The Defense Innovation Unit, in partnership with the U.S. Navy, has awarded contracts to select mid-size, non-traditional and venture-backed companies to prototype small unmanned surface vehicle — or sUSV — interceptors that can operate together as robotic swarms in contested environments.
The effort supports the Department of Defense’s Replicator initiative, which aims to provide warfighters with all-domain, attritable, autonomous systems faster than traditional procurement timelines, the DIU said Monday.
Speaking at the National Defense Industry Association 2024 Emerging Technology for Defense Conference, Kathleen Hicks, deputy secretary of Defense and a 2024 Wash100 awardee, said Replicator is demonstrating how to deliver all kinds of capability at speed and scale.
“What we’ve done in under 12 months can take seven-to-ten years. At the end of the day, all our efforts are conditioning DoD, Congress, and the private sector for the battlespace of the future, and the pace of change necessary to succeed,” she added.
The sUSV prototype contract awardees were selected among over 100 applicants that responded to the DIU’s solicitation for production-ready automated maritime drones in January.
DIU Director Doug Beck said having non-traditional defense companies as contract winners demonstrates the DOD’s “growing ability to leverage leading commercial and dual-use technologies to meet critical and emerging national security needs.”
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