Skyborne's shotgun and grenade-armed Cerberus MI drone joins the Pentagon's Blue UAS Cleared List

TLDR

• Skyborne Technologies said on 26 October its armed, reusable Cerberus MI was added to the Blue UAS Cleared List.¹
• The company says the drone fires 40mm grenades or 12-gauge rounds and can be bought without an exception to policy.¹²
• Business Insider says approval came earlier this month; Skyborne announced it on 26 October.¹³

Skyborne Technologies announced on 26 October that its Cerberus MI small uncrewed aircraft system has been added to the Blue UAS Cleared List, which the company says clears the armed, reusable Group 2 platform for Department of War procurement and operations "without an exception to policy".¹ Skyborne says the listing followed an independent assessment of the aircraft's cybersecurity, supply chain and foreign ownership, control or influence, and dronenr notes the list is managed by the Defense Contract Management Agency.¹²

Skyborne describes the Cerberus MI as an AI-enabled multi-role kinetic drone built around the recoil of direct-fire weapons, with interchangeable HAVOC 40mm low-velocity and CHAOS 12-gauge payloads.¹ Its EXITUS AI software fuses electro-optical, infrared and laser rangefinder data and supports human-in-the-loop engagements from more than 300 metres of standoff, according to the company.¹ The release gives a weight of 39.7 lb, man-packable, with about 35 minutes of flight with a weapon fitted, and says the aircraft returns to be reloaded and flown again.¹ Skyborne frames this as a contrast with the one-way attack and FPV strike systems also on the list, which are consumed on use.¹²

dronenr adds company-sourced background: Skyborne was founded in 2014 and operates from Brisbane and Virginia, and in July 2025 it says a Cerberus MI with the CHAOS payload downed four target drones in its first counter-drone trials.² Business Insider, which carried the story on 27 October, says the drone "was approved for the Blue UAS List" earlier this month, which does not match the 26 October announcement date; the sources do not say when the Defense Contract Management Agency actually added it.³ Both secondary reports follow the company's own material, and none of the coverage reports independent testing of the weapon payloads. The Blue UAS list itself was not checked directly.

Why it matters: the listing means US units can buy an armed, reusable, man-portable drone without an exception to policy, according to Skyborne, though the performance claims are the company's own and the sources differ on when the listing happened.¹²³