drones

The U.S. Marine Corps is looking for companies that can provide 10,000 first-person view drones by Jan. 1, 2027, according to a Request for Information (RFI) posted Thursday on a government procurement website. While just a minute fraction of the number of FPV drones being used by both sides of the war in Ukraine monthly, the RFI is the latest move by the Marines to put these swift and maneuverable weapons into the hands of its troops. It was issued as the Pentagon seeks to dramatically increase drone supplies across the services.

The USMC, as we have previously noted, wants strike weapons at the squad level with far greater reach than rifles and mortars. The Corps has created “attack drone teams” to integrate the lessons in Ukraine about the effectiveness of these weapons against personnel and equipment into their formations. We’ll talk more about those teams later in this story.

The use of FPV drones by both Russia and Ukraine has changed the face of war. They have enabled small units to strike targets in some cases as far away as 40 kilometers, though more typically less than half that distance, greatly extending the depth of the front lines.

The Marines want the same capabilities.

“FPV drones offer squad-level lethality up to 20 kilometers for under $5,000, compared to more expensive weapons systems with less capability,” the Marines explained in March. “This provides a cost-effective and scalable solution for modern combat.”

The RFI, published on Thursday, is one step toward meeting that goal. It calls for FPV drones costing less than $4,000 per unit for the aircraft, with the understanding that ground-control stations, communications equipment, goggles, batteries and charging stations for swarming will add to the price tag.

These can be controlled by radio frequencies as well as fiber optic cables. First employed by Russia last year, these cable-controlled drones are now widely used by both sides because they are immune to jamming and many other forms of electronic warfare. They also help mitigate interference from geography and structures that can impede radio signals.

The use of these types of FPV drones has become so ubiquitous that some Ukrainian cities are covered in cables, which you can see in the following video.

The Marines are also seeking designs that can be easily converted from non-kinetic to multiple different kinetic payloads by troops on the front lines. In addition, the RFI calls for drones giving Marines the ability to “modify, within reason, the system with a variety of third-party payloads, armaments, and munitions without vendor involvement.” The Corps also wants the ability to repair these drones by itself, without vendor involvement, a critical need in any swiftly evolving fight.

There are no requirements listed for speed, range, altitude, or payload weights; however, the RFI asks that interested companies provide those specifications. Regardless, the Corps is looking to move out quickly — at least in terms of notoriously sluggish U.S. military procurement norms — on this effort. The RFI calls for the delivery of an initial tranche of these weapons by Jan. 1, 2027, “with the ability to quickly ramp production and deliver larger quantities up to 5,000 air vehicles within 6 months and 10,000 units within 12 months.”

The RFI comes as the Marines are testing FPV drones to see how they function in simulated combat and to certify troops on their use. There have been at least two examples of that since November alone.

Earlier this month, the 3rd Marine Division, III Marine Expeditionary Force, participated in the Marine Corps Attack Drone Competition at Camps Hansen and Schwab, Okinawa, Japan.

“The competition put Neros Archer, first-person view attack drones into the hands of the Division’s capable warfighters,” the Marines said in a release. The Neros Archer is “capable of carrying a 2 kg/4.5 lb payload over 20 kilometers,” the company asserts on its LinkedIn page. In November, the company was awarded a $17 million contract to provide about 8,000 drones, including kinetic-strike capable FPVs, to the Corps. It was previously awarded a contract under the U.S. Army’s Purpose-Built Attritable Systems (PBAS) program and had produced 6,000 of these drones for Ukraine.

The attack drone competition on Okinawa allowed Marines “to test and improve their drone skills alongside the top operators in the Marine Corps, enhancing their confidence and capabilities on the battlefield,” said U.S. Marine Corps Sgt. Grant Doran, an attack drone instructor with the Marine Corps Attack Drone Team in Quantico. “It also lets us train the people who will be taking over our positions in the future. Other branches were also able to bring their top operators in, so we can share our tips and tricks to increase lethality across all services.”

The certification “increased 3rd Marine Division’s tactical drone use in both offensive and defensive scenarios,” the division explained.  “The Neros Archer drone extends the Marines’ understanding of the battlespace by 20 kilometers, and this capability increases the Marines’ lethal reach and ability to attack using precision weapons.”

“I believe that with [any potential] crisis, small Unmanned Aerial Systems development and integration within small unit formations is going to be super relevant given its longer reach,” Doran posited.

In November, the Marine Corps Battalion Landing Team 3/6, 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit (Special Operations Capable) conducted FPV attack drone training on Camp Santiago, Puerto Rico.

“The 2d Marine Division and the Marine Corps Attack Drone Team are training and certifying 22nd MEU(SOC) Marines on the Neros Archer first-person view drone system, demonstrating the 22nd MEU(SOC)’s commitment to innovation, adaptability, and enhanced combat readiness,” a release explains. That training came as the U.S. was ramping up its Operation Southern Spear campaign against drug traffickers and Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro, which you can read more about here.

22nd MEU FPV Drone Training

The RFI and the recent competition and training come after the Corps announced the establishment of its experimental Marine Corps Attack Drone Team (MCADT) at the service’s base in Quantico, Virginia, earlier this year.

MCADT’s creation was a direct response to “the rapid proliferation of armed first-person-view drone technology and tactics observed in modern conflicts, particularly in Eastern Europe,” the Marines said in a press release issued back in March. “As emerging threats continue to evolve, the Marine Corps is prioritizing the integration of FPV drone capabilities to enhance lethality and operational effectiveness across the Fleet Marine Force.”

The Marine Corps’ growing interest in FPV drones is unfolding as their use, popularized by the war in Ukraine, has spread to conflicts across the globe by states and non-state actors. Still, it is important to note, as TWZ regularly does, that the threats posed by weaponized uncrewed aerial systems, including small modified commercial designs, far predate the all-out war in Ukraine. The following image shows a drone used by a Mexican cartel in 2020.

The U.S. is increasingly heeding the wake-up call emanating from the battlefields of Ukraine. In July, War Secretary Pete Hegseth unveiled an ambitious Pentagon-wide effort to dramatically boost the number of troops armed with small drones. Earlier this month, the Pentagon unveiled its $1 billion “Drone Dominance” program to purchase hundreds of thousands of kamikaze drones of all types. Last month, the Army announced its own plans to purchase a million kamikaze drones over the next two to three years and recently signed a $1 billion agreement to purchase Switchblade-series loitering munitions. These Trump administration efforts, among several others, have subsumed the Biden administration’s $1 billion Replicator program, created to buy small drones.

The Marines, meanwhile, have a separate program to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on small drones. In April 2024, the Marine Corps Systems Command (MARCORSYSCOM) awarded three companies – Teledyne FLIR Defense, AeroVironment and Anduril Industries  – an Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity contract worth up to $249 million under its Organic Precision Fires-Light (OPF-L) program. The most recent order came earlier this month, when the Corps agreed to purchase 600 Rogue-1 loitering munitions from Teledyne FLIR Defense for $42.5 million, or about $71,000 a piece. That follows an initial $12 million order for 127 Rogue-1s, which had a price tag of about $90,000 per unit.

As the Marines eye a potential future peer conflict where drones will play a huge role, there is another lesson from the Ukraine war to consider. Magazine depth for these weapons is critical, which is why the Corps is also looking for a mix of short-range, troop-controlled drones, including ones far cheaper, albeit less capable in some ways, than the Rogue-1.

Still, the procurement of 10,000 FPV drones, as we noted earlier in this story, pales in comparison to what is seen in Ukraine, a nation in an existential fight. Kyiv, for instance, plans to produce 4.5 million FPV drones by the end of this year. Russia, for its part, plans to produce 2.5 million of these weapons. Still, Ukraine is a unique, well-established conflict with largely static lines, and is not what the U.S. would likely face in the Pacific, for instance, where FPV drones won’t be needed in such massive quantities. Still, FPV drones will be a staple of land warfare going forward.

Though its goals are comparatively small in number, the RFI is a small step toward closing the Pentagon’s yawning drone development and procurement gap that TWZ has frequently highlighted. 

Contact the author: howard@thewarzone.com

Four years after seizing power in a coup, Myanmar’s military junta is adapting to survive a grinding civil war that once appeared to be slipping beyond its control. In October, rebel fighters in central Myanmar described facing a level of intensity they had not seen before: sustained artillery fire, coordinated drone strikes, and repeated infantry assaults that came in relentless waves. After days of fighting near the village of Pazun Myaung, resistance forces were forced to withdraw, marking a rare tactical success for a military that had suffered major setbacks since 2023.

This shift follows Operation 1027, a coordinated rebel offensive that overran around 150 military outposts and handed resistance groups control of large swathes of borderland territory. Shaken by those defeats, the junta began reshaping its strategy. According to rebel fighters and security analysts interviewed by Reuters, the military has leaned on three pillars to stabilise its position: mass conscription, expanded use of drones and air power, and growing diplomatic and coercive support from China.

How the Junta Is Fighting Back

On the ground, resistance fighters report that the military is deploying “human-wave” tactics, sending repeated infantry units forward even as casualties mount. Rebels say some soldiers appear to be coerced into advancing, a stark contrast to earlier phases of the war when troops often retreated quickly after losses. These assaults are now closely integrated with artillery and drone strikes, creating pressure that smaller, lightly equipped resistance units struggle to withstand over time.

At the same time, the junta has rebuilt manpower through mandatory conscription introduced in February 2024. Despite widespread public fear and evasion, tens of thousands of recruits have reportedly entered the armed forces, stabilising a military that had shrunk dramatically since the coup. The command structure has also been reshuffled, with more experienced officers replacing those promoted through patronage, addressing one of the army’s long-standing weaknesses.

Air power has become more lethal as well. While conventional airstrikes remain central, they are now increasingly guided by reconnaissance drones, improving accuracy. Analysts say the military operates a diverse fleet of unmanned aerial vehicles sourced from China, Russia and Iran, giving it a technological edge over resistance groups that lack jamming equipment or air-defence systems. Lower-level commanders are also reportedly being granted faster access to air support, tightening coordination between ground assaults and aerial attacks.

China’s Quiet but Crucial Role

Beyond the battlefield, China has emerged as a decisive external factor in the junta’s partial resurgence. While Beijing maintains ties with certain ethnic armed groups, it continues to see Myanmar’s generals as the most reliable guarantors of stability along its border. Chinese officials have brokered ceasefires that have directly benefited the junta, including arrangements that returned strategically important towns to military control.

Pressure from Beijing has also constrained resistance groups’ access to weapons and financing. International researchers say China has leaned on allied militias to restrict arms flows and imposed financial and border measures to enforce compliance. In some areas, this has effectively frozen resistance operations, forcing groups into ceasefires due to shortages of ammunition and funds. For fighters on the ground, this external squeeze has compounded the military’s renewed offensive momentum.

Why It Matters

The junta’s evolving tactics do not signal outright victory, but they do mark a dangerous shift in a conflict that had increasingly favoured resistance forces. Myanmar’s frontlines remain fragmented, with no single actor dominating nationwide, yet the military’s ability to retake territory in parts of the country suggests the war is entering a new, more brutal phase. Civilians are likely to bear the cost, as intensified airstrikes, mass infantry assaults and prolonged clashes deepen humanitarian suffering and displacement.

This military push also coincides with a planned general election that international observers and rights groups have already dismissed as neither free nor fair. By reclaiming territory and projecting strength, the junta appears intent on manufacturing a sense of control and legitimacy, even as key opposition figures remain jailed and major political forces boycott the vote.

What Comes Next

Analysts expect fighting to intensify rather than subside. With conscription feeding new troops into the ranks, drones sharpening air power, and China discouraging resistance advances near its interests, the military is likely to continue probing for opportunities to retake ground. Resistance forces, meanwhile, face internal disparities in strength and growing external pressure, making coordinated nationwide offensives harder to sustain.

Over the next few years, Myanmar is likely to see a protracted stalemate punctuated by brutal offensives rather than a decisive resolution. The junta’s comeback is limited and uneven, but it is enough to prolong the conflict and raise the stakes for all sides involved.

Analysis

Myanmar’s war is no longer defined solely by a collapsing army versus a rising resistance. Instead, it is evolving into a grim contest of endurance. The junta’s use of human-wave assaults reflects both renewed confidence and underlying fragility: manpower is being substituted for legitimacy, and coercion for morale. Drones and foreign backing provide tactical advantages, but they do not resolve the political roots of the conflict. China’s role underscores how regional power politics can shape internal wars, often prioritising stability over justice. In this context, the junta’s battlefield adaptation may extend its survival, but it also deepens a cycle of violence that makes a negotiated political settlement ever more elusive.

With information from Reuters.

Dec. 15 (UPI) — Incoming spy chief Blaise Metreweli will use her first speech as head of MI6, Britain’s foreign intelligence service, to warn of the grave threat from Russia, particularly from its use of hybrid warfare.

The agency’s first woman head was set to warn of what she called “an acute threat posed by an aggressive, expansionist and revisionist Russia” and that its use of cyberattacks and drones meant “the frontline was everywhere.”

Metreweli, who took over from the outgoing “C,” Sir Richard Moore, on Oct. 1, will detail incidents of hacking and flying of drones near vital infrastructure by Russian proxies as examples of its use of hybrid tactics.

Russia has been waging this type of low-grade war on Ukraine‘s Western allies since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, according to analysts, flying drones into NATO airspace neighboring Ukraine, disrupting flights by allegedly flying drones near European airports and cutting undersea cables.

In Britain, this has included recruiting Britons to spy for it, allegedly paying individuals to carry out an arson attack on a factory in London owned by Ukrainians and pointing lasers at RAF jets tracking Russian spy ships.

Speaking at MI6 HQ in central London, Metreweli was expected to vow Britain would not let up its campaign to impede Russian President Vladimir Putin’s aggression against Ukraine, noting recent sanctions imposed on Russian organizations and individuals the government believes were involved in information warfare.

“The export of chaos is a feature not a bug in the Russian approach to international engagement; and we should be ready for this to continue until Putin is forced to change his calculus,” she is expected to say.

As expected, Metreweli, who previously served as MI6’s technology and innovation lead, made famous by the character “Q” in the James Bond movie franchise, will stress the key role technology must play going forward.

She will urge intelligence officers to become technology experts “not just in our labs, but in the field, in our tradecraft.”

“We must be as comfortable with lines of code as we are with human sources, as fluent in Python [the computer progamming language] as we are in multiple languages.”

In September, MI6 launched Silent Courier, a secure messaging platform on the dark web, enabling spies to anonymously upload information useful to British intelligence from anywhere in the world. A YouTube video tutorial accompanied the launch.

Britain was, Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said “bolstering their efforts with cutting-edge tech so MI6 can recruit new spies for the United Kingdom — in Russia and around the world.”

The service also carried the following disclaimer from the Foreign Office.

“MI6 advises individuals accessing its portal to use trustworthy VPNs and devices not linked to themselves, to mitigate risks which exist in some countries.

“Do not use a name, phone number or other data linked to your real identity when creating this account,” it added.

Dec. 10 (UPI) — The United States has blacklisted a network of four Colombians and four entities accused of recruiting former Colombian military personnel to fight in Sudan’s civil war.

The sanctions were announced Tuesday by the U.S. Treasury, which said the network was aiding the Rapid Support Forces, a breakaway paramilitary unit that has been accused of committing ethnic cleansing and genocide in the nearly 1,000-day-old conflict.

The RSF has been waging war against the Sudanese Armed Forces since April 2023. According to the Treasury, the RSF has recruited hundreds of former Colombian military personnel since September 2024.

The Colombian soldiers provide the RSF with tactical and technical expertise. They serve as infantry, artillerymen, drone pilots, vehicle operators and instructors, with some even training children, according to the Treasury.

“The RSF has shown again and again that it is willing to target civilians — including infants and young children. Its brutality has deepened the conflict and destabilized the region, creating the conditions for terrorist groups to grow,” John Hurley, undersecretary for the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, said in a statement.

Colombian soldiers have aided the RSF in its late October capture of El Fasher in North Darfur following an 18-month assault, while committing alleged war crimes along the way, including mass killings, sexual violence and ethnically targeted torture.

The Treasury identified and sanctioned Alvaro Andrew Quijano Becerra, a 58-year-old retired Colombian military officer, who is accused by the United States of playing a leading role in the network from the United Arab Emirates. His Bogota-founded International Services Agency was also sanctioned for seeking to fill drone operator, sniper and translator roles for the RSF via its website, group chats and town halls.

Colombia-based employment agency Maine Global Corp., Colombia-based Comercializadora San Bendito and Panama-based Global Staffing S.A. were the other three entities sanctioned.

The other three individuals blacklisted were Claudia Viviana Oliveros Forero, Quijano’s 52-year-old wife; Mateo Andres Duque Botero, 50, the manager of Maine Global; and Monica Munoz Ucros, 49, Maine Global’s alternate manager and manager of Comercializadora San Bendito.

“Today’s sanctions disrupt an important source of external support to the RSF, degrading its ability to use skilled Colombian fighters to prosecute violence against civilians,” State Department spokesperson Thomas Pigott said in a statement.

Sanctions freeze U.S.-based assets of those named while barring U.S. persons from doing business with them.