DIU picks four companies, including two Ukrainian teammates, for one-way drone prototypes
“We are excited about the non-traditional companies who are providing low-cost, adaptable, long-range, UAS platforms with the potential to maximize operational flexibility for the Joint force,” said DIU’s Trent Emeneker.
A Ukrainian soldier launches a hand-held drone in 2015 (Petro Zadorzhnyy/AFP via Getty Images)
WASHINGTON — Heeding a congressional directive, the Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) has selected four companies to proceed with development of long-range, one-way drones capable of reaching their targets amid stiff electronic warfare interference, the office announced today.
The awards in the Artemis program went to US-based drone makers AeroVironment and Dragoon, as well as software firms Auterion and Swan, each of whom is partnered with one of two separate, unnamed Ukraininan drone producers, according to a DIU press release. Contract values were not disclosed.
True to the name of the Greek goddess of the hunt, Artemis aims to deliver a ground-launched prototype that can takeoff “quickly and expeditiously” and fly anywhere from 50 km (31.1 miles) to over 300 km at low altitudes.
Following a solicitation for bids posted just over four months ago, DIU moved quickly to sift through 165 proposals, carry out flight demonstrations and issue contracts, the DIU release says. According to Defense News, Artemis stems from a congressional item in the aid package passed for Ukraine last year.
“We are excited about the non-traditional companies who are providing low-cost, adaptable, long-range, UAS platforms with the potential to maximize operational flexibility for the Joint force,” Trent Emeneker, DIU’s program manager for the effort, said in the agency’s release. “This was the intent of Congress’s 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 told Defense News that two of the drones have a range of roughly 100 km while the other two can fly over 1,000 km. The smaller drones DIU is evaluating cost under $20,000 each, while the larger systems run closer to $70,000, the outlet reported.
The “next step,” according to the DIU notice, is to complete prototyping and “demonstrate success” by May 2025, with the goal of having a “successful prototype” in hand by the end of this fiscal year.
After publication of this article, a DIU spokesperson said in response to questions from Breaking Defense that “ideally” the Artemis program will conclude with four successful vendors, which will provide “multiple options” for potential DoD partners to carry the designs forward — meaning that “there will likely not be a single ‘winner’ who is picked.” Additionally, the drones should be able to carry “multiple types of kinetic payloads (blast, shaped charge, etc.),” including the capability for electronic warfare and signals intelligence “if desired.”
Overall the Artemis effort aims to deliver a capability in dire need on the modern battlefield highlighted by the conflict in Ukraine, where drones have formed the tip of the spear of frontline fighting. As the war has dragged on, dense electronic warfare has disrupted the use of many systems, leading to interest in alternative navigational techniques, like terrain mapping, so that drones can avoid interference and dodge detection by emitting fewer signals that can be picked up by sensors. Operators additionally try to fly systems as low as possible, hugging the curvature of the earth, to avoid adversary radar.
When the solicitation for Artemis was announced, DIU also asked for systems that can carry a payload of at least 10 kg, with a goal of over 25 kg. The solicitation further asked for platforms that can incorporate third-party software and hardware systems in a “modular, warm-swappable manner,” and that “proprietary interfaces, message formatting, or hardware that require vendor-specific licensing are not permitted.”
“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,” the DIU release says. Through the Artemis program, DIU and the Pentagon’s acquisition and sustainment office “are moving rapidly to provide an option for Services and Combatant Commands to choose from, delivered years in advance of current Program of Record timeframes.”
UPDATED 3/14/25 at 2:54 pm ET with additional information from DIU.
