The U.S. Marine Corps has published a Notice of Intent to sole-source Anduril Industries' Pulsar-L electronic-warfare system to give its Amphibious Combat Vehicles (ACVs) an organic counter-small-UAS capability. The August 3, 2026 notice, backed by an Urgent Statement of Need, seeks 50 Pulsar-L units in the first year of the contract with initial fielding on the ACV fleet in the first quarter of Fiscal Year 2027.
What Pulsar-L Actually Does
Pulsar-L is a smaller, vehicle-scale variant of Anduril's Pulsar family of software-defined electronic warfare payloads. On the ACV it is being configured with an omnidirectional antenna array, a control-station interface, EW software, and warranty and life-support services — a package intended to detect, classify and jam commercial and one-way attack drones without operators having to leave the vehicle.
Why Sole-Source
The Marine Corps notice states that 'Anduril is the original designer, developer and producer of the Pulsar-L and the platform cannot be procured from any other source without risk of serious injury to the government and its interests.' Urgent Statements of Need are reserved for capability gaps considered too time-sensitive for a full competitive procurement cycle. Industry responses to the sources-sought notice are due August 18, 2026.
Anduril's Anti-Drone Franchise Keeps Compounding
The ACV award follows a string of counter-drone wins for Anduril. The Army earlier this year began issuing task orders under a multi-billion-dollar counter-UAS contract vehicle, and rival drone contracts continue to expand across the Pentagon. Pulsar-L extends Anduril's electronic-warfare footprint from fixed sites and larger vehicles down to expeditionary ACVs likely to face swarms of low-cost UAS in a Pacific contingency.
Reporting based on coverage from USNI News, Defense Daily, Inside Defense and Defence-Blog.