Dual-Use

AIR has partnered with Elmo Motion Control to integrate high-voltage servo drives into its AIR 120D cargo drone, enabling air-cooled operation that eliminates liquid cooling systems. The weight reduction translates directly into increased payload capacity for a platform designed to serve both commercial logistics and defense resupply missions.

Ukraine's former defense minister Mykhailo Fedorov has launched a defense technology company backed by Palantir CEO Alex Karp, marking one of the most significant post-government moves by a Ukrainian official. The venture aims to commercialize Ukraine's battlefield AI systems — including the Delta C2 platform — and export them to allied militaries facing similar operational challenges.

Hesai Technology, a Shanghai-based lidar manufacturer blacklisted by the US Department of Defense as a Chinese military entity, is expanding its presence in US autonomous systems through partnerships with Nvidia, Amazon's Zoox, and other major players. Security experts warn that Chinese-made lidar sensors collecting precise 3D environmental data could enable Beijing to access sensitive infrastructure information or remotely disable critical systems, though Hesai's CEO denies the company poses any security risk.

China has launched its first national lifecycle management platform for humanoid robots, giving each unit a unique digital identity for end-to-end tracking from production through recycling. The system, overseen by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's Standardization Technical Committee, is designed to ensure traceability, strengthen supply chain oversight, and establish accountability across the humanoid robotics sector.

Shield AI secured a Pentagon contract to integrate its Hivemind autonomy software onto LUCAS one-way attack drones, enabling coordinated swarm operations with a single human operator retaining strike authority. The pilot program, run by the USD(R&E), represents a major step toward operationalizing collaborative autonomy in contested, communications-denied environments and ties directly into Defense Secretary Hegseth's $55B Drone Dominance initiative.

Security researchers disclosed UniPwn, a critical Bluetooth Low Energy vulnerability in Unitree's Go2, B2, G1, and H1 robots that enables root-level takeover via hardcoded encryption keys. The exploit is wormable — infected robots can autonomously scan for and compromise other Unitree units in range, creating a self-propagating botnet without user intervention.

Bone AI, a Seoul and Palo Alto-based startup, has raised a $12M seed round led by Third Prime to develop autonomous air, ground, and marine vehicles for defense and government clients. The company is positioning itself as a "physical AI" firm that integrates software, hardware design, and large-scale manufacturing — a gap in South Korea's defense ecosystem despite the country's $69B defense order backlog and status as Europe's second-largest arms supplier. Bone has already secured a seven-figure government contract and $3M in first-year revenue, partly by acquiring South Korean drone company D-Makers for its IP and manufacturing capability.