Blog · Unmanned systems

Which Door Fits Your Product? Four Routes Into the Navy's Drone Business

Chris A. Grable · October 8, 2026

A firm with an unmanned maritime product usually starts by asking how to get onto the Navy's marketplace. The better first question is what the product is, because that decides which of four routes applies and what each can produce. Choose the wrong route and a company can spend months on a package that was never going to list its product, or wait for an OT that its chosen route cannot deliver.

Step 1: Understand what the storefront is

The Navy runs no marketplace of its own. Its Robotic and Autonomous Systems office controls the Maritime storefront inside the DOW Drone Marketplace on drones.mil. The whole marketplace operates under one Commercial Solutions Opening, W58RGZ26SC001, owned by the Army, and the Navy shapes its storefront by issuing calls under that opening. Companies do not register for the storefront. Products qualify one at a time against a Call for Solutions written for their category.

In early October 2026 the Navy had a single call open, for Phase II medium unmanned surface vessels (MUSV), posted as notice N0003926RR002. The Army had rolling calls for unmanned aircraft and for payloads, software, components and accessories. No call had been posted for unmanned undersea vehicles or for surface craft outside the MUSV requirements.

Step 2: If you build a vessel, test it against the call first

The MUSV call sets seven requirements, and missing any one ends the pursuit:

Autonomous operation in open ocean.
Design and build certification matched to size: American Bureau of Shipping class or equivalent at 24 meters and longer; below 24 meters, a Coast Guard Certificate of Inspection for inspected vessels or a Government or delegated third-party inspection for uninspected ones.
At least 10 days of unmanned operation.
Operation in Sea State 4 and survival in Sea State 6 under NATO STANAG 4194.
Buy American Act compliance.
Capacity for at least two containerized twenty-foot payloads of 24,000 kilograms and 25 kilowatts each.
No more than 5,000 metric tonnes full-load displacement or 90 meters in length. There is no minimum length.

Next, compare the vessel you would demonstrate with the vessel you would sell. The call caps the difference. Length overall and beam may grow by no more than 15 percent and full-load displacement by no more than 10 percent. Hull type, hull and deckhouse material and propulsor type may not change, and the autonomy provider and baseline must stay the same. A production design outside those limits will not be considered.

Step 3: Budget the sea demonstration as your own cost

The Government funds none of the three qualification steps. The demonstration runs from a port in the continental United States for five consecutive days or less, with up to six Government witnesses and command and control from a land-based facility in the continental United States. The centerpiece is an unmanned mission of at least 24 continuous hours, covering 24 or more waypoints and at least 300 nautical miles, including at least one hour of autonomous operation with no link to the control station. The vessel must also handle at least 20 contact interactions under the collision regulations, and AIS data may not inform its autonomy. The result is pass or fail.

A pass makes the offeror eligible for onboarding. The third step is a priced proposal judged against the offeror's standard commercial pricing and covering the complete vessel, recommended spares, standard repair, operator and maintainer training, technical support and commercial warranty, with data-rights assertions under DFARS 252.227-7017. Only then is the vessel listed.

Step 4: If no call fits, choose the route by the result you need

Three other routes exist. None of them lists a product.

The PAE RAS Front Door. An email to RAS leadership, or a pitch, briefing or meeting request through the intake portal. The result is a conversation with the program office.
An Innovative Warfighter Solutions brief under the parent opening. A formal competitive submission of up to five written pages or fifteen slides, one concept per brief, against a listed area of interest such as maritime surface and undersea systems. It can lead to a FAR Part 12 contract, an OT or a purchase under 10 U.S.C. 4023, subject to selection and funding.
DOW Drone OTA Consortium membership. An online application and vetting review for the organization. It prepares the firm to compete for member opportunities; the public opportunities page showed none open in early October 2026.

A payload, software product or subsystem may also fit the Army's components call. That call's definitions are written around aircraft, so UDC recommends confirming the fit with its contracting officer before building a packet.

Step 5: Treat a listing as the starting line

Qualification produces an agreement with no minimum order. End users then choose among listed vessels on three factors: how well the capability meets the unit's need, total price and lead time after order. The Government also keeps the right to buy through other instruments, including other agencies' contracts, OTs and newly negotiated FAR-based contracts. The listing makes a vessel available to order. The selling starts after it.

Public sources

The paper behind this post cites these public documents, among others.

The full paper takes the Navy call step by step, lists every required sea-demonstration event, flags the inconsistencies in the call worth raising with the Agreements Officer, and closes with seven recommendations.

Getting into the DOW Drone Marketplace

See what is in the paper