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Applied Artificial Intelligence | Biomanufacturing | Contested Logistics Technologies | Quantum and Battlefield Information Dominance | Scaled Hypersonics |

Scaled Directed Energy

May 2026

Applied Artificial Intelligence

780th Military Intelligence Brigade Cyber; The Byte – Volume 14, Issue 2, April 2026

Artificial Intelligence – At the Unit of Action

If you are interested in gaining a better understanding of how the Army is using AI, this is a publication to carefully peruse. There are more than 12 articles that cover a range of topics.

Two that may be of interest are:

1. The Dawn of a New Era: Embracing AI as Our Next Force Multiplier

2. Know Thy Enemy: Using AI to Create Enemy Commanders and the first paragraph of the accompanying conclusion.

“AI is fundamentally transforming how intelligence officers understand, analyze, and predict adversary behavior. This essay focuses on how AI can be used to create digital enemy commanders, providing unprecedented insight into enemy intentions and behaviors. Creation of digital adversary agents represents more than technological advancement; it constitutes a major shift in military intelligence methodology that allows intelligence officers to understand and predict the behavior of enemy commanders.” – Conclusion - partial

https://d34w7g4gy10iej.cloudfront.net/pubs/pdf_76851.pdf

DAF releases data, AI strategies to accelerate military dominance ARLINGTON, Va. (AFNS) 

The Office of the Chief Data and Artificial Intelligence Officer for the Department of the Air Force announced, April 20, the public release of the DAF Data and AI Strategies.

These strategies provide a strategic roadmap for the department to become an AI-first force, operationalizing data and AI as decisive force multipliers and strategic assets to maintain air and space dominance from the boardroom to the battlefield.

The unified framework accelerates both enterprise and combat capabilities, providing decisive decision advantage over near-peer adversaries. These strategies are directly aligned with the 2026 National Defense Strategy and the 2026 AI Strategy for the Department of War, specifically supporting the Secretary of War’s priorities of reviving the warrior ethos and reestablishing deterrence through technological superiority.

The complete article and links to the DAF AI Strategy and DAF Data Strategy can be viewed at the following link.

https://www.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/4467267/daf-releases-data-ai-strategies-to-accelerate-military-dominance/

JUST IN: Defense Intelligence Agency Rapidly Adopting AI Tools

As noted in the article, traditional methods were not used. Instead, the command embraced OTAs, developed an Accelerator and turned to a Small Business to solve a critical and challenging problem.

The power of OTAs can be seen by the following – “In the last year, Task Force Sabre made six OTA awards, with the last one going from request for information to award in 40 days, he added.”

Additionally, “ DIA has set up small mission integration teams that go to combatant commands to understand their “pain points” where AI can help improve their workflows.”

https://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/articles/2026/4/9/just-in-defense-intelligence-agency-rapidly-adopting-ai-tools

Biomanufacturing

DOD Efforts to Develop Domestic Biomanufacturing

Biomanufacturing uses biological materials to create new materials. For example, bioengineered spider silk is lighter than carbon fiber and stronger than Kevlar—making it well-suited for many Department of Defense uses. Biomanufacturing can help address supply chain issues and lessen reliance on foreign sources.

This Q&A reviews DOD's efforts to support domestic biomanufacturing.

Since 2020, DOD has invested about $965 million in this area. DOD worked with industry partners to build biomanufacturing facilities. It's also supported labs to bring projects to large-scale production.

DOD expects to complete a roadmap of future plans in 2026.

https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-26-107797

DoD ManTech / BioFabUSA BioFoundry Demonstration

BioFabUSA Showcases World’s First Automated BioFoundry at FDA Facility

BioFabUSA, a Department of Defense (DoD) Manufacturing Innovation Institute (MII) operating under the DoD Manufacturing Technology Program (DoD ManTech), successfully showcased the world’s first fully automated BioFoundry during a walkthrough demonstration at the FDA’s I-TEAMS facility. This groundbreaking biomanufacturing hub, designed with modularity and scalability, represents a major leap forward in producing cell, tissue, and organ therapies with unmatched efficiency.  

https://www.dodmantech.mil/News/Article/4417499/biofabusa-showcases-worlds-first-automated-biofoundry-at-fda-facility/

Army Seeks to Establish Self Sufficiency

Industrial revolutions are rare, but when they come, they change everything. We are at the start of just such a time now. The convergence of synthetic biology, robotics, and biomanufacturing is ushering in a new bioeconomy that is based on biotechnologies rather than petrochemical production.

The Combat Capabilities Development Command Chemical Biological Center (DEVCOM CBC) is expanding its biomanufacturing capabilities to be the tip of the spear in this effort – and in the process, providing a big job boost by helping to establish a bioeconomy in the U.S. and Maryland.

What is Biomanufacturing? To learn more visit -- https://www.cbc.devcom.army.mil/center-focus/2021-biomanufacturing/

Contested Logistics

Pentagon Sprints to Field Systems to Sustain Troops in Denied Enviroments

The Pentagon has set up five “sprints” to field a variety of systems relevant to contested logistics, and “my charter is to try and push those across the finish line so that those capabilities are available for the warfighter in three years,” Robert Mantz, senior official for the contested logistics technologies critical technology area, said during a panel at the National Defense Industrial Association’s Pacific Operational Science and Technology Conference.

“I’m sure as you all know, three years is yesterday in DoD timelines,” Mantz added.

The focus areas for the sprints include unmanned delivery systems; in-theater deployment of small modular reactors; advanced power solutions; an enterprise-scale, artificial intelligence-enabled logistics planning tool; and technologies to increase warfighter self-sufficiency.

https://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/articles/2026/5/11/pentagon-sprints-to-field-systems-to-sustain-troops-in-denied-environments

Two Contracts Awarded To Modernize Decision-Making for DoW’s Joint Logistics Enterprise

As the U.S. enters a new era of strategic competition and Large-Scale Combat Operations (LSCO), the Department of War’s global network of logistics providers requires new tools to manage supply chains, sustain military power, and make decisions at speed and in challenging circumstances.

To maintain operational tempo and freedom of action in contested environments, the Joint Logistics Enterprise (JLEnt) must shift from reactive processes to a predictive and proactive posture. In pursuit of this objective, the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) – alongside partners USINDOPACOM, USNORTHCOM, and the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) – has awarded two prototype contracts under its Joint Sustainment Decision Tool (JSDT) program.

Launched in August 2025, JSDT aims to leverage advanced commercial artificial intelligence (AI) tools to anticipate logistics requirements and proactively manage distribution weeks in advance.

https://www.diu.mil/latest/two-contracts-awarded-to-modernize-decision-making-for-dows-joint-logistics

Pentagon seeks robot ships to haul supplies to combat zones

The Department of Defense “faces a littoral contested logistics challenge,” warned the DIU solicitation, which is due March 16. “Increasingly distributed operations in austere, contested littoral environments are met with all-domain threats targeting logistics capabilities, locations, and activities. These threats limit the ability of warfighters to persist in contested environments and remain combat effective.”

One solution is to use cheap — and expendable — robot freighters that can be delivered within 180 days after the contract is awarded. While the solicitation doesn’t specify the vessel’s size, DIU only wants a minimum 9-ton cargo capacity. This suggests a ship far smaller than commercial and military container ships and tankers with capacities in the tens or hundreds of thousands of tons. Vessels must have “a low-profile form factor to reduce chances of detection and interdiction,” while being small enough to be carried by a commercial tractor-trailer, according to the solicitation.

https://www.defensenews.com/industry/techwatch/2026/03/02/pentagon-seeks-robot-ships-to-haul-supplies-to-combat-zones/

Quantum and Battlefield Information Dominance

The Algorithmic Battlefield: Forging The U.S. Army’s Future Dominance With A New Breed Of Acquisition Leader

Imagine a world where artificial super intelligence conducts combined arms warfare across all domains of war, using quantum computing, robotics, predictive logistics and nanotechnology. This vision, once the realm of science fiction, is rapidly becoming a strategic reality, as outlined in the U.S. Army’s concept for multidomain operations. As artificial intelligence (AI) technologies become integral to modern warfare, it is critical to identify and address gaps in current acquisition strategies related to AI threats, ethical considerations, necessary infrastructure and cost-effectiveness. By 2030, AI supremacy will likely equal military supremacy as the militarization of AI has severe implications for global security, according to a United Nations University article, “Militarization of AI Has Severe Implications for Global Security and Warfare.”

https://www.army.mil/article/291040/the_algorithmic_battlefield_forging_the_u_s_armys_future_dominance_with_a_new_breed_of_acquisition_leader

Scaled Hypersonics

Leidos receives $2.7 billion hypersonic weapons contract

May 12 (Reuters) - Leidos Holdings (LDOS.N), opens new tab said on Tuesday the U.S. Army has awarded ​a $2.7 billion contract to the ‌defense contractor to move its hypersonic weapons from prototype development into production.

Hypersonic ​weapons, which are at ​the center of an arms race ⁠between the U.S. and China, ​can travel at more than five ​times the speed of sound and evade traditional defenses.

https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/leidos-receives-27-billion-hypersonic-weapons-contract-2026-05-12/

The Hypersonic Test Bottleneck Is Real — Industry Moves to Fill the Gap

With the Pentagon racing to field hypersonic weapons by the end of the decade, demand for aerodynamic and materials test capacity is outrunning what fixed ground facilities can deliver

The U.S. defense enterprise has a problem that no single contractor can solve alone: the country is trying to field hypersonic weapons, but the test infrastructure required to qualify the materials, propulsion systems, and aerodynamic behavior of those vehicles has lagged for years. 

https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/the-hypersonic-test-bottleneck-is-real-and-five-companies-are-building-the-infrastructure-to-fix-it-1036156533

Scaled Directed Energy

The US military has a message for America’s directed energy industry: it’s time to build.

In a written posture statement submitted to the House Armed Services Committee ahead of a hearing on the US Defense Department’s fiscal year 2027 budget request on April 29, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth stated that the Pentagon plans on buying “tens to hundreds” of directed energy weapons like high-energy laser systems in the coming years — the beginning of what Hegseth dubbed a “strong and consistent demand signal” to the US defense industrial base that, after years of producing just “a limited number of prototypes,” the US military is deadly serious about fielding such capabilities at scale.

The Pentagon’s FY2027 Budget Bet on Directed Energy Weapons

The US Defense Department's fiscal year 2027 budget request could yield more than $2 billion in directed energy RDT&E funding.

https://www.laserwars.net/p/defense-department-fy2027-budget-request-directed-energy-laser-weapon-funding

Navy’s Directed Energy Systems Integration Lab to Train Sailors on Laser Weapons

Sailors can now get certified in operating and maintaining the fleet’s most prevalent directed energy system through a new training program at Naval Surface Warfare Center, Port Hueneme Division (NSWC PHD)’s Directed Energy Systems Integration Laboratory (DESIL), with the first course completed in late March.

The Navy recently designated DESIL as the official schoolhouse for the Optical Dazzling Interdictor, Navy (ODIN), seven of which sit on Navy ships. The courses will build the fleet’s knowledge base on that system specifically and directed energy more broadly, while also enabling sailors to earn a new Laser Weapon System Operator Navy Enlisted Classification (NEC) that NSWC PHD spearheaded.

While weapon system instruction for fleet personnel normally falls under Surface Combat Systems Training Command (SCSTC), DESIL’s in-house directed energy subject matter experts (SMEs), equipment and infrastructure make it uniquely equipped to serve as the ODIN schoolhouse, according to Davidson Sim, directed energy sustainment systems engineer.

https://www.navy.mil/Press-Office/News-Stories/display-news/Article/4484796/navys-directed-energy-systems-integration-lab-to-train-sailors-on-laser-weapons/

Waveform Agile Radio-frequency Directed ENergy

The Waveform Agile Radio-frequency Directed ENergy (WARDEN) program seeks to develop hardware, theory, and computational models to extend the range and effectiveness of high-power microwave (HPM) systems for backdoor attacks. 

HPM systems are a class of directed energy weapons (DEWs) that use electromagnetic (EM) radiation to disrupt, disable, or damage targeted electronic components and circuits. Electromagnetic radiation can couple into targets in-band via intentional ports such as antennas (“front door”) or via unintentional coupling paths such as seams, apertures, and cable entry points (“back door”). The advantages of HPM systems include non-kinetic, wide-area effects at large stand-off distances; deep magazines; operation in adverse environmental conditions; and speed-of-light engagement. In general, current HPM systems use oscillators as their RF source. 

https://www.darpa.mil/research/programs/waveform-agile-radio-frequency-directed-energy

If your organization needs assistance meeting Federal or Department of Defense cyber security requirements, contact Marc Violante, Director of Federal Market Strategies at marcv@wispro.org

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