DIU offers up to $40 million for armed unmanned boats that can shoot down drones and helicopters

TLDR

• DIU offers up to $40 million for armed boats fieldable within 120 days; proposals are due 30 November.¹⁴
• Sprint 1 began in July and Sprint 3 starts in spring 2027, within a challenge worth up to $100 million.³⁴
• Naval News cites Saildrone, BlackSea and L3Harris demonstrations but names no bidders; no Sprint 2 engagement is shown.²³

Baird Maritime reports that the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), working with the Pentagon's Direct Reporting Portfolio Manager for Unmanned Systems, has issued a challenge for production-ready unmanned surface vessels (USVs) armed to detect, track and engage drones and helicopters beyond three nautical miles.¹ It is part of the 12-month Suitable Warfighting Adaptive Payloads for Unmanned Surface Vessels (SWAP-USV) prize challenge, and Army Recognition identifies this requirement as Sprint 2, which it says was publicised on 15 October.¹² Both outlets say up to $40 million is available, and Army Recognition adds that a separate $200 million is identified for possible follow-on prototype or production agreements across the wider challenge, which it stresses are not confirmed procurement contracts.¹²

The sources set the minimum range at 200 nautical miles and the cruising speed at 10 knots or more.¹² Targets are rotary-wing aircraft and Group 1 to 3 unmanned aircraft, with Group 5 capability desirable.¹² Army Recognition lists four weapon categories: AGM-114L Hellfire and AGM-179 JAGM missiles, the APKWS guided rocket, remote weapon stations with Stinger missiles, machine guns or high-power lasers, and other mature weapons.² Baird Maritime says each bid must include a complete vessel, launcher and effector, with active production lines and surge capacity documented, and that DIU will prioritise total cost-effectiveness.¹

Selected entrants must demonstrate within 30 days of down-selection, with in-water evaluation planned for early 2027, including at Little Creek, Virginia.¹² Neither source names a bidder, and Army Recognition says the Pentagon has not shown a completed Sprint 2 engagement or confirmed the deployment of a missile-armed vessel from this phase.²

Why it matters: the solicitation shows the Pentagon seeking to buy existing, production-ready unmanned boats as a counter-drone and counter-helicopter layer at sea; as the range, speed and engagement distances are requirements rather than demonstrated performance, and no vendor has been named, whether any entrant can meet them will not be known until the early 2027 evaluations.

Update, 23 October 2026: Breaking Defense says the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) solicitation, released on the Thursday before its 19 October report, seeks "mature" unmanned surface vessels the Pentagon can field in the next 120 days, while Naval News describes a 120-day sprint with the Pentagon's Direct Reporting Portfolio Manager for Unmanned Systems and dates the announcement to 19 October.³⁴ Naval News puts the whole challenge at three phases over 12 months with up to $100 million in awards; Breaking Defense says Sprint 1 began in July with in-water testing expected this autumn, Sprints 1 and 2 each offer up to $40 million, and Sprint 3 begins in spring 2027 with up to $20 million and on-water testing that summer.³⁴ Both give 30 November as the Sprint 2 submission deadline.³⁴

Naval News adds that weapons use would stay under human supervision, the boats are expected to work with degraded communications and satellite navigation, and rearming by a two-person crew with minimal equipment is "highly desired".³ It says a number of US firms have tested solutions: Saildrone fired a JAGM missile from a Surveyor USV at the Rim of the Pacific 2026 exercise, BlackSea has demonstrated its Comet USV, and L3Harris has shown its VAMPIRE counter-drone system can be fitted to USVs.³ Naval News does not say any of them has bid, so this qualifies, but does not contradict, the earlier statement that no bidder has been named.

Why it matters: the 120-day framing makes Sprint 2 a race to field existing boats rather than a development programme, and the first test of that timetable is the demonstration due within 30 days of selection; the vendors named are demonstrations by Naval News's account, not confirmed entrants, and no completed Sprint 2 engagement has been shown.