Category Archives: Drones-UAV-UAS

Marines using Drone Rounds in FATS/ISMT system trainers

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The InVeris FATS (Firearms Training Simulator) and later ISMT (Indoor Simulated Marksmanship Trainer) systems have been used by the military going back to the 1980s. Besides giving some (virtual) trigger time in a safe indoor environment, the latter is key for bases with extreme summer or winter climates; they allow for real-time feedback and the use of more exotic scenarios than can be staged on a flat range.

Plus, they are fun. I’ve had a blast on them in the past.

U.S. Marines with 1st Battalion, 25th Marines, forward deployed with 4th Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division as part of the Unit Deployment Program, fire an M249 Squad Automatic Rifle light machine gun while conducting an Indoor Simulated Marksmanship Trainer at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, Japan, Apr. 29, 2026. The training is a computer-based, 3D interactive simulator used to train Marines in marksmanship, tactical decision-making, and weapons handling without the use of live ammunition, while also being able to replicate various combat and range scenarios. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Sgt. John Simpson)

Well, in a great case of “train as you fight,” the Marines have just bought 400,000 5.56 NATO L Variant counter-UAS cartridges from Drone Round Defense, with another million on the schedule for FY27. The Marines already field the real thing downrange for use in M4s and M27s.

From the press release:

That fielding timeline created an immediate training requirement. Counter-UAS engagements demand a different skill set than conventional marksmanship, including target lead on fast-moving aerial threats at close range. Live rounds issued to units are intended for operational use, not familiarization.

As part of the Marine Corps’ Indoor Simulated Marksmanship Trainer (ISMT) Tech Refresh, InVeris will introduce a new counter-unmanned aircraft systems (C-UAS) training capability. This enhancement will enable Marines across the force the ability to engage with aerial drone threats with their individual weapon in a simulated environment. By integrating C-UAS training with the M27 IAR simulator and fielding it across more than 200 ISMT systems, Marines will be able to repeatedly practice detecting, tracking, deciding when to engage, and engaging aerial threats. Because the capability is built on InVeris’ existing COTS platform, additional scenarios, threats, and courses of fire will continually be developed as the UAS threat and Marine Corps tactics, techniques, and procedures evolve.

“The round was built so a Marine could use the rifle already in their hands, and the training has to work the same way, on the simulators already in the building. Getting the virtual capability out at the same time as the ammunition means a Marine can practice the engagement before the moment they need it.” said Kirk Fernandez, co-founder and CEO of Drone Round.

“This partnership reflects the innovation the Marine Corps needs — taking the training infrastructure they already trust and readying it for Counter-UAS defense. InVeris is proud that our platform allows us to build this capability into the ISMT Tech Refresh rather than standing up something entirely new. This is what it means to grow with our customer’s mission,” said Clyde Tuggle, CEO of InVeris.

The Marine Corps has been building counter-drone proficiency into general-purpose forces through 2026. The service introduced its first counter-small unmanned aerial system lanes during Service Level Training Exercise 4-26 in July at Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms, with Marines engaging aerial targets using organic small arms alongside non-kinetic electronic warfare techniques. Soldiers with the U.S. Army XVIII Airborne Corps have trained with Drone Round ammunition since April 2026.

The L Variant separates into five projectiles after firing to increase the probability of a hit against small drones. It is effective out to 100 meters, requires no modification to standard 5.56mm NATO weapons, and is full-auto and suppressor-capable. Drone Round has also developed L and K Variants in 7.62x51mm.

A sip of fuel sometimes means more than a sip of fuel

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A boat with no crew recently pulled in behind a Navy ship off Virginia and filled its tank, repeating the evolution over 100 times, ultimately transferring about 400 gallons of fuel.

NAWCWD’s Blue Water Instrumentation team ran Sealartec’s robotic refueling rig– dubbed the Towable Capture and Connection Device (TCCD)– a refueling sled/cradle towed behind the training support vessel USNS Vindicator (TSV 5).

An operator steered the MARTAC’s 38-foot T38 Devil Ray unmanned surface vessel into it. Fuel flowed, and the boat pulled away.

The T38 unmanned surface vessel, left, approaches a towable capture and connection device, center, towed by USNS Vindicator (TSV 5), right, during an Aug. 11 refueling demonstration off Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story, Virginia. Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division’s Blue Water Instrumentation program led the demonstration, part of an effort to keep unmanned vessels on station longer during long-range weapons testing. (Courtesy photo)

The T38 unmanned surface vessel, right, closes on a towable capture and connection device, left, under tow during an Aug. 11 refueling demonstration off Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story, Virginia. Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division’s Blue Water Instrumentation program led the demonstration, part of an effort to keep unmanned vessels on station longer during long-range weapons testing. (Courtesy photo)

A refueling probe on the T38 unmanned surface vessel, left, prepares to mate with a towable capture and connection device, right, during an Aug. 11 refueling demonstration off Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story, Virginia. Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division’s Blue Water Instrumentation program led the demonstration, part of an effort to keep unmanned vessels on station longer during long-range weapons testing. (Courtesy photo)

If you did something like this 25 years ago, it would seem like magic.

Today, it is almost anticlimactic.

The next step will be drones refueling drones, keeping autonomous fleets quietly underway for years at a time. No headlines about ships at sea for 250 days…because there won’t be a crew to complain.

You can expect more of the same on a much larger scale moving forward. Everywhere.

Land Cruiser, is that you?

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OK, Ok it isn’t the size of a guided missile cruiser on wheels, but Rheinmetall has marked a key advance in modern loitering munition technology by successfully demonstrating the FV-014 loitering munition/kamizakee drone launching from a container while in motion.

Developed entirely in-house, the system was launched from a modular Containerized Missile Launcher at the National Test Centre in Cochstedt in July 2026. During the test, the loitering munition demonstrated its flexibility by launching from an 18-cell VLS HX truck both while stationary and while moving, then completing simulated attack flights.

For reference, the 66-pound FV-014 can pull off recon, target tracking, precise single or swarm attack scenarios with a range of about 60 miles before delivering its 13-pound HEDP warhead with a penetration capacity of more than 24 inches of rolled armor.

In other words, it is akin to a smart TOW missile with a whole lot longer range and without the need for guidance wires.

The Matchbox RC Boats of RIMPAC

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We’ve covered lots of RIMPAC 26 stuff, but some small players are easily missed.

We speak, of course, to the ever-growing array of unmanned surface vehicles present in the exercise.

First off, let’s give it up to the U.S. Navy Global Autonomous Reconnaissance Craft (GARC) USVs from USVDIV (Unmanned Surface Vessel Division) 32, which took part in the SINKEX of ex-USS Peleliu (LHA 5).

A released Navy video shows two of the boats circling the battered hulk of the 40,000-ton ‘phib– and the old Peleliu soaked up the damage for sure– before they closed in to mimic a Japanese Shinyo suicide speedboat of 1944; only the remote operators got to live.

The Black Sea Tech GARC runs 15.8 feet, can make 40 knots in a sprint, and carry a half-ton payload. Keep in mind the small boat used in the October 2000 attack on the USS Cole is believed to have carried only between 400 and 700 pounds of C-4 plastic explosives; it created a 40×40-foot hole in the DDG that nearly sent her to the bottom.

Of note, USVDIV 32 GARCs performed swarm exercises with USS Mount Whitney (LCC 20) during Baltic Operations (BALTOPS) 2026 last month.

Besides the GARCs, a “digitally controlled surface vessel” (DCSV) launched from Sand Island, near Honolulu, delivered equipment for a 3D printer aboard Wasp-class amphibious assault ship USS Essex (LHD-2), completing what organizers describe as the “Department of the Navy’s first digitally-crewed surface vessel resupply of a Navy ship.”

Following the delivery, the DCSV continued its mission by transporting drone components to the 25th Infantry Division’s Lightning Lab, where Marines and Soldiers assembled the systems before deploying them for testing at Makua Range. From manufacturing and maritime delivery to assembly and operational employment, the end-to-end process was completed in less than 24 hours.

Not sure exactly what this thing is, but it has a very low-profile vessel (LPV) narco-sub flavor.

There was also a Splash Industries Typhoon used in the Essex delivery mission.

The sizzle reel of the DCSV headed to Essex:

Keep in mind that the Navy is getting real-time combat feedback from their USV fleet as well, with at least three Saronic Corsair USVs laden with explosive packages used against an Iranian submarine at the port of Bandar Abbas earlier this month.

Just Jayhawking Around, in Full Color

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How about this fantastic Cold War color image of “NAWC-47” (Bloodhound 47), a red-trimmed QF-4N drone (BuNo 152253) with an on-board crew assigned to the Naval Air Warfare Center (NAWC) Weapons Division, Point Magu.

The curious ordnance seen underwing is a Beechcraft AQM-37 Jayhawk, a zippy (Mach 4) little (14-foot, 600-pound) supersonic target drone of which some 5,000 were expended between 1963 and 2022.

Photo via NAWC, Pt. Magu

The above aircraft was built in 1964 as an F4H-1 (redesignated F-4B), MSN 934, and later converted to F-4J and F-4N standards. She is known to have flown operationally with VMFA-531, VF-14, VF-151, VF-84, VF-151, and VF-21.

Converted to a QF-4N after 1983, she was eventually expended in missile testing over the Pacific on 13 December 1994.

Looks like the LSM concept may just happen after all…

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The Damen LST 100 design, which was picked last December to be the Navy LSM– coming to a shipyard near you

TOTE Services in Jacksonville yesterday picked up a $2.6 billion contract from Naval Sea Systems Command’s PAE Maritime to serve as Vessel Construction Manager (VCM) for the McClung-class Medium Landing Ship (LSM) program, with the first hull to be delivered by 2029.

You know, the mini-LSTs that the Navy is building for the Marines to shuttle NMESIS missile batteries and light armor around the Western Pacific in a sea-denial-from-the-shore kind of philosophy, setting up what are now termed as a “Marine Corps fires expeditionary advanced base.”

A Navy Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System launcher, a command and control vehicle, and a Joint Light Tactical Vehicle are transported by a U.S. Navy Landing Craft Air Cushion from Pacific Missile Range Facility Barking Sands, Hawaii, out to U.S.S. San Diego, Aug. 16, 2021. The movement demonstrated the mobility of a Marine Corps fires expeditionary advanced base, a core concept in the Marine Corps’ Force Design 2030 efforts. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Luke Cohen, released)

The contract will cover management of constructing the first eight LSMs, with a program of record for up to (hold your breath) 35 of the baby phibs built to the Damen LST 100 double-ended Ro/Ro design.

This thing:

Via Damen:

The LST100 is 100.68 metres (330 feet) long with a beam of 16 metres (52 feet) and a draught of 3.58 metres (12 feet). It is suited to a diverse range of operations. With its ability to transport personnel, vehicles, equipment and cargo, the vessel can be used in patrol, landing, survey and reconnaissance operations, as well as for the delivery of humanitarian aid & disaster relief.

In its standard design, it features bunks for 282 personnel. Cargo can be transported on the RoRo deck (500m2), vehicle deck (400m2) and on the helicopter deck. The vessel is able to sail at speeds of up to 14 knots, with an endurance of 3,890 nautical miles. At an endurance speed of 10 knots, it can reach up to 7,530 nautical miles.

The LST100 features extensive flexibility. Its modular design enables straightforward adaptation and upgrade without compromising the benefits of standardization. For example, with the addition of a standard, 20-metre modular block, the vessel can be enlarged to the LST120 design during construction.

Besides the intended purpose and general use as a ‘phib, the LSMs have an obvious use in Over The Horizon – Special Forces (OTH-SF) operations, stand-off Mine Counter Measures (MCM) operations support, and as a general helicopter/UAV “lilipad.”

Now, to be clear, TOTE is not actually going to build the LSMs, simply award and manage shipbuilder contracts- you know, something NAVSEA should be capable of doing, but in program after program has proven absolutely incapable of doing so. Looking at you, FFG and LCS programs.

The Damen LST 100 McClung-class landing ship (LSM)

Anyway, the award announcement, for the record:

TOTE Services LLC, Jacksonville, Florida, is awarded a $2,206,000,000 firm-fixed-price contract for vessel construction management services to award and manage shipbuilder subcontracts for the new construction of up to eight Medium Landing Ships. This contract includes options which, if exercised, would bring the cumulative value of this contract to $2,605,075,850. Work will be performed in Marinette, Wisconsin (65%); Houma, Louisiana (16%); Jacksonville, Florida (9%); and other locations (10%), and is expected to be completed by June 2030. If all options are exercised, work will continue through September 2031. Fiscal 2025 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) funds in the amount of $1,933,941,000 (88%); and fiscal 2026 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) funds in the amount of $272,059,000 (12%), will be obligated at time of award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract is awarded with funding from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (Public Law 119-21) and directly supports the national effort to revitalize and rebuild American shipbuilding. This contract was competitively procured via the System for Award Management website (sam.gov), with one offer received. Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity (N00024-26-C-2421).

Azov Tsushima

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The Battle of the Sea of Azov 2026 by Ivan Aivazovsky

According to the ISW, Ukrainian forces have struck no less than 90 Russian commercial shipping vessels (mostly coastal tankers but also a smattering of tugs, cargo ships, ferries, and floating dredgers) in the shallow Sea of Azov at the top of the Black Sea during the week between July 6th to 13th as part of their intensified campaign to isolate occupied Crimea.

Ninety.

As detailed by Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces (USF) Commander Major Robert “Magyar” Brovdi, the forces involved included the 9th Kairos Battalion of “Magyar’s Birds” of the 414th Separate Unmanned Strike Aviation System Brigade, along with elements of the 412th “Nemesis,” 413th “RAID,” and 427th “Rarog” USAS Brigades.

The release from USF included a 4-minute-long sizzle reel (below), with the Ukrainians seen specifically targeting the wheelhouses of the Russian vessels, going for mobility/mission kills, rather than aiming to sink the ships outright. That makes a UAV with a small 10-pound warhead super effective. This speaks to preserving the important ecological diversity of the region and its local fisheries, which include significant sturgeon (caviar) farming operations.

Some 35 vessels were hit in the first 96 hours of the offensive alone.

Update from Sal, make that 136 strikes through the 15th:

 

It is brutal and systematic, with seemingly zero air defense provided.

Meanwhile, Russia’s efforts to field AAA in any sort are probably exemplified by this recent clip of a new soldier with a mobile air defense team being introduced to a ground-mounted Yak B .51 caliber 4-barreled rotary machine gun (normally mounted on the Mi-24 Hind gunship). It is a gas-operated gun that fires at 4,000 rounds per minute and normally has a 10-ton gunship to absorb the recoil…

SOCOM’s Black Arrow in the Quiver

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From yesterday’s DOD/DOW contract announcements, emphasis mine:

Leidos Inc., Reston, Virginia, is being awarded a $27,202,497 fixed-price incentive (firm-target) contract modification (H9240826CE001P0001), for the procurement of All Up Rounds for the AGM-190A Small Cruise Missile program, in support of U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM). Fiscal 2025 procurement funds in the amount of $548,665; and fiscal 2026 procurement funds in the amount of $23,653,832, will be obligated at time of award. The total award amount is $24,202,497. The work will be performed in Huntsville, Alabama, and is expected to be completed by Feb. 26, 2029. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. USSOCOM, MacDill Air Force Base, Florida, is the contracting activity.

Meet the AGM-190A Small Cruise Missile

In the interest of “quantity has a quality all its own,” the AGM-190 Black Arrow SCM is almost as basic as it gets.

It weighs right at or under 200 pounds.

The above means the warhead is probably around 50 pounds, but you have to add all the kinetic energy behind it as a bonus factor. That’s more than enough to flatten a medium-sized building, sink or at least disable a patrol boat, obliterate a small bunker, destroy a SAM or radar installation in the open, get a ground kill on any size aircraft not in a hardened shelter, end any armored vehicle, et al.

It has a published 400nm range when air-launched at altitude (which means it probably goes further) using Pratt & Whitney’s proven 150-pound-thrust TJ150-7 one-stage turbojet, which is used in several target decoys (the MALD) and UAVs. 

It can be used as either pylon ordnance dropped from things such as an MQ-9 Reaper UAV, used in a roll-on/roll-off palletized Dragon Cart-style system from the back of a C/KC/AC/MC-130, and so on. It can reportedly also be launched from HIMARS, though with a shorter range.

While the actual cost-per-unit is not advertised, it is believed the Black Arrow runs somewhere in the $150-$300K (still pennies on the dollar compared to a $3M TLAM or $1M JASSM), a figure that can be whittled down through large buys.

It is known the Pentagon wants somewhere around 10,000 of these little gems, with 3,000 to start, but if you even try to apply those quantities to the $27 million award, you are looking at more like $2,500-$9,000 a pop, which is too insane to be true especally when you see P&W selling commercial TJ-150 powerpacks for $79,999 apiece, so this week’s buy is probably for a lot fewer missiles. Like for maybe the first block of 100 or 200.

AFSOC debuted the Black Arrow as Havoc Spear quietly last month during SOF Week, describing it as “a low-cost, mission adaptable, modular-design cruise missile that can be rapidly produced.”

Could prove very interesting.

A model AGM-190A small cruise missile stands on display inside Air Force Special Operations Command headquarters at Hurlburt Field, Florida, May 14, 2026.(U.S. Air Force photo by Capt. Brandon DeBlanc)

$35 Billion for Mr. THAAD

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The Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) Interceptor, first fielded in 2008, is, along with Aegis SM-3, the exo-atmospheric ballistic missile defense “meat” in the layered air defense sandwich between the full-on ICBM-killing Ground-Based Interceptor, and shorter-range MIM-104 Patriot and SM-2.

The thing is, the Army only has a grand total of eight THAAD batteries, and in the recent escapades in the Middle East, reportedly anywhere between 15 and 50 percent of the total U.S. THAAD interceptor stockpile has been expended.

So the meat is getting pretty thin on that sandwich.

As it moves toward rebuilding and expanding that inventory (keep in mind all the Gulf States are buying them as well), the Pentagon has just given Lockheed a 7-year, $35 billion award for more THAADs.

For that same amount of taxpayer slush, the Navy could get 13 of the newest SM-3 slinging Flight III Burkes (maybe even 14 or 15 if done in a block buy), each of which will serve for 30 years, or almost three new Ford class CVNs (airwings not included), which would each serve for 50.

Just saying.

Anyways, via DOD/DOW contracts:

Lockheed Martin Corp. Missiles and Fire Control, Dallas, Texas, is awarded a multi-year procurement sole-source, fixed-price incentive, undefinitized contract for the production of Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) Interceptors. The total value of this contract is $35,327,237,604. Under this contract, the contractor will produce THAAD missile rounds, under fixed-price contract line-item numbers. The work will be performed in Dallas, Texas; Sunnyvale, California; Troy, Alabama; and Camden, Arkansas. The performance period is from March 2026 through June 2032. One offer was solicited, and one offer was received. Fiscal 2026 procurement funds in the amount of $842,871,672 are being obligated at time of award. The Missile Defense Agency, Huntsville, Alabama, is the contracting activity.

 

Magazine Depth Concerns are Real

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Pushing 15 weeks into Operation Epic Fury, with over 1,000 TLAMs, 1,100 JSSAMs, and 1,400 Patriots burned up (and more launching every day), coming on the heels of firing untold SM-2/3/6s expended during Operation Prosperty Guardian to counter 470 Houthi/Iranian recorded one-way drone events, 70 ballistic missiles, and 155 multi-use drone sorties in the Red Sea, not to mention $61 billion in military aid to Ukraine, you have to worry just how empty is the Arsenal of Democracy.

The Center for Strategic & International Studies has done the open-source math and has the tally sheets.

It is not good, but there should still be a good bit left, and, on the bright side, if nothing else happens in the next four or five years, and expanded production goals on these extremely complex devices that require advanced chips, exceptionally skilled labor, and clean rooms are met, the numbers should return to pre-OEF levels.

Fingers crossed.

Here’s to 2031 without a war.

The full report here. 

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