DoD submitted a reprogramming request to Congress on Jan. 31, and legislators are trying to understand the Pentagon’s funding needs for the Replicator initiative, which was part of the reprogramming request.
Rep. Ken Calvert (R-Calif.), the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee’s defense panel, “is tracking Replicator and generally supportive of the concept,” Jason Gagnon, a Calvert spokesman, wrote in a Feb. 26 email. “He’s working with DoD to understand their funding requirements to support the initiative.”
Last August, Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks announced the Replicator initiative to build and field thousands of “all-domain attritable autonomous systems” by August 2025 “to help us overcome [China’s] biggest advantage, which is mass” (Defense Daily, Aug. 28 2023).
One congressional source said that, while Congress is gaining more insight on Replicator, a “lack of clarity on what and how much and from where concerns everyone” and that “raiding accounts” to fund “bright, shiny new things,” like Replicator, can slow innovation, if it takes funds away from established projects that are of significant benefit in lawmakers’ home territories.
“Why, when we have billions of dollars for a supplemental, did these [Replicator funds] not go into the supplemental?” the source asked.
Pentagon officials have cited security concerns related to China in not revealing the companies nor drones picked for Replicator 1, which the reprogramming request is to help fund. DoD has said that it is underway to choose a second Replicator tranche.
Top tier drone companies have been tight-lipped as well.
“We are the absolute low cost, rapid provider of jet drones, and that’s unarguable,” Kratos [KTOS] CEO Eric DeMarco told stock analysts during a Feb. 13 earnings call. “It’s well known by the government and by the primes. So we are uniquely positioned, we believe, for every opportunity that’s been talked about publicly. And some new ones that are coming that, have not yet been talked about publicly, as either the prime, or as a key partner with somebody.”
Asked by Michael Ciarmoli, an defense/aerospace analyst at Truist Securities, whether Replicator and the U.S. Air Force’s Collaborative Combat Aircraft are in Kratos’ opportunities pipeline, DeMarco replied, “Every drone program that’s out there, we’re expected to be in. I’ll leave it at that.”
Hicks’ office said that DoD will take advantage of different funding methods, including the upcoming fiscal 2025 budget request, for Replicator.
“Congress has asked us to do more, faster, within the authorities and flexibilities that Congress has granted us,” Eric Pahon, a spokesman for Hicks, wrote in an email response to questions on the Jan. 31 reprogramming request. “Replicator does exactly that. Every year, multiple times throughout the year, the department identifies sources of funding for reprogramming actions. This is intended to better manage funds from under executing or lower priority programs as we progress through the budget year. We then apply those resources to emerging and new needs. And we are looking to apply this same, regular process we have with Congress, using FY23 sources to apply towards Replicator.”
“As is the case this year, working with Congress on reprogramming funding is even more important when we have delayed enactment of our base budget,” Pahon wrote. “We submitted a spend plan and reprogramming request to Congress on 31 January. We hope they will act quickly, which will allow us to ramp up and accelerate production of Replicator capabilities. While we cannot speak to what will be in the FY25 budget ahead of its release, we do plan to continue our efforts for Replicator both within our budget moving forward and by continuing to work with Congress on funds management and program execution through reprogramming efforts. This frees up funding for new requirements identified within the budget year, and we will continue the focus and attention on Replicator initiatives within the department to expedite our processes and take years off of our timelines to field these types of capabilities – just as Congress has asked us to do.”