Washington: The Pentagon unveiled a new round of aerial and maritime drones for Replicator, a massive effort to fast-track the delivery of unmanned weapons systems to the services.
This includes multiple drones from the Army’s company-level small unmanned aerial system, or UAS, program. The service had selected the Ghost-X, made by Anduril Industries, and the C-100, made by Performance Drone Works.
In a release, the Pentagon said these will offer versatile weapons for the units in the field, useful for targeting or surveilling the enemy.
Replicator will also include Anduril’s Altius-600, a one-way attack drone on contract with the Marine Corps, and the enterprise test vehicle, or ETV. The latter drone has long been rumoured as a Replicator candidate, with requirements like a 500-nautical mile range that fit the program’s parameters.
The Air Force and Defence Innovation Unit are considering four vendors for the ETV: Anduril, Integrated Solutions for Systems Inc., Leidos Dynetics and Zone 5 Technologies.
The statement marks the second — and most specific — time the Pentagon has disclosed what systems it’s buying for the program. Deputy Secretary of Defence Kathleen Hicks announced Replicator last year at a tech conference in downtown Washington, pledging to field thousands of cheap drones by August 2025, or within two years.
Hicks has said her goal is to deter China, which has a far larger population and manufacturing sector. In part due to that aim, the Pentagon hasn’t listed much of what it’s buying through Replicator. Before this week, the Defence Department had only publicly acknowledged one drone included in the program: AeroVironment’s Switchblade 600, another one-way attack drone.
Such furtiveness has at times chafed companies hoping to compete for funding. The Defence Department secured $500 million for fiscal year 2024, with the same amount included in the defence budget request for fiscal year 2025, which Congress hasn’t yet passed.
In this statement, the Pentagon said that it considered 500 commercial firms for Replicator, awarding contracts to 30 companies. A further 50 are included as subcontractors.
In a separate release, Anduril said it was “rapidly” increasing production of its Altius and Barracuda drones in order to meet the Pentagon’s demand.
“The Replicator initiative is demonstrably reducing barriers to innovation, and delivering capabilities to war fighters at a rapid pace,” Hicks wrote in the statement, which notes that other systems in the program remain classified.
Raksha Anirveda's editorial desk team brings in the collective experience of creative professionals - a fine mix of senior copy editors, writers, proofreaders and designers. Working as a team, they continuously create, manage, and curate content to sustain the magazine's profile and reputation in line with market trends and achieve magazine's goal.
