DoW and U.S. Navy Announce Contract With Raytheon to Accelerate Standard Missile-6 Production

Oct. 1, 2026 |

Today, the Department of War announces a U.S. Navy award of $24.4 billion to Raytheon, an RTX business, to accelerate production of the Standard Missile-6 (SM-6), a critical anti-air and anti-surface warfare munition. This five-year agreement, with two additional option years, will drive faster production, increase manufacturing throughput, and deliver significant cost savings across the defense industrial base.

"Our mission is to ensure our warfighters never enter a fair fight," said Michael P. Duffey, Under Secretary of War for Acquisition and Sustainment. "This multi-year award locks in the magazine depth and lethal dominance our forces need to prevail, while demanding our industrial base produce at war-speed."

This agreement, coupled with the recent Tomahawk weapon system award, provides the defense industry with the long-term predictability needed to expand workforce capacity and secure critical supply chains. Together, these strategic investments ensure our warfighters remain equipped with the advanced capabilities required to maintain global maritime superiority.

About the Office of the Under Secretary of War for Acquisition and Sustainment:
The Office of the Under Secretary of War for Acquisition and Sustainment (A&S) equips the Joint Force and Allies with secure, resilient, and decisive capabilities. Driven by an unwavering commitment to the warfighter, A&S executes a portfolio-driven strategy to field advanced technologies at speed and scale. By accelerating acquisition and modernizing critical infrastructure, A&S is actively rebuilding the Arsenal of Freedom and securing our nation's enduring military advantage against any pacing threat.

Department of War's Critical Technologies Office Partners With In-Q-Tel to Accelerate Technology From Non-Traditional Performers to the Warfighter

Oct. 2, 2026 |

The Office of the Under Secretary of War for Research and Engineering (R&E), through the Office of the Assistant Secretary of War for Critical Technologies (CT), has announced an agreement to partner with the Central Intelligence Agency and In-Q-Tel (IQT), a not-for-profit strategic investor that has served the national security community since 1999.

The partnership gives the Department's research and engineering enterprise structured access to IQT's global technology-scouting platform and its portfolio of early-stage companies, with the explicit objective of compressing the timeline to transition and rapidly field mature commercial solutions from non-traditional performers to the warfighter.

The Department of War has mandated six Critical Technology Areas (CTAs) as the focus of its investment and transition efforts: Applied Artificial Intelligence, Biomanufacturing, Contested Logistics Technologies, Quantum and Battlefield Information Dominance, Scaled Directed Energy, and Scaled Hypersonics. Under the agreement, IQT will conduct technology scouting and technical due diligence across all six CTAs, as well as across enabling technology areas, while the Department identifies transition sponsors and pathways for validated technologies.

"In a contested global threat environment, technological superiority will not be determined by who invents a capability first, but by who delivers it to the warfighter fastest. The Department is fundamentally shifting its posture: we are moving from acting solely as a long-cycle technology developer to operating as an agile, credible, and rapid customer for America's most innovative non-traditional performers. Our partnership with In-Q-Tel eliminates bureaucratic friction across our six CTAs. Over the next 12 months, our benchmark for success is simple and unambiguous: moving validated commercial prototypes out of the lab and into active operational field evaluations with our combatant commands," said Hon. Michael Dodd, Assistant Secretary of War for Critical Technologies.

The integration leverages In-Q-Tel's proven venture capital methodology to vet early-stage commercial solutions that align directly with the Department's urgent mission requirements. By combining CT's strategic transition pathways with IQT's deep-tech scouting infrastructure, the partnership aims to significantly de-risk the integration of commercial hardware and software for national security applications, signaling to the commercial tech sector that the Department of War is open for business.

Joint pilot programs under this new partnership will begin in the coming weeks, targeting immediate battlefield bottlenecks. By aligning IQT's venture ecosystem with the Department's rapid transition pipelines, both organizations aim to establish a permanent bridge that converts commercial ingenuity into deployed military capability at the speed of relevance.

Department of War Champions 'Brilliant at the Basics' for Cybersecurity Awareness Month

Oct. 1, 2026 |

Arming warfighters, workforce, and industry partners with actionable cyber defense practices to strengthen security posture and safeguard the mission.

The Office of the Chief Information Officer today launched the Department of War's "Brilliant at the Basics" campaign for Cybersecurity Awareness Month. The monthlong initiative reinforces core cybersecurity fundamentals across both Information Technology (IT) and Operational Technology (OT) environments to provide best practices for navigating an evolving threat landscape while maintaining a decisive digital edge.

"Cybersecurity starts with the basics," said Honorable Kirsten Davies, Department of War chief information officer. "This Cybersecurity Awareness Month, we are sharing foundational, actionable steps for our warfighters, civilian workforce, and defense industrial base partners to protect our technology ecosystem, both IT and OT. As we pursue innovative technologies, and reintegrate our industrial base, we must also maintain strong cyber fundamentals that protect our people, systems, and mission. Being 'Brilliant at the Basics' is not just a slogan; it is a mission imperative."

The campaign will deliver daily posts, actionable tips, and practical resources structured across four weekly themes:

• Be Aware: Understand digital environments and identify vulnerabilities across connected IT networks, OT infrastructure, and government-furnished equipment.
• Be Vigilant: Practice proactive security measures including strong authentication, credential hygiene, and anti-phishing tactics to reduce cyber risk.
• Be Secure: Protect mission-critical data and systems by reducing internet-facing systems, encrypting connections, patching, and ensuring only authorized equipment connects to defense networks. 
• Be Connected: Champion a culture of collective defense by promptly reporting suspicious cyber activity and promptly responding to cyber tasking orders.

Recognizing that small, medium, and nontraditional businesses drive critical innovation for our warfighters, the campaign provides tailored guidance and accessible resources directly to DIB partners. The initiative will also spotlight low-cost and no-cost cybersecurity support programs that align with the IT and OT best practices issued by the Department in July 2026 to support the hardening of the Department's broader industrial base.

For more information, daily campaign updates and event schedules, follow the official DoW CIO social media channels and the CIO's website at dowcio.war.gov.

Government AI Models Advancing, Increasing Productivity

Sept. 30, 2026 | By David Vergun, Pentagon News |

The War Department is working with industry partners to deploy the latest and greatest American artificial intelligence models and platforms, officials said today during GenAI.mil Excite Day at the Pentagon. 

Some 1.7 million users are currently using artificial intelligence within the department, said Deya Banisakher, acting director for Frontier AI at the Chief Digital Artificial Intelligence Office and program manager for GenAI.mil.

Banisakher and others spoke today during GenAI.mil Excite Day at the Pentagon. 

Some 1.7 million users are currently using artificial intelligence within the department, Banisakher said. Everyone with a common access card can access Google's Gemini, Starshield AI's Grok for Government and OpenAI's ChatGPT Mil. 

"We've recently gotten closer and closer to parity with commercial models and platforms, where we started releasing models on the same day as public releases," Banisakher said. 

The models are increasing productivity throughout the department.  

"People are able to research, summarize and extract information from droves of data that they previously couldn't do," he said, adding that AI is saving billions of man-hours. 

Warfighters can code applications on the fly. It's aiding graphic designers, operations research, acquisition and finance professionals, as well as warfighters across the services, he said. 

For example, within the Navy, Banisakher said a project would take developers two to three years to code manually, costing upward of $10 million. However, three Navy developers recently used GenAI.mil to modernize that coding in 30 days. 

The goal is to accelerate AI adoption throughout the department by putting the right tools and platforms in warfighters' hands and plugging into their workflows at all classification levels. 

The next step will be putting AI on the Secret Internet Protocol Router Network and on the Joint Worldwide Intelligence Communications System. 

Jonathan Buchanan, the authorizing official for the GenAI.mil platforms, said the three AI platforms soft-launched to ensure they could be scaled for the department and be monitored for security and performance.  

"I think we're just scratching the surface with what is totally possible with these platforms. I feel like we are headed in a very good trajectory with how these platforms directly affect the warfighter and the capabilities that will bring to bear in the future," he said. 

Gerard Connolly, a Starshield AI Grok for Government technician, said that as large language model databases improve over time, AI will become even more useful and powerful. 

Grok focuses on four things, Connolly said. It can create teams and share work. Automations in Grok have been trained to do certain tasks and provide timely updates. Grok's projects mode lets teams upload files, collaborate within a workspace and train others on those files. The AI platform's skills mode rapidly generates recurring administrative documents like executive summaries and battlefield updates. 

More than 300,000 people in the department have been using Grok since it launched last month, and Connolly said he expects that number to rise. 

ChatGPT Mil launched concurrently and is seeing similar numbers. 

"We are excited because that tells us that the users are not only sort of onboarding but are staying, and they're finding value in the product that we have," said Jonathan Bal, lead for the War Department portfolio at OpenAI. 

Bal added that as AI is integrated into workflows, the hope is that it accelerates warfighter productivity. 

Gemini for Government, which launched in December 2025, was the first AI platform deployed throughout the department. Joshua Marcuse, director of defense strategy at Google Public Sector, said the workforce uses it for tasks such as coding, designing chips, recruiting, hiring, promotions, retention, finance, cybersecurity and detecting insider threats. 

Marcuse said national security is a passion for people at Google Public Sector, adding, "We're so proud to serve this mission." 

Army Nears Crucial Brain Health Testing Milestone

Sept. 30, 2026 | By Joe Lacdan, War Media Activity |

About 97% of soldiers have used the Neurocognitive Assessment Tool, helping medical professionals combat the effects of blast overpressure and low-level blast exposure, the Army's top leader overseeing safety and occupational health said.

"It demonstrates our commitment to cognitive safety, medical readiness and warfighting capability," said Jordan Gillis, the assistant secretary of the Army for installations, energy and environment.

The War Department established the NCAT as a required cognitive baseline assessment to monitor and track soldiers' brain health and support recovery from traumatic brain injuries.

Soldiers in impacted career fields, including those operating heavy weapons systems such as field artillery, combat engineers and explosive ordnance disposal technicians, must take the assessment under a War Department directive.

Troops in these fields must take the assessment upon entering the military, before deployment and following an injury or suspected concussion. The Army requires soldiers in high-risk military occupational specialties to complete the assessment annually and for all soldiers to take the test every three years.

According to studies published by the National Institutes of Health, continuous exposure to blast shockwaves has been linked to traumatic brain injuries.

As the Army's designated agency safety and health official, or DASHO, Gillis oversees the Army's safety and occupational health program.

The NCAT is part of a broader overpressure program that the Army will soon publish in a servicewide directive, he said. The core tenets of the program include hazard assessment, risk assessment and exposure tracking, risk mitigation, cognitive monitoring, information management, illness and injury reporting, and training and education.

The Army identified blast overpressure and low-level blast exposure as critical occupational safety and health hazards.

"It affects everyone differently," Gillis said. "The takeaway is we are trying to take care of soldiers and monitor their health. And if there is an impact, we'll be able to treat them."

Soldiers from across the force — active duty, Army National Guard and Army Reserve — must complete the NCAT; they began taking it in 2024. To further set an example for soldiers, Gillis recently took the test himself at the Pentagon Special Missions Auxiliary Clinic.

"This was the perfect time to be wearing both my DASHO hat and my Army Reserve hat and to meet the requirement that I have in the reserve [component] but also set the example for everyone across the force," he said.

Gillis, a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve, serves as a field artillery officer, which places him in the high-risk category for blast overpressure effects.

During his years on active duty, he suffered injuries while deployed in support of Operation Enduring Freedom, for which he received a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star Medal. He knows firsthand the impact of exposure to heavy weapons fire and improvised explosive devices.

"I am from the era of soldiers who grew up in the height of the global war on terror, and many of us were exposed to blast overpressure through things like IED attacks," Gillis said. "I myself experienced several IED attacks, and so I believe from personal experience that this is important to do."

Gillis said managing soldier cognitive health and preventing potential traumatic brain injury and side effects remains a top readiness priority.

"[The NCAT] is an important part of taking care of soldiers, but what this does is, it sets a baseline for reaction times and for memory," he said. "By establishing a baseline for all soldiers, we're able to monitor brain health, as well as … let medical providers help with treatment, if required."

Robotics Competition Winners Advance Military Exploration of Humanoid Capabilities

 Sept. 29, 2026 | By Eleanor Kent, Army FUZE |

The Army named five companies as winners of its xTechHumanoid competition Sept. 11, capping an effort to assess how emerging commercial humanoid technologies could contribute to future military operations.

As the Army looks to robotics and autonomy to reduce soldier exposure to dangerous and physically demanding tasks, preserve combat power and give commanders more options, humanoid systems represent a growing area of exploration. That work extends across the joint force through the Humanoid Community of Collaboration, which was established in December 2023 to advance the technical development and operational integration of humanoid capabilities. 
 
The competition was a partnership between HCoC and the Army FUZE xTech program, which scouts and accelerates dual-use technologies that directly enhance soldier readiness and mission success. 
 
They launched xTechHumanoid to identify promising commercial approaches and establish a technical baseline for an emerging capability area. The competition offered Army and joint force stakeholders a direct look at the maturity of technologies in development across the commercial humanoid robotics market. 
 
"Humanoid robots are part of a broader autonomy push to increase the depth and breadth of robotic platforms, and [the] components industry can provide for a range of missions," said Alex Miller, the Army's chief technology officer. "We are identifying the problems, mission needs and opportunities to enable our formations with the right mix of tools. xTech is our method of surveying the industry landscape and fast-tracking promising technology rather than falling victim to yearslong studies." 
 
The competition drew 103 white paper submissions spanning baseline humanoid forms and advanced subsystem technologies. The top 10 companies advanced as finalists, with nine ultimately demonstrating their technologies for military leaders, technical experts and evaluators at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia, Sept. 9-10.
 
Following the demonstrations, the Army selected five xTechHumanoid winners: 

• ACES Group — an integrated power system designed to address energy needs across humanoid robotic systems with scalable energy storage technologies for applications ranging from larger operational infrastructure to individual robot batteries.  
• IHMC Robotics — "Alex," a humanoid robot featuring impact-resilient actuators, ballistic protection and hybrid autonomy combining artificial intelligence and human control for complex and dangerous missions. 
• Hydroplane Limited — a lightweight, compact mobile power-generation system designed to provide long-duration power in contested logistics environments.
• Ras Labs — highly sensitive fingertip tactile sensors designed to enable robotic systems to detect force, object form, slip and other physical interactions. 
• Velocity Explorations — software that builds on the company's command-and-control technology to translate trusted information and command intent into discrete actions for humanoid robotic systems. 

For participating companies, xTechHumanoid created a direct connection between commercial technology development and operational demand, providing opportunities to challenge their solutions, sharpen their understanding of mission needs and better identify where their capabilities could deliver military value.  
 
"The xTech competition is really an interesting and unique one because it allows you to pressure test your technology in a field exercise paradigm," said Alec Leesberg, Velocity Explorations president and cofounder. 
 
Anita Sengupta, founder and CEO of Hydroplane Limited, said competing makes companies better and connects them to a network of people across the military and the industry. 
 
With the competition complete, xTechHumanoid provides the Army and joint force a clearer picture of both the progress commercial industry has made in humanoid robotics and the technical challenges that remain, helping inform where continued development and experimentation can deliver the greatest value to the warfighter. The Humanoid Community of Collaboration is already building on those insights through its next lines of effort, including work to address power and energy constraints that could shape the operational employment of humanoid and other robotic systems.

Department of War and RTX Accelerate Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile Production Through $20.7B Award

Sept. 28, 2026 |

Today, the Department of War (DoW) announces an award to Raytheon, an RTX business, a contract that consists of a five-year multi-year contract with two option years valued up to $20.7 billion to produce Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles (AMRAAM), a critical air defense capability for U.S. and allied forces. This contract marks the latest victory in the Department's campaign to expand the munitions industrial base, nearly doubling AMRAAM production compared to previous levels.

"We are working across the defense industry to ramp production and build the Arsenal of Freedom," said Under Secretary of War for Acquisition and Sustainment Michael P. Duffey. "This award strengthens our ability to equip the Joint Force and our allies with a proven air-to-air capability, ensuring our warfighters maintain a decisive advantage."

Executed collaboratively by the Department of War, the U.S. Air Force, the Navy, and Foreign Military Sales allies, this joint program investment represents the latest major step to scale domestic manufacturing and fortify the security of our nation and its global partners.

The Department appreciates congressional partnership in providing multiyear procurement authority for AMRAAM and looks forward to continued support for additional authority and funding that would enable sustained production and greater certainty for the industrial base in the years ahead.

The contract was awarded Sept. 25, 2026.

About the Office of the Under Secretary of War for Acquisition and Sustainment:
The Office of the Under Secretary of War for Acquisition and Sustainment (OUSW(A&S)) equips the Joint Force and allies with secure, resilient, and decisive capabilities. Driven by an unwavering commitment to the warfighter, A&S executes a portfolio-driven strategy to field advanced technologies at speed and scale. By accelerating acquisition and modernizing critical infrastructure, A&S is actively rebuilding the Arsenal of Freedom and securing our nation's enduring military advantage against any pacing threat.

About Portfolio Acquisition Executive (PAE) Weapons:
Portfolio Acquisition Executive (PAE) Weapons is a Department of the Air Force organization responsible for the design, development, production, and sustainment of a family of air-to-ground and air-to-air munitions for both U.S. and allied nations to defeat a spectrum of enemy targets.