The Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) on Thursday announced the strategic allocation for its $983 million fiscal year 2024 budget and said it plans to issue around two dozen solicitations in the next few months for new efforts.

The FY ’24 congressional appropriation will go toward accelerating ongoing projects, beginning new lines of effort, strengthening efforts elsewhere in the Defense Department’s innovation community, and boosting help and resources for small and non-traditional vendors.

“DIU’s FY ’24 spending is concentrated on closing the U.S. military’s most critical operational capability gaps with the focus, speed, and scale required to help us deter major conflict or win if forced to fight,” Doug Beck, the unit’s director, said in a statement.

About 50 percent of the funds will go toward “expanding and accelerating” the most vital projects, including the “all-domain attritable autonomous focus of the Replicator effort, the Joint Fires Network, commercial space, cyber, energy, human systems, and operational logistics capabilities in contested areas, DIU said of the FY ’24 allocation.

The next big chunk of the allocation, 25 percent, will go for new projects in strategic areas such as counter-unmanned aerial systems, space transport, advanced manufacturing, cross-cutting software, “and other complementary capabilities,” DIU said. “Such advancements will enable integrated and resilient operation of complex, heterogenous, multidomain autonomous systems in highly challenging current and future battlefield environments.”

DIU plans to spend about 15 percent with its various innovation partners, which could include entities like the Air Force’s AFWERX innovation arm, to accelerate their work. The rest of the funds, about 10 percent, will be spent on expanding the capabilities of DoD’s Innovation OnRamp Hubs, and increasing portfolio and cybersecurity support for small companies, and providing access to physical and digital ranges for testing and evaluation.

DIU, through its National Security Innovation Network program office, oversees OnRamp Hubs in Arizona, Hawaii, Kansas, Ohio, and Washington that are run by local operators to provide additional access points for small vendors and non-traditional defense companies to work with DoD.

Liz Youn McNally, who recently joined DIU as deputy director of commercial operations, will lead the effort to work with the commercial innovation sector, DIU said.