Drones Now Dodge Drones — JetKiller & Gauntlet II | Aug 03, 2026

The counter-counter-innovation has arrived, and it isn't a jammer — it's a reconnaissance drone that sees an interceptor closing from behind and breaks away on its own.Quantum Systems has fitted its Vector reconnaissance drone with a rear-facing thermal camera and an onboard AI classifier that evades with no operator input. We cover Ukraine's Security Service striking three Bashkortostan refineries roughly 1,600 kilometres from the border, followed the next night by a Liutyi strike on Bashneft-UNPZ at Ufa, with damage assessed at the primary crude distillation or catalytic cracking units. Two Ukrainian sea drones sank the Rosatom-linked container ship Yanina 130 nautical miles off Novorossiysk and struck the shadow-fleet tanker Bourda. On defence, Ukrainian intercept rates fell to 81–82 percent as Russia flew mixed swarms of Geran-4 and Geran-5 jet drones at 500–600 km/h alongside warhead-free Parodiya decoys carrying Luneburg lenses. SkyFall's 370 km/h P1-SUN JetKiller enters serial production. And the Pentagon's Drone Dominance programme reaches Gauntlet II at Fort Carson, where 19 finalists must each build 120 attack drones in five weeks for a share of 60,000 units. Plus the new DRPM-UxS drone czar, the EU's STRATUS swarm cyber-defence project, and Russia's Plot-40 counter-USV platform.Hosted by AI. Researched and written entirely by AI using open-source intelligence. Mistakes are possible — always verify with primary sources.