NODA AI wins $10M Pentagon contract for drone swarm autonomy software

July 22, 2026 — NODA AI announced Wednesday it has secured a $10 million contract from the Department of War (the current name for the Department of Defense) to develop software that enables American military drones and autonomous vehicles to continue executing a commander's orders even after enemy jamming or cyberattacks disrupt communications links.

MAESTRO Program Overview

The contract funds an effort called MAESTRO (Multi-Domain Autonomous Enhanced System for Tactical Reasoning and Orchestration), which falls under the broader Pentagon initiative known as the Multi-Domain Collaborative Autonomy program.

The program addresses a critical challenge: the U.S. military operates a sprawling and growing mix of autonomous drones, boats, ground robots, and underwater vehicles built by dozens of different manufacturers. None of these systems naturally communicate with each other or share a common understanding of what a commander wants them to accomplish in combat.

NODA's software is designed to translate a commander's intent — the operational goal and rules set by a human officer — into coordinated action across all unmanned platforms simultaneously, regardless of manufacturer or physical domain (air, sea surface, undersea, or land).

Addressing Electronic Warfare Threats

Modern battlefields increasingly feature electronic warfare designed to jam radio signals and GPS. Adversaries like Russia and China have invested heavily in communications disruption as a way to blind and confuse American drones and robots.

NODA's algorithms are built to maintain what the company calls "custody of a commander's intent" even in denied, degraded, intermittent, and limited communications environments — engineering terms describing everything from a fully jammed battlefield to a spotty satellite link. This ensures autonomous systems continue pursuing their assigned mission rather than going dark or behaving unpredictably when contact with human operators is lost.

Official Statements

Dr. An Tran (Mike), Director of Prototyping within the Office of the Under Secretary of War for Research and Engineering, framed the contract as part of a broader Pentagon push to prove autonomy concepts through real testing:

"You cannot predict the next fight, but you can engineer readiness for any version of it, and that is exactly what this effort does."

"Affordable mass only matters if that mass can think and fight as one team when the network degrades. MAESTRO advances vendor-agnostic autonomy we can integrate across LUCAS and the broader Multi-Domain Collaborative Autonomy portfolio, then prove through disciplined T-REX extermination rather than promise on a slide. Our job is to turn that evidence into fielded, operational capability, first for the Joint Force and, in the near future, alongside our closest allies."

Philong Duong, CEO of NODA AI, described the contract as an extension of a basic military principle into robotic forces:

"Effective commanders project intent to subordinates and trust that they will execute. This contract advances that same first principle across an unmanned force: intent projected across dozens of platforms, any vendor, any domain, with the software maintaining custody of that intent when the network degrades. That is the evolution of autonomous deterrence and decisive autonomous engagement."

Integration with LUCAS and Other Programs

The contract explicitly ties into LUCAS (Low-Cost Uncrewed Combat Attack System), a one-way attack drone the Pentagon unveiled in July 2025. Key specifications include:

• Origin: Reverse-engineered from Iran's Shahed-136 loitering munition
• Manufacturer: SpektreWorks (Arizona-based)
• Unit cost: Approximately $35,000
• Dimensions: Roughly 10 ft (3 m) long with an 8 ft (2.4 m) wingspan
• Range: Approximately 500 mi (800 km)
• Combat use: Deployed with Task Force Scorpion Strike, a dedicated kamikaze drone unit activated by CENTCOM in the Middle East, including a launch from the deck of the USS Santa Barbara in the Arabian Gulf

NODA's integration work extends beyond LUCAS to other Pentagon autonomy programs, including systems known as MUSIC, Vigilant Spirit, and Arbitrator. The contract requires NODA to produce an interface and standards report that the government can use to extend integration work regardless of which specific vendors win future competitions.