Defense Business Brief: SECARMY’s dream marketplace; USARPAC + USVs; and Quantum EOs

ARLINGTON, Va.—From rockets to tanks, the Army wants to expand its current Amazon-esque marketplace where soldiers, allies and partners now buy drones and counter-UAS tech. 

“The grand strategy of conflict going forward is compatibility,” Army Secretary Dan Driscoll told reporters Tuesday during the Army’s industry day for low-cost interceptors. “The way that small nations like Finland are going to be able to partner with large nations like the United States, and we are going to be able to parachute into a theater where a lot of our stuff doesn't exist, is that our allies have compatible equipment to us.”

To do that, everyone needs to have the right “plumbing” for information-sharing, “and then—in theory, in a perfect world, you want everyone buying from the same places. They don't have to buy the same thing, but they want to buy that compatible stuff,” Driscoll said. “We're functioning almost like Consumer Reports, where we are reviewing many of the products on there, we're allowing other countries to put their reviews on there, and then…just let free market forces dictate what are the best products.”

The service already has dedicated marketplaces for cUAS and aerial drones and, last week, inked a deal with NATO allies and partners to use the platforms. Nine partner countries signed a letter of intent at the Eurosatory conference: Denmark, Finland, France, Italy, Lithuania, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom, the Army confirmed to Defense One. They join the eight nations already signed on: Australia, Argentina, Estonia, Poland, Romania, Singapore, South Korea, and Thailand.

The unmanned aerial system marketplace has approximately 45 companies represented and more than $200 million in sales, said Brent Ingraham, the Army’s acquisition chief. It’s also generating sales from allies and partners. 

The ultimate goal is to have just one platform with virtually all Army materiel available. And when a soldier places an order, it goes directly to the vendor within 24 hours.

“We're merging the marketplaces together,” Ingraham told reporters. “When a soldier goes in and says: I want to buy 110, 300 of some product on this on the current UAS or counter-UAS marketplace, that automatically kicks directly over to an order that flows to that company.” 

Driscoll described a future, broader digital marketplace as something that could reshape how the military positions materiel abroad vis-à-vis prepositioned stock: “It's kind of a rewriting of how we, the United States, can engage in conflict abroad.”

And perhaps, one day, low-cost interceptors could be a part of that marketplace. The Army plans to release an RFI for low-cost interceptors July 6 with a four-week window for submissions, and the goal of having tech demonstrations by the first quarter of fiscal year 2027.   

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USARPAC + drone boats. Gen. Ronald Clark, commander of U.S. Army Pacific, is all about using unmanned systems for logistics and sustainment. But the key is working with companies that can build what the command needs.  

• The Army primarily uses watercraft for sustainment, which is something unmanned surface vessels could help with “at range and scale,” Clark told reporters. 
• “We're not there yet, but again, we're working with a number of companies to try to get them to build to the requirements we need to assist us with the business of logistics and sustainment on behalf of the joint force across the Pacific. So [there’s] a lot of opportunity associated with unmanned and uncrewed systems.”
• When it comes to numbers and size of the USVs, Clark said he is open—as long as it gets the job done. 
• “I got asked a question at the Pacific Forum by a vendor, if I would rather have one 200-foot autonomous system or 20 10-foot autonomous systems—and I said both.”
• “The bottom line is: we have to be able to provide logistics and sustainment at scale. And as the theater Army, our responsibility to provide resiliency to the joint force through logistics and sustainment is part of our mission” and the service is “working directly with companies to try to build what we need in order to meet the requirements to be able to conduct both inter and intra-theater logistics.”

All quantum everything. The Pentagon released its “Post Quantum Cryptography Strategy” Tuesday, following the signing of two White House executive orders designed to speed up development of quantum computing. 

• Those orders charge the department with identifying at least three new quantum sensors in the next 60 days, which would then be fielded by September 2028. 
• But while the Pentagon’s strategy says it “will update, replace, or remove from use edge systems” with quantum-vulnerable cryptography, modernization “is only a first step,” Kirsten Davies, the department’s chief information officer, said Wednesday at a SAP event in Washington, D.C. “It's important, but it's only a first step.”
• All in all, the moves have spurred much excitement from the quantum industry: 
• "America’s quantum moment is arriving," Victor Peng, CEO at PsiQuantum said in a statement to Defense One. 
• Sristy Agrawal, Mesa Quantum co-founder and CEO, said U.S. tech dominance “relies on quantum, from computing to sensing” and the executive orders ensure “the domestic quantum ecosystem will continue to grow and flourish.” 
• Background: Quantum computing promises the ability to solve problems and make calculations that modern binary computers can’t handle, which could mean discovering new materials or compounds, and breaking the encryption used to safeguard state secrets and financial data. 
• But while the tech still needs to be proven, the EOs make it the last piece in a trifecta—alongside AI and semiconductors—for the future of compute. Get the whole story from Nextgov’s Alexandra Kelley here.

Making moves + other news

• The Pentagon announced plans for a 90-day assessment of its research labs and development centers. 
• Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., raised ethics concerns with the Trump administration’s nominee to lead space acquisition, Erich Hernandez-Baquero, Raytheon’s vice president for space intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance. 
• Rune snagged a $99 million contract with the Army for predictive logistics. 
• The Marine Corps ordered more than 70 of Polaris’ MRZR Alphas as part of the Ultra-Light Tactical Vehicle, or ULTV, contract.
• Robert Neller, the former Marine Corps commandant, joins critical minerals company Mint Innovation as a strategic advisor.
• The Defense Logistics Agency awarded eVAC Magnetics $13 million to manufacture domestic rare-earth magnets.
• Robert Geckle will be the new CEO for Thales’s North American business on July 1. Geckle was previously the CEO of Airbus U.S. Space & Defense.
• Booz Allen plans to acquire the defense tech company Ultra Mission Solutions for $720 million.