Teledyne FLIR's Black Recon is a vehicle-launched autonomous micro-drone system that lets a crew launch, operate, recover and recharge up to three UAVs without leaving the vehicle, delivering near-continuous GNSS-denied reconnaissance. Market-launched at Eurosatory 2026.
The AeroVironment P550 is a runway-independent, battery-electric eVTOL reconnaissance drone built for the US Army's Long-Range Reconnaissance program, giving battalion commanders up to five hours of modular ISR, relay, electronic-warfare and strike capability.
China's TB-001 Scorpion is a twin-boom, long-endurance MALE UCAV from Sichuan Tengden, used for PLA ISR and pressure flights around Taiwan and Japan's southwestern approaches.
The AT-6 Wolverine is the A-29 Super Tucano's perennial bridesmaid — Textron's armed version of the T-6 Texan II trainer, faster and with ejection seats, sharing thousands of trainers' logistics. Yet it lost every big competition to the A-29 and to the OA-1K, and only Thailand ever bought it.
The OA-1K Skyraider II is the armed crop-duster that beat the A-29 Super Tucano for the US Armed Overwatch contract — an Air Tractor AT-802 turned into an L3Harris gunship with 10 hardpoints, Hellfires and a WESCAM sensor ball. It won the US buy the A-29 dominates the world without.
A Kassel-registered, California-run startup has raised 13 million euros to turn Madagascar hissing cockroaches into ISR sensors, and the German military's Cyber Innovation Hub is funding a troop trial called AutoBugs.
One of Russia's two workhorse spotter drones in Ukraine, alongside the Orlan-10. A small catapult-launched aircraft full of off-the-shelf civilian electronics, the Supercam is the eye that cues Russian artillery and Lancet strikes — slow, jammable, and shot down by the hundred.
China's stealth flying-wing UCAV — the CASC CH-7 (Rainbow-7), a tailless, low-observable high-altitude drone for deep-penetration ISR and strike. Debuted as a mockup in 2018; it finally flew in late 2025. The export-line peer to the GJ-11 and Russia's Okhotnik.
Iran's would-be answer to the MQ-9 Reaper — a large reconnaissance-strike drone unveiled in 2023 with bold claims of 2,000 km range, 24-hour endurance and a 300 kg payload. The catch: almost none of it has been independently verified, and a piston engine caps the ambition.
China's biggest hunter-killer drone — a long-range MALE UAV with a claimed 10,000 km reach, 40-hour endurance and 16 weapons a sortie, and the first Wing Loong that can shoot back at other aircraft. It is the spearhead of China's cut-price, no-strings drone exports.
The world's largest radar-satellite constellation — Finnish microsatellites that see through cloud, darkness and camouflage. It is Ukraine's crowdfunded "People's Satellite," feeding nearly 6,000 radar images to Ukrainian targeting cells — and now shadowed in orbit by Russia.
Portugal's combat-hardened tactical ISR drone — a gasoline-powered fixed-wing UAS with VTOL kit, proven over 10,000 flight hours in Ukraine, now doubling as the RAF's StormShroud EW platform and expanding rapidly across NATO markets.
Israel's Aeronautics Orbiter 4 is a Group 3 tactical UAS that packs 12 kg dual-payload ISR capability — EO/IR, SAR, SIGINT — into a 50 kg airframe with a 24-hour endurance and field-switchable VTOL option, already combat-proven in Gaza as the IAF's Nitzoz.
Israel's workhorse multi-role MALE UAS — 36-hour endurance, multi-sensor ISR, and a broad export footprint from Switzerland to Singapore, with a growing combat record over Gaza, Lebanon, and Iran.
Germany's combat-proven eVTOL fixed-wing reconnaissance drone — built for jammed environments, upgraded with AI target detection and acoustic artillery location, and the backbone of Ukraine's tactical ISR fleet.
Shield AI's ducted-fan VTOL tail-sitter – a runway-independent ISR and targeting drone that proved it can operate deep inside Russian electronic warfare and cue precision fires for Ukrainian forces.
Russia's most prolific tactical drone — a catapult-launched, parachute-recovered ISR workhorse that has become the eyes of its artillery in Ukraine and a node in the Leer-3 electronic-warfare system.
High-altitude, unarmed strategic reconnaissance UAV that serves as the U.S. Air Force's persistent global ISR backbone, also operated by NATO’s AGS force and South Korea.
China's expansive military ISR satellite constellation combining optical, radar, and signals intelligence with a NOSS-style naval-surveillance arm to form the space backbone of the PLA's anti-ship missile kill chain.
Turkey's game-changing MALE armed UCAV — a low-cost, piston-engined platform that reshaped conflicts in Libya, Nagorno-Karabakh and Ukraine, proving that a cheap, recoverable drone can dominate the battlefield when air defences are absent.