ARLINGTON, Va. Uncrewed aerial system (UAS) manufacturer AeroVironment (AV) reports that its Switchblade 600 loitering munition system has been selected for Tranche 1 of the first iteration of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) Replicator initiative, the U.S. government's drive to field thousands of autonomous systems across multiple warfighting domains.

ARLINGTON, Va. The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) reports that it accomplished full-scale, in-water testing of the Manta Ray prototype uncrewed underwater vehicle (UUV) -- built by Northrop Grumman -- during February and March 2024. 

ALPHARETTA, Ga. Energy-storage provider Stryten Energy reports that it received a contract award from the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) Family of Advanced Standard Batteries (FAStBat) project to develop and evaluate a prototype 6T lithium-ion battery and potentially extend the technology to other cross-service platforms.

XPONENTIAL 2024 -- SAN DIEGO. Association for Uncrewed Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) officials announced during a keynote address at XPONENTIAL 2024 that the entitiy has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) as a way to create a process for uncrewed systems manufacturers holding Green UAS [uncrewed aerial system] certification to share their data directly with DIU, with the aim of potentially including "Green-Certified" components on the DIU’s Blue UAS Framework list.

AUBURN, Ala. Auburn University Research and Innovation Campus (AURIC) is slated to become a technical-support base location for the U.S. Space Development Agency (SDA).

FALLS CHURCH, Va. General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT) won a contract worth $922 million to modernize the U.S. Central Command's (CENTCOM) enterprise IT infrastructure.

MCLEAN, Va. IT consulting firm ValidaTek secured a contract with the U.S. Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) that it says will help the agency maintain the availability, security, and stability of its infrastructure.