# Army Awards GPS-Independent Navigation Contract

In September 2026, the U.S. Army awarded TERN an **$11.26 million** contract for positioning, navigation, and vehicle-readiness systems. Separately, TERN and Swarmbotics AI demonstrated rapid integration of TERN’s GPS-independent navigation system on Swarmbotics’ FireAnt ground robot, illustrating a potential building block for Army ground-robot swarms. Coordinated swarm maneuvering remains a future development goal; the signal does not identify a solicitation or award for that capability.

- The award concerns navigation and vehicle-readiness systems, while the FireAnt integration demonstrates a possible application to ground robotics in GPS-denied environments.
- Defense contractors and technology suppliers can assess whether their navigation, robotics, or platform-integration capabilities align with Army needs; the demonstration should not be treated as a funded swarm procurement requirement.
- TERN and Swarmbotics AI are the identified participants; the signal provides no solicitation timeline, contract number, or procurement contact.

**Jurisdictions:** federal
**Industries:** Defense & Military
**Published:** October 29, 2026

### Government Entities
- U.S. Army (Army)

### Vendors
- TERN (Awardee and provider of GPS-independent positioning, navigation, and vehicle-readiness systems)
- Swarmbotics AI (Ground-robot manufacturer and integration participant)

### Key Quotes
> The current environment has taught us that GPS is the first thing that gets canned on the battle space.
> — William Shuart, Pathfinder3D Program Manager

### Sources
- [Can inertial navigation make ground-robot swarms real? - Defense One](https://www.defenseone.com/defense-systems/2026/10/inertial-navigation-ground-robot-swarms/416914) - Defense One