US Dept of Defense announces additional Replicator attritable autonomous capabilities

The Pentagon has announced that additional autonomous capabilities have been selected for accelerated fielding as part of the Replicator initiative, announced last year by US Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks. This second tranche, or Replicator 1.2, will include systems in the air and maritime domains, as well as integrated software enablers that will enhance the autonomy and resilience of other Replicator systems.

Included in Replicator-1, Tranche 2 (1.2) is the US Army’s Company-Level Small UAS effort, which has selected the Anduril Industries Ghost-X and the Performance Drone Works C-100 UAS. These systems will enable Army rifle companies to conduct multiple tasks with rapidly reconfigurable, attritable, modular payload UASs that can execute reconnaissance, surveillance, and target acquisition missions.

The Department is also scaling loitering munitions through fielding and expanded experimentation of the Anduril Industries Altius-600 as part of the US Marine Corps Organic Precision Fires program. This system complements the Switchblade-600 loitering munition produced by AeroVironment Inc. that was included in the first tranche of Replicator.

Additionally, the Replicator initiative has selected the US Air Force’s Enterprise Test Vehicle (ETV). Over the next year, the Air Force and Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) will partner with multiple vendors to develop and demonstrate design variants. Four vendors are currently providing prototypes: Anduril Industries, Integrated Solutions for Systems Inc., Leidos Dynetics, and Zone 5 Technologies. Select ETV prototypes will be accelerated to scaled production.

Building on the Department’s growing autonomy portfolio, the Replicator 1.2 selections focus on scalable production of class-leading systems across multiple domains and critical enabling software, the US Army says in a statement.

These capabilities add to the first tranche of selected systems announced earlier in 2024 and further contribute to the Department’s goal of fielding multiple thousands of all-domain, attritable autonomous (ADA2) systems to warfighters by August of 2025 — or within 24 months of Deputy Secretary Hicks launching the initiative.

“The Replicator initiative is demonstrably reducing barriers to innovation, and delivering capabilities to warfighters at a rapid pace,” said Deputy Secretary Hicks. “We are creating opportunities for a broad range of traditional and nontraditional defense and technology companies, including system vendors, component manufacturers, and software developers, to deliver critical capabilities that our warfighters need, and we are building the capability to do that again and again.”

More than 500 companies were considered for Replicator hardware and software opportunities. Contracts have been awarded to more than 30 hardware and software companies, of which 75% are non-traditional defense contractors, in addition to more than 50 subcontractors, according to the Department.

“Ukraine has demonstrated the value of small, attritable drones on the battlefield,” said Gen. Randy A. George, the Chief of Staff of the US Army. “The delivery of commercially available Company Level Small UAS with support from the Replicator initiative will allow American soldiers to rapidly experiment, learn and innovate with these systems. The advancement of battlefield technology requires us to innovate faster than ever before.”

Replicator 1.2 also includes additional systems that remain classified, including low-cost long-range strike capabilities and maritime uncrewed systems.

Selected capabilities fill both operational and scaling gaps and will be fielded by August 2025 to meet the ambitious goals of the Replicator initiative.