NODA AI wins 10 million dollar Pentagon contract to build MAESTRO drone command software resilient to jamming
NODA AI has won a $10 million Department of War contract to build MAESTRO, software keeping US military drones executing a commander's orders even after jamming or cyberattacks cut comms, per Defence Blog. It integrates with the Pentagon's autonomy program and the LUCAS attack dr
NODA AI has won a $10 million contract from the Department of War, the renamed Department of Defense, to build software called MAESTRO that keeps American military drones and autonomous vehicles carrying out a commander's orders even after enemy jamming or cyberattacks sever their communications links, according to Defence Blog. MAESTRO, short for Multi-Domain Autonomous Enhanced System for Tactical Reasoning and Orchestration, falls under the Pentagon's broader Multi-Domain Collaborative Autonomy program and is designed to translate a commander's intent into coordinated action across drones, boats, ground robots, and underwater vehicles built by different manufacturers, without requiring proprietary middleware. The contract ties into LUCAS, the Low-Cost Uncrewed Combat Attack System reverse-engineered from Iran's Shahed-136 loitering munition and built by Arizona-based SpektreWorks, which has already seen combat use in the Middle East with Task Force Scorpion Strike. Dr. An Tran of the Office of the Under Secretary of War for Research and Engineering said the effort is meant to prove autonomy concepts through testing rather than presentations. NODA's software will be validated through live, multi-domain demonstrations under communications-jammed conditions meant to simulate contested battlefield environments.