Daily digest, 27 September 2026

Priority 1. UAVs, counter-UAV, military AI and new technologies in conflicts

Ukrainian FPV "waiters" hang on wires — the ambush has moved from the ground to power lines

Ukrainian operators have started hanging FPV drones (First Person View — control from a first-person perspective via a video feed) in ambush mode directly on wires. The main change is not in the trick but in the geometry. A hanging drone sees farther than one lying on the ground, and the radio link is not lost from height.

Russian channels have recorded the technique and are warning their drivers and infantry (source, source). Serhii "Flash" Beskrestnov, an adviser to the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, confirmed that the technique was invented on the Ukrainian side. Its authors have already received "e-points" for it, bonus points for ingenuity (source).

The conclusion for countermeasures: wires along roads are becoming a search zone on a par with roadsides and tree lines.

Ptashka Drones — an FPV with a microphone turns into an acoustic post, and "Multi-Waiter" keeps an unlimited number of aircraft on one station

The Ukrainian company Ptashka Drones has fitted microphones to all of its FPV drones. An aircraft sitting in ambush now hears the target before it appears in the frame. According to the manufacturer, a moving car is clearly audible at 200 meters. This is noticeably farther than an FPV camera can distinguish a target at night or through foliage.

The "Multi-Waiter" function connects any number of waiting drones to a single ground control station, each with its own channel. The operator listens to one selected aircraft in headphones. On the others, a light indicator shows the sound level, making it visible where a target has appeared. The "Ptashka 15-O-30km" model, after a 25 km flight, can wait on the ground for up to another 5 hours (source, source).

The company does not publish technical details and shows them only to units during consultations. Together with the "waiters on wires", this is a sign that FPV ambush tactics have become more sophisticated in two dimensions at once within a day: in height and in sensing.

RAM-3X — the Ukrainian side is using an autonomously homing "enlarged" version of RAM in the border area

According to the UAVDEV channel, Ukrainian units in the border area have begun actively using the RAM-3X, a heavier version of the RAM loitering munition. In the terminal phase it autonomously homes in on vehicles (source).

The channel advises leaving vehicles when a drone is detected and camouflaging them: target recognition on the RAM-3X, according to unconfirmed data, works poorly. Camouflage remains a cheap means of protection for now.

update Geran-4/5 — Ukraine neutralizes about 55% of jet drones, their looping routes stretch air raid alerts for hours

The first official Ukrainian statistics on jet Gerans have appeared. Since the beginning of September, Russia has used more than 2730 jet Gerans, of which more than 1500 were shot down or suppressed, that is, about 55% (source). Zelensky put it more harshly: no more than half are shot down (source).

The outlet Texty analyzed the tracks of jet Gerans over Kyiv (source). Unlike piston-engined ones, which fly in long straight segments, jet ones come in from different directions, change course many times and form a dense knot over the southwest of the city. As long as the direction is unpredictable, the all-clear is not given. A small number of drones keep a city of millions in an "alert — all-clear — alert" cycle for hours.

Ukrainian experts add a military meaning. In their assessment, jet Gerans are pushing Ukrainian aviation westward: the Vasylkiv, Cherkasy and Kanatove airfields are effectively blocked (source).

Moldovan police found wreckage marked "GERAN 4" near the village of Cotiujeni, 1.7 km from the Ukrainian border. It included a partially damaged turbojet engine and a fiberglass body (source).

Two new Ukrainian interceptors against jet Gerans: Hammerfly at 400 km/h and the first kill by Bullet

Ukrainian manufacturers are responding to jet Gerans with high-speed copter interceptors.

• Hammerfly (Ukraine's Sky Spy) [TECH] — the post has full specifications. Maximum speed 400 km/h (the manufacturer claims 450), cruising speed 200–250 km/h. Flight time up to 16 minutes, payload up to 800 g, ceiling 5000 m, tactical radius up to 50 km. The manufacturer shows the kill of a Geran-4 flying at over 430 km/h (source). If the figure is confirmed, this is the first copter interceptor that can catch a jet Geran on speed rather than waiting for it on a head-on course.

• Bullet (General Chereshnya) — video of the first Geran-4 shootdown has been published. The crew was from an aviation brigade of the National Guard of Ukraine (source).

update Geran-5 and Banderol — strikes on Kyiv data centers stopped Cosmonova and took leading TV channels off the air

The Russian campaign against Kyiv data processing centers (DCs) has moved from servers to TV broadcasting.

The company Cosmonova officially stated that the attacked data center had stopped working (source). The Russian MoD claims that it provided mobile internet and Starlink support for the AFU. Earlier, a Geran-5 hit the provider Datagroup (source).

According to Russian data, the sites of 11 providers were damaged (source). Leading channels disappeared from Kyivstar TV, MEGOGO and SWEET TV: the data center of MEGOGO's main signal delivery partner was hit (source). The Ukrainian Defense Ministry's TV channel "Army TV" stopped broadcasting (source).

A Russian channel showed footage in which a Banderol small cruise missile enters a fourth-floor window of a data center (source). The estimates of a circular error probable (CEP) of 5–7 m and of an active radar seeker are the author's assumptions, not confirmed data.

The Ukrainian side's counterargument: Internet Invest Group head Oleksandr Olshanskyi believes that leaving Ukraine without internet by conventional means is unrealistic (source). The signal is that data centers have become a separate class of targets. Russia strikes them precisely, and the effect of a strike is measured not in destruction but in disabled services.

Russian ballistic missiles again stopped the Kyiv workshop of Pegasus Arms — maker of a Vampire analog

Ukraine's Pegasus Arms, which produces the Pegasus Arms 25 heavy bomber drone (a Vampire analog), reported significant damage to its workshop. The strike was carried out with ballistic missiles on the night of September 24 (source). This is the second attack on the company. After the strike on September 2, 2025, production had already been relocated; now it has been halted indefinitely.

The example shows that relocating production within Kyiv does not protect against precision strikes.

"Ruta" in combat for the first time — Ukrainian jet drones went for Azov together with the Palianytsia, "Bars" and "Neptune"

The Ukrainian Ruta missile-drone, which until now had appeared only at presentations, has been spotted in a real strike for the first time (source). The target was the Azov Optical-Mechanical Plant, which was also hit by the "Palianytsia", the Bars and Neptune missiles. Three variants of the Ruta were presented in May:

• Block 1 — 300 km, 150 kg warhead;

• Block 2 — 700 km, 250 kg warhead;

• Block 3 — 2000 km, 250 kg warhead.

Which one was used is unknown. Of the four jet drones announced in 2024–2025, all have now been spotted in combat: the Peklo took part in the August attack on Novorossiysk.

The target was chosen precisely. The Ukrainian Navy and the SBU's Alpha Special Operations Center claimed a Neptune strike on an enterprise of the Tactical Missiles Corporation that produces seekers for missiles and aerial bombs (source). Dallas Analytics investigators counted components for at least seven Russian missile programs, including the Kh-101 and "Oreshnik" (source). The Ukrainian General Staff reports hits on a foundry and five buildings (source).

The scale of the raid that same night: the Russian MoD claimed 645 fixed-wing UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) shot down over 13 regions (source). Fires broke out on the premises of two enterprises in the Seversky District of Krasnodar Krai.

update Maya — about 200 Ukrainian strike drones in one evening and high-speed kamikazes to cover against Russian interceptors

According to the Russian unit Bars-Sarmat, on the evening of September 25 about 200 Maya strike UAVs passed over Zaporizhzhia and Kherson oblasts. Some headed for Melitopol, others across the Sea of Azov toward Crimea and Krasnodar Krai (source).

The key detail: the Ukrainian side used high-speed kamikaze drones against Russian interceptor drones. The interceptor drone itself becomes a target.

"Varvar" — a Russian interceptor drone with AI guidance against heavy hexacopters

The Russian 30th Motorized Rifle Brigade in the Dobropillia direction has received Varvar interceptors (source). A speed of up to 250 km/h and target engagement at a distance of up to 2 km are claimed. The vehicle is larger than previous models and is designed against heavy Ukrainian hexacopters and gasoline-powered long-range drones. The built-in AI (artificial intelligence), according to the military, finds the target and plots the course on its own.

On paper the Varvar is inferior to Ukraine's Hammerfly, but it solves a different task: covering the forward edge against the "Baba Yaga", not intercepting jet drones.

Russian APS for light armor: unknown anti-drone modules shown on the BMP-3 and the Patrul 6×6

Russian Deputy Defense Minister Aleksandr Sanchik inspected blurred-out samples of APS (active protection systems). In one channel's assessment, the outlines of mortar launchers like those on foreign APS are visible on the BMP-3, while the armored car apparently carries EW (an electronic warfare system). From fragments of the commentary: a camera detects the target, the module destroys it "by means of a large number of elements", and during tests an ordinary FPV "lost orientation". Models of Plastun all-terrain vehicles with rear-mounted machine guns for mobile fire groups were shown there as well (source).

Another channel assesses it differently: the device on the BMP resembles the radar of a lightweight Arena, but there are no mortars around the turret; the Patrul probably has a new EW system. The channel considers it important to strengthen anti-drone protection not only for tanks but also for infantry in armored vehicles (source).

[TECH] A patent for a system protecting fixed sites from UAVs has been published

A 2026 invention patent has been published: "System for protecting fixed sites from UAVs, method for detection, verification, allocation, tracking and engagement of aerial targets" (source). The rights holder, number and characteristics are not given in the text of the post.

Ukrainian J-7 manual and a mine handbook — remote mining from drones has become widespread

Russia's KTsPN published a translation of the June manual of the AFU General Staff (J-7 directorate) on countering UAVs for basic training of mobilized personnel (source). It covers Russian fiber-optic FPVs and their weak points, EW, firing 12-gauge smoothbore shotguns with a lead on the aiming point, and night shooting. The PDF is posted as a scan; the text has not been OCR'd.

In parallel, a Russian channel posted a handbook covering 85 types of mines (source). The document's main conclusion: the Ukrainian side has moved to miniature mines that are 3D-printed and dropped from drones in cassettes. The "Pryanik" weighs about 55 g, the "Ekler" 80–100 g, the "Ukrlepestok" carries about 10 g of explosive, the "Flyaga" is dropped up to 20 at a time per sortie, and the "Ligumina" self-destructs after 20–30 days.

[TECH] The handbook contains full specifications and a description of the cassette system of the American-Ukrainian "Stik-F" for the Baba Yaga. The munition weighs 320 g, of which 110 g is explosive. It reacts to metal from 0.3 m and to changes in the magnetic field; self-destruction is programmable for 5–60 days. The module holds 12 munitions.

update Molniya — the Russian drone has 10 Russian and 11 Chinese suppliers not under sanctions

The Kyiv Independent traced the supply chain of the Russian Molniya drone (source). The manufacturer, Atlant Aero, is not under US or UK sanctions. In addition, 10 Russian companies providing critical components and services and 11 Chinese suppliers, also not sanctioned, were found (source). Among them is Shenzhen Xingkai Technology, which supplies mesh equipment, that is, modems for a decentralized network where aircraft communicate with each other directly.

The War&Sanctions database documents 27 components of the Molniya-2R, including a Raspberry Pi 5 and a Starlink terminal. Satellite imagery shows that the site in Taganrog expanded in 2025.

"Skat" from Celebra Tech — the mysterious Ukrainian summer kamikaze turned out to be piston-engined, not jet

A Russian channel has established that the unknown Ukrainian strike UAV that was mistaken in the summer for the turbojet Bravo is the Skat drone with an ICE (internal combustion engine) from Ukraine's Celebra Tech (source). The same company produces the Laurus FPV and the Tryzub laser anti-drone system. Characteristics have not been disclosed; an image with specifications has been published (source).

update Desantnik — Brave1 has found a manufacturer for serial production

The Ukrainian UGV (unmanned ground vehicle) "Desantnik" from the Alter Ego battalion of the 93rd brigade is moving from prototypes to series production: the Brave1 cluster has found a manufacturer (source). A heavy copter carries the UGV tens of kilometers from the front line and drops it using its own precision airdrop system. The robot then moves to the target on its own. Hits on shelters and personnel have been confirmed.

The Russian channel Unmanned Brotherhood writes that robotic ground systems are now also delivered by agricultural drones (source). The "heavy drone plus UGV" combination is ceasing to be exotic.

"Army of Robots" — Fedorov has launched a private military robotics ecosystem with a venture fund

Former Ukrainian Minister of Defense and Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov presented the "Army of Robots" project at IT Arena in Lviv (source). It includes a venture fund, its own deftech companies and an R&D unit. The goal is to remove people from the most dangerous tasks: evacuation, resupply, mining, reconnaissance and target engagement. In the longer term, humanoid platforms are being considered (source). The project is looking for engineers and a CTO.

InformNapalm points to the flip side (source). The more robotic the battlefield, the more important the cyber forces: for intelligence, this means supply chains, digital infrastructure and machine control channels. The bill on the AFU Cyber Forces was adopted in first reading in October 2025 and is still awaiting a second reading.

update Avengers Labs — the UK has announced a competition for autonomous swarm AI trained on Ukrainian combat data

The British government has opened a competition for companies to develop AI for autonomous swarms trained on the Ukrainian Avengers Labs platform (source). Requirements: autonomous target recognition, distributed decision-making, and operation with degraded communications and without satellite navigation.

According to Defense News and United24, the database contains more than 5 million labeled combat frames, built on the DELTA battle management system. Selection is run by the UK Ministry of Defence's RAID unit, and up to 12 companies will be admitted. The data cannot be exported: models are trained inside a secure perimeter. The UK is the first foreign government with such access; more than 30 Ukrainian companies already use the platform.

Fire Point: "all battlefield data goes to the Palantir cloud" — a Ukrainian manufacturer raises the issue of combat data sovereignty

Fire Point co-owner Iryna Terekh stated that Ukrainian military data exchange systems are connected to the Palantir cloud (source). According to her, "every unit of data from the battlefield" ends up with the American company. She compared this to giving up nuclear weapons in the 1990s. The position is self-interested: the manufacturer itself aspires to the role of infrastructure owner. But this is the first public acknowledgment of dependence on this scale by a major player in the Ukrainian defense industry.

On the same occasion Terekh promised a Ukrainian ballistic missile capable of reaching Moscow by the end of autumn (source). A curious detail from the tests: the Flamingo's CRPA antenna (Controlled Reception Pattern Antenna — a jam-resistant satellite navigation antenna) was covered with a saucepan lid during tuning, and the lid was sucked into the running engine (source).

UN: Russia and the US scrubbed the requirement for human verification of AI targets from a resolution

According to a Russian channel, Russia and the US jointly secured the removal of a number of provisions from a draft UN resolution on AI weapons (source). Removed were the requirement for reliable operation, mandatory human verification of targets selected by AI, and ethical provisions.

The convergence of positions of two opposing powers shows that major players are not ready to tie their hands on autonomous targeting. Against this backdrop, the US and China agreed to create a "Superintelligence Dialogue" and a communication channel for "superintelligence incidents", with the next round due before November 2026 (source).

update MaleCNS v1.0 — the series wraps up: a network based on the fly connectome did not beat simple algorithms in a single task

The authors have closed a series of experiments with the complete fly connectome (a map of neuronal connections) as a controller for a drone and a boat (source). [TECH] The post contains the testing methodology and an analysis of nine open projects. Neither in evasion, nor in course keeping, nor in pursuit, nor in a swarm did the network outperform the best simple rule. For the boat, CBDR (constant bearing, decreasing range) and PN (proportional navigation) remained the working options.

The entire fly CNS, 165 thousand neurons, can be computed on a single core of an ordinary processor. But the network has a dangerous failure mode: it "latches" and stops responding to the camera (source). A controller tuned on the brain of one fly steered in the opposite direction on the brain of another. The conclusion is useful as a filter against the "a fly's brain controls a drone" hype.

Hybrid attacks on the European defense industry: a German investigation has linked arson at Helsing and Rohde & Schwarz to Russian military intelligence

German investigators link arson at the Munich offices of Rohde & Schwarz and AI drone maker Helsing to Russian military intelligence; two Bulgarian citizens have been detained (source). In Berleben, three Bundeswehr trucks burned on MAN's premises; arson is being considered (source).

Polish prosecutors classified the September 23 fire at the Starlink ground station in Wola Krobowska as sabotage and a terrorist act on behalf of a foreign intelligence service (source). In Latvia, cables are being deliberately cut and cabinets of a new automated surveillance system on the border with Belarus and Russia are being broken (source). The common denominator is attacks on technological infrastructure, not on troops.

Europe and the US: new C-UAS assets

C-UAS (Counter-Unmanned Aircraft Systems — means of countering UAVs) gained several contracts and concepts at once in a single day.

• The US Marine Corps awarded Anduril a non-competitive $15.7 million contract for the Pulsar-L EW system for ACV armored vehicles (source). The system works against drones of up to 25 kg, including on the move and against multiple targets. Machine learning allows it to adapt to new radio channels without manually updating threat libraries.

• Leonardo DRS is promoting the 02 Expeditionary Skid mobile S-band radar, which operates on the move and can be networked with other detection assets (source). The main thesis: against small group targets, a distributed network of different sensors is more effective than a single powerful detection asset.

• Ukraine's Unwave became one of three companies whose EW the Pentagon used to test FPVs in the second phase of Drone Dominance, and it has been invited to the next phase (source). Separately, the Pentagon will hold Drone Dominance trials for bombers with the participation of Ukraine's UFORCE, Gurzuf Defence and Grim Tech (source).

• Pakistan has signed its first contract with the American company Powerus (source). Its portfolio includes the Guardian interceptor: 340 km/h, 15 km radius, 28 minutes of flight. Which models were included in the order has not been disclosed.

Middle East and other zones

• According to CNN, citing US intelligence, Chinese entities are passing Iran satellite imagery and data that have markedly improved the accuracy of strikes on American facilities (source). An example is the strike on a base in Jordan in July, where three service members were killed.

• Rybar describes the consequences of Iranian strikes on data centers in the Gulf: according to it, Amazon lost data in Bahrain and the UAE, including data used for military planning and AI (source). The UAE is moving to dispersed underground sites and has stopped publishing their locations. There is no independent confirmation of the scale of the losses, but the logic matches the Kyiv campaign: data centers as a military target.

• In Myanmar, the Kachin Independence Army sank a military vessel on the Irrawaddy with an improvised aerial bomb dropped from a drone (source).

Priority 2. Military innovation

Rafale received onboard AI in flight tests — a step toward controlling nEUROn "loyal wingmen"

France's Dassault conducted flight tests of two AI systems on the Rafale (source). The first was developed in-house at Dassault, the second jointly with Thales and its cortAIx unit. The tasks have not been disclosed. It is stated that the maturity is sufficient for future upgrades.

In the F5 standard, such AI is supposed to allocate targets between the fighter and the nEUROn unmanned wingman and retarget it if communication is lost. This is the French analog of the American pairing of CCA (unmanned combat wingmen) with crewed aircraft.

Blackbeard — an American hypersonic missile designed for mass production is already carried in pairs by the Super Hornet

The US Navy showed an F/A-18E/F with two Castelion Blackbeard hypersonic missiles (source). The Pentagon plans to order 12 thousand missiles over 5 years; the first contract is for 444 units. Speed is over Mach 5, estimated range about 800 km (source). The target price is less than 300 thousand dollars — an order of magnitude cheaper than existing hypersonic missiles. This is a direct borrowing of the lesson of the Ukrainian war: mass matters more than individual perfection.

update Barracuda — Latvia is preparing to buy Anduril cruise missiles

Latvian President Edgars Rinkēvičs, after a visit to Anduril, expects to finalize a deal for Barracuda cruise missiles (source). The specific version, quantity, cost and timing are not disclosed. The largest, the Barracuda-500, carries a warhead of more than 45 kg over a range of more than 900 km. Anduril is designing for the missiles to work together in a single mission: some act as scouts or decoys, while the rest deliver the strike.

Ukrainian artillery experience: short series under the cover of anti-aircraft drones, a ballistic radar on the Bohdana and sorting of substandard shells

Commander of the Ukrainian 7th artillery brigade "Gregit" Vitalii Korniienko described a new artillery model (source). Instead of hundreds of rounds a day — ranging fire and a short series; before a gun moves out, anti-aircraft drones clear the sky of reconnaissance drones. The brigade is organized as a drone-artillery brigade, and part of the supply has been shifted to UGVs.

For the Bohdana, the most useful upgrade turned out to be a ballistic radar that measures the actual projectile velocity. This matters given the unstable quality of ammunition: batches from some Asian manufacturers have to be weighed and sorted, and there have been cases of muzzle brake and barrel failure. Korniienko considers a ratio of roughly 60% long-range ammunition to 40% conventional M107 optimal.

Other

• Greece is spending 30–40 billion dollars through 2030, including 3 billion euros on the Israeli air defense systems David's Sling, Barak MX and SPYDER (source). Israel retains the source code, and without its approval Athens will not be able to integrate third-party radars and missiles. An example of how a "black box" limits air defense sovereignty.

• Canada is reshaping its land forces: long-range artillery, UAVs and EW are being brought under a single divisional command (source).

• SeaExplorer underwater gliders were used at NATO's REPMUS 26 exercise. They have no propeller, move by changing buoyancy, are autonomous for months and record the sound velocity profile for hydroacoustics (source).

• Synopsys, on contract with IARPA (the intelligence analog of DARPA), patented a method for designing superconducting niobium chips that accounts for delay variation (source). The purpose is cryptanalysis and processing of intercepts.

• Russia: from October 1, connection to ERA-GLONASS will become mandatory for submitting drone flight plans. UAVDEV shows that with 167 thousand registered UAS, only 1027 users are connected, less than 1% (source). In the State Duma, drones will be transferred to a new committee on digital development and AI; the candidate for chairman is Aleksandr Sidyakin (source).

Priority 3. The conflict around Ukraine: trends and signals

Lyman has become the tipping point for the pace; Dobropillia remains contested

Ukrainian forces are conducting a counteroffensive near Lyman (source). Russian sources admit that this complicates the operation toward Sloviansk. The Azov Corps of the National Guard of Ukraine refuted the Russian claim of the encirclement of Dobropillia (source).

Overall, the Russian advance has slowed. According to a ShrikeNews count based on DeepState, in September Russia captured on average 3.4 km² per day, versus 8.6 km² a year ago (source).

Air war: records and assessments

The Ukrainian side records a record number of destroyed Russian air defense assets — 76 in an incomplete September; the previous record of 73 had stood since July 2023 (source). Ukraine's Unmanned Systems Forces hit 545 targets on September 25, the third-best result ever (source).

The Russian channel Military Optimist claims that Ukraine has practically no stocks of long-range drones left (source).

Other signals

• The Trump administration did not include Patriot interceptor missiles in the $400 million military aid package for Ukraine (source). In parallel, the State Department notified Congress of a $2.68 billion air defense sale to Ukraine; more in the "Under the radar" section.

• Trump hopes for an agreement between Russia and Ukraine before winter (source).

• Ukraine suspended the 1996 document on the flank limitations of the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (source).

• Ukrainian arms exports: 90% of 450 applications have been approved; the main potential lies in drones and EW (source).

• NATO's eastern flank: Poland is forming the 2nd missile brigade on Homar-K (operational readiness by 2030). Lithuania is preparing a civilian mobilization reserve of 100 thousand people and, with Poland, an evacuation plan for the Baltics. Germany has deployed four Eurofighters to Latvia for the period of the October 3 elections.

What to watch

1. FPV ambush tactics gained two innovations within a day: Ukrainian "waiters" on wires and Ptashka acoustic sensors with "Multi-Waiter". The ambush drone is turning into a distributed sensor network.
2. Jet Gerans penetrate Ukrainian air defense in roughly half of cases. The Ukrainian side's answer is the Hammerfly (400 km/h) and Bullet copter interceptors.
3. Separately: during the Maya raid, the Ukrainian side used high-speed kamikaze drones against Russian interceptors.
4. The digital rear has become a front on both sides. The Russian campaign against Kyiv data centers took TV channels off the air. Iranian strikes on Gulf data centers and hybrid attacks on the European defense industry (Helsing) follow the same logic.
5. Combat data has turned into an export asset and a subject of dispute: the British swarm competition on Ukrainian data versus Fire Point's thesis about a "leak" to the Palantir cloud.
6. At the UN, Russia and the US together removed the requirement for human verification of AI targets. This is a normative fork in the road for autonomous weapons.

What's new in UAVs and counter-UAV

• Ukrainian FPV "waiters" on power line wires — a new ambush position.

• Ptashka Drones — FPV with a microphone (a car is audible at 200 m), "Multi-Waiter" with no limit on the number of aircraft, up to 5 hours of waiting.

• RAM-3X (Ukraine) — autonomous homing on vehicles in the border area.

• Hammerfly (Sky Spy, Ukraine) — interceptor at 400–450 km/h, 50 km radius, 5000 m ceiling.

• Bullet (General Chereshnya, Ukraine) — first Geran-4 shootdown.

• "Varvar" (Russia) — 250 km/h interceptor with AI guidance against heavy hexacopters.

• "Ruta" (Ukraine) — first combat use, against Azov.

• "Skat" (Celebra Tech, Ukraine) — a piston-engined strike drone previously mistaken for a jet.

• Russian APS on the BMP-3 and the Patrul 6×6.

• Burevestnik patent — a multi-module automatic anti-drone system with programmable projectiles.

• Pulsar-L (Anduril) — EW with machine learning on USMC armored vehicles.

• Guardian (Powerus) — Pakistan's first American drone contract.

• 3D-printed mines for drone mining and the Stik-F cassette system.

Military space and space-based data

update Shenlong — the Chinese spaceplane twice released and recaptured the same object

According to the US Space Force, the object separated on June 21 and returned around July 12 (source). At the end of August it was released again and moved several thousand kilometers away, and on September 13 it was captured again, presumably with a manipulator arm. Practicing repeated capture is a skill that in the longer term makes it possible to remove other countries' satellites from orbit as well, that is, groundwork for ASAT (anti-satellite) operations.

Satellite intelligence in tactical strikes: according to CNN, Chinese entities supply Iran with imagery that has improved the accuracy of strikes on American bases (source). This is an example of how commercial or semi-state access to EO (Earth observation) data changes the capabilities of a state without its own developed constellation.

The ground segment of satellite communications has become a target in Europe. Polish prosecutors classify the fire at a Starlink station as a terrorist act on behalf of a foreign intelligence service (source). In Kyiv, Russia struck the Cosmonova data center, which, according to the Russian MoD, supported Starlink (source).

Data access. Planet Labs imagery allowed NK Pro to date the laying down of two large North Korean ships: in Nampo since July, in Chongjin since mid-August (source). This is an example of how an open commercial archive gives the pace of construction with an accuracy of up to a month. According to United24, the use of high-resolution commercial imagery in Ukraine has cut the time from detection to engagement by up to 90%.

Under the radar

• [TECH] 2026 patent for a system protecting fixed sites from UAVs — a method for detection, verification, allocation, tracking and engagement of aerial targets (source).

• The US State Department notified Congress of a sale to Ukraine via FMS (Foreign Military Sales — sales through the US government) of non-standard SAM systems worth $2.68 billion (source). The package includes "clones" of the 48N6 SAMs (surface-to-air guided missiles) for Ukrainian S-300Ps and the new GAM-67 SAM, probably for the "Shershen" multi-missile SAM system. Also included are a laser-guided missile with extended range (presumably based on the APKWS — a 70 mm guided rocket) and the RPS 202 radar from DRS RADA for UAV detection. None of these missiles had appeared publicly before.

• Leonardo DRS 02 Expeditionary Skid — a mobile S-band radar for a vehicle, trailer, building or ship that works on the move. The main thesis: a distributed network of different sensors instead of a single powerful detection asset (source).

• An analysis of fiber-optic FPVs: the real working range today is 10–20 km, while 40–50 km remains a claim. The piece covers spool weight and alternatives: relays, mesh, autonomous guidance (source).

• Coordinates of future facilities of the Polish 2nd missile brigade on Homar-K in Łowicz and Gostynin: 2000 people at headquarters, 800 in a battalion (source).

• IPCEI-AI — 19 EU countries led by Germany have begun preliminary coordination of state support for a federated European AI stack, about 150 projects (source).

What about our Chinese comrades?

• The PLA 72nd Group Army has introduced automatic target recognition from drones and an algorithm for intelligent allocation of fire tasks among vehicles in an amphibious company. This is AI targeting at the tactical level in forces aimed at Taiwan (source).

• A ship about 200 m long that resembles a carrier of large underwater drones is being built in Shanghai: a stern semi-submersible dock with a platform of about 50 m and 12 hydraulic struts. Suitable vehicles, the HSU-100 (reconnaissance) and AJX-002 (mine and strike tasks), have already been shown at a parade (source).

• [upd] Type 095 — images of the Bohai shipyard show a pump-jet propulsor, an X-shaped rudder and a stern compartment, probably for vertical launch systems (source).

• China's nuclear arsenal is estimated at 620 warheads versus 500 in 2024. The silo fields at Yumen and Hami number 230 silos (source).

• The US and China established a "Superintelligence Dialogue" and an incident channel; Trump proposed trilateral arms talks involving Russia (source).

• Ethiopia received the Chinese FK-2000 gun-missile air defense system, an analog of the Pantsir, possibly via the UAE. The Chinese defense industry is displacing the Russian one in the African market (source).

External analysis

• Defense News clarifies the model of access to Ukrainian data that Telegram wrote about in general terms (source). The UK receives not a dataset but access to training infrastructure without the right to download. This is a response to concerns like those Fire Point voices about Palantir: the data stays in Ukraine, and trained models go out.

• Safehouse Briefing, citing Anthropic, writes that the Russian group Midnight Blizzard used Claude to automate espionage against Ukrainian and European military and industrial targets: reconnaissance, phishing, malware modification (source). In the Russian-Ukrainian information sphere, cyber AI is hardly discussed, even though it is precisely what reduces the number of operators needed for a campaign.

• Janes compared verified data on the AS90 self-propelled gun with the answers of publicly available AI tools and found discrepancies in features and specifications (source). This is a warning for OSINT (open-source intelligence): AI identification of equipment without a reference database is unreliable.

• The Pentagon will hold a competitive shoot-off of high-energy lasers against small drones with a contract of up to $200 million at stake (source). This complements Telegram reports about US lasers in Hormuz: combat use is turning into mass procurement.

• The US Navy has opened a center for developing the combat employment of robotic and autonomous systems at Little Creek (source). The emphasis is on testing under degraded communications and on the "adoption — employment — improvement" cycle, that is, the American institutionalization of what Ukraine does at the front.

• The War Zone specifies the Latvian Barracuda: the ground-launched SLB-500M with a 930 km range is likely (source). For the Baltics, this is the first capability for deep strikes without aviation.

Top military-tech signals of the day

1. ↗14 · 👁300 · @theaterVD — On September 27, the Polish town of Łowicz is to host a formal ceremony for the creation of the 2nd m…
2. ↗16 · 👁343 · @theaterVD — 🇺🇦 Former Ukrainian Defense Minister Fedorov launched the "Army of Robots" project On Septem…
3. ↗18 · 👁400 · @theaterVD — 🚤🇰🇵 North Korea has launched construction of new large warships simultaneously at…
4. ↗158 · 👁3879 · @texBPLA — Ukrainian company Ptashka Drones has equipped its FPV drones with microphones and a feat…
5. ↗345 · 👁8543 · @bbespilot — Guys, pay attention The faggot has some new shit, hooking onto wires, waiters. Cour…
6. ↗15 · 👁389 · @darpaandcia — The cold calculation of US intelligence Silicon processors have hit a physical dead end:…
7. ↗111 · 👁3020 · @bbespilot — Sapper's handbook. All the enemy's main mines are covered. Unmanned Brotherhood. …
8. ↗13 · 👁354 · @theaterVD — 🚚🇺🇸🇯🇵 The US will move Typhon missile systems to Okinawa after the end of the exerc…
9. ↗327 · 👁9030 · @kcpn2014 — ❗️"AFU manual. Countering UAVs". June 2026❗️ 🔔KTsPN Analytical Center…
10. ↗14 · 👁397 · @aiobor — The UK has opened a competition for AI for autonomous swarms, trained on Ukrainian…