Bridge Defense wins CodeBridge deal worth up to $63 million for Department of War
Bridge Defense has been awarded a one-year agreement through the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office's Tradewinds ecosystem, making up to $63 million in cleared software engineering capacity available to the Department of War in the first year. U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) is the initial customer, according to the company.
- Bridge Defense received a one-year CDAO Tradewinds agreement for its CodeBridge product.
- The deal makes up to $63 million in cleared software engineering capacity available in the first year.
- USSOCOM is the initial ordering activity, with the vehicle designed for use by other Department components.
- Work is ordered in fixed-price capability units tied to software accepted by the Government, not hours expended.
- Delivery begins immediately, according to the company.
What the agreement covers
Bridge Defense, a defense technology company based in Washington, D.C., said the agreement will deliver CodeBridge®, its custom software development product, to the Department of War. The work is initially in support of USSOCOM. The company says the vehicle gives the Government rapid access to software engineering, Super Intelligence (SI) integration, and deployment capabilities across secure government environments.
According to Bridge Defense, CodeBridge combines cleared, platform-grade engineering teams with Farspan, the company's development platform built for secure government environments. The company says the two together "deliver finished software, not the effort to build it." Delivery begins immediately.
How CodeBridge is ordered
The product is ordered in standardized, fixed-price capability units. Each unit represents a defined increment of cleared software engineering output. According to the company, a unit resolves to discrete software accepted by the Government rather than to hours expended.
Units are ordered against specific outcomes. Bridge Defense lists three examples:
- a new mission application
- an integration that connects siloed data
- an SI-enabled workflow placed into operational use
This structure is meant to tie payment to usable software rather than to labor time.
Tradewinds background and the company's pitch
The award was made through Tradewinds, which the source describes as the CDAO's acquisition pathway for rapidly identifying and acquiring capabilities across artificial intelligence, data, and analytics. CodeBridge earned "Awardable" status in the Tradewinds Solutions Marketplace in 2025. Bridge Defense says it then validated the model through multiple government engagements in the first half of 2026.
Jack Kilcoyne, Co-Founder and CEO of Bridge Defense, said mission teams have clear needs for mission-ready software, but "there is a long and fragmented path between identifying an operational requirement and the delivery of functional software." He said CodeBridge "creates a different model" built on scoped engineering effort from cleared teams, a platform designed for classified delivery, and a commercial structure around usable software outcomes.
What it means for the Department
USSOCOM is the first ordering activity, but the agreement is built to extend across the Department as other components bring their own software requirements to the vehicle. If other components do order, they would use the same fixed-price unit model. The $63 million figure refers to ordering capacity available over the first year, as described by the company, and the source does not say how much will actually be ordered.
