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A University of York engineering student originally from Israel has built something that deserves attention. His open-source project, VolAnti, uses acoustic detection to identify fibre-optic FPV drones, and nine working units are already heading to a civilian site near the Israel-Lebanon border. He's published everything openly so anyone, anywhere, can build their own.
That story connects in an unexpected way to our next one. The US Army has awarded a four hundred sixty-five million dollar contract to AeroVironment for its LOCUST X-three laser system, a thirty-kilowatt anti-drone weapon mounted on military vehicles. What makes it notable beyond the price tag is the interface — operators target it using an Xbox controller, because as one official put it, soldiers already know how to use one.
And shifting from conflict to cosmos, SpaceX's Starship booster number forty has a long journey home. After traveling thousands of miles from Texas to the Indian Ocean for its test flight, the rocket will take months to make the return trip. It's a reminder that the logistics of reusability are every bit as complex as the engineering itself.
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