Pentagon launches $100m contest for unmanned boats able to launch attack drones at sea

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The Pentagon seeks autonomous boats capable of launching drones during maritime operations

Competition offers $100 million before potential $200 million procurement contracts

Three testing sprints will evaluate operational readiness before procurement decisions

The Pentagon has released a formal solicitation seeking an unmanned surface vessel capable of launching small attack drones directly at sea.

The Defense Innovation Unit outlined the detailed requirements under a project officially called Suitable Warfighting Adaptive Payloads (SWAP-USV).

This competition aims to strengthen asymmetric capabilities against low-cost maritime threats operating across contested waters.

A year-long competition with major funding

The Pentagon is launching a year-long, multi-phase competition backed by roughly $100 million in total prize funding.

This contest will consist of three separate testing sprints, each carrying its own distinct rewards and specific technical requirements for participants.

Companies that complete each testing phase will become eligible for procurement contracts supported by an additional $200 million budget.

Sprint 1 begins in-water testing in the fall of 2026, aiming to reach full field deployment within 120 days afterward.

The competition then continues into early 2027 with Sprint 2, which will focus specifically on expanded payload capacity for surviving entrants.

It ultimately concludes with Sprint 3, scheduled for summer 2027, marking the entire program's final and decisive phase of evaluation.

The Pentagon is actively inviting participation from maritime manufacturers, autonomy developers, sensor specialists, and established drone companies across the defense sector.

Firms may choose to enter whichever phase of the competition best matches their existing technical capabilities and current development timeline.

Strict technical requirements for the winning vessel

The unmanned vessel must operate reliably across blue-water, littoral, and other varied maritime environments without requiring constant direct human oversight.

It needs onboard sensors capable of detecting and tracking surface targets while patrolling assigned areas or navigating toward designated waypoints autonomously.

At minimum, the vessel must achieve an operational range of 200 nautical miles, equivalent to roughly 370 kilometers, or 230 miles.

It must also maintain sustained cruising speeds reaching 10 knots, which translates to approximately 19 kilometers, or 12 miles per hour.

The vessel is expected to deploy cost-effective drones directly from onboard launch systems, expanding its operational mission profile at sea.

Those aerial systems would additionally support secondary missions such as electronic warfare operations and communications relay across contested or denied environments.

The solicitation explicitly frames this vessel as mature and market-ready hardware, rather than experimental technology requiring years of additional development work.

This suggests the Pentagon wants existing commercial maritime technology adapted quickly, rather than funding entirely new engineering efforts from scratch.

In recent times, drone boats have been incredibly useful in war. Recall that when the US Army Apache helicopter went down near the Strait of Hormuz, it was an uncrewed drone boat that saved its crew .

The UK is working on drone boats that can fly while Ukraine has been at the forefront of drone technology . It is therefore reasonable for the U.S. to invest in drone boat technology.

Via The DroneFront