The Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) on Wednesday said it has selected solutions from three companies to demonstrate and test commercial dual-use technologies in small drones to be able to operate in electromagnetically contested environments akin to the battlefield experiences in the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian War.
Auterion, ModalAI, and Neros Technologies were selected from 99 submissions and will begin demonstrating and testing their prototype solutions within two months of contract award, DIU said. The testing phase will end nine months after contract award and could result in a production contract for one or more vendors, it said.
DIU’s goal in the electromagnetic interference (EMI) project is to identify solutions used in small unmanned aircraft systems (sUAS) that can be controlled during operations in electromagnetically contested space.
“We have seen first hand in Ukraine the quick tempo and change in war and how spectrum challenges affect tactical operations,” David Michelson, DIU autonomy portfolio director, said in a statement. “This is a vitally important effort to provide critical tools to allow our warfighters to win if forced to fight, and enable them to respond quickly to changing battlefield conditions.”
DIU said the EMI effort part of the evolution of its Blue UAS program where it tests and vets drones and related components and software to ensure compliance with policies and cybersecurity, enabling faster purchases by DoD and other government customers. The EMI project will allow users to give feedback so that vendors can rapidly iterate their products to stay ahead of EMI threats.
DIU also said the project will take advantage of “commercial off-the-shelf components to keep supply chain costs low to provide solutions that are affordable, attritable, and can be scaled.” It also said open standards will enable constant updates to quickly mitigate threats.
The EMI effort follows a hackathon DIU hosted earlier this summer in Poland to find solutions challenges encountered by Ukrainian forces when their small drones are being jammed by Russian forces on the battlefield.
Auterion, which is based in Arlington, Va., develops an operating system, and auto-pilot software for small drones. San Diego-based ModalAI makes small drones, and software that enables drones to fly in GPS-denied environments. Neros, which is based in Los Angeles, offers little on its website but says it is vertically integrating the development and manufacture of unmanned defense systems, and that it operates like a “Skunk Works” for unmanned systems.
A version of this story originally appeared in affiliate publication Defense Daily.