GoKawiil
Tech News
Two chemical tankers, the Yara J and Wine Trader, caught fire near Romania's Sulina canal after drones were detected in Romanian airspace between October 14-15, with the Yara J struck inside Romania's territorial waters. Seven crew remain missing from the Wine Trader, while a bulk carrier and another tanker were also reportedly targeted, bringing the total number of ships attacked in NATO members' waters to at least seven.
Engineers at Delft University of Technology developed a lightweight tactile sensor modeled on animal whiskers, allowing small drones to detect obstacles by touch rather than vision. The design targets ultra-compact rescue drones, which often operate in smoke-filled or dark environments where cameras and lidar fail. Professor Salwa Hamaza said the sensor must be lightweight, low-latency and low-power to work on such drones.
A group of American defense startups is establishing drone production operations in Taiwan, aiming to build unmanned systems without relying on Chinese components or supply chains. The move supports both U.S. military procurement needs and Taiwan's push to expand its own defense capabilities.
Flock Safety, valued at $8.4 billion, is expanding its drone-for-police program even as its automated license plate readers face vandalism and municipal bans across the country. Cities have blacked out, painted over or wrapped the company's cameras in protest, citing surveillance concerns, while the company pivots growth toward aerial surveillance tools for law enforcement.
A Ukrainian drone attack hit Yandex's Kaluga data center, Russia's largest, with Russian state media outlet TASS confirming several modules were completely taken out of service. The facility, covering 1.4 million square feet with over 3,800 server racks and 63 megawatts of power capacity, had only opened in late 2023 and hosted Yandex's internal services and cloud operations.
Ukraine struck Yandex data centers in Sasovo and Kaluga on October 8 and 9, knocking out two of the company's five facilities, according to Reuters. Firepoint's FP-1 drones hit the Kaluga site, Yandex's largest, while the Sasovo facility housed supercomputers used to train its YandexGPT AI model. Yandex reported no injuries but confirmed service disruptions, with Russian users unable to access apps including Ivi, T-Bank and Russian Railways.
The US Federal Communications Commission announced plans to auction 25 MHz of mid-band spectrum, revise rules for direct-to-device communications, and permit drones to operate on the 800MHz band. These proposals aim to enhance wireless connectivity options and expand drone capabilities, pending a vote later this month. The agency also approved SpaceX's satellite system at 330 km altitude, adding to its existing Starlink constellation.
San Francisco startup Rainmaker used planes and drones to disperse silver iodide into clouds above Homer, Alaska on 23 August, a cloud-seeding technique meant to accelerate rain formation. The company says the operation produced 19 million US gallons of water in three hours, but local resident Cooper Freeman says the community was not informed in advance and no environmental monitoring followed.
Experts predict that by 2026, commerce will be transformed through the rise of shopping agents, drone deliveries for essential goods, and enhanced in-store intelligence systems. These innovations aim to streamline transactions and improve operational insights for retailers. The focus is on integrating AI and autonomous delivery to create more efficient and responsive shopping experiences.
Russian jet-powered drones have increasingly targeted Ukrainian data centers, causing widespread Internet outages and disrupting mobile services, especially in Kyiv. Ukrainian officials warn that these attacks threaten the country's digital infrastructure and could impact public services and the economy. The campaign has intensified over recent weeks, with multiple providers and facilities being hit within days, indicating a strategic effort to weaken Ukraine’s digital resilience.
Several US municipalities, including Fort Worth, Castle Rock, Dunwoody, Fulton County and Middletown, are piloting or adopting Flock's Drones-as-First-Responder system, which launches rooftop-docked drones automatically in response to 911 calls, license-plate alerts, or gunshot detection. Fort Worth's two-month pilot logged 162 drone dispatches with a 112-second average response time, arriving first at 76 calls and letting officers clear 11 without an in-person visit. Flock gained its drone capability by acquiring Aerodome, a maker of drones with HD and thermal cameras.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced a new military command, the Autonomous Warfare Command, tasked with building and deploying autonomous and robotic systems across the U.S. military. Speaking at Quantico during a 'State of the Force' address, Hegseth said the command will be led by a four-star officer and cited cheap computing power and advanced manufacturing as drivers of low-cost precision weapons.