Less than a month after the edict's release, experts said the full implications of this major transition remain unclear.

Donelson has served as the Space Force's CDAO since 2023, and previously held roles at the Army and U.S. Central Command.

During the recent Operation Lethal Eagle, Northrop Grumman demonstrated its new Lumberjack drone and its ability to conduct autonomous target detection via the Maven Smart System.

The Swarm Forge initiative is one of the “pace-setting” projects that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth called for earlier this year.

Mike Madsen, VP, National Security, Obviant and former Deputy and Acting Director, Defense Innovation Unit

Katrina Manson, Author, Project Maven & Reporter, Bloomberg News

“I would strongly encourage you to be sort of red-teaming yourselves and looking at your own vulnerabilities,” Terry Kalka told members of industry.

Applied Intuition has delivered the first Data Edge Collection Kit to the Navy, which will allow the service to constantly collect AI-ready data from the operational environment.

Preston Stewart, Defense YouTuber and Host, Unclassified Podcast

Advanced AI tools "can turn processes that used to take hours and sometimes even days into seconds,” Adm. Cooper said.