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Scaled Directed Energy

Applied Artificial Intelligence

Navy, Shipbuilders Bringing Robots Online to Build, Maintain Fleet

The lack of skilled workers poses a national security risk as the Navy needs to field new capabilities quickly, Kabir said in an interview. What the shipbuilding industry needs to do is bring physical artificial intelligence platforms to the factory floor to augment the human workforce and increase productivity, he said.

That is the goal of the High-Yield Production Robotics, or HYPR, program launched by shipbuilder HII, GrayMatter Robotics and Path Robotics in April. Through this effort, HII will utilize a network of physical AI technologies developed by the two robotics firms “to rapidly accelerate advanced, adaptive automation solutions in the fabrication process of both crewed and uncrewed naval platforms,” a company release stated.

Along with using robots to build ships, the Navy is also exploring how to use the technology to maintain and sustain its fleet. The sea service and the General Services Administration in March awarded Gecko Robotics an indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contract with a $71 million ceiling to deploy AI and robotics to assess and maintain the health of military assets.

https://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/articles/2026/7/24/navy-shipbuilders-bringing-robots-online-to-build-maintain-fleet

Army Cyber training AI agents in cyber ‘work roles’ alongside human counterparts

Task Force Lexington houses all of Army Cyber Command's AI efforts, including an AI "red team."

“Every agent we create is trained in a work role inside the cyber force,” Lt. Gen. Christopher Eubank, commander of ARCYBER, said on Tuesday at the TechNet Augusta conference. “We’ve created developers, data engineers, host analysts, exploitation analysts. You name the work role, we’re creating those. And then we’re training them to the same standard that humans get trained to. So agents have a work role; they’re JQR [Job Qualification Readiness-approved]. They get trained. They get set on a mission with a human watching and deliver results.”

When those agents make mistakes, he said, they’re taught the way to do it, and the agent goes back in and retrains itself.

https://breakingdefense.com/2026/08/army-cyber-training-ai-agents-in-cyber-work-roles-alongside-human-counterparts

Biomanufacturing

U.S. Naval Research Lab Advances Continuous Biomanufacturing for On-Demand Production of Critical Materials

WASHINGTON, D.C. –  U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) scientists are developing continuous biomanufacturing technologies designed to produce critical materials more efficiently, sustainably, and closer to where they are needed, strengthening supply chain resilience and expanding future operational capabilities.

The research focuses on replacing traditional batch-based biomanufacturing methods with continuous production systems that use surface-bound microbial cells to generate valuable compounds over extended periods. The effort supports Department of War priorities in biotechnology and biomanufacturing while exploring new ways to manufacture essential materials with smaller, more adaptable systems.

“Researchers have demonstrated production pathways for lubricant precursors, munition components, active pharmaceutical ingredients, bioplastics, and single-cell proteins, all products that will support future needs of the warfighter.”

https://www.nrl.navy.mil/Media/News/Article/4547201/us-naval-research-lab-advances-continuous-biomanufacturing-for-on-demand-produc/

Contested Logistics

Army Launches Flagship Strategic Capital Initiative with FedEx Dataworks to Modernize Logistics Infrastructure

WASHINGTON — The Department of the Army announced its newest project under the Army’s Strategic Capital Initiative — a landmark collaboration with a FedEx Dataworks-led team of logistics and technology experts, to undertake a sweeping modernization of its domestic non-tactical logistics networks, supply chain procedures and organic industrial base sites.

As the Army sustainment enterprise transforms into a predictive, data-driven industrial engine, securing its logistical data is paramount. This secure environment will be housed within Google’s DoD Impact Level 5 authorized commercial cloud. It will leverage Google Cloud to host FedEx capabilities and connect with legacy Army data sources, all while maintaining the strict identity management and encryption protocols required to protect national defense data.

https://www.army.mil/article/294805/army_launches_flagship_strategic_capital_initiative_with_fedex_dataworks_to_modernize_logistics_infrastructure

Oshkosh Defense and Marine Depot Maintenance Command Demonstrate Point-of-Need Manufacturing to Accelerate Readiness

OSHKOSH, WI. –– Oshkosh Defense, an Oshkosh Corporation [NYSE: OSK] company, and Marine Depot Maintenance Command (MDMC) successfully demonstrated the ability to securely manufacture and deliver approved, mission-critical replacement parts at the point of need during Exercise Valiant Shield 2026, showcasing a new approach to sustainment that reduces dependence on vulnerable supply lines and helps keep tactical vehicles mission ready.

As military operations become increasingly distributed across the Indo-Pacific and other contested environments, the ability to rapidly produce approved replacement parts closer to where they are needed is becoming a critical readiness advantage.

https://oshkoshdefense.com/oshkosh-defense-and-marine-depot-maintenance-command-demonstrate-point-of-need-manufacturing-to-accelerate-readiness/

Navy Ponders How to Best Carry Out Demining in Contested Waters

Shifting from crewed legacy assets to autonomous capabilities may enable mine countermeasure missions to begin sooner during a campaign by aiding commanders’ risk calculations, Bubulka said during a talk at the National Defense Industrial Association’s recent Expeditionary Warfare Conference. He prefaced his talk by noting he couldn’t comment on current Iran operations.

Artificial intelligence and machine learning can facilitate clearer-eyed judgment for combatant commands when deciding whether a task can be executed using a machine alone or demands human intervention as well, Bubulka said.

https://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/articles/2026/7/27/navy-ponders-how-to-best-carry-out-demining-in-contested-waters

Army develops ultra-light vehicle for changing battlefields

Fung explained that the team is intentionally trading the illusion of a risk-free acquisition process for the ability to use commercial products and iterating with continuous Soldier feedback through the Army's Transformation in Contact program.

… Instead, he explained that the ISV took the rapid acquisition approach, using commercial off-the-shelf solutions and minimal military modifications. That approach resulted in the first unit being equipped within 24 months.

https://www.army.mil/article/294695/army_develops_ultra_light_vehicle_for_changing_battlefields

Quantum and Battlefield Information Dominance

It’s about time for quantum manufacturing

Piloting a pipeline to build and integrate optical clocks at scale

Quantum technologies promise to harness the fundamental laws for how matter behaves at the smallest possible scale to enable unprecedented, industry-defining performance for timing, sensing, and computing. Proof-of-concept quantum systems have demonstrated the ability to detect extraordinarily tiny gravitational shifts for potential applications to navigate without GPS, maintain precise time for millions of years, or even measure the magnetic field of a single neuron. But the very properties that make these sensors so powerful, specifically their extreme sensitivity to their surroundings, make them incredibly challenging to manufacture at scale.

DARPA’s newly announced It’s About Time program aims to establish a pilot manufacturing pipeline for tactical-grade optical clocks to demonstrate the capability to produce quantum and quantum-enabling technologies at scale.

https://www.darpa.mil/news/2026/its-about-time

Quantum Information Sciences – Position, Navigation, and Timing (QIS-PNT)

The QIS-PNT ERP is the Army’s leader in continuously transforming quantum information science and PNT to outpace our adversaries through discovery and innovation of novel sensing capabilities and quantum approaches to ensure seamless navigation and communication across all combat environments.

ERP – Essential Research Program

https://arl.devcom.army.mil/what-we-do/qis-pnt/

The LRDCE ERP is DEVCOM ARL’s flagship program to create and operationalize scientific knowledge in Long Range Precision Fires (LRPF).

This ERP advances foundational research in ballistic sciences to include energetics, propulsion, flight, guidance, and warheads. The LRDCE ERP also conducts limited system-level modeling of future LRPF weapons capabilities and multi-component experiments in relevant environments to showcase technology maturation up to technology readiness level (TRL) 4 – component and/or breadboard validation in laboratory environment.

https://arl.devcom.army.mil/what-we-do/lrdce/

Scaled Hypersonics

Hypersonics, rocket startup Ursa Major to go public in $2.3B deal

"This transaction will help us turn that foundation into the production capacity our customers need,” CEO Chris Spagnoletti said.

WASHINGTON — Ursa Major, a Colorado-based defense startup specializing in hypersonics and solid rocket motors, today announced plans to take the company public next year in a $2.3 billion deal.

The agreement involves a merger with the publicly traded Bleichroeder Acquisition Corp., a special purpose acquisition company backed by Inflection Point Asset Management, which works to take companies public. The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2027, according to a news release.

https://breakingdefense.com/2026/08/hypersonics-rocket-startup-ursa-major-to-go-public-in-2-3b-deal/

China’s new hypersonic missile puts US on notice

China has taken the hypersonic missile race to another level.

Beijing has developed a new manoeuvrable type of air-to-air warhead capable of avoiding interception and hitting aerial targets thousands of miles away.

The warhead, known as a hypersonic glide vehicle (HGV) sits on a ballistic missile fired high into the upper atmosphere, detaches, and then glides towards its target at more than five times the speed of sound, all while making sharp, unpredictable manoeuvres.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/china-s-new-hypersonic-missile-puts-us-on-notice/ar-AA2aTn96

Scaled Directed Energy

Pentagon Forming Fast-Track Path For Directed Energy Prototypes

A Pentagon-level organization is being created to fast-track prototypes for defeating uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS) with airborne lasers, continuous wave lasers and high-power microwaves.

The office of Michael Emil, the undersecretary for research and engineering, will be forming a Joint Directed Energy Consortium, according to a “coming soon” noticed published Aug. 18.

The consortium will be able to make Other Transaction Authority awards based on a forthcoming solicitation.

https://aviationweek.com/defense/missile-defense-weapons/pentagon-forming-fast-track-path-directed-energy-prototypes

U.S. military to host directed energy ‘shoot-off’ amid governmentwide counter-drone push

Officials leading the Joint Interagency Task Force 401 shared new details about that pilot program and other updates on recent progress.

America’s specialized counter-drone team is running a directed energy pilot program on multiple military bases to inform the government’s path to operationalizing high‑energy lasers, high‑power microwaves and other associated weapons, without shutting down airspace or disrupting missions on the ground.

Joint Interagency Task Force 401’s wide-scale series of technology tests will also pit select commercial capabilities against each other in “a directed energy shoot-off” event later this year, Brig. Gen. Matt Ross told DefenseScoop at a media roundtable on Friday.

“We want to look at new entrants [from industry], as well. So, we don’t want to just down-select to one or two systems, but we want to allow young, innovative companies that have a good idea and maybe want to introduce something that looks more like a commercial laser with a more robust supply chain, so we can reduce the cost of maintenance over time. We want to give them a chance to perform,”

https://defensescoop.com/2026/08/21/us-military-directed-energy-shoot-off-counter-drone/

If your organization is looking for assistance in evaluating or pursuing opportunities with DoW or Federal agencies, contact Marc Violante, Director of Federal Market Strategies at marcv@wispro.org

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