chinese satellites pass imagery and intelligence to Iran, which has improved the accuracy of Iranian strikes on US bases and ships source.

Data access:

• The US Coast Guard at DEF CON 34 showed from the inside how the "shadow fleet" fakes AIS (the automatic identification system for ships) source. Several transponders with physical switches, software for spoofing coordinates, and traces of tampering with LRIT (the government long-range ship tracking system) were found on ships. There were also cases of remote access and disk wiping via PowerShell after detention, and the Russian program Stamp 0.62 was used to generate seals when changing a ship's name and IMO number. The conclusion for OSINT (open-source intelligence): AIS cannot be considered a reliable position; it must be cross-checked against imagery, flag history and port calls.

• NK Pro's commercial satellite imagery remains the main open tool for monitoring the preparation of North Korean troops for dispatch to Russia source.

Under the radar

• [upd] [TECH] MaleCNS v1.0 — Aviron's final paper on the fly connectome as a controller for USVs (uncrewed surface vessels) has been released source, PDF source. This is SITL simulation (software-only, without real boats). The main conclusion is negative and therefore valuable: for the evasion trigger, only the classic CBDR rule (constant bearing, decreasing range) worked — 16.4% loss rate with zero false alarms. The monocular rule from the fly model and the time-to-collision estimate gave a 100% loss rate, meaning that the applied usefulness of the connectome has not been shown. The document contains an integer LIF (leaky integrate-and-fire) neuron model: the entire CNS of 165,122 neurons is computed on a single i5 core in 0.17 ms per tick, and 60 seconds of control takes 17 seconds. In a 3-by-3 swarm, dropping auction bidding in target allocation lengthened interception by 66%.

• [upd] FP-1/FP-2 — Russian sappers took apart the fuze: inside are a separate power cell, two capacitors and an STM32-based board source. The fuze's autonomous power supply matters for demining captured items: it can go off even when the aircraft is de-energized.

• Ukraine, according to a Russian sapper channel, has moved from 3D printing to industrial production of "Penal" ("Aikos") mines against motorcycles, ATVs and light wheeled vehicles source. The dimensions are the same as the printed ones. This is a response to the Russian tactic of mobile assault groups.

• Ukrainian troops are placing boxes with dome-shaped 360-degree cameras, delivered by a "Baba Yaga", in the field next to fresh craters. Online observation is conducted over 360° without people source.

• The Russian side is localizing a heavy FPV: a 12S 200 A ESC, a 17-inch frame, propellers and batteries of Russian manufacture, a payload of 10 kg with a takeoff weight of 19 kg source. The motors, camera, video transmitter and ELRS still remain Chinese.

• An analysis of a study on AI agents in cellular network management: four out of five agents mistook an overload of signaling traffic for idleness and recommended switching off the carrier, aggravating the outage source. Agreement among several AIs looking at the same incomplete data is not verification — a direct lesson for automating military communications.

What about our Chinese comrades?

• A 204-meter ship in naval livery with a stern dock and a 50-meter cradle for launching vehicles is being built at the Hudong-Zhonghua shipyard. According to analysts, it is a carrier of large uncrewed underwater vehicles — possibly the first such ship of operational class source.

Top military-tech signals of the day

1. ↗24 · 👁471 · @theaterVD — ✈️🇺🇦 Development of unmanned systems in Ukraine The Ukrainian multi-purpose unman…
2. ↗11 · 👁236 · @aeronext — Russia's first universal UAS operator simulator presented in Orenburg At…
3. ↗9 · 👁211 · @FlydroneNews — From October 1, drone flight plans without a connection to "ERA-GLONASS" will be re…
4. ↗14 · 👁361 · @quadro_code — New product Alissum-SK — a sector UAV detector For the first time this system…
5. ↗14 · 👁456 · @theaterVD — 🇺🇦 🇵🇱 🇺🇸 Swarmer will begin production of mobile air defense…
6. ↗11 · 👁429 · @theaterVD — 🚤🇮🇹 Italy ordered two next-generation DDX destroyers for €3.7 billion 🔷On September 24…
7. ↗30 · 👁1216 · @payloadUAV — OPEX. Testing of acoustic systems for NATO ❗️Recently the KTsPN Analytical Center pub…
8. ↗11 · 👁460 · @theaterVD — 🇺🇸 Organizational and staffing measures in the US Army At Fort Washington (Maryland…
9. ↗55 · 👁2336 · @poisk_mil — 🇺🇸 Operational deployment schemes and functional structure of the 302nd battalion…
10. ↗9 · 👁424 · @mil_hub — Khokhol tricks that are new to me. Installing dome cameras with a BY, right in the field.…