Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks has announced new capabilities for the Replicator program, including air and maritime systems and applications to enhance the program’s systems’ autonomy and resilience.
The capabilities will advance the Pentagon’s objective of equipping warfighters with all-domain attritable autonomous systems by August 2025. They will focus on the scalable production of class-leading systems across multiple domains and critical enabling software, the Department of Defense said Wednesday.
Accelerated Development of Warfighting Capabilities
Replicator enables traditional and nontraditional defense and technology companies to deliver critical capabilities to U.S. warfighters, according to Hicks.
“The Replicator initiative is demonstrably reducing barriers to innovation and delivering capabilities to warfighters at a rapid pace,” the multiple Wash100 Award recipient added.
Additional Systems for Replicator 1.2
Replicator’s second tranche includes Anduril Industries’ Ghost-X and Performance Drone Works C-100 unmanned aerial systems, which will allow the U.S. Army to conduct reconnaissance, surveillance and target acquisition missions with reconfigurable, attritable and modular payload capabilities.
Under the initiative, the DOD also selected Anduril’s Altius-600 for the U.S. Marine Corps to complement AeroVironment’s Switchblade-600 loitering munition that was part of the initial Replicator tranche. The selections enable the USMC to test systems that deliver organic, loitering and beyond-line-of-sight precision strike capability.
In addition, the department will work with Anduril, Integrated Solutions for Systems, Leidos Dynetics and Zone 5 Technologies to prototype the Air Force’s enterprise test vehicle. The companies will demonstrate design variants and the selected ETV prototypes will be accelerated for scaled production.
The DOD selected other systems for Replicator 1.2, such as low-cost long-range strike capabilities and maritime uncrewed platforms, but they remain classified.
