These U.S. Military Drones Are Breaking Records - Here's What Makes Them So Special

The U.S. military has been using drones for decades, though their popularity has skyrocketed in recent years. Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) like the MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper tend to get most of the press. Still, the military uses these handy systems for everything from dropping ordnance on targets to gathering intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR). To that end, numerous platforms exist, and each branch of the military has its favorites.

For the U.S. Army, the list is long, but lately, the Army has been deploying a drone most people don't know exist. The Kraus Hamdani Aerospace K1000ULE is a specialized aircraft capable of being stored easily and deployed within about 10 minutes after opening its case. Once ready to take to the sky, the K1000ULE has some additional tricks up its sleeve because it's a 100% electric and fully capable tactical UAS.

The Army doesn't use the K1000ULE for offensive or defensive actions. Rather, the system is ideal for ISR missions abroad. Because the system is electric, it's far quieter than the aforementioned combat-capable systems. The K1000ULE is an impressive UAS with a lot of capabilities, but it's not the only system the Army is testing. There's also Airbus' Zephyr, which is another electric drone, though this one uses solar power to remain in the air for months at a time, and that's only one of the many records it's broken.

Because the Zephyr is a fully electric aircraft, it's relatively new. As the Army puts it through its paces, the UAS has racked up some impressive broken records. Zephyr is a High Altitude Platform Station (HAPS) designed to fly for months at a time above 60,000 feet. The goal is to deploy the Zephyr system where other satellites are otherwise limited as a means of carrying out ISR.

As of late 2024, the Zephyr is the only fixed-wing HAPS of its kind to function in the stratosphere. It's capable of taking high-resolution images and video from this incredibly high altitude. Additionally, the aircraft can cover an area of nearly 2,900 square miles, and it can also act as a communications tower, relaying connectivity to connected devices in and out of the theater of operation.

In August 2022, the Zephyr broke the long-endurance flight record, managing to stay airborne for 64 days without landing or refueling, though it also doesn't require fuel. It also broke altitude records, and it continues to amaze as Airbus refines its design. The Zephyr is lightweight and is operated by a small group of people who launch it by running and throwing it into the air. For the most part, the Zephyr flies by itself, with minimal information about target area and location, with much of the actual flight operation handled by software.

The U.S. Army spent $20 million acquiring the K1000ULE. The purchase also included special operators and an unspecified number of systems. Kraus Hamdani Aerospace describes the aircraft as being able to "mimic nature by utilizing onboard artificial intelligence to silently glide through the air like a bird and generate clean onboard energy." The K1000ULE is the longest-endurance, fully electric, zero-emissions autonomous aircraft in its size and weight category.

The aircraft's purpose is to provide an Aerial Tier Network Extension for communications, ISR, and electronic warfare. The Army has used K1000ULEs for exercise support and various projects. What makes the K1000ULE so impressive is the ULE in its name, which stands for Ultra-Long Endurance. That's no misnomer as the aircraft is capable of flying for nearly 76 hours nonstop, and it broke a record to do it.

The K1000ULE is almost impossible to detect, as it's typically misidentified as a bird by sensors and radar equipment. To put the aircraft into the air, all that's needed is a vehicle, which helps the wings to catch the wind and take flight. This kind of ease of use makes the K1000ULE an ideal UAS for a variety of Army missions, and there's a chance the system will replace the aging Raven and Shadow systems, though that decision has yet to be made.

In April 2024, the U.S. Navy jumped on the all-electric UAS bandwagon by selecting the K1000ULE for the Marine Corps Small Unit Remote Scouting System. The Marines plan to use the K1000ULE in swarms, which would be controlled via a single interface. Users would identify the coverage area and launch as many aircraft as needed to fill the mission requirements. Each aircraft could be re-tasked as needed based on real-time requirements in the battlespace.

Most notable is the Marine Corps requirement for a UAS with vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) capabilities. To this end, the Marines will use a modified system, which is a VTOL-capable K1000ULE. Using VTOL to send out and receive swarms of UASs would make it easier for the Marine Corps to use the aircraft in austere environments, which isn't an uncommon place for Marines to operate. The goal is enhanced maneuverability to allow for operations to be conducted in otherwise unreachable or difficult-to-cover locations. This is a feature shared by the Marine Corps Rogue 1 VTOL kamikaze drone.

Adding a VTOL capability to the UAS makes it much easier to use. While it's not difficult to strap the system to a vehicle to launch it, being able to do so without any additional gear only increases the K1000ULE's effectiveness. It's likely future versions might fully embrace VTOL for this purpose, though Kraus Hamdani Aerospace hasn't revealed if that's going to be the case for future orders of the system. Regardless, both the K1000ULE and the Zephyr demonstrate vast improvements in UAS capabilities, making them the future of drone technology.