The Department of War seeks mature, market-ready unmanned surface vessels (USVs) fully integrated with two or more mature, market-ready aerial drones to detect, identify, track, and defeat hostile threats. This program aims to fill a critical gap in low cost sensing and defeat within the maritime environment.
The Department is looking for inexpensive and scalable solutions that combine proven USVs with mature drone capabilities to extend sensing, targeting, communications, and defeat of hostile threats through kinetic and non-kinetic effects at scale.
The USV solution must demonstrate a minimum operational range of 200 nautical miles and a sustained cruise speed of at least 10 knots.
This competition will be executed as a 12-Month Prize Challenge with rolling submission windows divided into three Sprint cohorts. Sprint 1 offers up to USD$40M in prizes with a primary objective of immediate 120-day forward operational fielding, with in-water testing commencing in the northern autumn.
Responses are due 10 August 2026.
