BAE Systems unveiled Brontanax, Britain's first sovereign uncrewed combat aircraft, at Farnborough, tied to a named 300m-pound StormFighter programme. The same show saw Anduril partner Archer, Honeywell license Shield AI's autonomy stack, and a Leonardo-Baykar venture productionise a Turkish airframe. Ondas booked 70m dollars turning an acquisition into contracts, while a Minneapolis council killed a Skydio trial over the vendor's ICE and Israeli sales.
Farnborough showed four rival ways to acquire autonomous-combat-air capability: build, buy, partner and license.
BAE Systems unveiled Brontanax at Farnborough on 22 July, Britain's first home-built pilotless fighter and the first hardware to sit against the named £300m StormFighter line.
BAE Systems unveiled Brontanax, Britain's first sovereign combat drone, at Farnborough on 22 July. The Typhoon-directed aircraft backs the £300 million StormFighter programme and already employs 500-plus staff.
It follows the US Air Force's June contracts handing Anduril and General Atomics funded production work. Brontanax has a demonstrator, not a production order, keeping Britain behind that timeline.
Tekever unveiled the AR6 at Farnborough on 21 July, a heavy-lift drone carrying 200kg to 500km that moves the ISR supplier into combat-autonomy work.
Tekever unveiled the AR6, a heavy-lift autonomous drone family carrying 200kg to 500km, at Farnborough on 21 July. It will build the AR6 at its Swindon factory from end-2026.
The Portuguese-UK maker is pitching the heavier platform into the Apache loyal-wingman requirement under Project NYX, moving beyond its existing ISR drone speciality.
Honeywell Aerospace signed an MOU with Shield AI at Farnborough on 22 July to build its trust layer on the venture firm's Hivemind stack rather than write one itself.
Honeywell Aerospace and Shield AI signed a memorandum of understanding at Farnborough on 22 July to build a trusted-autonomy layer combining Honeywell's Anthem avionics with Shield AI's Hivemind software.
The deal lets Shield AI's autonomy stack ride on a legacy avionics prime's safety-certified hardware, a route into cockpits its X-BAT fighter alone could not reach as fast.
Anduril and Archer Aviation unveiled Thunder on 20 July, a heavy autonomous tiltrotor with no contract behind it and first flight two years out.
Anduril and Archer Aviation unveiled Thunder, a Group 5 hybrid-electric autonomous tiltrotor for defence and commercial use, on 20 July. Archer's filings project Anduril's 2026 revenue at $4.3 billion against a $1.2 billion loss.
The revenue numbers surface only because Anduril, still private, is disclosed through its listed partner. Thunder adds a transport aircraft to a lineup built around Anduril's Fury combat drone.
LBA Systems, the Leonardo-Baykar joint venture, unveiled its TB3-derived Astore Levante at Farnborough on 22 July and declared itself fully operational.
Leonardo and Baykar's joint venture LBA Systems unveiled the Astore Levante, a TB3-derived combat drone, at Farnborough on 22 July and declared itself fully operational, pairing a Turkish airframe with Italian sensors.
The venture splits the work along each firm's strength: Baykar's combat-proven airframe, Leonardo's mission systems, rather than either side building the missing half alone.
Ondas Holdings booked $70m of new orders in the four weeks to 22 July, converting its $875.8m DZYNE acquisition into signed government contracts.
Ondas Holdings booked $70 million of new orders in the four weeks to 22 July, including a $6.9 million Australian counter-drone award fulfilled by its DZYNE Technologies subsidiary via distributor HIFraser.
The orders begin converting Ondas' $875.8 million DZYNE acquisition, closed 6 July, into signed revenue rather than just added balance-sheet size.
Minneapolis City Council deadlocked 6-6 on 16 July, killing a free Skydio drone trial after the vice president cited the maker's ICE and Israeli-military sales.
Minneapolis City Council deadlocked 6-6 on 16 July, killing a free 75-day Skydio drone-first-responder trial. Vice President Jamal Osman cast one of the no votes, citing Skydio's Israeli and ICE sales.
The trial had reached 4,643 high-priority calls within two minutes. Skydio's federal and export customers, unrelated to Minneapolis, became the deciding issue instead.
Babcock, ACUA Ocean and Frankenburg Technologies announced a maritime counter-drone system on 21 July, eight days after Frankenburg won its first UK interceptor contract.
Babcock, ACUA Ocean and Frankenburg Technologies announced an integrated maritime counter-drone system on 21 July, pairing a Babcock launcher with Frankenburg missiles and ACUA's uncrewed surface vessels.
Frankenburg builds the deal on its £3.16 million LCADE interceptor award from just eight days earlier, extending beyond that single government programme.
Sideways for now: none of the four Farnborough deals carries disclosed contract value, and three name 2027 first-flight targets, so this is positioning ahead of funded competitions rather than fielded capability. The mechanism that would move it is the next round of national CCA and loyal-wingman competitions, UK StormFighter, US Air Force follow-on CCA increments, and Italy or Turkey's next export decision on Astore Levante, where a funded award would convert one of these four models from a hedge into a validated strategy and likely accelerate the others toward the same route.
