Milkor 380 UAV rises to new heights three years after first flight

Milkor 380 UAV rises to new heights three years after first flight. Skip to content Menu Home | Milkor 380 UAV rises to new heights three years after first flight Possible caption: Milkor’s 380 UAV on display at AAD.

What happened

Image Credits : Janet Szabo Janet Szabo 18 September 2026, 17:29 [SAST] Three years after its first flight, Milkor’s 380 Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) is continuing to rise to new heights. Milkor's 380 Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) is continuing to rise to new heights. The company will be able to fly three additional crewed Dragon flights to the International Space Station out of five total expected to be completed by 2030. Aubrey Gemignani | NASA | Getty ImagesSpaceX has expanded its contract with NASA and will conduct an additional three crewed Dragon flights to the International Space Station through 2030, netting Elon Musk's company up to $946 million upon completion.

Beyond its NASA flights, SpaceX is reportedly winding down its Dragon program, which began flying humans just six years ago. Image source, National Crime AgencyImage caption, The dinghy carried 165 migrants across the English Channel on 23 JulyByPiers Hopkirk, in Canterbury and Jacob Panons, South EastPublished18 September 2026A teenager who piloted a dinghy carrying a then-record 165 migrants across the English Channel to the UK has been sentenced to two years and three months in prison. ByMichael RaceBusiness reporter, Reporting fromWashington DCPublished16 September 2026Updated 17 September 2026US interest rates have been raised for the first time in more than three years and could be increased further in a bid to slow rising prices.

The wider picture

The forecast suggested price rises will ease in the coming years, with inflation, the measure used to assess the cost of living, predicted to fall steadily to the Fed's target by 2029. Milkor’s Vice President for Africa, Daniel du Plessis, says it is now being used operationally in regions such as Africa and the Middle East, where the company is receiving good feedback on its capabilities and how it can continue to develop it. He says that, from a basic aircraft that could take off, complete a circuit flight and land, they have upgraded its capabilities, including line-of-sight communication and mission sensor payload capacity, to ensure that it is ready to be deployed for the Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) missions for which it is intended.

In 2021, we resumed with the project and essentially, in that short three-year cycle, went from a very first rough concept and initial design to a flying aircraft and continued development and expansion to refine it even further. ” However, the rapid development of technology, particularly the evolution of drones in the ongoing war in Ukraine, has created significant challenges for defence companies seeking to ensure that their products remain marketable. Another consideration is to look at anti-air defence systems and future developments Milkor needs to do in terms of platform design,” adds Du Plessis.

Underlining Milkor’s philosophy of constantly investing in research and development, Du Plessis stressed that they are constantly keeping their fingers on the pulse to see which technologies are emerging in different conflicts around the world, to ensure that their system will be adaptable to these threats. In a clear illustration of putting this philosophy into practice, the company announced in 2024 the start of a project for the Milkor 780 — essentially a High Altitude Long Endurance (HALE) UAV.

6k views Vereeninging cop sentenced to 20 years for Sibongiseni Cele’s murder 1.

What has been reported

92 billion from NASA if it completes all flights as expected. The award for flight support brings SpaceX's total missions under the Commercial Crew Transportation Capability contract to 17 operational flights, the space agency said in a statement on Friday, and "helps NASA to maintain access to the space station with two unique commercial crew industry partners. "Boeing is also providing flights to the ISS for NASA via its Starliner, which is expected to fly without people on board in a few months, and to conduct crewed missions starting in the third quarter of 2027.

At the time, the so-called "mega dinghy" set a record for the largest number of migrants brought over on a small boat in recent years. "He joins 16 other pilots sentenced in just three months for endangering lives with flimsy, overcrowded dinghies," she said. Warsh noted that US inflation has been above the target "for more than five years". While the Fed "cannot affect any individual price – whether it be oil prices, whether it be food stuffs at the grocery store", Warsh said, the central bank can work to keep price rises from broadening across the economy.

Central banks tend to increase rates when inflation is high to discourage spending and encourage saving, in the hope this will reduce the pace of price rises.

What happens next

Commenting on the relatively short time it took to move from concept to final product, he says: “We started in 2019 with the original market research phase… That process started in 2020. Then we had COVID and everything ground to a halt. Du Plessis says there are different categories of equipment: those that are produced at low cost and in high volumes and used in asymmetric warfare scenarios, and then there are strategic, sovereign capabilities. The 380 is classified as the latter, so it won’t really be out of phase.

“The biggest threat we have as a company is to ensure that the 380 remains viable and operational … to look at any electronic counter-measures that are available in the market to try and jam communication or try and spoof the aircraft away from being used operationally. It is larger than the 380 and is envisaged to have a 2,700kg payload capacity, flying for 40 hours at 40-thousand feet. This will mean that it can be used in close air support roles, as well as in strategic and long-endurance surveillance operations that are out of reach for most ground-based air defence platforms.

The report has been compiled by The Daily Waves using information reported across sabcnews.com, cnbc.com, bbc.co.uk. Details are presented according to the information available at the time of publication and may change as authorities, organisers or other relevant parties provide updates.