Salesforce agrees to buy defense logistics software company Rune

AIR, the company formerly known as Govini, said Monday that the Department of War has awarded it a $200 million, five-year contract supporting the Army's Next Generation Command and Control (NGC2) ecosystem.^1–2 On Oct. 7 the Army named AIR among nine vendors receiving initial NGC2 application awards.³

Six of the other names, all but Onebrief and Rune Technologies, match contracts the department announced Sept. 29, though those announcements don't mention NGC2.^3–4 General Dynamics Mission Systems, Air Space Intelligence, Immersive Wisdom, LMI, Mente Systems and Stilman Advanced Strategies each received a $99 million firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for "commercial technology offerings."⁴ The Army's collective first-year value for the application awards, about $93.6 million, is less than the face value of any one of them.^3–4 All six were awarded by Army Contracting Command at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md., and are estimated to run through Sept. 30, 2031.⁴

AIR's stated $200 million is about twice any one of those contracts.^{1, 4} Its release doesn't name a contracting office, contract type or obligated amount, or say whether this is the award the Army announced.¹ AIR, Onebrief and Rune Technologies don't appear in the department's daily contract announcements from Sept. 29 through Oct. 13.¹⁴

AIR says its Enterprise Readiness platform has provided software to NGC2 since the program's inception and gives commanders forward-looking visibility into supply stocks, unit capacity and overall force readiness. Building on field trials with the 4th Infantry Division, AIR says it will deliver NGC2 software with Army and industry partners, starting with I Corps.¹

The Army Applications Laboratory has awarded Havoc a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase III contract, the Providence, R.I., collaborative autonomy software company announced Monday. The award will fund continued development of Havoc's software for logistics resupply across multiple hardware platforms. Under the contract, Havoc says, it will expand its multi-domain capabilities to orchestrate resupply deliveries to soldiers by air and ground.¹

Havoc's chief executive, Paul Lwin, said the Phase III designation means any federal agency, "not just the Department of War, can now bring Havoc on board through a streamlined, non-competitive path."¹ Phase III is the SBIR program's commercialization stage, where a company can market what it developed in Phase II to government or commercial buyers.² Havoc's backers include defense contractors: the company raised a $100 million Series A in May, with SAIC joining existing investors including Lockheed Martin.⁴

The Army lists Havoc as a winner of xTechOverwatch, a competition that sought concepts for autonomous aircraft, ground vehicles and sensor networks from small businesses.² In August, during the competition's Pegasus Charge III exercise at Fort Hood, Texas, Havoc and Rune Technologies completed an end-to-end autonomous resupply mission with Havoc's drones and Rune's TyrOS software, the companies said.³ Havoc says the expanded air and ground work responds to a need identified by its 1st Cavalry Division customer at Overwatch/Pegasus Charge.¹