Anduril wins $100M deal from CDAO to scale ‘edge data mesh’ capabilities

The Pentagon’s Chief Digital and AI Office has awarded Anduril a $100 million other transaction agreement to scale its “edge data integration services capabilities” for the U.S. military, the Defense Department announced Tuesday in its daily list of major contract awards.

The work on the three-year production deal is estimated to be completed by November 2028. The production OTA was previously competed as a prototype other transaction, according to the DOD.

“The mesh is already operational across multiple services and combatant commands, delivering critical data that enables mission-relevant generative artificial intelligence (AI) solutions specifically tailored to the unique requirements of the warfighter. This agreement will accelerate the expansion of the mesh to increase access to decentralized, distributed and disconnected systems, and to power new insights and real-time decision making at the edge,” Anduril said in a press release.

Any U.S. military service or combatant command can leverage the new production OTA, according to the company.

The award comes as the Pentagon is pursuing an initiative known as Combined Joint All-Domain Command and Control (CJADC2), which aims to more effectively and efficiently connect the sensors, shooters and data streams of the U.S. military services and key allies. The CDAO is working to enable that warfighting construct with artificial intelligence capabilities and other digital tools.

Anduril’s “tactical Edge Data Mesh” offering is enabled by the firm’s Lattice Mesh software platform, which can connect with and operate on a variety of sensors, weapons, platforms and other systems, according to the contractor.

The firm describes the tool as a “decentralized networking capability that seamlessly distributes critical data across platforms, domains, and partners by intelligently prioritizing data paths to ensure the most efficient flow of critical data.”

Other DOD components have awarded contracts to Anduril for Lattice-related capabilities recently. Just last month, the company announced that the Space Force’s acquisition arm had awarded the organization a nearly $100 million contract to upgrade the service’s Space Surveillance Network (SSN) with Lattice software to enhance autonomous processing and distribution of data from a vast network of military space sensors.

The deal with the CDAO announced Tuesday comes as the Defense Department is pursuing next-generation drones and counter-drone technologies via initiatives like Replicator.

Anduril is touting Lattice as an enabler of “autonomous battle networks.”

“Warfighters at the edge will be enabled to publish and subscribe to data in support of time sensitive operations or where large numbers of manned, unmanned and autonomous systems must collaborate in contested environments to advance the mission,” according to Anduril’s press release. “The extensibility of this [Lattice] system allows Anduril and CDAO to add integrations to support command and control of autonomous systems and counter-autonomous systems.”