AFRL awards $14.9 million contract for autonomous battle-management network

The contract announcement does not identify a specific artificial intelligence architecture or algorithm. It does, however, explicitly identify automated reasoning and decision support as functions of the intelligence engine, indicating that the effort is intended to provide automated information-processing and reasoning capabilities within a broader battle-management system.

Key Highlights

  • AIS received a $14.9 million contract to develop an intelligence engine for autonomous battle management systems.
  • The project focuses on automated reasoning, decision support, and machine intelligence integration.
  • Work aims to enhance real-time data processing, intelligence fusion, and autonomous command capabilities.

ROME, N.Y. - The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) has awarded Assured Information Security Inc. (AIS) a $14.9 million contract to develop the intelligence engine for the Agile, Assured, and Autonomous Battle Management Network (3A-BMN), a research effort focused on automated reasoning and decision support for battle-management applications.

The contract announcement does not identify a specific artificial intelligence architecture or algorithm. It does, however, explicitly identify automated reasoning and decision support as functions of the intelligence engine, indicating that the effort is intended to provide automated information-processing and reasoning capabilities within a broader battle-management system.

AFRL's Information Directorate identifies adaptive command-and-control systems, machine intelligence, and large-scale multi-agent systems for autonomous planning, tasking, and execution among its research goals. Its processing and exploitation research also focuses on near-real-time data processing, intelligence correlation and fusion, and machine learning for improving decision speed.

Related: Air Force taps DSD Laboratories for logistics IT, DevSecOps and agentic AI

Agility needed

3A-BMN was identified in the fiscal 2026 defense authorization process as the Agile, Assured, and Autonomous Battle Management Network and Readiness Accelerator. The FY2026 defense authorization included $5 million for the program at Rome Lab.

AIS already had a public connection to the 3A-BMN effort. In December 2025, N.Y. senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand said AIS had been selected to advance the 3A-BMN solution in partnership with the AFRL Information Directorate in Rome. https://www.militaryaerospace.com/sensors

The available public information does not establish whether the intelligence engine will use large language models, knowledge graphs, neural networks, agentic AI, or another specific AI architecture. It also does not identify the specific operational data sources, sensors, communications systems, or battle-management platforms with which the intelligence engine will integrate.

The effort is nevertheless notable because it addresses the intersection of automated reasoning, machine intelligence, command and control, and decision support in a distributed battle-management environment.

The $14,925,264 firm-fixed-price contract calls for AIS to design, integrate, and validate the full intelligence engine that will drive automated reasoning and decision support within the 3A-BMN system. Work will be performed in Rome, New York, and is expected to be completed 21 Nov. 2028. AFRL's Rome, N.Y., facility is the contracting activity.

About the Author

Jamie Whitney

Editor-in-Chief

Jamie Whitney joined the staff of Military & Aerospace Electronics in 2018 and oversees editorial content and produces news and features for Military & Aerospace Electronics, attends industry events, produces Webcasts, and oversees print production of Military & Aerospace Electronics.

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