Highly fanciful artists impression of a one-way attack drone from DIU. No images of Cinder are. More available, DIUA new American long-range one-way attack drone called Cinder promises a game-changing new capability: precisely hitting distant targets, including tanks, at low cost.Drone makers Dragoon are teaming up with Teledyne FLIR OEM to offer this capability in their bid for a Pentagon project called Artemis. Unlike previous drones, Artemis seeks drones to operate in areas of intense radio-frequency jamming that knocks out GPS navigation and direct links to an operator. Also unlike previous drones, they will be bought in large numbers.“This is a groundbreaking development,” Art Stout, director of product management, artificial intelligence solutions, Teledyne FLIR OEM told me. “Fully autonomous operations are a viable solution for today’s GPS and RF-denied environments.”Project ArtemisIn March, the DIU announced that it has awarded contracts to four companies for long-range, one-way platforms for Artemis

A local autonomy startup, Swan, raised $6M in a seed round led by Andreessen Horowitz, initiated by Reinforced Ventures. Swan, founded by Dima Kislovskiy, focuses on autonomous solutions for defense. Euan Guttridge of Reinforced Ventures highlighted the significance of Andreessen Horowitz's involvement for the Pittsburgh region's autonomy cluster. The defense industry has shown increasing interest in the region's autonomous technology, especially for off-road and GPS-denied environments.