US DIU autonomous naval systems development

In mid‑July 2026 the U.S. Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) began expanding its portfolio of autonomous maritime capabilities. It announced partnerships with Norway’s Kongsberg and Oceaneering International to define concepts and design studies for the Combat Autonomous Maritime Platform (CAMP), an extra‑large uncrewed undersea vehicle (XLUUV) intended for future Navy missions. At the same time DIU selected Kansas‑City‑based Tesseract Ventures to prototype a Containerized Autonomous Drone Delivery System (CADDS), a modular platform that lets a single operator control multiple drones from a containerized unit for operations in austere environments.

Later in July, DIU moved to surface‑vehicle development by launching the $300 million Suitable Warfighting Adaptive Payloads‑Unmanned Surface Vessel (SWAP‑USV) Challenge. The competition seeks commercially mature uncrewed surface vessels capable of carrying and launching at least two small unmanned aerial systems for surveillance, electronic‑warfare, communications relay, and precision‑strike missions. The program, built on tactics first employed by Ukrainian USVs in the Black Sea, aims to counter low‑cost maritime threats such as explosive USVs, smuggling boats, and semi‑submersibles. The progression reflects DIU’s broader effort to field modular, interoperable autonomous systems across both undersea and surface domains.