Drone News: New Helius Drone, Blue UAS Changes, Skydio Sends Tracker to Police, & SkyeBrowse Update

Welcome to your weekly UAS news update we have 4 stories for you; Ascent AeroSystems releases the Helius, Blue UAS and Framework Changes, a Big SkyeBrowse Update, and Skydio sends Tracking Mailers to Police Department.

First up, Ascent Aerosystems has released the HELIUS!This is a 249, coaxial system that mimics the design of the much larger Spirit. According to Ascent’s website, this is an all weather, NDAA Compliant, aircraft with features like 4G LTE connectivity, 4K gimbaled camera, 45 MPH top speed, and 30+ minute endurance! The HELIUS is available for preorder and is priced at $4,499.Preorder can be placed through either Ascent AeroSystems OR Robinson Helicopter Company dealers, with deliveries occurring in Q4 of this year.The Blue List has had some significant changes! Several drones and manufacturers have been removed and a few have been added. Removed drones include: The AgEagle Ebee, Ascent Aerosystems Spirit, Blue Halo IE-V2, HoveryTech Spectre, Inspired Flight IF1200A and IF800, Parrot Anafi UAS GOV and MIL, Vantage Viper, and the Wingtra One Gen II. These aircraft are no longer on the Blue UAS List, which is a bit concerning.It’s unclear WHY these aircraft were removed, but raises some serious questions, such as: Do these aircraft have data security issues? What happens to all the departments who have been forced to purchase aircraft that are Blue UAS and have now been removed? We’re not sure. On the other side, a few drones were added, the FlightWave Edge130, HoverFly Technologies Spectre (Possibly a rebrand of the Hovery Tech), and the Zone5 Paladin. Along with these, Pierce Aerospace B1 also was added to the Blue List, though the parts side rather than the aircraft side of the list.We’ll keep you up to date if we see more! Next up, Skydio appears to have sent marketing materials with tracking ability to Police Departments. As reported by DroneXL, a Sergeant from a large California police department revealed that promotional materials from Skydio appeared to have embedded tracking and a 4/5G SIM card.This was found after the device was disassembled by the department’s forensic analysis lab.The marketing material in question comes from a company called “MARC Media”, who confirmed that each device integrates a screen, pause and play buttons, navigation, and a “Call to action button”. The device has a 9 month battery life and tracks things like interactions, use of the call to action button, and even the location of the device.Skydio came under fire for this due to their stance as being the “secure alternative” and citing risks of “data collection” by other manufacturers. The Sergeant stated “In addition to [privacy and security] concerns I found it ethically concerning because Skydio has been a strong proponent of data security and data safety but then did the thing they accused other UAS manufacturers of doing,”Not a great look for Skydio. Last up, Skyebrowse has another big update! There are several things to talk about here, starting with Pocket AI.This is a function that turns an image into a 3D model using AI. It’s free for everyone, so give it a try and potentially win a year of Skyebrowse Lite! Skyebrowse also released model merging and Workspace images. Model merging allows you to link other models to connect multiple scenes within a workspace, again, available for everyone! Workspace images function similarly, and allow public safety to attach photos to the 3D model so that anyone who sees the images can also see the photos. https://dronexl.co/2025/03/10/skydio-tracking-mailers-security-concerns/https://www.diu.mil/blue-uas/frameworkhttps://dronexl.co/2025/03/06/major-shakeup-blue-suas-list/#google_vignettehttps://ascentaerosystems.com/introducing-helius/