WASHINGTON — The Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) has opened the second phase of a prize competition aimed at rapidly fielding mature unmanned surface vessels (USVs) capable of countering airborne threats, offering up to $40 million in awards for qualifying prototypes.
Dubbed the Suitable Warfighting Adaptive Payloads (SWAP)-USV challenge, the initiative addresses a critical capability gap: the Navy’s current reliance on high-cost, exquisite platforms to defeat low-cost, low-signature threats such as explosive USVs and small unmanned aerial systems (UAS). According to a DIU solicitation released Thursday, existing force packages lack the persistent, distributed capacity to search for, track, and defeat these threats at an economically sustainable cost.
Sprint 2 specifically calls for USVs equipped with mature hard-kill counter-air effectors and clutter-resilient sensor suites to identify and neutralize hostile airborne targets in contested maritime environments. Platforms must demonstrate a minimum operational range of 200 nautical miles and a sustained speed of at least 10 knots. Proposed solutions must integrate proven hulls, resilient sensors, interoperable command-and-control architectures, and mature effectors to deliver affordable, scalable persistence while shifting the cost-exchange ratio in favor of the defense.
The solicitation requires counter-air effectors capable of engaging Group 1–3 UAS and rotary-wing aircraft—the smallest classes of unmanned systems—while the capacity to engage larger Group 4 and 5 platforms is “highly desired.”
Submissions for Sprint 2 are due by November 30, with in-water testing slated to begin in early 2027. The competition’s first sprint launched in July, with testing expected this fall. A final third sprint is scheduled to commence in spring 2027, concluding with on-water demonstrations that summer. While Sprints 1 and 2 each offer up to $40 million in prize money, Sprint 3 carries a $20 million pool. DIU noted that the government has earmarked $200 million for follow-on prototype or production contracts stemming from the competition.
The program is executed in partnership with the Direct Reporting Portfolio Manager for Unmanned Systems and the Direct Reporting Portfolio Manager for Robotic and Autonomous Systems.
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