https://sagire.online/topic/drones/ Rolling analysis and coverage of geopolitics, energy, security and supply chains. en Thu, 05 Nov 2026 02:48:00 -0300 https://sagire.online/wire/606ed20f/https://sagire.online/wire/606ed20f/Thu, 05 Nov 2026 00:21:00 -0300Drone attacks across Sudan have killed at least 14 civilians and injured several others, while strikes on electricity infrastructure have triggered widespread power cuts and disrupted clean water supplies. The latest attacks killed eight people in Um Dibo, in El Sunut locality, West Kordofan, on Monday evening, and wounded three. On Tuesday, at least four people were killed and more than 10 injured when a drone struck a fuel station in the central market in El Abbasiya Tagali, South Kordofan. Fifteen substations have been targeted since early October, according to Emergency Lawyers, a Sudanese rights group. The Merowe Dam, with a capacity of 1,250 megawatts, is now the last major source of electricity in the country, providing more than 70% of Sudan’s electricity, according to an employee of the Electricity Holding Company. The Arab League condemned repeated attacks it attributed to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on energy facilities in Khartoum, El Gezira, Sennar, El Gedaref, River Nile and Red Sea states.SudanAfricaDronesCritical infrastructureConflict https://sagire.online/wire/e7b0e1d9/https://sagire.online/wire/e7b0e1d9/Wed, 04 Nov 2026 18:23:00 -0300Japan’s Defense Ministry has estimated that its five-year defense plan beginning in fiscal 2027 will require about 80 trillion yen (about $507 billion), nearly twice the amount allocated under the current plan. The figure is preliminary: given funding constraints, the government is expected to review equipment procurement and other expenditures and adjust the total toward the upper end of the 70 trillion yen (about $443.5 billion) range. The new spending is likely to fund purchases such as large numbers of drones, according to a source familiar with the matter. The review is taking shape as a year-end deadline for revisions to three key security documents looms.JapanDefenseDronesEast Asia https://sagire.online/wire/39b3df5c/https://sagire.online/wire/39b3df5c/Wed, 04 Nov 2026 16:23:00 -0300Turkish defense firm Baykar said two attack drones launched from a Bayraktar TB2 struck their targets during a flight test in northwestern Türkiye. The TB2 took off from the Kesan Flight Training and Test Center in Edirne province carrying 16 first-person-view (FPV) drones developed by Skydagger, released two of them over the test area and served as an airborne communications relay so that operators could guide the smaller drones to their targets. Baykar said it has signed export agreements with 36 countries for the TB2 and 16 for its Akinci combat drone, covering 39 countries across the two programs.TurkeyDronesDefense https://sagire.online/wire/e143b49c/https://sagire.online/wire/e143b49c/Wed, 04 Nov 2026 14:23:00 -0300Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree announced three operations inside Saudi Arabia on Wednesday morning: the first with a drone against a radar facility on the Al-Qahmah Peninsula in the north of Jizan, in southern Saudi Arabia, the second with a ballistic missile against the Aqefa garrison in Najran, and the third against the border guard command and control building in Jizan, which resulted in deaths among Saudi soldiers and officers, according to the group.HouthisYemenSaudi ArabiaDronesConflict https://sagire.online/wire/737d99ee/https://sagire.online/wire/737d99ee/Wed, 04 Nov 2026 14:22:00 -0300Russia attacked overnight with 310 drones, including 81 jet-powered drones, according to Ukraine’s air force, which said it downed or suppressed 272 drones of various types. The attacks triggered power and water outages for hours across Kyiv and surrounding regions, and residents in the capital were urged to use public drinking water fountains before supplies were restored. Russia’s Ministry of Defense said it shot down 709 Ukrainian drones the previous night. Retailer Ozon said a drone attack caused a fire at its logistics center in Adygeysk, in Russia’s Adygea region, but that there were no casualties.RussiaUkraineDronesEnergyConflict https://sagire.online/wire/7298c167/https://sagire.online/wire/7298c167/Wed, 04 Nov 2026 14:22:00 -0300Two explosive drones hit a Komala base in the Alana valley of Balisan, approximately 90 kilometers northeast of Erbil, at around 8:45 a.m. on Wednesday, according to Rudaw. Komala said the attack caused material damage but no casualties, and that Iran has carried out more than 1,000 attacks on the Kurdistan Region of northern Iraq, using drones and missiles. In a separate incident, a strike damaged a house in Tawella, in Halabja province, early in the morning on November 3.IranKurdistanDronesMiddle East https://sagire.online/wire/b59550e1/https://sagire.online/wire/b59550e1/Wed, 04 Nov 2026 12:23:00 -0300Ukrainian drone strikes have killed three people in Russia’s Belgorod region, while attacks cut power to multiple cities in Ukraine and parts of Russian-occupied Crimea, according to officials. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia’s overnight attacks damaged power generation facilities and substations in nine regions, leaving emergency outages in many cities. Russia’s Defense Ministry confirmed on Telegram that it hit two power stations in Ukraine’s Kyiv and Zhytomyr regions and said it downed 709 Ukrainian drones across 14 regions, Crimea and the Black and Azov seas. In southern Russia, a Ukrainian drone attack started a fire at a distribution facility of Ozon, in the town of Adygeysk in the Republic of Adygea, regional head Murat Kumpilov said. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he hoped Trump would continue his peacemaking efforts after the Democratic victory and treated any changes in Congress as a domestic US matter: “President Trump continues to exercise his powers. We sincerely hope that he will also continue his peacemaking efforts.”RussiaUkraineConflictEnergyDronesCritical infrastructure https://sagire.online/wire/c374bfb6/https://sagire.online/wire/c374bfb6/Wed, 04 Nov 2026 10:21:00 -0300A strike against alleged members of the National Liberation Army (ELN) in Venezuela’s Apure state, near the Colombian border, had US intelligence and drone support, according to four US officials quoted by the New York Times. The operation took place last Friday, and a senior Venezuelan military officer confirmed the attack. Fundaredes, the first organization to raise the alarm, counted 23 dead and an undetermined number of wounded in the bombing of an ELN base used as a cocaine distribution center, based on testimony from survivors and local residents that the Times collected. Local reporters with Alianza Rebelde Investiga identified eight of the dead — including two Colombians and four Mexicans — using information from the morgue, the hospital and the San Fernando de Apure cemetery. Venezuelan authorities counted 19 dead in the operation so far, a lower toll than Fundaredes’. The attack came after the United States forcibly removed Nicolás Maduro and Venezuela’s government came under the control of an administration aligned with Donald Trump, according to Infobae, in a New York Times text.VenezuelaUnited StatesDrug traffickingDronesLatin America https://sagire.online/wire/d9e7afc1/https://sagire.online/wire/d9e7afc1/Wed, 04 Nov 2026 09:21:00 -0300Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said four oil tankers caught fire after hitting naval sea mines in the Strait of Hormuz. According to the semi-official Tasnim news agency, the IRGC said two of the vessels were still burning and that two additional tankers were intercepted trying to use a prohibited southern route in the strait. BBC Verify investigated the claims and has not found any evidence that four tankers were destroyed. In a separate incident, the UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) center said a tanker was struck by two unknown projectiles about 14 nautical miles (26 km) northeast of Limah, in Oman’s Musandam peninsula, on Tuesday evening, with no casualties reported. The IRGC also said it had shot down another US MQ-9 drone over the Strait of Hormuz. The Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of global oil and gas shipments usually pass, has been effectively closed since the start of the Iran war, because of Iranian attacks on commercial vessels and the US naval blockade.IranStrait of HormuzOilThe GulfDrones https://sagire.online/wire/00daf1c8/https://sagire.online/wire/00daf1c8/Wed, 04 Nov 2026 05:23:00 -0300Denise Brown, the UN resident and humanitarian coordinator in Sudan, said that there has been an intense pattern of drone strikes over the past couple of weeks against civilian infrastructure, with sources of energy and fuel apparently systematically targeted. At a hospital just outside Khartoum, the power went out and stopped treatment for 25 patients who needed dialysis; the hospital has no generator and no solar panels. Hundreds of aid trucks are stuck for lack of fuel, and there are queues kilometers long for fuel in the capital. The World Food Programme has recorded seven hits on its convoys this year and 20 over the past two years. Brown said she did not know where the strikes originate and called for the message that they must stop to reach whoever needs to hear it.SudanUnited NationsDronesAfricaHealth https://sagire.online/wire/3fd3f9e3/https://sagire.online/wire/3fd3f9e3/Tue, 03 Nov 2026 23:25:00 -0300Israel’s Defense Ministry began this month upgrading the “Hourglass” security fence along the Gaza Strip, the Jerusalem Post reported, based on lessons from the October 7 attack and the war against Hezbollah. One of the five work fronts integrates technologies and methods to counter very low-altitude threats, particularly fiber-optic drones used by Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. The 64-kilometer fence had been criticized after being breached at dozens of locations.GazaIsraelDefenseDrones https://sagire.online/wire/874b4eaa/https://sagire.online/wire/874b4eaa/Tue, 03 Nov 2026 19:24:00 -0300An Ozon logistics center in Adygeysk was hit by a drone attack, and employees were evacuated. According to preliminary information, no one was hurt, the company’s press service said. A fire broke out in the warehouse after the attack, and emergency services were working at the scene.RussiaDrones https://sagire.online/wire/bbfc3165/https://sagire.online/wire/bbfc3165/Tue, 03 Nov 2026 17:23:00 -0300The Saudi-led coalition fighting Yemen’s Houthis says it intercepted a drone in the Mecca region, home to Islam’s holiest city, while the Houthis reported 17 people killed in Yemen over two days, according to The Hindu. Saudi Arabia has accused the Houthis several times of targeting Mecca and Medina, accusations the group systematically rejects.Saudi ArabiaYemenHouthisDronesThe Gulf https://sagire.online/wire/1cddf041/https://sagire.online/wire/1cddf041/Tue, 03 Nov 2026 16:23:00 -0300The management of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, under Russian control, said on Tuesday that a Ukrainian drone had killed two people in a car, including a female employee at the station, according to Reuters, in a text republished by Street Insider. The statement gave no indication where the attack occurred and said the employee was the third killed in the past two weeks and the 13th since April. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said last week that an employee at the plant had been killed, but gave no details. Ukraine did not comment on the accusation. Russian forces seized the plant, Europe's largest, with six reactors, in the first weeks of the invasion that began in February 2022. The facility is offline, and IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi has repeatedly called for military restraint around it.UkraineRussiaNuclearDronesConflict https://sagire.online/wire/de15ad8c/https://sagire.online/wire/de15ad8c/Tue, 03 Nov 2026 12:23:00 -0300Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said two US LUCAS drones were destroyed over Bandar-e Khamir by fire from its Imam Sajjad air defense unit, which operates within the national air defense network. The previous night, the force had announced that two MQM-170 reconnaissance drones were brought down south of Qeshm Island using electronic warfare, and said the number of aircraft of that type captured had reached four.IranDronesThe Gulf