Gecko Robotics Secures Largest US Navy Robotics Contract Yet, Opening With $54 Million Award

Gecko Robotics has secured the largest robotics contract in US Navy history, marking a significant milestone for the Pittsburgh-based company and naval defense modernization.

“Gecko Robotics has secured the largest robotics contract yet from the US Navy, a five-year IDIQ agreement arranged with the Navy and the General Services Administration”

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The five-year IDIQ (Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity) agreement, arranged through both the US Navy and the General Services Administration, represents an unprecedented commitment to robotic inspection technology in military operations.

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The contract structure opens with an initial $54 million award and carries a total ceiling value of $71 million, positioning Gecko's systems as central to addressing the Navy's fleet readiness challenges.

The partnership with GSA is particularly noteworthy as it streamlines procurement processes and allows other branches of the Department of Defense to access the company's technology through this government-wide vehicle.

This establishes a new standard for maintenance innovation across all services in the Department of Defense.

The groundbreaking technology behind this contract involves Gecko's advanced robotic systems and AI-powered software that can create detailed digital twins of naval vessels.

The company's wall-climbing robots, drones, and sensors are designed to crawl through every accessible part of ships, gathering comprehensive data that would take human inspectors weeks to collect manually.

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This raw data feeds into Cantilever, Gecko's AI operating platform, which converts the information into living, updatable models of each vessel's structural health and condition.

The technology promises to identify necessary repairs up to 50 times faster and more accurately than traditional manual inspection methods.

This represents a quantum leap in maintenance capabilities for the Navy's fleet.

The contract arrives at a critical moment when the US Navy faces severe fleet readiness challenges, with maintenance backlogs costing between $13 billion and $20 billion annually.

Currently, approximately 40% of the Navy's fleet is unavailable at any given time due to lengthy maintenance cycles, creating significant operational constraints.

The Navy has established ambitious targets to improve this situation, aiming for 80% fleet combat surge readiness by 2027.

Recent data reveals that only 41% of ships completed repairs on time in 2025, falling short of the Navy's 71% goal, leading to a reset target of above 60%.

These readiness concerns are particularly acute given the Navy's need to maintain global presence and respond to evolving threats while dealing with aging infrastructure and complex maintenance requirements.

The strategic importance of this contract extends beyond immediate maintenance benefits to address broader national defense concerns.

The agreement comes at a time of heightened urgency around US shipbuilding capacity, with the Trump administration having released a multi-page plan in February to revive the sector, which has fallen significantly behind China.

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The contract structure also represents a significant shift in how the Navy approaches maintenance, enabling inspections to occur before ships even reach dry dock.

This allows for proper staging of parts and personnel in advance, rather than beginning maintenance processes only after vessels are already out of service.

The Navy's Chief Technology Officer for the Department of the Navy, Justin Fanelli, emphasized that 'cracking the cost equation is just as important as cracking the physics equation,' highlighting the comprehensive approach needed for defense modernization.

Gecko Robotics is not new to naval applications, having established a track record of success with previous defense contracts.

“The Pittsburgh startup’s AI platform will create digital twins of Pacific Fleet vessels, starting with 18 ships, as the Navy races to fix a maintenance crisis costing up to $20 billion a year”

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The company, co-founded by CEO Jake Loosararian and President Troy Demmer, has previously deployed its TOKA series robots on destroyers, amphibious vessels, and aircraft carriers.

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They've also collaborated with defense prime contractor L3Harris on digital twins for military aircraft and partnered with BPMI, a contractor for the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Programme, to cut inspection times on nuclear carrier and submarine components by up to 90%.

The company's valuation reached $1.25 billion following a Series D round led by Cox Enterprises in June 2025, bringing its total funding to $173 million.

Navy data has demonstrated that Gecko's technology significantly reduces lead times and work hours associated with maintenance cycles, with specific examples showing that a single robotic evaluation and digital rendering of a flight deck eliminated over three months of potential maintenance delay days.