Pentagon's Silicon Valley-based innovation unit seeks autonomous USVs and AI data fusion tech to counter drone swarm

Published on January 30, 2024



The Silicon Valley-based Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) operated by the US Department of Defense is seeking small unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) that are production-ready, inexpensive, and expeditionary, in addition to being capable of collaborative intercept via specialized software and/or hardware. In a separate project, the DIU is also looking for proposals that leverage deep learning to accelerate Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) swarm detection, identification, and tracking.

Launched in 2015, the DIU was one of the fruits of the Pentagon's so-called "Third Offset Strategy" that sought to leverage the private sector's innovation capacity to speed up military adoption of technological breakthroughs. The DIU's role is to identify, prototype, and scale cutting-edge, dual-use technology. In so doing, the DIU also seeks to make it easier for commercial vendors to do business with the Pentagon.

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