There’s a lot of attention right now on the Pentagon’s proposed FY27 $54.6 billion budget for the Defense Autonomous Warfare Group (DAWG). A year ago, that figure was $225 million, making this a roughly 240x increase in a single budget cycle. Most of the commentary frames it as a massive bet on drones, and it is. But that is only part of the story. 

We already know how to build autonomous systems. The barrier to entry is dropping quickly, and low-cost platforms are proliferating, something we’re seeing play out in real time in the Iran War. But in many cases, these systems are still operating on pre-planned routes, executing scripted behaviors, or functioning as one-off assets rather than as part of a coordinated whole. They can be effective, but they’re not being used to their full potential.

 The military is quickly deploying these systems and the need for heterogeneous collaborative autonomy is on the rise.

We saw that clearly at Swarm Forge, where the question wasn’t whether a single system could perform, but whether multiple systems could coordinate across a mission, from sensing to decision-making to execution, under real constraints.

At small numbers, autonomy is manageable. At a larger scale, it becomes something else entirely. Communications degrade while systems compete for the same space and information instead of working as a team. Scale changes everything. What works in isolation doesn’t hold up when distributed across dozens or hundreds of platforms.

The advantage is no longer defined by the capabilities of individual systems, but by how effectively those systems can adapt and operate together as teams, especially in environments where communications, positioning, and infrastructure can’t be relied on.

But even that framing only goes so far. Once you reach a certain level of scale, the problem isn’t just coordination. It’s how those systems are directed in the first place and who decides what gets done, when, and how that intent is carried through when conditions change.

You can’t manage heterogeneous systems one by one. You can’t rely on constant connectivity. And you can’t expect static plans to hold once things start moving.

What starts to matter is whether operators can define objectives and constraints, and trust that systems will figure out how to execute together within them. That shift, from direct control to shared intent, is where things begin to look fundamentally different.

The DAWG budget is less a signal about drones themselves and more a signal about where the Department of War is headed. The next phase will not be defined by the volume of systems, but by how effectively they work together and how human-machine teams are formed in real operations.

This is exactly the challenge and the opportunity we’re focused on at Gambit. Not building another system, but enabling systems to operate as teams, translating intent into coordinated action across any platform.

If this is something you’re thinking about as well, we’d welcome the conversation.

info@gambit.us 

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