Two Ukrainian companies will help manufacture prototype drones for the Pentagon, as the United States seeks to rapidly scale its unmanned capabilities.
The Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), which aims to accelerate the Pentagon’s integration of emerging technologies, announced on March 14 that it was awarding contracts to four companies to develop new one-way attack drones.
Two of the companies, AeroVironment and Dragoon Technologies, are American defense contractors that manufacture unmanned aerial systems (UAS).
Two other companies, Auterion and Swan, are American software companies that have partnered with Ukrainian drone manufacturers to create drone prototypes.
The names of the Ukrainian companies were withheld by the DIU for security purposes.
The contracts were awarded after the Pentagon’s DIU and the office of the under secretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment reviewed 165 proposals for the project, including initial flight testing of the products produced by the companies that were awarded contracts.
“This was the intent of Congress’ direction to rethink how to get capabilities to the warfighter at speed and scale that can deliver much faster than traditional Programs of Record,” Emeneker said.
The contracts were awarded as part of the Pentagon’s Artemis project, which seeks to develop long-range one-way attack drones that are resistant to electromagnetic warfare systems and can operate without access to the navigational satellites that most drones rely on.
To that end, Ukraine’s efforts over the past three years to maintain a defense-industrial base while under invasion, deploy drones en masse, and operate in an electromagnetically contested environment, have given it and its defense companies unique experience that the United States military now hopes to capitalize on.
“Project Artemis goals are directly tied to observations of current real world combat conditions as well as feedback from end users across the DoD on what capabilities may be needed in this space to face near peer threat capabilities around the world,” a DIU statement reads.
The companies now under contract will now work to launch a successful prototype by the end of May.
In addition to operating in contested environments and without satellite access, Pentagon requirements for the working prototypes include that the systems be ground-launched, are affordable enough to deploy at scale, have a range of about 30 miles to 180 miles, can navigate at low altitude, and carry a variety of payloads.
U.S. military leadership has sought to strengthen and expand its drone capabilities in recent years as the war in Ukraine has unfolded and UAS have become central to both Ukrainian and Russian military strategies.
Though the U.S. military has been learning about the novel ways drones will likely be used in future wars from Ukraine, its primary concern is with China.
