DoD increasingly seeking ready-to-field COTS solutions in uncrewed systems: sources
NewsApril 24, 2024
SAN DIEGO, California. In the world of uncrewed systems, the U.S. military is more focused on finding commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) solutions that can be fielded rapidly rather than expensive bespoke platforms that take years to develop, sources at the XPONENTIAL 2024 exhibition say.
The war in Ukraine illustrates the rapidly changing modern battlefield where drones are taking a much more prominent role. The U.S. military knows it must be more agile in the future and sees COTS solutions as a way to do that, at least in the area of uncrewed systems.
The XPONENTIAL 2024 show was packed with numerous smaller companies showcasing many such solutions, from full UAS platforms to embedded systems that can be easily mounted on just about any vessel. This includes technologies such as electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR) technology that can be installed on an uncrewed surface vessel at a low cost, as well as cameras that use artificial intelligence (AI) to track targets automatically and can be mounted on any small drone.
During a keynote session at the show, Doug Beck -- the director of the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) -- touted the continuing work the Department of Defense is doing on the Replicator initiative, an effort to develop thousands of uncrewed systems within 18 to 24 months. The initiative was first launched less than a year ago and has already moved on to developing a second tranche of systems, and numerous companies are pitching platforms for that effort.
"The future force has to be agile," said Aditi Kumar, the DIU's deputy director of strategy, policy, and national security partnerships, in a DoD statement from earlier this year. "We have to have the necessary capabilities to deter conflict and, if deterrence fails, to fight and win the war."
The DoD appears focused on rapidly developed COTS-based solutions to achieve that for uncrewed systems.
