U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer announced tech billionaire and defense entrepreneur, Palmer Luckey, will be his guest at this year’s UAS Summit and Expo in Grand Forks, Oct. 8 and 9. Luckey is best known for founding Oculus VR when he was 20 years old. At age 22, he sold the company to Meta for $2 billion in cash and stock. In 2017, he founded Anduril Industries, a defense technology company focused on autonomous drones and sensors for military applications.

The U.S. Navy announced a $14,499,109 contract with Ideal Aerosmith, Inc. for the development of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) technology. Specifically, the contract will reimburse costs associated with hardware in the loop, software in the loop, and inspection and testing methodologies enabling attributable unmanned system development.