Smack’s $61M Funds Wrist AI for Disconnected Operators, With a Prototype Targeted Within a Year

Smack Technologies is targeting a working Alpha prototype within a year: a wrist-worn display meant to give military operators operational data and decision support when connectivity is scarce. The company raised $61 million in August to develop the hardware and accelerate its Omega planning platform.

The financing is the catalyst; the latest product detail is the proposed form factor. Alpha would sit on an operator’s forearm and receive real-time data collected and processed through Omega. Andy Markoff, Smack’s co-founder and chief executive, said building a model that functions in the field with little or no connectivity is harder than building the wearable hardware.

A funding round becomes an edge-computing project

Omega is Smack’s command-level planning and operations platform. Smack says it combines its own domain-specific models, third-party large language models and a proprietary military context graph to turn operational inputs into structured decision support. Alpha is its intended tactical-edge counterpart, pairing those models with specialized hardware, a user interface and third-party small language models.

What Alpha is supposed to preserve when the network drops

Rather than rely on an always-on link to a command post, Alpha is designed to work from locally cached mission context, policy constraints and commander’s intent. Smack says it can take in sensor data, platform telemetry, mission plans, unit status, partner inputs and higher-level guidance, then synchronize updates and feedback when tactical communications permit.

The system’s intended inputs and guardrails

• Raw or processed sensor data, platform telemetry, mission plans, unit status and partner inputs.
• A policy layer that Smack says is aligned with rules of engagement, mission objectives and campaign priorities.
• Operator-facing decision support, rather than AI-made decisions, according to Markoff.

The next move is proof in hardware and procurement

Smack has already announced two prototyping contracts from the Joint Fires Network and the Marine Corps Warfighting Lab, worth more than seven figures combined; individual values were not disclosed. The nearer test for Alpha is the projected prototype. Its longer test is whether the company can convert its design for disconnected decision support into contracts on Markoff’s two-year timetable.