SOF Week 2026: NSW expands commercial UxS push to maritime platforms as USASOC advances FPV drone effort
A U.S. Naval Special Warfare Combatant Craft Assault tows a MARTAC T-38 Devil Ray unmanned surface vessel during Exercise Balikatan 25 at Subic Bay, Philippines, May 5, 2025 (Photo: DVIDS)
The US Army Special Operations Command and Naval Special Warfare are accelerating efforts to integrate commercial uncrewed systems, with NSW broadening its solicitation to include USVs and UUVs alongside new requirements for ISR, kinetic operations and swarm technologies.
The US Army Special Operations Command (USASOC) and Naval Special Warfare (NSW) continue to update requirements to exploit commercial uncrewed systems (UxS).
On 5 May, NSW extended its UxS Commercial Solutions Opening (CSO) solicitation beyond air platforms to include uncrewed surface vessels (USVs) and uncrewed underwater vehicles (UUVs).
The CSO is designed to assist NSW in the ‘development, procurement and integration of UxS in support of the joint force, special operations forces (SOF) and allied SOF’, according to the solicitation.
Updated areas of interest demand USVs capable of being reconfigured to conduct a range of missions, ranging from intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) through to kinetic engagements.
UUVs are being explored to support ‘subsurface ISR, seabed reconnaissance and bathymetric surveying through the employment of a UUV system’, as well as kinetic engagements, the updated solicitation reads.
NSW is also seeking commercial solutions capable of controlling USV and UUV systems in addition to ‘versatile USV payloads’, including the launch and recovery of marsupial uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs).
Additional areas of interest include counter-UxS, maritime interdiction operations technology and over-the-horizon targeting technologies.
Finally, the solicitation called for ‘small, man-packable, portable’ USV and UUVs, and ‘innovations in mine countermeasure (MCM) technology and maritime swarm technology’. Submissions to NSW must be made before the end of the year.
The initial CSO focused on UxS ‘as a service’ and first-person-view (FPV) drones – an increasingly popular capability rising in prominence in the ongoing war in Ukraine for both sides of the conflict.
Elsewhere, USASOC will close its Drones at the Speed of SOF (DATSS) solicitation on 21 May. The Fort Bragg-based command is also seeking ‘commercial UxS and components, FPV platforms and organic UxS production supplies capable of supporting USASOC and subordinate units’.
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