Modern defence is undergoing a structural transformation driven by technologies that do not merely digitise existing capabilities but fundamentally alter what militaries can achieve in detection, mobility, survivability, and lethality. These deep tech advances rooted in materials science, robotics, autonomous systems, communication architectures, and neuromorphic computing are shaping new doctrines and force structures.
This article analyses seven core deep tech technologies reshaping defence, explaining their scientific underpinnings, operational implications, and strategic business impact.
Traditional military vehicles rely on human operators, limiting operational endurance and increasing risk in high-threat zones. Advances in autonomous navigation algorithms, computer vision, sensor fusion, and reinforcement learning have enabled ground vehicles to navigate complex terrain, avoid obstacles, and execute tactical manoeuvres without direct human control.
Autonomous combat vehicles integrate LIDAR, radar, and multispectral cameras for environmental perception, while AI-driven planning modules execute route optimisation and evasive actions. Reinforcement learning, trained in high-fidelity simulations, empowers these systems to adapt to dynamic battlefield conditions.
Unmanned ground combat vehicles (UGCVs) can carry heavy weapons, sensors, or counter-IED payloads into high-risk environments, reducing personnel exposure.
Autonomous logistics convoys resupply forward operating bases with reduced escort requirements, freeing troops for core missions.
Robotic breaching vehicles clear minefields or urban obstacles without endangering combat engineers.
The US Army’s Robotic Combat Vehicle (RCV) programme tests prototype vehicles with scalable autonomy for reconnaissance, fire support, and logistics. Estonia’s MILREM THeMIS UGV demonstrates multi-role capability, from remote weapon stations to CASEVAC missions.
✔ Reduced personnel risk in high-threat zones
✔ Enhanced operational tempo through persistent autonomous support
✔ Force multiplication by reallocating human operators to complex tasks
Drones are evolving from isolated ISR platforms to coordinated swarms and multi-domain effectors. Advances in multi-agent systems, decentralized control, and cooperative artificial intelligence enable drones to execute missions collaboratively without constant operator input.
Key enablers include:
Swarm intelligence algorithms, inspired by biological collectives, for dynamic re-tasking and formation maintenance
Edge AI processing, allowing real-time image recognition, target identification, and communication relay
Mesh networking protocols, sustaining connectivity in contested environments without centralised infrastructure
Loitering munitions coordinate attacks to overwhelm defences
ISR drone swarms provide persistent wide-area surveillance, resilient to jamming or single-point failures
Naval and subsea drone swarms conduct mine detection and port security with minimal human intervention
Turkey’s ALPAGU and KARGU loitering munitions integrate autonomous target acquisition and swarming logic for coordinated strikes. The US Navy’s LOCUST programme demonstrates UAV swarms with formation flying and cooperative targeting for force multiplication.
✔ Force scalability without proportional troop increases
✔ Increased resilience against counter-drone or electronic warfare threats
✔ New tactics enabling massed effects at reduced cost
Communications remain a critical vulnerability in modern warfare, with contested electromagnetic environments threatening command and control integrity. Deep tech advances in dynamic spectrum management, cognitive radios, and quantum communication protocols address these challenges.
Cognitive radios autonomously sense spectrum usage and reconfigure frequencies to avoid jamming
MIMO and beamforming antenna arrays enhance signal strength and directionality, reducing detection
Quantum key distribution (QKD) secures communications against interception with physics-backed encryption
Resilient tactical networks for joint and coalition operations in denied environments
Low probability of intercept (LPI) communications for stealth missions
Secure command and control for drone and autonomous vehicle swarms
DARPA’s RadioMap project uses cognitive radio networks to visualise and adapt to real-time spectral environments, enhancing EW resilience. China and the EU have demonstrated QKD-secured links for strategic communications.
✔ Maintained C2 superiority under electronic warfare attacks
✔ Enabling operational autonomy for unmanned systems
✔ Enhanced data security for national strategic communications
Drones increasingly integrate multispectral, hyperspectral, and RF sensing payloads with onboard AI processing, enhancing situational awareness and EW capabilities.
Key advances include:
Hyperspectral imaging for detecting camouflaged targets based on spectral signatures
Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) miniaturisation for all-weather surveillance
RF emitter geolocation for SIGINT and targeting
Directed energy payloads, enabling drones to perform EW attacks or counter-UAV missions
Persistent ISR with layered sensor coverage
Electronic attack from unmanned systems, disrupting adversary communications
Battlefield obscuration and deception via drone-deployed EW decoys
Israel Aerospace Industries integrates compact SAR and EW payloads on Heron drones. US DARPA’s Gremlins programme explores UAVs deploying distributed EW effects from stand-off distances.
✔ Superior situational awareness across domains
✔ Enhanced offensive and defensive electronic warfare options
✔ Expanded mission sets for existing UAV platforms
Hypersonic propulsion systems mark one of the most significant breakthroughs in aerospace engineering since the advent of jet turbines. The two principal approaches are scramjets (supersonic combustion ramjets) and boost-glide systems.
Scramjets operate by compressing incoming air at supersonic speeds without moving parts, then injecting and combusting fuel within the supersonic airflow. Unlike ramjets, which slow air to subsonic speeds within the combustion chamber, scramjets maintain supersonic flow throughout, enabling efficient thrust production at speeds exceeding Mach 5. The engineering challenges are profound:
Aerothermal heating: At Mach 5+, leading edges experience temperatures exceeding 1000°C, while Mach 10+ generates temperatures beyond 2000°C. Thermal protection systems use ultra-high temperature ceramics (UHTCs), advanced carbon-carbon composites, and high-entropy alloys to prevent structural failure.
Combustion stability: Supersonic combustion requires precise fuel injection, ignition, and flame holding within milliseconds, demanding deep fluid dynamics, fuel chemistry, and materials integration expertise.
Integration constraints: Scramjets function effectively only above Mach 4-5, necessitating booster rockets to accelerate the vehicle to operating speed before airbreathing propulsion engages.
Boost-glide systems, in contrast, launch payloads atop ballistic missiles into the upper atmosphere, where they decouple and re-enter at hypersonic speeds, gliding along unpredictable trajectories. These vehicles exploit lift generated by their aerodynamic shapes, allowing lateral manoeuvres that evade fixed radar tracking and missile defence interceptors.
The military value of hypersonic propulsion systems lies in their unique combination of speed, manoeuvrability, and altitude flexibility:
Strategic strike capability: Hypersonic missiles drastically reduce the engagement timeline. Where intercontinental ballistic missiles follow predictable high-arc trajectories, hypersonic glide vehicles approach at lower altitudes with evasive manoeuvres, compressing decision windows from tens of minutes to under ten minutes, limiting adversary command response.
Penetration of advanced air defences: Integrated Air Defence Systems (IADS) such as Russia’s S-400 or S-500 and China’s HQ-9 family are optimised for ballistic or subsonic cruise threats. Hypersonic weapons’ speed and agility render them extremely difficult to track, target, and intercept with existing kinetic or directed-energy systems.
ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance) applications: Hypersonic reconnaissance platforms could collect real-time intelligence over denied areas and return safely before interception, creating strategic intelligence dominance.
Rapid global logistics and prompt strike: Research into hypersonic transport concepts, such as the US Air Force’s former “Black Swift” project, envisioned rapid insertion of special forces or critical cargo globally within hours, reshaping force projection doctrines.
Russia: The Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle achieves speeds exceeding Mach 20 during re-entry, mounted atop SS-19 ICBMs. It demonstrated operational capability in 2019, altering US-Russia strategic stability calculations.
China: The DF-ZF (formerly Wu-14) boost-glide vehicle, tested extensively since 2014, is deployed on DF-17 missiles with speeds above Mach 10 and manoeuvring re-entry trajectories, enhancing regional strike options.
United States: Multiple parallel programmes are underway:
AGM-183 ARRW (Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon), a boost-glide missile launched from bombers, targeting early operational capability within the next two years.
HAWC (Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept), developed by DARPA, integrates scramjet propulsion for sustained atmospheric hypersonic flight.
HTV-2 (Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2) under the Prompt Global Strike initiative, tested boost-glide capabilities with partial success, informing subsequent system designs.
Additionally, Australia and the UK collaborate with the US under the SCIFiRE (Southern Cross Integrated Flight Research Experiment) to develop air-breathing hypersonic cruise missiles, marking allied proliferation of these technologies.
✔ Establishes near-uninterceptable global strike and ISR capabilities
✔ Forces adversaries to invest heavily in new defence systems, creating strategic asymmetry
✔ Drives industrial demand for advanced materials, thermal protection systems, and propulsion research partnerships
Synthetic biology applies genetic engineering, metabolic pathway optimisation, and CRISPR-based editing to reprogram microbes for on-demand production of fuels, chemicals, polymers, and structural materials. Unlike traditional biochemical processes, synthetic biology uses designed genetic circuits to achieve high yields, adaptability, and novel product synthesis.
Key enabling innovations include:
CRISPR-Cas editing: Rapid, precise genome modifications to optimise production pathways or introduce new metabolic functions.
Cell-free biomanufacturing: Uses engineered enzymes in controlled environments without living cells, increasing speed, purity, and environmental tolerance.
Synthetic metabolic pathways: Design of entirely new biochemical routes not found in nature, producing specialty chemicals or precursors with fewer steps.
Forward-deployed fuel and lubricant production: Engineered microbes convert local biomass or waste into JP-8 fuel surrogates, hydraulic fluids, or cleaning agents, reducing convoy resupply vulnerability.
Self-healing structural materials: Bacteria embedded in concrete or composites produce mineral precursors that seal micro-cracks, extending lifespan of runways, fortifications, and vehicle armour.
Adaptive camouflage and coatings: Microbes engineered to produce pigments or materials matching local spectral signatures create dynamic, environment-adapted camouflage systems.
Field biomanufacturing of polymers and spare parts: Bacterial fermentation produces monomers for 3D printing high-strength plastics, enabling distributed additive manufacturing at forward bases.
DARPA’s Living Foundries: Demonstrated microbial production of military-relevant chemicals within weeks instead of years, targeting on-demand manufacturing at tactical scales.
US Army ERDC: Researches bacteria-based self-healing concrete that repairs microcracks autonomously, enhancing infrastructure durability under combat stress.
Ginkgo Bioworks & Zymergen: Engineering industrial microbes for biopolymer and specialty chemical production, with dual-use defence applications under exploration.
✔ Supply chain resilience: Reduces dependency on petroleum-based or contested supply lines by enabling local production with minimal inputs.
✔ Sustainability and ESG compliance: Aligns with global emissions reduction and resource sustainability goals, increasingly integrated into defence procurement policies.
✔ Dual-use commercialisation: Defence-focused synthetic biology innovations often transfer into civilian supply chains, from construction materials to packaging polymers, multiplying market opportunities for biotech manufacturers.
Undersea and maritime domains are increasingly contested, with adversaries fielding advanced submarines, mines, and distributed naval assets. Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) and Unmanned Surface Vehicles (USVs) leverage breakthroughs in AI navigation, underwater acoustics, SLAM (Simultaneous Localisation and Mapping), and long-duration power systems to provide persistent, low-risk maritime capabilities.
Key technological enablers include:
AI-driven sonar processing: Classifies contacts and detects anomalies in cluttered seabed environments.
Underwater communication innovations: Acoustic modems with adaptive frequency hopping extend comms range in variable thermoclines.
Endurance enhancements: Fuel cell systems and ocean thermal energy harvesting increase AUV operational durations from days to months.
Persistent undersea surveillance: Networks of AUVs monitor chokepoints, harbours, and open ocean approaches for submarine or mine threats, creating continuous maritime domain awareness.
Mine countermeasure (MCM) operations: AUVs autonomously map and classify mine-like objects, reducing clearance times and eliminating diver exposure.
Decoy and EW operations: USVs deploy decoy signatures or electronic attack modules to confuse enemy targeting systems, protecting high-value assets.
Undersea infrastructure security: Continuous inspection of undersea cables and energy pipelines ensures economic and strategic resilience.
Boeing Echo Voyager AUV: Operates autonomously for months, carrying modular payloads for ISR, ASW, or seabed mapping.
US Navy Sea Hunter USV: Demonstrates autonomous anti-submarine tracking over long distances, paving the way for distributed undersea warfare concepts.
Saab AUV62-AT: Provides realistic submarine signatures for ASW training, simulating adversary movements without deploying manned assets.
✔ Force multiplication: Autonomous maritime systems enable navies to expand presence and coverage without proportional fleet or crew increases.
✔ Reduced operational risk: Removes humans from hazardous mine-clearing, undersea inspections, or decoy missions.
✔ Industrial diversification: Naval shipbuilders increasingly integrate autonomous systems into ship designs, creating new revenue streams for defence primes and specialist robotics manufacturers.
These expanded technologies, from advanced drone sensing and electronic warfare, synthetic biology-based supply chain resilience, to autonomous maritime dominance, illustrate how deep tech does not merely enhance existing systems but redefines operational doctrines, industrial base requirements, and strategic postures.
Defence organisations integrating these technologies will:
✔ Increase operational effectiveness and survivability with unmanned, autonomous, and biologically-enabled systems
✔ Enhance force adaptability and resilience in multi-domain contested environments
✔ Strengthen national strategic autonomy in the face of rapidly advancing peer and near-peer competitors
Identify niche technology gaps aligned with military capability needs
Map your core technologies – whether in AI, robotics, advanced materials, or biotech – directly against published defence capability priorities, such as ISR resilience, autonomous systems, EW, or logistics autonomy. Position yourself to solve specific operational pain points rather than generic “innovation”.
Develop dual-use business models for scalable revenue
Align your deep tech offerings with both defence and adjacent civilian markets to build financial resilience. For example, synthetic biology for battlefield materials may also serve industrial chemicals; drone sensing payloads may address infrastructure inspection or environmental monitoring.
Engage early with defence innovation units and primes
Partner with military innovation agencies (e.g. DIU, AUKUS Pillar II working groups, NATO DIANA) and system integrators to integrate your technology into larger platforms. Early TRL (Technology Readiness Level) co-development de-risks your roadmap and accelerates procurement adoption.
Design with integration and open architectures in mind
Ensure your products can plug into existing C4ISR, EW, or logistics systems using open standards, facilitating rapid deployment without costly proprietary barriers that deter large defence customers.
Secure ITAR, export control, and cybersecurity compliance early
Establish frameworks for compliance with international arms regulations, supply chain security standards, and classified programme requirements to avoid deal-blocking delays during critical growth stages.
Build advisory boards with operational and procurement expertise
Include former defence procurement officers, programme managers, and domain experts on your advisory board to shape product development for realistic field deployment and acquisition pathways.
Pursue strategic pilot programmes with clear operational metrics
Design your demos and pilots around measurable military outcomes – mission success rates, time saved, logistics cost reductions – to build compelling ROI cases for procurement and strategic investment.
Co-financed by the Minister of Science and Higher Education within the Task: “Organization by the Cracow University of Technology of three editions of a path dedicated to strengthen the potential and recognition of Polish science in the area of commercialization and internationalization, through support for the founding, development, and expansion into international markets of deep tech companies based on solutions originating from Polish universities and operating in areas strategic for Europe.
Współfinansowane ze środków Ministra Nauki i Szkolnictwa Wyższego w ramach Zadania: „Organizacja przez Politechnikę Krakowską trzech edycji dedykowanej ścieżki wzmacniania potencjału i rozpoznawalności polskiej nauki w obszarze komercjalizacji i internacjonalizacji, poprzez wsparcie zakładania, rozwoju i ekspansji na rynki międzynarodowe spółek deep tech, bazujących na rozwiązaniach pochodzących z polskich uczelni i działających w strategicznych dla Europy obszarach”
