Navy Lab Lands Drone on Moving Ship With No GPS or Pilot as Autonomy Funding Surges
The Navy is moving on two fronts to cut its reliance on human pilots and satellite navigation. In one week it announced a drone that can land on a moving ship without GPS and committed another $150 million to a fighter-sized autonomous jet.
The Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division (NAWCAD), based at Patuxent River, Maryland, said an unmanned system can navigate missions and land aboard Navy ships without GPS or pilot control. The system uses the drone’s own camera to recognize a ship’s shape and visual cues. Guidance algorithms predict the deck’s rise and fall in real time so the aircraft can touch down smoothly.
The approach could replace costly shipboard infrastructure. Traditional landings rely on multimillion-dollar radar systems, recovery gear and ship modifications that can take months to install. NAWCAD says the software works with nearly any drone computer hardware and scales from small quadcopters to large combat-class aircraft.
The primary motivation behind this development is electronic warfare. NAWCAD aerospace engineer Peter Arslanian called GPS “the first operational link an adversary attempts to sever” in a high-end maritime conflict. GPS-free landing does not make an aircraft immune to electronic warfare, and as far as we (the public) know it doesn’t show the capability is qualified for every aircraft type or sea condition.
NAWCAD is now looking to move the technology into service. It is working with program offices at the Navy’s Small Tactical UAS program, the Collaborative Combat Aircraft program, and DARPA’s EVADE project. The lab also plans to adapt it to larger drones, including tactical resupply aircraft.
This announcement comes a week after the Navy put more money behind a far larger autonomous aircraft. On Oct. 8, Shield AI said the Navy had executed a $150 million modification to its agreement for X-BAT, an AI-piloted vertical takeoff and landing fighter, and that the company would invest $150 million of its own capital. Together with an earlier August action, announced public and private commitments to X-BAT now total $400 million.
X-BAT is meant to give naval commanders long-range strike aircraft that take off and land vertically from almost anywhere, without a runway. This could let the Navy fly combat aircraft from vessels other than its large carriers and amphibious assault ships. Flight testing is scheduled for later this year and eventually there will be mission capability slated for 2028. Shield AI plans a 420,000-square-foot engineering and production site in Des Moines, Washington. (Who knew that there was more than one Des Moines in America?)
The Navy is betting on aircraft that can launch, fight and recover without runways, remote pilots or satellite signals.
AUSA Round-Up
Lockheed Martin announced 6,000 new US jobs, including 2,000 in Texas, to expand advanced munitions manufacturing. It also released first details of its proposed weapon for the Army’s Future Interceptor program.
Raytheon announced a solid-rocket-motor variant of its Coyote counter-drone system called Coyote Block 2C+RM.
Anduril unveiled a new missile interceptor family, which Tectonic Defense identifies as Steelfin, a lower-cost lineup.
Northrop Grumman expects to start customer demos in 2027 of Lumberjack, a Group 3 drone developed with ESAero.
GM Defense showed an unmanned ground vehicle built on a Chevrolet Silverado 3500 truck which will be delivered to the Army in June as a protype.
Sikorsky is developing a containerized deployment kit for its Nomad 100 drone.
Rheinmetall showed combat vehicles, autonomous systems, air defense and ammunition.
BAE Systems unveiled a truck-mounted 155mm cannon (MDACS) that fires a guided Hypervelocity Projectile at drones and missiles. It also showed a high-power microwave system.
AeroVironment displayed Freedom Eagle-1, a low-cost kinetic counter-drone munition, and the Bullfrog M240 autonomous weapon system.
IAI unveiled three new air defense systems at the show.
RTX reported $729M in counter-drone orders from the U.S., Qatar and Jordan.
Sierra Nevada showed its Brawlr air defense system.
Ondas and Palantir are launching an AI defense firm called Regna AI.
Heaviside unveiled the TYR loitering munition.
Redwire won more orders to supply Stalker drones to the National Guard.
General Atomics and Hanwha Aerospace showed their co-developed Mojave short-takeoff drone.
X-Bow won a $69.7M Navy contract for solid rocket motors.
Leidos picked X-Bow boosters for its low-cost Army cruise missile. They also built their Sea Archer uncrewed surface vessel with its own money and no government contract.
HII got a $56M Navy AUKUS contract, with an option bringing it to $91M.
Defense Unicorns won an Army contract worth up to $350M for air-gap software.
Oshkosh showed an electric Joint Light Tactical Vehicle.
Hanwha displayed 155mm shells and an XM1776 artillery system, and the Army ordered nine of its K9 mobile cannons.
Gallatin AI raised $50M for military logistics AI.
Austin Sensing Company emerged with $15M for counter-drone sensing.
Epirus won an $18M Army contract to make its Leonidas system mobile.
Raytheon wins up to $6.3 billion to restock combat-tested SM-3 Block IB interceptors
Raytheon, an RTX business, has secured a five-year contract with two additional option years, valued at up to $6.3 billion, to produce and sustain Standard Missile-3 Block IB interceptors.
The deal is part of a broader set of agreements between Raytheon and the Department of Defense, and it supports urgent replenishment of missile defense inventory used in combat. Raytheon says the interceptor first saw combat in 2024, when U.S. naval forces used SM-3 missiles during the response to Iran’s attack on Israel.
The award is a reversal for the program because the military actually planned to stop buying the weapon just two years ago, but the Trump administration is now expanding missile production and reassessing interceptor inventories for its Golden Dome homeland defense initiative.
The SM-3 IB can be launched from ships or land-based installations, and it is designed to destroy short- to intermediate-range ballistic missiles in the midcourse phase of flight. Production will be done primarily at Raytheon facilities in Tucson, Arizona, and Huntsville, Alabama.
Michael Duffey, the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment, said the contract “provides production certainty to our defense industrial base” and helps break manufacturing bottlenecks among sub-tier suppliers.
The award follows a $24.4 billion Navy multiyear contract for SM-6 production, and in August the department signed framework agreements with RTX and Boeing to expand SM-3 component production. The pace of replenishment will depend on contract execution and manufacturing capacity. The contract runs through 2034.