drone

NATO wants to get on the drone bandwagon before it’s too late

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Two weeks. That is how long it has taken Europe to confirm that its military reconstruction now has absolute protagonists: the drones. NATO has introduced a new initiative specific to this technology, the United Kingdom has committed billions of pounds to anti-drone systems, Germany has moved to acquire 50,000 units for Ukraineand German startup Helsing just closed a round that values ​​it at 18 billion dollars. It’s not a coincidence. Lessons from the Ukrainian battlefield, coupled with Iran’s use of low-cost Shahed drones in the Middle East, have made one thing clear: cheap, AI-enabled drones. artificial intelligence (AI), capable of gathering intelligence, extending the range of conventional weapons and operating in an increasingly autonomous manner, have become the centerpiece of the modern battlefield. This lesson is rewriting the purchasing decisions of governments across Europe, opening a window of opportunity not only for drone manufacturers, but also for software, electronic warfare and secure communications companies. NATO, the United Kingdom and Germany are pursuing drones at the same time NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte announced last week that the alliance will become an organization drone-readywith an investment of more than $40 billion in anti-drone capabilities over the next five years. Rutte was blunt: Drones have fundamentally altered the character of modern warfare and have become a decisive factor on the battlefield, citing the war between Russia and Ukraine as an example. The United Kingdom, for its part, committed 5 billion pounds (about $6.7 billion) within its Defense Investment Plan for a national “drone transformation” program. The future of warfare will depend as much on software and autonomy as it does on traditional military hardware Germany is following the same path, although with a more discreet movement. Last Monday, the defense software company Auterion and the Ukrainian manufacturer Skyfall announced an order of 90 million euros for 50,000 drones equipped with the Auterion operating system, ordered by a NATO member country that, as confirmed by a source to CNBC, It’s Germany. Its CEO, Lorenz Meier, sums it up eloquently: this is the first war being fought at a time when software already defines the battlefield, and its operating system allows drones to continue reaching their objectives despite electronic interference. In any case, the clearest symbol of this turn is Helsing. This Munich-based company, which manufactures drones and underwater surveillance systems in addition to developing AI software for military applications, has just secured that $18 billion valuation that we talked about in the first paragraph of this article. It is a figure that confirms where the European defense industry is looking: the future of warfare will depend as much on software and autonomy as on traditional military hardware. Be that as it may, the complete photograph leaves a strong message: in just fifteen days, NATO, the United Kingdom, Germany and the capital market have taken a step forward by the same technology. Europe is no longer late to the drone war, although it still has a lot to prove. Image | Pok Rie More information | CNBC In Xataka | Europe has encountered a problem bigger than Russia: drones cannot be stored for more than eight weeks

Europe believed that the Russian ghost fleet moved oil. Report points to something much worse: drone “aircraft carriers”

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During the First World War, the United Kingdom created the called Q-ships: Seemingly harmless merchant ships that hid cannons under their decks to attract German submarines and surprise them when they approached. The idea of ​​turning a commercial ship into a weapon It wasn’t new.. The striking thing is that, more than a century later, it could have evolved much more than we imagined. It all started with some drones. At the end of 2024 they began to register drone raids on several American military bases in England and, shortly after, on other strategic facilities in Germany. The devices appeared and disappeared without a trace, forcing investigations to be opened that they never identified publicly to those responsible. Those flights seemed like another episode in Europe’s growing hybrid war, although a new report maintains that the true origin could have been much further from the coast. Capture of the IISS report The hypothesis. a study from the International Institute for Strategic Studies maintains that it is “highly probable” that Russia used ships linked to its well-known ghost fleet as platforms to launch and recover drones. This network of oil tankers and merchants had been associated until now with crude oil transportation to avoid Western sanctions. If the hypothesis ends up being confirmed, those ships would have also played a military function much more sophisticated covert. A tanker can become an aircraft carrier. They counted TWZ analysts that the great advantage of a merchant ship is precisely that no one expects it to act as a military platform. A ship can remain for days in international waters, discreetly approach the coast, launch a reconnaissance drone and continue its trade route without raising suspicion. Compared to an aircraft carrier, whose presence is impossible to hide, a cargo ship offers perfect cover for operations that are difficult to attribute. The chosen bases. The targets included facilities such as RAF Lakenheathwhich is being prepared for host nuclear weapons American, as well as RAF Mildenhall, RAF Fairford, RAF Feltwell and Ramstein air base in Germany. The researchers collected around of 170 citizen noticesof which approximately half were considered credible after being corroborated by several witnesses or images. They also detected coordinated flight patternsdifferent types of aircraft and trajectories incompatible with recreational use. The sea offers an explanation. The report poses that some drones were able to take off from Russian-related ships located out of visual range of the coast. Among the possibilities is the Orlan-10a military drone with sufficient autonomy to cover these distances and equipped with intelligence sensors, surveillance, reconnaissance and even electronic warfare capabilities. The authors themselves recognize that using an identifiable military model would increase the risk of attribution, so they do not rule out the use of modified commercial drones to make it even more difficult to trace their origin. The boss worries. Plus: the study’s authors admit that their conclusions rest on a combination of cluesknown capabilities and geographical coincidences, not on definitive public evidence. No European government has officially linked a specific ship to a specific incursion, although various policymakers have called for new investigations. For their part, both the British Ministry of Defense and the US Air Force in Europe have confirmed drone flights, but remain silent on any intelligence information related to their possible authorship. The hybrid war. If the hypothesis is correct, the problem would no longer be solely the existence of a ghost fleet dedicated to transporting Russian oil. Europe would also have to assume that some of those same ships can serve as discrete platforms for espionage operationsreconnaissance or electronic warfare hundreds of kilometers from the front. In other words, the biggest threat of the report is not to identify who launched those drones, but to propose that a simple merchant ship could play part of the role that until now was only attributed to an aircraft carrier. Image | Google In Xataka | Europe has encountered a problem bigger than Russia: drones cannot be stored for more than eight weeks In Xataka | Cities such as London or Madrid appear on Russia’s new objective map. The reason: drone production

It was a drone flying at almost 350 km/h

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Latest Austrian GP in Formula 1 he left us quite surprising images. Not because of the events themselves, that too, but because of the moments that one of the cameras left us that plummeted over the Red Bull Ring, attached to the cars. The camera belonged to a fpv drone (first-person view) flying at the height of the cars, and ended up being one of the protagonists of the broadcast. Chasing cars. Last Sunday, during the Austrian Grand Prix, F1 used images from an FPV drone as the main camera for his coverage, something he had never done in this way. The stellar moment came on lap 11, when the drone flew at low altitude over the duel between Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) and Max Verstappen (Red Bull), capturing the ups and downs of the Spielberg track at the same pace as the cars. The images were broadcast live and then repeated in the replay, placing the camera very low over the cars as they overcame the hills of the circuit, according to collect the specialized media DroneXL. Click on the image to go to the post Leadership. Until now, these types of plans were used as an occasional detail within the production. This time, the organization itself decided to give it prominence. In fact, the official F1 account public a quick and low step over the circuit, and the Red Bull team itself shared the overtaking between Hamilton and Verstappen, inviting fans to stay for the drone images. Where does this technology come from? F1 has been trying to incorporate this type of shots for years. Just like share In the middle, the first attempt dates back to the 2022 Spanish Grand Prix, although the result was quite average, since the drone used a basic camera and the image quality was not up to par with the rest of the broadcast. A year later, in Las Vegas, drone pilot Johnny FPV managed to chase a Red Bull car through the desert all the way to the Strip with a much more decent result. But the real technical leap came with the independent project of the Dutch Drone Gods, in collaboration with Red Bull Advanced Technologies. According to point DroneXL built a custom chase drone and completed a full lap behind Verstappen’s RB20 at Silverstone, reaching 310 km/h on a straight line. The 350 km/h drone. This project is called Red Bull Drone 1 (RBD1) and is, to date, the reference in speed within this terrain. It weighs less than a kilogram, is made of carbon fiber, fiberglass and 3D printed polymers, and is capable of going from 0 to 100 km/h in less than two seconds and from 100 to 300 km/h in another two, with a maximum speed of 350 km/h and forces of up to 6G at full load. According to explained its pilot, Ralph Hogenbirk, known as Shaggy FPV, told Motorsport, the order came directly from Red Bull, which wanted a drone capable of following a Formula 1 car during a complete lap, maintaining its pace and recording it with an eye-catching result. The pilot himself acknowledges that this is already the third version of the device, having completed months of testing. As a curiosity, the RBD1 does not have brakes, so to reduce speed when cornering it simply stops accelerating and brakes in the air, forcing the driver to anticipate where the cars will brake. Click on the image to go to the post It is not confirmed that it was the same drone. At the moment, it is not confirmed that it was exactly the same device that we saw in the broadcast. According to point DroneXL, the RBD1, remains a private project that F1 is trying to incorporate into its races, but negotiations are being complicated because at the moment this model cannot fly over the public or cross the track. The most likely thing, according to the media, is that the images from Austria came from F1’s own drone system that F1 already uses in other events on the calendar. The organization operates its own internal drone system for around ten races per season, in circuits such as Bahrain, Miami or Budapest, choosing this equipment because it is already approved and is easier to approve compared to the licensing, insurance and safety regulations that change from one country to another, according to explained to SVG Europe the head of F1 TV production, Dean Locke. It’s not easy to take one of these drones to a race. Flying an FPV next to an F1 car is not the same as doing it in a rally or on an empty circuit. Dean Locke has explained on several occasions why the Red Bull drone, despite its performance, still does not have free rein to race alongside the cars in an official session. And it cannot fly over the fans, it cannot cross the track and, lacking a moving head, it must limit itself to following the car from behind or from the side. Added to this is that the air trail generated by F1 cars at these speeds can divert the trajectory of such a light device, something that Hogenbirk himself had to overcome during filming in Silverstone. And now what. F1 itself has acknowledged that it continues to explore this avenue, although progressively. Locke has pointed that there are sections of some circuits, such as the back straights of China or Austin, where there could be room to use technology similar to that of the RBD1 without putting the public at risk. For our part, as fans, I hope so, because the images left by these devices are spectacular. Cover image | F1 and Red Bull In Xataka | The great challenge of electric cars is how to charge them. Ferrari believes that the solution is to put solar panels on them

the explanation points to a cheap Iranian drone

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If we stage a AH-64 Apache of about 25 million dollars and, on the other side, an Iranian drone Shahid of about $35,000, the answer seems written before starting. One is an attack helicopter designed to operate in hostile scenarios; the other, a low-cost ammunition associated with long-range attacks. But the current war is leaving less and less room for these inherited intuitions. What we have seen near Oman points just in that direction. The incident. According to the United States Central Commandthe AH-64 Apache went down on June 8 near the coast of Oman while patrolling regional waters. Its two crew members were rescued by US forces in about two hours and are stable, although the cause was still under investigation in the official communication. The trickiest part comes next: The New York Timesciting US officials, attribute the crash to the impact of an Iranian Shahed one-way attack drone. The great unknown. This distinction is important because not even the version that points to the Shahed completely closes the sequence. Military investigators were trying to determine whether the Iranian drone hit the Apache deliberately or if it all happened as a reckless accident in congested airspace off the Omani coast. In other words: the result is already extraordinary, but the intention remains under examination. Why is it surprising?. Shahed’s basic models are not typically intended to pursue moving targets such as a helicopter. Mark Canciansenior advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies cited by the aforementioned newspaper, explained that these versions depend on GPS guidance and pre-programmed coordinates to attack stationary targets at long distances. If the impact is confirmed in these terms, we would not be facing a routine case, but rather an episode that forces us to look closely at the trajectory of the drone, the environment and the possible existence of modified variants. A more present threat. Loitering munitions and drones are changing the way we operate in the air, also for platforms that were born in another technological era. The US Army reflects this in its own exercises: last year it presented the AH-64E Apachev as an adaptable solution to the UAS threat after a live fire demonstration. That context helps to understand why the incident near Oman is not just a striking anecdote, but part of a much broader concern. In detail. In exercises carried out by the US Armythe AH-64E appears using electro-optical, infrared and radar sensors, in addition to missiles, guided rockets and the 30 mm cannon to confront drones. The other plane is the survival of the aircraft itself: BAE describes the AN/AAR-57 as a warning system for US and allied fixed and rotary wing aircraft against infrared missiles and hostile fire, compatible with chaff, flares, radio frequency decoys and DIRCM/ATIRCM systems. But there is no invulnerability. This list of capabilities should not be confused with an absolute guarantee against any scenario. It is one thing to detect, track and destroy drones in controlled exercises, and another to operate in a real environment where there may be unexpected trajectories or just seconds to react. The US Army itself left a relevant nuance in March 2026: Many pilots had not conducted air-to-air combat with the Apache, so they were still developing tactics, techniques and procedures for that mission profile. The equation has changed. The episode does not demonstrate that a cheap drone can always prevail over a much more sophisticated platform, nor that the Apache is vulnerable by definition. What it does leave behind is an idea that is difficult for any modern military to ignore: a low-cost threat can disrupt an operation, elevate risk, and expose even highly advanced systems if conditions align. That is one of the lessons that is pushing armies to adapt: ​​the price of a weapon is no longer enough to anticipate its impact. Images | Richard Kim/2nd Combat Aviation Brigade In Xataka | Silently, Russia has deployed a sophisticated network of satellites with one mission: to leave all of Europe without GPS

In case there was not enough “gasoline” in 2026, the attack by a Russian drone has crossed a red line: that of Chernobyl

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In the early 1980s, a Soviet satellite detected what appeared to be the launch of several US nuclear missiles. The duty officer, Stanislav Petrov, suspected that something was wrong and decided not to report of an imminent attack. He was right: the sensors had mistaken reflections of the sun on the clouds for real missiles. That decision avoided a possible nuclear escalation during one of the most tense moments of the Cold War. Chernobyl, again. In a war where drones are already They attack strategic airfieldsmilitary bases and industrial centers located hundreds of kilometers from the front, it seemed difficult to find a new red line. However, a russian attack against a facility related to spent nuclear fuel near Chernobyl has revived one of Europe’s most persistent ghosts. There was no radioactive leak nor were safety limits exceeded, but the simple fact that a drone hit an infrastructure linked to the site of the worst nuclear accident of modern history was enough to generate international alarm. Almost forty years after the 1986 disaster, the name Chernobyl still have a unique ability to raise concern inside and outside Ukraine. Nuclear storage facility severely damaged in Chernobyl exclusion zone after Russian drone attacks The exclusion zone. According to Ukrainian authoritiesa Russian Shahed-type drone crashed into the reception building of the Centralized Spent Nuclear Fuel Storage Facility located in the Chernobyl exclusion zone at dawn. The explosion caused significant damage into the structure and sparked a fire that was quickly extinguished. There were no victims and the stored nuclear fuel was not directly affected, since the containers were not in the area hit by the attack. Even so, the installation is part of the infrastructure intended to store for decades waste from Ukrainian nuclear power plants, which made the incident a matter of great political and strategic sensitivity. Why worry? The concern did not arise because of the material damage, but because of what could have happened in a worse scenario. The International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed that very close to the building reached there is a large amount of nuclear material stored under strict security measures. Although radiation levels remained normal, the episode once again brought to the table an issue that accompanies the conflict. from 2022: the vulnerability of nuclear facilities in a war where drones, missiles and long-range attacks are part of the daily routine. Each incident forces us to remember that infrastructure designed to operate in peacetime now exists within a combat zone. A constant pressure. The attack is not an isolated event. Over the past few years, war has repeatedly placed nuclear facilities Ukrainians at the center of international concern. The best known example is Zaporizhia power stationthe largest in Europe, occupied by Russian forces since 2022 and a common scene of cross accusations about bombings, sabotage and security threats. Added to this is the precedent February 2025when another drone damaged the gigantic confinement arch built to cover reactor number 4 at Chernobyl. Although a radiological emergency did not occur then, the incident damaged part of the structure’s protection capabilities. A symbolic dimension. Beyond its physical effects, the attack seems to have an enormous symbolic weight. Ukraine presents it as a demonstration that Russia is willing to take risks related to nuclear security to increase pressure over kyiv. Moscow, for its part, has not acknowledged any responsibility. The truth is that the episode occurred in a moment of intensification of long-range attacks by both sides, with drones hitting increasingly deeper and more sensitive targets. In this context, reaching a facility linked to Chernobyl sends a message that transcends the battlefield and also seeks to impact international public perception. The return of European nuclear fear. we have been counting. The war in Ukraine has shown that the nuclear risks of the 21st century are not limited to atomic weapons. Power plants, spent fuel depots, energy supply lines and complex security infrastructures can become targets or get caught up in the conflict. That’s why he Chernobyl incident has had such an impact despite not causing immediate radiological consequences. In a Europe already marked by war, the arms race and tensions between great powers, the attack has served to remind us that the legacy of Chernobyl is still present. He 1986 accident It belongs to the past, but the fear it inspires continues to be one of the most powerful psychological tools on the continent. Image | IAEA ImagebankEnergoatom/Telegram In Xataka | We had been wondering for years why the Chernobyl wild boars were so radioactive. The answer was not in the accident In Xataka | Cartography of a nuclear disaster: the maps that 40 years later reveal the real magnitude of Chernobyl

A homemade drone has just exceeded 700 km/h. And with this he has put the official record on the ropes

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When we think of a drone, we normally imagine a device that takes off vertically, remains suspended in the air and allows us to record impossible shots quite easily. He Blackbird It’s not about that. Its objective is much more extreme: fly as fast as possible. In this race, stability in flight matters less than efficiency at high speed, and so a change in the propellers has given it a surprising boost. The official record remains in the hands of Luke Bell and Mike Bell. According to Guinness World Recordsreached an average speed of 408.60 mph, equivalent to 657.59 km/h, on December 11, 2025, with the Peregreen V4 in Cape Town. It was not their first time: Guinness points out that father and son had already achieved this same record in 2024, with 480 km/h, and in June 2025, with 580 km/h. With that bar on the table, the Blackbird attempt has a very specific reading: it does not replace the official record, but it puts it under pressure. Ben Biggs and Aidan’s drone reached 453 mph, approximately 730 km/hduring a test pass. That fact is the most striking, although it is also the one that needs the most context. For now, what we have is an unofficial demonstration with a huge figure and the question if it can be repeated under verified conditions. A record-breaking race played on the propellers Here is the nuance that separates a spectacular figure from a truly comparable measurement. On the 730 km/h pass there was a tailwind of 54.7 km/h, so the estimated airspeed was reduced to 674 km/h. On the upwind pass, the drone reached about 640 km/h. The average of the two was close to 684 km/h, and that is why that data weighs more than the maximum peak when we try to understand how far the project really went. The key is how those new propellers behave when the drone stops flying like a conventional quadcopter and starts moving like a controlled projectile. The carbon fiber blades have a high pitch angle and that allows them to be more efficient at high speed because they are more parallel to the air that the drone passes through. It is not a free advantage: on takeoff and at low speed they push worse, so the motors have to demand more from the battery in that initial phase. The other important detail is in the serrated leading edge of the blades. As they explain, this shape generates small vortices on the surface of the propeller and helps the air not to move laterally along the blade, but rather to come out backwards to push the drone. It also helps to stabilize the boundary layer, that film of air attached to the surface that influences drag. In practice, it allows working with steeper angles without the propeller losing efficiency and behaving more like a piece that removes air than one that generates thrust. The flip side of pushing a quadcopter to the limit is that problems can also arise. Blackbird lost connection at about 633 km/h, due to a combination of antenna geometry, Doppler effect and signal overload. In the second, the drone ended up damaged after a hard landing, when the batteries ran out a few meters from the ground. The official record remains that of the Peregreen V4, but the Blackbird has made it clear where the next attempt may be. The question, now, is obvious: will they call Guinness World Records to try to certify it? Images | Drone Pro Hub In Xataka | The US vetoed the largest Chinese drone manufacturer. Now 8,000 American pilots have a serious problem

A Ukrainian stork has managed to outwit a Russian drone in flight. The video is the best clue about who will win the war

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Exactly a decade ago, the Dutch police presented a plan that seemed straight out of a medieval movie: training eagles to shoot down drones in full flight. That project lasted less than a year, because the birds They were too unpredictable and the propellers too dangerous even for them, but 10 years later it seems that they were not so wrong. The stork that left a Russian drone behind. In the middle of a war where Ukraine and Russia compete to automate battlefield, a seemingly trivial video has become an unexpectedly powerful metaphor. what we see: A Russian interceptor drone chases a Ukrainian white stork in mid-flight until the bird suddenly makes a sharp turn, leaving the device chasing shadows. The scene lasts just a few secondsbut it summarizes something much deeper: modern warfare is obsessed with creating machines that imitate capabilities that nature perfected millions of years ago, although we are still far from achieving it. The image is especially symbolic because the white stork is one of the national animals of Ukraine and because the video inadvertently exposes the enormous limitations that many drones continue to have when faced with an enemy as seemingly simple as a bird. The great military obsession. For years, military engineers they try to replicate the capabilities of birds flight. Modern drones can travel hundreds of kilometers, transmit video in real time or attack targets with enormous precision, but they remain much less agile than animals capable of instantly changing the shape of their wings, taking advantage of thermal currents or performing extreme maneuvers without losing stability. The video stork It does exactly that: detect danger, alter its trajectory and escape from a device specifically designed to intercept moving targets. The difference reveals a key problem with today’s autonomous war. Drones still rely heavily on relatively predictable trajectoriesimperfect sensors and reaction capacities much lower than those of biological organisms evolved to survive in the air. Drone warfare as an ecosystem. The conflict in Ukraine has accelerated the evolution of drones to unprecedented levels. Let us remember that at the beginning of the war they were relatively simple reconnaissance tools… and now there are coordinated swarmsinterceptors aerial FPVplatforms long range suicide bombers and autonomous systems capable of searching for targets by themselves. In parallel, the sky begins to fill with absurd situations and almost surreal where birds and machines share the same airspace. In the early years there were trained eagles to shoot down police drones. Today, just the opposite is happening: drones that chase birds because their radar signatures are too similar to those of enemy devices. Some species, such as storks or pelicans, are comparable in size to certain military drones and create enough confusion to cause real errors in combat. Nature is several steps ahead. The episode also leaves an uncomfortable conclusion for the military industry: the capabilities that militaries desperately seek already exist in nature. Birds master something that drones still cannot combine well: agility, energy autonomy, collective coordination and instant adaptation to the environment. An albatross, for example, can travel entire oceans taking advantage of wind currents Without spending much energy, Harris hawks or eagles coordinate extremely complex cooperative attacks. no centralized communicationand storks use thermals to gain altitude practically free. Meanwhile, defense engineers still experience with deformable wings, biomimetic systems and algorithms that allow drones to react with the same fluidity. The result is paradoxical: the more autonomous military technologies advance, the more evident it is that they continue to try to achieve abilities that a bird naturally possesses. A video that says much more. The Ukraine War will probably be remembered as the drone laboratory most important in modern history. Both sides are learning in real time how to automate attacks, saturate defenses and dominate airspace at low cost. But he stork video points towards something even more important: the winner will not necessarily be the one who has the most drones, but rather the one who manages to build capable systems to adapt to the environment with the flexibility of a living organism. Therein lies the great technological race that is beginning to take shape. Armies no longer just want fast or cheap machines, they also want platforms that learn, react, collaborate and survive like animals. And while Russia and Ukraine transform the sky into a permanent surreal experiment, a simple stork has just remembered that nature, for now, continues playing in another league. Image | Jean-Raphaël Guillaumin In Xataka | Ukraine has been terrorizing Russian soldiers with its heavy drones for years. Now they are literally giving it back. In Xataka | The war has entered the phase of mathematics: cheap Russian missiles are destroying the scarce Ukrainian interceptors

China is about to launch the most powerful cargo drone in the world. And it will move it with hydrogen

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The aeronautical industry has been researching and experimenting for quite some time. with hydrogen turboprop engines on airplanes. A Chinese company is about to break that barrier, as it has taken off an airplane with one of these megawatt-scale engines. Aero Engine Corporation of China (AECC) has completed the first test flight of the AEP100, installed on a 7.5-ton cargo drone, in an operation that took off from Zhuzhou airport, in Hunan province. what has happened. The device flew for 16 minutes, reached an altitude of 300 meters and traveled 36 kilometers at a speed of 220 km/h before landing without incident. According to AECC, the engine operated stably throughout the flight profile and responded as expected. Chinese state media present it as the world’s first flight with a hydrogen turboprop of this power. Why is it relevant?. Yes, it is a short, unmanned, low-altitude test. But this means that hydrogen aeronautical propulsion leaves the laboratory and test benches to face real flight conditions. AECC maintains that the country already has a complete technological chain for hydrogen aeronautical engines, from essential components to system integration. direct combustion. The AEP100 does not use fuel cells to power an electric motor. It burns liquid hydrogen directly in a turbine cycle, just as a conventional turboprop would burn kerosene. This is the main difference with other bets. Airbus, for example, has prioritized fuel cells on its roadmap to a hydrogen commercial aircraft in 2035, while China has opted for direct combustion. Combustion is more complicated to tame in engineering, but offers much higher power density, something key to scaling up to larger aircraft. What aircraft is it intended for?. The AEP100 is custom designed for the W5000, a twin-engine cargo drone developed by Chinese startup Air White Whale. According to the manufacturer’s data, we are talking about a device with a maximum takeoff weight of 10.8 tons, 5 tons of payload, more than 65 cubic meters of hold and a range of 2,600 kilometers. Just like share from China Daily, when it completes its first flight, it will become the most powerful transport drone in the world, surpassing the Norinco Luca. Deadlines. Yuan An, general manager of subsidiary AE General Aviation Power Tech, has explained The engine is in the final phase of the type certification process and they hope to obtain approval from the Civil Aviation Administration of China in 2027. The process is progressing faster than usual because the AEP100 shares a core with the AES100 turboshaft, which shortens procedures. Yuan has also assured that the AEP100 and its variants will “end the heavy dependence on foreign engines” in Chinese general aviation. Where will it be used first?. For now, we have to forget about getting on a hydrogen-powered passenger plane. The bet goes through what they call the “low altitude economy”that is, situations in which unmanned cargo drones, inter-island logistics or controlled transport routes to remote areas are used, being scenarios where hydrogen refueling infrastructure, certification and operational economics are more manageable than in passenger aviation. Yuan remember also that the United States has more than 275,000 general aviation aircraft, while in China there are only a few thousand. The problems that remain unresolved. Burning hydrogen in a turbine is no small feat, as you can imagine. It burns at higher temperatures than kerosene and with a much higher flame speed, which requires the design of systems that avoid autoignition, flame flashbacks and combustion oscillations. Added to this is storage, since liquid hydrogen requires cryogenic temperatures close to -253 ° C, heavily insulated tanks and, most likely, redesigning the geometry of the fuselage itself to accommodate it. Sustainability. aviation Today it is around 2% of global CO₂ emissions, a figure that could skyrocket in the coming decades if the sector maintains its dependence on fossil fuels. China aims to reduce its exposure to imported oil in an increasingly complicated geopolitical scenario, so hydrogen can fit into both narratives. And now what. China’s road map mark 2028 as horizon to validate similar technologies in small unmanned aircraft, helicopters and urban air mobility, 2035 for applications in broader regions and 2050 for large commercial turbofan aircraft. The first flight of the W5000 with the AEP100 installed is expected in the coming months and will be the next litmus test. Cover image | CCTV In Xataka | For China, DeepSeek is more than just AI: it is the key to creating an industry that makes them independent of Nvidia

“Slaughterbots” are no longer science fiction in Ukraine. Russians wear masks to avoid the drone that aims at their heads

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A few years before the start of the war in Ukraine, a Berkeley computer science professor presented at the UN a short called “Slaughterbots”a piece where small drones with facial recognition chased people autonomously. Many saw it then as another technological exaggeration in the style of the Black Mirror series. A few years later the short… has fallen short. Drones that search for tanks, search for people. For much of the Ukrainian war, drones were seen as a support weapon intended to destroy armor, correct artillery fire or monitor enemy movements. That phase has gone disappearing quickly. What is now emerging is something much more disturbing: cheap drones, produced by the millions, designed specifically to hunt down and kill soldiers. individually. They counted in Forbes that the Russian military channels themselves they are warning of Ukrainian FPVs equipped with thermal vision, reconnaissance systems and munitions capable of firing explosive projectiles at a distance directly against a human body. The detail that is generating the most fear is not the weapon itself, but the possibility that these drones are already learning to identify Where to hit to maximize lethality. The idea of ​​small autonomous devices “hunting” specific people no longer belongs to technological dystopias or viral YouTube videos: it is beginning to form part of the front line’s routine. A gigantic aerial hunting area. The most profound consequence of this revolution is that huge parts of the front have been transformed in “kill zones”those corridors where any human movement can be detected and destroyed from the air in a matter of minutes. Ukraine has especially perfected this model around cities like Kostyantynivka or Chasiv Yarwhere small Russian groups are identified long before approaching the defensive lines. The result has been devastating for classical Russian doctrines: large armored columns and mechanized assaults have become too visible and vulnerable. In response, Moscow is trying to create their own “drone racers”infiltrating small teams of operators hiding in basements, destroyed buildings or tree lines to build temporary bubbles of local air dominance. In other words, war is no longer just about controlling the terrain, it is about controlling the sky just a few meters above each soldier’s head. The true technological leap. The most important thing about these new systems is not the size of the explosive charge, but intelligence that begins to guide them. Many Ukrainian FPVs already integrate autonomy modules capable of continuing the attack even when the operator loses signal due to electronic interference. Western companies and civilian developers have created relatively inexpensive kits that turn commercial drones into smart munitions capable of automatically locking on and pursuing targets. Until recently, that autonomy was mainly used against vehicles; now the focus shifts to the infantry. Some models use EFP loadsformed explosive projectiles that do not need to hit directly to penetrate protection and kill the target from a distance. That eliminates many of the defenses improvised measures that had proliferated on the front, from metal nets even the famous Russian “turtle tanks”. The problem for soldiers is that hiding no longer guarantees survival: the drone can continue observing, wait for the exact moment and attack when it detects vulnerability. “Slaughterbots” stopped seeming over the top. We said it at the beginning, in 2017 Professor Stuart Russell launched the short film “Slaughterbots” as a warning about autonomous drones with facial recognition capable of murdering specific people. At the time it seemed like a futuristic hype designed to open ethical debates about military artificial intelligence. Nine years later, the parallels are beginning to be uncomfortable even for those fighting on the ground. Russian soldiers develop countermeasures that seem straight out of a science fiction movie: using masks to confuse recognition systems, throwing helmets as decoys, hiding their heads behind obstacles or remaining completely still to avoid thermal tracking. Obsession reflects a huge psychological change. For centuries, a soldier could attempt to protect himself from enemy fire using cover, armor, or distance. Many fighters now feel that there is a camera constantly watching them from above, capable of deciding when to attack and possibly where to do it to ensure death. The industrial and algorithmic battle. The great Russian fear is that Ukraine will manage to combine mass production, autonomy and precision on an unprecedented scale. kyiv aims to manufacture millions of FPVs a year, and that completely changes the mathematics of combat. Whether a relatively cheap drone can chase soldiers with hit rates close to 80%human wear and tear begins to take on industrial dimensions. That is why Russia is desperately trying to build its own drone racersdeploy interceptors and saturate local airspace before moving larger troops. However, Ukraine maintains an advantage in both quantity and technological sophistication, especially in optics, autonomous navigation and aerial interception. What is being seen in the Donbas is not simply a tactical evolution of drone warfare: it is rather the birth of a new form of combat where thousands of semi-autonomous machines continually compete to detect, pursue and eliminate individual human beings. And the most disturbing thing is that this transformation is just beginning. Image | Defense Ukraine In Xataka | Satellite images reveal how much Russia fears Ukraine’s drones. 7,000 km away they are covering their nuclear missiles In Xataka | Ukraine has resurrected one of the oldest tactics of warfare. And he is isolating Russian cities without the need for soldiers

A drone has set fire to the perimeter of the first Arab nuclear power plant

by

During the war between Iran and Iraq in 1982, a missile accidentally hit near the plant Iran’s Bushehr nuclear when it was still under construction. The incident sowed such concern international that for decades civil nuclear facilities in the Middle East were surrounded by a kind of unwritten taboo even in the midst of the region’s toughest conflicts. A drone and a border that no one wanted to cross. For years, Gulf monarchies assumed that their large energy infrastructures could be vulnerable to missiles or attacks on refineries, ports and pipelines. But there was one psychological line that seemed to remain intact: nuclear power plants. The fire caused by a drone in the perimeter of Barakah, the first nuclear plant trade of the Arab world, has changed that. Although there was no radioactive leak or damage inside the reactor, the simple fact that an unmanned aircraft reached the immediate surroundings of a nuclear facility in the middle of the war between Iran, the United States and Israel has opened a completely new scene for regional security. The Gulf has just entered unknown territory: it is no longer just about protecting oil and gas, but about defending civilian nuclear facilities against cheap, difficult to intercept and politically explosive attacks. Much more than electricity. The Barakah central It occupies a particularly sensitive place within the Emirati strategy. Built with South Korean technology and operational since 2021, it provides around of a quarter of the country’s electricity and represents the great project with which the Emirates tried to diversify its energy economy and reduce its dependence on fossil fuels. That is why the attack has a symbolic burden enormous even if the damage was limited. Hitting the Barakah perimeter means demonstrating that no strategic infrastructure is completely out of reach of the drone war that already dominates the Middle East. Also launches another disturbing message: Civilian nuclear facilities are beginning to enter the risk map of modern regional conflicts. The Gulf War no longer revolves only around oil. The truth is that the evolution of the conflict is profoundly altering the security logic of the entire region. Since the start of the war, Iran has launched thousands of drones and missiles against the Emirates and other Gulf countries to increase the economic and political cost of the campaign led by the United States and Israel. Until now, much of the concern has focused on Hormuz, energy exports and maritime traffic. But he Barakah incident expands the problem into another, much more delicate dimension. An attack against a nuclear power plant, even if it is peripheral, immediately forces international alarms to be activated, involve the International Atomic Energy Agency and propose scenarios that until recently seemed unlikely in the region. The real problem. The most uncomfortable thing for the Emirates and its allies is that the attack proves again a reality that has already been seen in Ukraine, Russia or the Red Sea: even extremely rich and protected countries have enormous difficulties in stopping relatively simple and cheap drones. According to the Emiratesthree aircraft penetrated from the western border and one of them managed to reach the external electrical generator of Barakah despite the existing defenses. The scene perfectly sums up the current imbalance of modern warfare. A small drone can force the activation of nuclear protocols, trigger diplomatic tensions and generate global concern at a negligible cost compared to the gigantic air defense investments of the Gulf states. An increasingly fragile truce. The attack also arrives in one of the most tense moments since the ceasefire between Iran and the United States. Donald Trump has toughened his speech against Tehran (a few hours ago he even said he was about to attack Iran before to stop the operation), Israel speculate again openly with a resumption of the war and the Emirates has become the Arab country more aggressive against Iran during the conflict. Abu Dhabi directly accuses to Iran or its regional allies for having crossed an extremely dangerous line. The problem is that the Barakah incident demonstrates the extent to which the region has entered a phase where escalation can occur. through ambiguous attackscheap and difficult to attribute with complete clarity. And that makes every downed drone (or every drone what gets through) now has the potential to trigger a much larger crisis. Image | Store N., Wikimedia In Xataka | Iran is about to inaugurate in Hormuz a concept that has the shape of a global nightmare: the underwater toll In Xataka | Dubai has come to the same conclusion as Russia. To protect your oil from drones there is something better than missiles: giant cages

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