A computer system, method, and computer program product for performing device detection and service discovery in a mobile ad hoc communications network. The method comprises conducting an inquiry of the mobile ad hoc communications network to discover nearby devices. If the inquiry indicates that the nearby devices may include a middleware layer, the method further comprises creating a connection to each of the nearby devices and confirming whether each of the nearby devices include the middleware layer. For each of the nearby devices that include the middleware layer, the method further comprises executing the middleware layer to perform application and service discovery, and to launch applications and services.