Replicator drones are already being delivered, says Pentagon

The Pentagon has begun sending systems to Indo-Pacific Command as part of Replicator – a program that aims to speed up the purchase and delivery of drones.

In a brief statement, the Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hickswho leads the program, said deliveries began in early May.

The replicator has two goals. The first is to field thousands of drones within two years of their announcement, or by August 2025. The second is to learn the muscle memory for the Pentagon to execute these types of sprints when it needs weapons on demand.

The Pentagon has been coy about which systems will be part of the program. Those behind it say this is deliberate. The Replicator is focused on fighting China and does not want to tell the Chinese military what to prepare.

At a briefing earlier this month, senior defense officials speaking on condition of anonymity said the first set of systems on the Replicator will include AeroVironment’s Switchblade 600, an idle munition. It will also include maritime drones acquired through a solicitation published earlier this year by the Defense Innovation Unit, which buys high-tech weapons for the Pentagon.

“Even as we deliver systems, our end-to-end capability development process continues,” Hicks said in the release, a nod to Replicator still being a work in progress.

Between this fiscal year and FY25, the Pentagon requested $1 billion to fund the program. The money in FY24 comes, in part, from a reprogramming request sent to Congress asking for permission to move existing money. The $500 million for FY25 is already included in the Pentagon’s proposed budget, but distributed across different lines of funding.