🎙️ DIU Offers $100M in Prizes for Voice-Controlled, AI-Enabled Drone Swarm Orchestrator

📬 In Today’s Defense Brief

🎙️ DIU Offers $100M in Prizes for Voice-Controlled, AI-Enabled Drone Swarm Orchestrator

🏗️ Another 340 Firms Approved to Bid on $151B ‘Golden Dome’ Missile Defense Work

🚢 Coast Guard Sets Deadline to Spend $25B in Reconciliation Funds by 2027

🦘 Australia Fields New Amphibious ‘Workhorse’ for Littoral Operations

🎯 Anduril Awarded $23.9M Contract for USMC Organic Precision Fires–Light Program

🎱 Plus 14 other news stories you may like

📰 Full Breakdown

🎙️ DIU Offers $100M in Prizes for Voice-Controlled, AI-Enabled Drone Swarm Orchestrator — Read More

• The Defense Innovation Unit launched a $100 million prize challenge to accelerate development of a voice-controlled, AI-driven system capable of orchestrating large, heterogeneous drone swarms. The goal is to allow operators to issue natural-language commands to dynamically task dozens or hundreds of drones across domains.

• DIU officials argue current control paradigms do not scale and place excessive cognitive burden on operators. The proposed system must function in contested, degraded, and denied environments, reallocating tasks as drones are lost or disrupted.

• The prize structure is intended to move faster than traditional acquisition, signaling Pentagon urgency around autonomy, mass, and human-machine teaming as adversaries rapidly field swarm-based capabilities.

🏗️ Another 340 Firms Approved to Bid on $151B ‘Golden Dome’ Missile Defense Work — Read More

• The Missile Defense Agency approved another 340 companies to compete for work under the “Golden Dome” umbrella, expanding the industrial base eligible to pursue contracts tied to an estimated $151 billion in future missile defense spending.

• Officials say broadening participation is meant to inject competition, accelerate innovation, and avoid bottlenecks as the Pentagon pursues layered defenses against ballistic, cruise, and hypersonic threats.

• The scale of interest highlights how missile defense has become a central pillar of U.S. defense investment, with Golden Dome serving as a long-term organizing construct rather than a single program of record.

🚢 Coast Guard Sets Deadline to Spend $25B in Reconciliation Funds by 2027 — Read More

• The U.S. Coast Guard must obligate roughly $25 billion in reconciliation funding by 2027, compressing timelines for contracting, procurement, and shipyard execution under its Force Design 2028 modernization plan.

• Senior leaders warned that industrial-base capacity, workforce shortages, and acquisition processes not built for speed pose real execution risks. Major investments span cutters, aviation, shore infrastructure, and command-and-control systems.

• Officials described the funding as a once-in-a-generation opportunity to modernize the service for great-power competition, but acknowledged that failure to execute quickly could put future funding at risk.

🦘 Australia Fields New Amphibious ‘Workhorse’ for Littoral Operations — Read More

• Australia unveiled a new amphibious vehicle concept designed to move troops, equipment, and supplies across contested littoral and riverine environments, prioritizing payload, simplicity, and adaptability over heavy armor.

• Defense planners frame the platform as a “workhorse” to support distributed operations, enabling forces to maneuver without relying on ports, airfields, or fixed infrastructure common targets in modern conflict.

• The effort aligns with Australia’s broader Indo-Pacific posture shift toward expeditionary, amphibious forces capable of operating across archipelagos and austere coastal terrain.

🎯 Anduril Awarded $23.9M Contract for USMC Organic Precision Fires–Light Program — Read More

• Anduril received a $23.9 million contract to support the Marine Corps’ Organic Precision Fires–Light (OPF-L) program, which aims to give small, distributed Marine units an organic precision-strike capability.

• The program integrates sensors, autonomy, and software-defined command-and-control to enable rapid targeting and fires without reliance on higher-echelon assets.

• Marines view OPF-L as critical to expeditionary advanced base operations, where units must generate effects independently while operating inside contested maritime and littoral environments.

🌏 Other Important News

✈️ Air

• RAAF retires heritage aircraft as force modernizes — Read More

• JAGM intercepts drone at 90-degree launch angle — Read More

• US DoD awards contract to support strategic Diego Garcia base — Read More

🌊 Sea

• HII expands European unmanned operations with new UK facility — Read More

• US approves possible sale to upgrade Peruvian naval base — Read More

• Billions in funding accelerate Coast Guard Force Design 2028 modernization — Read More

🛡️ Land

• Skyeton unveils hydrogen-powered UAV — Read More

• GE, Lockheed explore next-generation ramjet engine concepts — Read More

• Ukraine advances RUTA cruise missile development — Read More

• Edge Group, Indra to establish weapons manufacturing firm in Spain — Read More

🧠 C2

• Army says new software directive coming soon, prioritizing flexible funding — Read More

• Ukraine’s future may hinge on upcoming congressional votes — Read More

• Denmark grows military presence in Greenland with little NATO help — Read More

• Tensions rise in the Pacific as US partners signal long-haul commitment — Read More

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