LASSO — which was a new-start program in the previous budget — is now part of the service’s Launched Effects family of systems and has been realigned under that line item in the 2026 budget.

Drone maker AeroVironment has been manufacturing Switchblade systems for the initiative. The Switchblade 600 carries high-precision optics and an anti-armor warhead. It has upwards of 40 minutes of loitering endurance, a range of 40-plus kilometers, and a “sprint speed” of 185 kilometers per hour, according to a product description from the vendor. The all-up round weighs 65 pounds.

The request for additional loitering munitions — also known as kamikaze drones or one-way attack drones because they’re designed to destroy their targets by crashing into them — in 2026 comes as officials are undertaking a new Army Transformation Initiative to modernize the force for future high-tech combat. The service is moving to divest of capabilities that are outdated and put more money into other equipment.

“The Army Transformation Initiative, or ATI, as we’ve coined it, is a strategic shift. We’re reinvesting resources to ensure our future dominance as part of the joint force,” a senior Army officials told reporters Thursday at the Pentagon during a background briefing about the budget. “We made some tough choices to shed outdated systems and programs that no longer meet our demands of the modern battlefield,” including divesting from legacy anti-tank missiles, they noted.

Kamikaze drones have played a major role in the Ukraine-Russia war, and U.S. military leaders are taking lessons from that conflict as the seek to modernize their forces.

The Army is aiming to deliver five brigade combat teams-worth of loitering munitions in fiscal 2026. The budget request includes about $68 million for 98 fire control units, 294 all-up rounds and other program elements under LASSO. Nearly $13 million in reconciliation funding would procure an additional 19 LASSO production systems.

“Infantry Brigade Combat Teams (IBCTs) lack adequate proportional organic capabilities at echelon to apply immediate, point, long range, and direct fire effects to destroy tanks, light armored vehicles, hardened targets, defilade, and personnel targets, while producing minimal collateral damage in complex terrain in all environmental conditions,” officials wrote in budget justification documents.

Army leadership wants to give troops new kamikaze drones to fill that capability gap.

The man-portable LASSO is a day/night capable, lightweight, unmanned aerial anti-tank weapon that includes an all-up round and fire control system, according to an Army description of the technology.

“The LASSO range requirement is to fly less than or equal to 20km (straight line with auxiliary antenna) with a flight endurance that enables the Soldier to make multiple orbits within the IBCT typically assigned battlespace, to acquire and attack targets within and beyond current crew served and small arms fire. The range/endurance enables the unit to utilize reach back capability and maximize standoff. Unlike existing direct and indirect fire weapon systems, LASSO’s discreet payload and unique capability delivers Soldiers the ability to abort against targets in a dynamic situation (e.g., use of human shields) or prosecute targets that would have been deemed non-viable in past due to the higher collateral damage associated with alternative munitions,” according to budget documents. Follow-on increments are expected to support capabilities for company and below echelons, focusing on increased range, enhanced lethality and advanced payload options.

Officials noted that the program is aligned with ATI and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s directive for Army transformation and acquisition reform.

It’s also intended to support the Army’s transforming-in-contact initiative — an effort spearheaded by Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George with a particular focus on unmanned aerial systems, counter-UAS and electronic warfare capabilities — and expand prepositioned stocks in the Indo-Pacific region, where the U.S. military is concerned about a potential future conflict with China.

The LASSO program will use other transaction authority for contracting, which is intended to cut through bureaucratic red tape and help the military field new technologies faster than traditional acquisition processes. Officials also intend to award up to four hardware contracts to modernize the industrial base and generate domestic ammunition stockpiles, according to budget documents.

The post Army’s fiscal 2026 budget proposal aims to equip infantry brigades with more kamikaze drones appeared first on DefenseScoop.

The organization’s aircraft survivability equipment (ASE) initiative has a number of efforts underway aimed at developing a suite of sensors and countermeasure systems to protect platforms currently in the inventory as well as those that are in the works, such as the Future Long Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA). Col. Brock Zimmerman, program manager for ASE, said many of the new programs are being designed to detect and defeat adversary capabilities at much longer ranges than the Army’s current systems.

“We’ve seen a dramatic change in the threat landscape. There’s threats out there that we didn’t think about 15 years ago, now with [unmanned aerial vehicles] and things like that — non-standard types of activities that some of our adversaries are conducting,” Zimmerman told DefenseScoop during an interview on the sidelines of the annual AUSA conference. “We’ve got to be able to see and detect further out, and that’s what we’re doing. Everything that we do is … threat driven.”

One program under ASE that aims to help the Army sense farther into the battlefield is the Improved Threat Detection System (ITDS), a next-generation missile warning sensor that will be integrated across the service’s aviation fleet. The infrared sensor suite will enable soldiers to detect and classify threats, as well as cue appropriate kinetic or non-kinetic countermeasure systems — such as the new laser-based Common Infrared Countermeasure (CIRCM) — to defeat them.

ITDS is intended to replace the Army’s legacy Common Missile Warning System, which has reached its limits in terms of how far it can sense enemy capabilities, Zimmerman said. 

After hosting a handful of companies at Aberdeen Proving Ground for “sensor rodeo” demonstrations to test potential solutions, the ASE office awarded Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin an other transaction agreement (OTA) in July for phase 1 of ITDS.

The program’s OTA is only authorized for a two-year work period as the Army works to approve a finalized requirement for ITDS, Zimmerman noted. The two vendors will conduct a technology demonstration that will allow the department to evaluate the effectiveness and maturity of the two solutions, after which the service hopes to move forward with a single solution.

“We’re waiting on that requirement to get finalized so that we can go back and possibly do a Middle Tier Acquisition, where I would think we would downselect … based off what we’re seeing for the first two years with Lockheed and Northrop,” Zimmerman said.

While running its own modernization efforts, ASE is also keeping a close eye on Army Aviation’s development of launched effects, Zimmerman noted. The small, unmanned drones are designed to be deployed from both manned aircraft and ground-based launchers, and the service is currently experimenting with a variety of sizes that offer different ranges.

For aircraft survivability, having sufficient range from launched effects will be imperative, Zimmerman said.

“There’s so many countries that are using capability [and] we can’t even see it. That’s what we’re trying to do, to be able to see further and detect further,” he said. “So whatever comes from [Army Aviation] will be a game changer — not only for fixed wing aircraft, but for helicopters too.”

Moving forward, however, the ASE office is bracing for possible challenges in receiving adequate funding for all of its programs. The fiscal crunch is being felt across the entire Defense Department, as competing priorities and repeated continuing resolutions from Congress in recent years have put several efforts in jeopardy.

In the face of financial constraints, Zimmerman said his office is trying to think outside the box in how it addresses budgetary challenges and manages its money.

“If they changed our Army procurement objective numbers, how can we kind of recolor our money to take care of our own bills that we had presented to the Army, and then change that flavor of money to something else?” he said. That could entail taking funds allocated for another program’s research and development and putting it towards ITDS.

The program office is also working closely with both the aviation and the ground communities to determine what sensors and countermeasure capabilities are most needed, and how they can be fielded in an efficient way, he said.

“Since we’re in this fiscal constraint, we can’t put everything on every aircraft,” Zimmerman said. “I think that’s where the aviation enterprise comes in, and we’ve got to work together to figure out what exactly that looks like, what’s in the realm of possible to do that holistic survivability or layered defense approach.”

The post Army eyes modernized, long-range systems to bolster aircraft survivability appeared first on DefenseScoop.

Ground-launched loitering munitions have proliferated across battlefields in recent years including in Ukraine and the Middle East. Now, SOCOM is looking for similar weapons that can be dropped from a variety of aircraft in its inventory, including gunships, helicopters and large unmanned aerial systems.

The command began accepting capability submissions this week, and a downselect is slated for March. Those that make the cut will receive an invitation to attend the assessment event in April at the SOFWERX facility in Tampa, Florida, where they can pitch and showcase their tech, according to a special notice posted on Sam.gov.

Unlike traditional munitions, kamikaze drones can fly around until they identify a target. And unlike armed unmanned aerial systems that launch missiles, kamikaze drones destroy their target by crashing into it.

SOCOM’s stand-off precision guided munitions program office “currently supports Special Operations Forces (SOF) aircrews with short range munitions that are employed directly to known targets, visually identified by the shooter aircraft before launch, and use existing precision terminal guidance solutions such as Global Positioning System (GPS). USSOCOM has determined these traditional methods and sensors are not optimal for operations in a time compressed and highly contested environment and is looking for [air-launched loitering munitions] with improved sensor technologies to decrease the engagement time from minutes to seconds, improve targeting solutions, and increase the survivability of SOF,” according to the special notice.

The command “intends to survey industry for mature technology with minimum development required to support rapid fielding of this capability,” the notice states. “If the USSOCOM evaluation panel favorably evaluates a solution brief, negotiations for [the next phase] may immediately begin.”

The next phase will include flight demonstrations anticipated for later this year. Those events will give the command a pathway to downselect systems for full integration, operational testing, production and fielding, according to officials.

The desired endurance for the loitering munitions is 45 minutes for weapons that can be deployed from a common launch tube, and 120 minutes for those that use other launch methods. The desired range for those is 20 nautical miles and 60 nautical miles, respectively, according to assessment criteria provided by SOFWERX.

Other characteristics of interest include minimum and maximum airspeed and altitude; payload capacity; sensors and seekers; command and control; counter-detection; warhead and fusing; aircraft integration standards; and employment from a variety special ops aircraft.

The command is eyeing loitering munitions that could be deployed from AC-130J Ghostrider gunships, MQ-9 Reaper drones, MH-60 helicopters and other platforms.

Submissions from those who wish to participate in the assessment event are due March 15.

SOCOM isn’t the only Defense Department component on the hunt for air-launched drones with loitering capabilities.

For example, the Army has a Launched Effects program. In December, the service conducted a successful flight test involving the launch of an Anduril-made Altius 700 unmanned aerial system from a Black Hawk helicopter, according to a release.

Anduril has developed a loitering munition variant of the system known as the Altius 700M.

The Army planned to conduct a flight test of a fully integrated launched-effects prototype early this year. The service is aiming for a final operational demonstration by the end of fiscal 2024 and a rapid fielding decision in 2025, per the release.

The post SOCOM gearing up to assess air-launched kamikaze drones appeared first on DefenseScoop.

The other transaction agreements are for phase 1 of what the Army calls its Launched Effects program, which envisions small drones or payloads released by larger aircraft, either manned or unmanned. These smaller systems could include a variety of payloads and have the ability to loiter over a target, being either recoverable or expendable.

This first of multiple phases, worth around $100,000 for each vender payload, will develop a statement of work for the effort for the next two phases and mature existing payloads from technology readiness level 6 to 7, and then integrate them within the infrared and electronic warfare realms.

The Army said the overall value for the program OTA is expected to be around $37 million across the three phases.

“Phase 2 will mature the TRL 6 payloads and integrate them into a captive carry test event, leading to Phase 3, which will be a final integration and flight test in a chosen uncrewed aerial vehicle,” said Dennis Teefy, project director for sensors-aerial intelligence in the program executive office for intelligence, electronic warfare and sensors.

Northrop Grumman was awarded for two payloads and Lockheed was awarded for one.

Lockheed is currently the prime contractor on a variety of Army electronic warfare programs of record. They include the Multifunction Electronic Warfare Air Large — pod-mounted to an MQ-1C Gray Eagle drone as the first brigade-organic airborne electronic attack asset that can also provide limited cyberattack capability; the Terrestrial Layer System-Brigade Combat Team, which is the Army’s first integrated electronic warfare, signals intelligence and cyber platform that includes a dismounted solution provided by CACI subsidiary Mastodon Design LLC, as well as Stryker variant and eventually an Army Multi-Purpose Vehicle variant; and the Terrestrial Layer System Echelons Above Brigade, which is designed for primarily divisions and corps that will need to monitor and sense the battlefield across greater distances.

The Army has described a need for such launched effects in the electronic warfare realm as a means of extending the range of jamming and sensing capabilities while also distributing such effects from manned platforms.

By gaining a higher altitude than ground platforms, these sensors can conduct operations across longer ranges. When it comes to distributing effects, the Army has discussed the notion of “disaggregating” its jamming or electronic attack capabilities as a means of protecting other platforms.

Once a jamming capability is turned on, it becomes a target for the enemy as it can be sensed within the electromagnetic spectrum and geolocated. The Army wants to prevent expensive ground platforms, such as the Terrestrial Layer System, from being destroyed while also protecting the soldiers inside.

The Launched Effects effort spans multiple program executive offices that will support several Army aviation needs. It is still being fully defined by PEO Aviation with the first iteration aimed at supporting user evaluations prior to fielding with the Army Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft (the successor to the OH-58 Kiowa) and the Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft (the successor to the UH-60 Blackhawk), the Army said.

PEO IEW&S is the primary organization handling the sensing and non-lethal Launched Effects payloads.

The Army has also said it is looking at prototyping for Ground Launched Effects, however, that effort isn’t mature yet.

The post Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman score awards for Army’s ‘launched effects’ initiative appeared first on DefenseScoop.