Two California-based startups took the top spots in the latest phase of the Drone Dominance competition, a Pentagon effort to find companies that can produce high-quality, low-cost commercial drones at scale.According to the competition’s leaderboard, Neros Technologies scored highest in the confined-environment testing category. Perennial Autonomy claimed the top spot in “deep-strike” testing, in which operators launched attacks beyond the range of enemy defenses.The Pentagon uses the companies’ rankings to determine how many drones to buy, meaning higher-scoring companies receive larger orders. In total, the department ordered 14,000 drones from Neros — which also ranked third in deep-strike testing — and 8,000 from Perennial.Neros, founded by competitive drone racers in 2023, identified its winning design as the Archer AI drone. The company said the 10-inch model was “built with Terminal Guidance functionality that allows the drone to fly itself to an operator-selected target, a critical feature in the comms-denied environments military operators face today.”In a statement, Soren Monroe-Anderson, Neros’ chief executive and co-founder, called the Archer “highly modular and easily adapted to end-user needs.”“Pairing real warfighter feedback with our deep engineering talent is the reason Neros is the only manufacturer to have placed in the top three across two fundamentally…

Editor’s Note: This piece was crafting as a special retro-style “mini-magazine” within the Winter 2026 print issue of The Armory Life. We styled it to look as though it had been published back when the author was a young teenager poring over his collection of Springfield Armory catalogs. You can see this mini-magazine itself, which starts on page 89, within Winter 2026 issue by clicking here.I’ve been a “gun nut” as long as I can remember. As a young teenager in the 1980’s, I subscribed to all the gun magazines and would voraciously read them from cover to cover. While I liked practically all firearm types, my true area of interest was surplus guns and civilian-legal versions of military firearms. I love history and I love guns, so these were right up my alley. Shown is the lead spread of the print “Blast from the Past” article, showing the 7.62 NATO M1A-A1 Bush Rifle in an 80’s-style magazine layout. Image: Carson McDaniel/Springfield ArmoryNeedless to say, the 1980’s was a great decade for these types of firearms — unless you were a 15-year-old with no money to spend. I would regularly go to the local gun shop and ogle the rifles up…

NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles! Secretary of State Marco Rubio abruptly ended talks and ordered the Iranian delegation to leave the U.S. after negotiations stalled, yet again, with no clear sign of a breakthrough more than seven months into the conflict.And now, President Donald Trump is directly warning Iran it’s “possible” he will go harder with strikes in the Middle East after the midterm elections in November and revealed the U.S. military has significantly rebuilt its arsenal in recent months.The latest messaging from the White House and State Department signals an increasingly strained diplomatic track, after days of negotiations failed to close the gap between Washington and Tehran over the terms of ending the war.IRAN ‘MISCALCULATING’ BY BETTING ON MIDTERMS AFTER 3-HOUR TALKS, TRUMP OFFICIALS WARN Asked in an interview with TIME whether he would “ramp up bombing after the midterms,” Trump replied: “Possible.”Further pressed on whether such an escalation was under consideration, the president declined to discuss potential targets but said the U.S. had spent months rebuilding its arsenal.”We have a lot of weapons. You know, we’ve been stocking up for the last six months,” Trump said.Trump also used the work “possible” when asked whether he…

NEW TAIPEI CITY, Taiwan — Taiwan President Lai Ching-te told a forum in late September he was seeking “resilience through unity” with a new alliance that would let world officials and non-governmental groups prepare together in case of disaster.For Taiwan, that could mean an attack or blockade by the militarily more powerful China.Lai’s pitch to 500 experts and guests augured an international expansion of a roughly five-year-old domestic, military-civilian, whole-of-society awareness campaign similar to that seen overseas when larger countries bear down on smaller rivals.Taiwan’s “efforts promoting whole-of-society defense resilience have progressed toward closer international connections and cooperation,” Lai said.The domestic whole-of-society defense effort has grown visibly since its inception here, at the time when Russia was gearing up for its war in Ukraine, but where it’s going now depends who you ask.It includes the November 2025 distribution of the cartoon-style Case of Crisis: Taiwan’s National Public Safety Guide to a targeted 9.83 million households with tips on stockpiling food and water and finding shelter.Citizens in turn have prepared “go-bags” of daily rations and basic supplies plus emergency first aid kids and civilian-led civil defense preparation courses have sprung up.“A potential conflict involving Taiwan would not affect only military targets…

Welcome to October. For those of you who may have missed it, Joe made the call to the bullpen as he takes a couple of days off to hit the golf course. I’ll be on the mound covering Screencaps today and Friday. So keep my inbox full.I’m going to start this Thursday morning edition off by celebrating the Yankees advancing to the ALDS thanks to a complete domination of the Red Sox in what was an absolute joke of a Wild Card Series.By no means is the work done, and I’m not popping any champagne, but you want to know what’s better than winning a Wild Card Series? Beating the Boston Red Sox in that series.PAIGE SPIRANAC WELCOMES FALL GOLF BY REVISITING SUMMER FUN, ALLIE RAE GEARED UP FOR VIKINGS IN TAMPA & MEATYou want to know what’s even better than that? Sweeping them and making it about as lopsided as a series can get. That’s what happened. The Red Sox scored just two runs in the two games while the Yankees hung 18 on them.The Yankees pitching was phenomenal. The bats are alive. They’re playing with a ton of confidence and not even Sonny Gray and a neck covered…

Command Sgt. Maj. Nema Mobarakzadeh recalls an occasion at a prior command in which a battalion sergeant major approached him, outraged that his soldiers hadn’t had running water in their barracks for a week.Mobarakzadeh asked the sergeant major for the number of the work order he’d put in to address the problem, but got only confusion in response.“Not one person in the formation put a request in,” Monarakzadeh, now command sergeant major of U.S. Army Western Hemisphere Command, said during a call with reporters on Monday. “And so I chewed him out a little bit and let him know that this was actually his fault, that we could have got this fixed rather quickly, but how is [the Army Directorate of Public Works] supposed to know that there’s something wrong with your barracks if you haven’t put a work order in?” Monarakzadeh continued. “And of course, we got it fixed the same day.”It’s experiences like those, Mobarakzadeh said, that provided the impetus for the Army’s new “NCO’s Barracks Guidebook,” released Tuesday. The 20-page guide, with AI-created icons and illustrations, includes responsibility checklists and links to regulations and policy, as well as vignettes about how to handle, for example, the discovery…

NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles! A former fraternity leader at Northern Arizona University was sentenced to two months in jail on Wednesday for his role in a hazing incident that led to the death of a student.Carter Eslick, 20, pleaded guilty to a felony hazing charge in Coconino County Superior Court for the Jan. 31 death of Colin Daniel Martinez. Eslick served as the Delta Tau Delta pledge master at the time of the incident.Martinez died at a Delta Tau Delta off-campus house due to alcohol poisoning, with an autopsy finding a blood-alcohol content of 0.45% shortly after his death.LSU FRAT PLEDGES ALLEGEDLY WATERBOARDED, FORCED TO CHUG MILK IN HAZING RITUALS: REPORT During the hazing, Martinez was among a group of four pledges who drank two bottles of vodka to ensure that they vomited, according to NBC News.Hazing witnesses said they attempted to monitor the sleeping Martinez for signs of alcohol poisoning, adjusting his sleeping position multiple times.Eslick told the court, where Martinez’s parents were present, that he takes “full responsibility for the hand I played in that ritual.”The sentencing comes amid headlines regarding the mysterious deaths of two students at Ole Miss — one of whom…

The three-star commander of U.S. Army Recruiting Command confirmed this week that the service had reached its Reserve and Special Forces recruiting goals for the first time in 10 years or more.The Army announced earlier this year that it had met its active-duty recruiting target four months early for a second year in a row, bringing in more than 61,500 soldiers and cementing a dramatic turnaround from two years of missed recruiting missions in 2022 and 2023. Last week, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced on X that the Army had met its Special Forces recruiting mission for the first time in a decade and a half.“For the first time in FIFTEEN YEARS, our Special Forces recruiters achieved their mission of 2,940 candidates,” he wrote. “And, for the first time in a DECADE, the U.S. Army Reserves have met their mission of 14,322 future Soldiers in September — two weeks ahead of schedule … The Warriors want IN!”Speaking at an Association of the United States Army event on Tuesday, USAREC Commander Lt. Gen. Johnny Davis confirmed those statistics and added that the Army National Guard had also met its recruiting target, narrowly hitting its goal number a week before the end…

NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles! Good morning and welcome to Fox News’ morning newsletter, Fox News First. And here’s what you need to know to start your day …TOP 31. Netanyahu praises heroic bystander for preventing ‘another 9/11’2. Iran leaders ‘overstayed their welcome’ in US after talks stalled3. GOP senator joins push for AI liability  MAJOR HEADLINESEXECUTION CHAOS — Tennessee inmate Christa Pike still alive after two lethal injections, lawyer says. Continue reading …DOUBLING DOWN — Lindsay Clancy lawyer pushes back on claims he shifted strategy after mistrial in new interview. Continue reading …VICTORY LAP — Right erupts in celebration after White House post showing huge Trump win on key issue. Continue reading …PERILOUS PLUNGE — Frantic 911 call captures moments after UGA student falls from eighth floor. Continue reading …SHOW GOES ON — Actor unloads after $110B Hollywood megadeal gets green light. Continue reading …–POLITICS‘DISGUSTING’ — Progressive lawmaker’s baby bump photo sparks online firestorm as she faces prison time. Continue reading …BALLOT BOX GRIEF — Teen’s tragic killing by illegal immigrant becomes flashpoint in battle for control of Congress. Continue reading …COMPETING REALITIES — Election crime arrests keep piling up as Dems insist it ‘just doesn’t happen’. Continue…

NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles! OXFORD, Miss. – Two Ole Miss students were found dead near tablets whose labels list an ingredient the federal government recently made illegal, and the product is nowhere to be found on the brand’s website.According to court documents, Ole Miss students Aidan Hamilton, 18, and Robert Strang, 20, were discovered dead on Sept. 21, each found near similar packages of kratom or synthetic kratom. Officials noted that Hamilton “could have died due to a Pulmonary Edema,” a finding consistent with a drug overdose. When first responders reached Strang’s house near campus, he was found “cold to the touch.”Packaging found near both students bears the name Modus, according to court documents. The affidavit describes the tablets as Smax Pseudo-DHM, and lists pseudoindoxyl and MGM-15(DHM) among the ingredients on the pack found near Hamilton.The Drug Enforcement Administration temporarily placed mitragynine pseudoindoxyl in Schedule I on Aug. 26, which bars its sale. A Mississippi law enforcement agent investigating the Ole Miss students’ deaths said he believes “pseudoindoxyl” refers to that compound, and lab results confirming the tablets’ contents are pending, court documents say.OXFORD MAYOR WARNS KRATOM IS ‘ROLLING THE DICE ON DEATH’ AS FEARS LINGER…