This investment reflects a strategic alignment between Booz Allen’s expertise in AI, autonomy and defense tech with PDW’s proven, domestically produced drone platforms to accelerate the delivery of mission-critical UAS capable of advanced surveillance, operating in contested environments, and strike missions.

This work aims to directly address the Pentagon’s focus on domestic drone manufacturing and its urgent call for reliable, autonomous drone capabilities at scale. As a domestic manufacturer, PDW designs, engineers, and produces systems at its 90,000-square-foot drone factory in Huntsville and is capable of producing 100,000 drones annually.

“Drones are rapidly reshaping the speed, scale, and economics of modern warfare,” said Randy Yamada, vice president at Booz Allen. “Our investment in PDW reflects a shared focus on accelerating the deployment of mission-ready, resilient, American-manufactured drone capabilities. By aligning advanced autonomy with domestic production, we are making the kinds of capabilities the Department of War needs to stay ahead a reality and directly supporting its Drone Dominance Program.”

“At PDW, we aren’t just creating new capabilities, we’re building the industrial capacity to deliver drones at meaningful scale,” said PDW CEO James Slider. “This means expanding American manufacturing capacity, scaling next-generation engineering teams, and anchoring our supply chain here at home to put the U.S. and its allies in a position of strength. This is the capability gap PDW was built to close and the mission we execute against every day.”

This investment enables Booz Allen to bring its autonomy and digital engineering expertise to bear, developing new solutions that reduce the burden on the operator. It represents a significant commitment to bolstering the U.S. domestic drone manufacturing industry while making a real mission impact for the warfighter at the cost and scale the U.S. military needs.

“Booz Allen invests in companies that deliver mission impact at speed and scale,” said Bryce Pippert, executive vice president at Booz Allen. “PDW’s U.S.-made drone systems are a great fit for our portfolio and our Defense Tech teams who are advancing the next generation of autonomous capabilities.”

Source: Booz Allen

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Developed as part of AV’s holistically integrated C-UAS strategy, Halo_Shield introduces a unique, tile-based layered defense architecture that is open, scalable, and adaptable to today’s evolving threats. The system is designed to support emerging homeland defense priorities by enabling resilient, area-wide protection of high-value U.S. and allied partner assets, including borders, military installations, and other critical infrastructure. AV is currently demonstrating capabilities and has deployed Halo_Shield tiles at select critical sites.

“The character of the air threat has fundamentally changed,” said Wahid Nawabi, chairman, president, and chief executive officer at AV. “Cheap, massed, and coordinated aerial systems are stressing traditional point defenses. Halo_Shield is our answer—a collaborative, modular approach that brings together the best of AV and a trusted supplier ecosystem to close those gaps.”

At the core of Halo_Shield is a mission-tailored, distributed and domain-specific tile architecture—comprising Sentinel, Terrestrial, Nautical, Aerial and Celestial tiles. Each tile delivers a specialized combination of sensors, effectors, and command-and-control capabilities, drawing on technology from AV and its trusted ecosystem of suppliers. The result is a cost-efficient defense architecture that is offense-ready, extends protection beyond point defense and sustains decisive situational advantage in contested battlespaces across air, land, sea and space.

Designed for plug-and-play integration, Halo_Shield is deployable as portable fly-away kits and integrates seamlessly with existing customer sensors, effectors, and command-and-control frameworks—delivering scalable, resilient, area-wide protection with minimal training and personnel demands. Powered by AV_Halo, AV’s unified software platform, the system is purpose-built yet agnostic, designed to incorporate new capabilities while seamlessly integrating with customers’ existing command-and-control systems.

“Halo_Shield is engineered like an edge processing-capable set of tiles for modern air defense,” said Larry Lloyd, senior vice president of strategic initiatives at AV. “Each tile is a self-contained capability that can operate on its own or snap together to build exactly the defense architecture a mission demands. That modularity lets operators scale, adapt, and reconfigure in real time as threats evolve, without redesigning the system or retraining the force. It’s how you move from static point defense to a living, mission-tailored shield.”

Source: AeroVironment

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USAFRICOM is seeking interested commercial vendors for targeted Industry Sessions to be held in Luanda, Angola. These sessions will take place during a larger, continent-wide conference scheduled for June 30 – July 1, 2026 with up to 300 attendees. While the main conference has its own agenda, these specific Industry Sessions are a separate, USAFRICOM-hosted opportunity focused on showcasing military technologies, supplies or services available for acquisition by African Partner nations.

Selected vendors will be provided with a dedicated space to present their capabilities. They will also be invited to attend the main conference sessions as observers.

Primary Areas of Interest

The U.S. Government is interested in vendors with capabilities in the following fields, though all submissions will be considered:

• Geospatial: Drones (UAV/UAS), Commercial GEOINT, Remote Sensing, and Tracking Systems
• Command and Control: C4ISR and Airborne C2 Systems
• Consulting & Administrative: Systems Integration, Enterprise Architecture, and Acquisition Management
• Drones (UAV/UAS) and Counter-UAS: Platforms as well as Counter-UAS and IED detection technologies
• Big Data & Software: Intelligence Analytics, Social Media Analysis, Open Source Intelligence, and Artificial Intelligence
• Cyber: Cyber/Info Security, Intrusion Detection, and Vulnerability/Threat Assessment

Review the USAFRICOM industry day information.

Source: SAM

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ESAero is recognized for its deep engineering expertise, innovative electric and hybrid propulsion capabilities, rapid aerospace prototyping, and AS9100 Certified UAS manufacturing. Operating out of a 32,000 sq. ft. design and prototyping facility and a 53,000 sq. ft. manufacturing facility in San Luis Obispo, CA, with multiple integration and test facilities in the area, ESAero has expanded its operations to support system testing and advanced product development. ESAero’s culture of technical rigor and rapid innovation also aligns with AV’s mission-focused approach and commitment to developing mission-critical solutions tailored to U.S. Department of War requirements.

“ESAero brings an impressive agility in moving from design to manufacturing, which will accelerate AV’s ability to bridge the gap between conceptual design and manufacturing execution,” said Wahid Nawabi, chairman, president, and chief executive officer at AV. “ESAero’s capabilities are vital to addressing the urgent demands of a fast-growing defense tech market, where emerging needs are driving next-generation innovation and product development. We look forward to welcoming the team to the AV family.”

“Joining AV represents a unique opportunity to amplify the reach and impact of our innovative work and achieve greater success,” said Andrew Gibson, president, CEO and co-founder of ESAero. “By combining ESAero’s engineering and manufacturing capabilities with AV’s unmatched expertise in autonomous systems, we are positioned to advance disruptive aerospace technologies and deliver real, timely value for our customers. I’d like to thank the talented ESAero team for their unwavering dedication, whose efforts have brought us to this pivotal point in our journey.”

The acquisition will further solidify AV’s position as a global defense technology leader spanning air, land, sea, space, and cyber domains and enhance the company’s ability to seamlessly transition from innovative design to advanced manufacturing—a capability critical to addressing the urgent demands of an evolving defense tech market, according to the company.

Source: AV

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Most RF detection systems identify and match signals against a library of known threats. As adversaries field increasingly advanced UAS and rapidly modify existing systems, the volume of unknown threats is growing. Hidden Level’s Power in the Sky continuously monitors the RF environment, identifies novel threats, and immediately translates them into actionable kinematic tracks, the company said.

“The threat landscape has fundamentally changed,” said Brad Garber, COO of Hidden Level. “Adversaries are deploying systems specifically designed to evade library-based detection. Power in the Sky was built for this reality, giving operators the ability to detect and respond to unknown threats before they gain the tactical advantage.”

Power in the Sky is built directly into Hidden Level’s Airspace Monitoring Service, with no additional equipment required. It integrates with optics and command-and-control systems and covers air, ground, and maritime environments delivering awareness that goes beyond traditional drone detection to address the full spectrum of emerging, non-standard threats.

“Power in the Sky highlights the flexibility of Hidden Level’s mission-defined hardware,” said Kevin May, VP of product and programs. “To deploy this capability there’s no rip-and-replace and no new infrastructure. Our systems are built to evolve and deliver substantial new capability through software, extending performance while protecting customer investment.”

Source: Hidden Level

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The agreement builds on an existing agreement established in 2015 with Malloy Aeronautics (which was acquired by BAE Systems in 2024) who supply their uncrewed all electric logistics platform (T-150) to SURVICE Engineering, who support the US Armed Forces, including the US Marine Corps, with specialist combat equipment including uncrewed logistics platforms.

“The agreement comes at a time when UAS are increasingly important to defense and security, conducting a variety of roles from low-cost logistics to more complex and capable uncrewed systems that can operate alongside crewed combat aircraft.  We look forward to working together with SURVICE Engineering to develop this capability for the rapidly evolving battlespace,” said Anthony Gregory, business development director, BAE Systems FalconWorks.

“Partnering with Malloy, our successes include fielding the TRV-150 to the USMC and US Army and demonstrating use cases beyond logistics, including mine clearing, obscurant deployment, and weaponisation. The agreement with FalconWorks is a logical next step to continue advancing UAS technologies and use cases and we are excited to expand our relationship across the BAE FalconWorks portfolio and look forward to many more successes,” said Greg Thompson, president, SURVICE Engineering.

The new agreement will see BAE Systems and SURVICE Engineering working together to explore opportunities for collaboration across a wider product portfolio of small / tactical UAS. This agreement forms part of a wider BAE Systems strategy to accelerate new possibilities in uncrewed air systems to meet national and international defense and security requirements.

Source: BAE Systems

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“By integrating IonQ’s world-leading quantum technologies, Heven AeroTech will deliver a new class of unparalleled UAS capabilities,” said Niccolo de Masi, chairman and CEO of IonQ. “This partnership positions Heven’s drones to tackle missions no other player can with unmatched precision, resilience, and security.”

Founded in 2019, Heven AeroTech is a Virginia-based company that pioneered the use of hydrogen fuel cell propulsion in aerial vehicles, enabling its drones, like the Heven Z1, to fly up to 600 miles for more than 10 hours. Unlike traditional electric or fossil fuel drones, Heven’s systems combine long-endurance flight with advanced autonomy and renewable energy-powered stealth capabilities, positioning the company as a trailblazer in aerial robotics.

The partnership unlocks IonQ’s deployment of quantum technologies in real-world aerospace scenarios while providing Heven AeroTech access to cutting-edge quantum capabilities that further differentiate its offerings in defense, intelligence, and aerospace markets.

“IonQ’s quantum technologies are a natural fit for our hydrogen-powered aerial platforms,” said Ben Levinson, founder and CEO of Heven AeroTech. “This partnership enables us to push the boundaries of endurance, autonomy, and security in ways previously thought impossible. Together, we’re building a new generation of uncrewed systems that can thrive in contested environments and deliver critical capabilities for the missions that matter most.”

As part of the partnership, Jordan Shapiro, president and general manager of IonQ’s Quantum Networking, Sensing & Security division, will join Heven AeroTech’s board of directors. The move reflects IonQ’s growing leadership in applying quantum innovation to next-generation defense platforms.

Source: IonQ

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“Amentum’s unmanned aerial solutions are designed to ensure the MQ-9 Reaper remains a formidable force in complex, dynamic environments,” said Mark Walter, president of Amentum’s engineering and technology business. “Our experience delivering enhanced mission capabilities and MQ-9 unique operational constructs, such as Satellite Launch and Recovery (SLR), offers innovative versatility and efficiency to meet the U.S. Air Force’s evolving and dynamic mission needs.”

Specifically, Amentum will deploy specialized professionals, weapons loading strategies, and aerospace ground equipment solutions in the U.S. and globally for the MQ-9 Reaper to reinforce combat readiness and training capabilities at designated sites.

“Amentum is uniquely positioned to enhance the operational excellence of the MQ-9 Reaper,” said Amentum senior vice president of modernization and training, Mark Evans. “Our legacy dates back to early systems like the MQ-1 Predator and the RQ-4 Global Hawk, which provided Amentum with deep technical insights and operational proficiency in MQ-9 systems worldwide.”

Source: Amentum

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The Edge Autonomy Stalker is purpose built with a modular open systems approach (MOSA) to meet multiple mission needs. With flexible payload capacity, the Stalker can easily integrate compact drones to support the U.S. Army across multiple echelons including platoon, company, battalion, and brigade. The Black Widow can be mounted under the center wing of the Stalker as a deployable payload, extending mission range with the Stalker acting as a carrier, launch platform, and communications relay.

“Our Stalker is combat proven with exceptional long-range reconnaissance capabilities,” said Steve Adlich, president of Edge Autonomy. “When paired with the well-recognized short-range reconnaissance of Teal’s Black Widow, we provide frontline warfighters with greater mission reach and reliable data for efficient and effective decision making.”

The Black Widow, part of Red Cat’s Family of Systems, is a secure, NDAA-compliant ISR drone designed to deliver real-time intelligence at the tactical edge and is built to meet the mission-critical needs of U.S. and allied forces.

In November 2024, the Army selected the Black Widow for its SRR Tranche 2 program, which provides reliable and efficient intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance tools for soldiers in the field.

“This collaboration represents a major step forward in how tactical drones are deployed across multiple echelons,” said Jeff Thompson, CEO of Red Cat. “The integration of short- and long-range reconnaissance systems answers the Army’s requirements for a rapidly deployable, easily portable tactical situational awareness in even the harshest contested areas.”

Source: Redwire

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This Special Notice is being issued by Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane Division (NSWC Crane), in support of the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering [OUSD(R&E)], and other entities within the Department of Defense (DoD).  This Special Notice is intended to be a Request for Submissions for participation consideration in the Silent Swarm 2026 Experimentation Event.

Silent Swarm is a series of events focused on experimentation with early development Electromagnetic Spectrum Operations (EMSO) capabilities that can be employed on attritable, multi-domain Unmanned Systems (UxS). The Silent Swarm series provides a challenging and flexible experimentation environment to enable rapid development of emerging technology. Selected participants will be able to further develop their technologies while operating in an operationally relevant sandbox environment alongside subject matter experts (SMEs) from joint operational and technical communities.

Given the extraordinary reliance of the DoD on commercial vendors and private sector solution providers, NSWC Crane will require a combined effort of industry and government experts to bring innovative initiatives into the experimentation event to achieve definable specific outcomes.  Small and large businesses, along with University Affiliated Research Centers (UARC), Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDC) and Government activities are encouraged to submit in response to this request for submissions.

Review the Silent Swarm 2026 notice.

Source: SAM

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