The Department of Defense (DoD) has picked which systems it wants to field under the first tranche of its Replicator initiative and is now awaiting congressional approval and funding to facilitate procurement, a Pentagon spokesperson confirmed to MeriTalk.
The Replicator initiative – which was announced in August 2023 by Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks – aims to field thousands of innovative systems across multiple domains and into the hands of warfighters within the next 18 to 24 months, as part of the Pentagon’s strategy to counter China’s rapid armed forces buildup.
The first instantiation of Replicator is focusing on countering China’s military mass by cranking out thousands “attritable” autonomous systems. Various definitions of the term attritable abound, with some keying on unmanned aircraft that are reusable, but also affordable enough to allow commanders to tolerate putting them at risk.
Hicks “selected [the first set] of capability areas for Replicator back in December,” and combatant commands then “identified specific systems and associated acquisition strategies to meet those capability needs,” the DoD spokesperson said.
“Our current priority is to receive Congressional approval for the first tranche of systems,” the spokesperson said.
The Defense Innovation Unit, which was charged with overseeing the initiative, stated it was eyeing February through August 2025 to field a set of systems under the first tranche of Replicator, focused on needs in U.S. Indo-Pacific Command.
The department did not provide any additional details on what these capabilities are or will be. However, the department has promised to provide some additional details on these systems as they become available, the spokesperson stated.
The department also announced that it is in the stages of finalizing proposals for what it calls tranche two of Replicator, which is another batch of platforms that can be accelerated to meet that 18- to 24-month development timeline. For tranche two, DoD is exploring software solutions and other enablers to support the Replicator portfolio.
“We will continue to explore additional capabilities in successive tranches, in partnership with Congress,” the spokesperson said.
