Drones

Drones are uncrewed aircraft flown by a remote pilot or by onboard autonomy. Cheap enough to field in large numbers, they serve as strike weapons, as targets for new air defences, as a test for aviation law and as delivery vehicles. Inexpensive drones arriving in volume against interceptors that cost far more, a mismatch a Chinese military commentator called an "unfavorable cost exchange," shape spending on both attack and defence.

Armed forces and homeland agencies are layering interceptor drones, guns, nets and lasers under shared command-and-control networks, and the United States awarded roughly $7 billion in counter-drone contracts in September 2026 to protect domestic installations. Loitering munitions and FPV attack drones have moved from emergency and trial purchases towards sustained production in Ukraine, India and France, and their launchers are spreading from soldiers' packs to trucks, tanks and armoured vehicles.

US regulation centres on the FAA's Part 108 rule for routine flight beyond visual line of sight, which has awaited White House sign-off since July 2026, while 15 states challenge the agency's nationwide environmental approval of drone delivery in court. Commercial activity centres on delivery: Amazon targets nearly 500 US cities, Wing and Walmart have announced 19 metros with five flying, and new hubs draw resident complaints over noise, privacy and safety. As of October 2026, Part 108 remained unsigned, the delivery lawsuit awaited a briefing schedule, and much of the US counter-drone money was contract ceiling rather than funded orders.

Counter-UAS

Counter-UAS, the detection, tracking and defeat of hostile drones, is organised around a cost problem: cheap drones fielded in volume against interceptors that often cost far more than their targets, a mismatch a Chinese military commentator called an "unfavorable cost exchange." Incursions at the US southern border, along India's frontier with Pakistan, over European airports and in Russia's campaign against Ukraine drive the demand. The United States has answered with Domestic Shield, under which Joint Interagency Task Force 401 (JIATF-401) and the Army awarded contracts worth roughly $7 billion in September 2026, much of it ceiling rather than funded orders.

Kinetic defences are shifting towards cheaper interceptor drones, guided gun rounds and nets, and buyers from Denmark to Kuwait are paying for command-and-control networks that fuse sensors and effectors into one picture. Lasers have begun downing real drones: as of October 2026 the US military reported 11 cartel drones downed by laser at the southern border, and the director of JIATF-401 said a December directed-energy shoot-off at Dugway Proving Ground could end in purchases on the spot. In October 2026 President Zelensky said Ukraine's interceptor drones stopped about 57 per cent of Russian drones, against a needed 85 to 90 per cent.

FPV and Loitering Munitions

Loitering munitions, drones that search a target area before diving onto a target with a warhead, and first-person-view (FPV) attack drones have moved from emergency and trial purchases towards sustained production. Ukraine buys at wartime scale: its Defense Procurement Agency contracted about $8 billion of drones in the first half of 2026, and its FPV contracting for 2026 had passed the full 2025 total by 54 per cent by October. India received 450 Nagastra-1R loitering munitions in October 2026, its largest batch of indigenous loitering munitions, under emergency powers granted after hostilities with Pakistan. France exercised an option under a 2024 contract, and Lithuania took first deliveries under one from 2022.

Launchers are spreading from soldiers' packs to trucks, tanks, armoured vehicles and remotely operated canister sites, and four PERCH 2.0 prototypes mounting Switchblade munitions on Abrams tanks were due with the US Army by the end of October 2026. Australian and Indian firms pair foreign technology with local industry, and Taiwan is building a domestic supply chain. Makers compete on unit cost and resistance to jamming, and several designs let a person abort or authorise the final strike.

Regulation

Civil drone regulation in the United States turns on flight beyond the pilot's visual line of sight (BVLOS), which the FAA approves case by case through waivers. Its Part 108 rule would replace those waivers with a standing, performance-based framework, but it reached the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs on 10 July 2026 and was still unsigned in early October 2026, past the 240-day deadline set by a June 2025 executive order. FAA officials hope to publish it by the end of 2026. Short of Part 108, an FAA order eased tower inspections, and the FCC set a 29 October vote to open 50 MHz of the 800 MHz cellular band to commercial drones.

Authority between federal, state and local governments is contested. Fifteen states and Harris County, Texas, sued in September 2026 over the FAA's nationwide environmental clearance for drone delivery, and the case awaited a briefing schedule as of October 2026. The Safer Skies Act expanded state and local counter-drone authority, but 29 governors warned that many jurisdictions lack the training capacity to use it. Abroad, rules range from Beijing's possession ban to approval of daily BVLOS medical deliveries in Zimbabwe.

Commercial UAV

Commercial drone use is led by package and meal delivery, which operators are scaling from pilot sites to metro networks. Amazon plans to take Prime Air to nearly 500 US cities and towns by the end of 2026, a sixfold jump from 11 metro areas, and Wing and Walmart have announced 19 US metros, five of them flying as of October 2026. Zipline and DoorDash hold FAA Part 135 air-carrier certificates, and Manna opened two more bases in Tulsa.

Expansion meets resident complaints over noise, privacy and safety, and because the FAA controls airspace, cities govern mainly where hubs sit. Round Rock, Texas, whose zoning code had no drone-hub rule when Zipline launched there, is working with Zipline on a second hub inside city limits and will use it to work out rules for future hubs. Beyond delivery, cargo drones have served an offshore wind farm, and Taiwan is building a drone industrial park beside a military drone campus.