Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks said Wednesday the Pentagon’s initiative to field thousands of attritable autonomous systems over the next two years won’t require new funding, with the department now seeking out existing programs that could be scaled up for production.
Hicks offered additional details on the new Replicator initiative after first announcing the new effort last week to get after what she called “all-domain attritable autonomous systems,” or ADA2 capabilities, to counter China’s continuing military build-up.
“First, let’s be crystal clear, Replicator is not a new program of record. We’re not creating a new bureaucracy. We will not be asking for new money in FY ‘24. Not all problems need new money. We are problem solvers and we intend to self-solve. So Replicator will use existing funding, existing programming lines and existing authorities to accelerate production and delivery at scale by exerting leadership focus and attention on a singular operational challenge and maturing solutions because that’s what ultimately delivers,” Hick said during remarks at the Defense News conference.
Hicks’ announcement last week noted the Replicator initiative would aim to produce thousands of ADA2 capabilities within the next 18 to 24 months “to help us overcome [China’s] biggest advantage, which is mass” (Defense Daily, Aug. 28).
“We’ll counter the [Chinese military’s] mass with mass of our own, but ours will be harder to plan for, harder to hit, harder to beat. With smart people, smart concepts, and smart technology, our military will be more nimble, with uplift and urgency from the commercial sector,” Hicks said during her announcement on Aug. 28 at the National Defense Industrial Association’s (NDIA) Emerging Technologies for Defense conference.
Hicks didn’t provide details on specific programs that could be applicable to Replicator, while offering an idea of the type of capabilities the department might pursue under the initiative.
“Imagine distributed pods of self-propelled ADA2 systems afloat, powered by the sun and other virtually limitless resources, packed with sensors aplenty, enough to give new reliable sources of information in near-real time. Imagine fleets of ground-based ADA2 systems delivering novel logistics support, scouting ahead to keep troops safe or securing DoD infrastructure. Imagine constellations of ADA2 systems on orbit, flung into space scores at a time, numbering so many that it becomes impossible to eliminate or degrade them all. Imagine flocks of ADA2 systems flying at all sorts of altitudes, doing a range of missions, building on what we’ve seen in Ukraine. They could be deployed by larger aircraft, launched by troops on land or sea or take off themselves,” Hicks said.
The Deputy’s Innovation Steering Group (DISG), led by Hicks and Navy Adm. Christopher Grady, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will oversee Replicator with DIU Director Doug Beck supporting on industry reach, with a focus on leveraging investments and existing work on ADA2 capabilities across the military services, the Strategic Capabilities Office and the combatant commands.
“This doesn’t require a joint program office or reshuffling deck chairs in any other way, because the military services and other parts of DoD have already been leading in the development of ADA2 systems. Many such innovations emerged organically and several were funded in our most recent defense budget,” Hick said. “Our task through this initiative is bringing leadership across the department around that DISG table to help ensure those [ADA2 systems] ripe enough to scale actually do get scaled.”
Heidi Shyu, the under secretary of defense for research and engineering, told reporters last week she “absolutely” sees opportunity for Replicator to leverage work from the new Rapid Defense Experimentation Reserve (RDER) program, which aims to test promising technologies that could help address joint warfighting capability gaps.
“These are not totally independent. You can well imagine these are things we’ve been thinking about for years,” Shyu says.
Shyu said last week senior Pentagon leaders will convene this fall to consider which projects from the first round of the RDER campaign will receive funding for rapid fielding (Defense Daily, Aug. 30).
Hicks reiterated on Wednesday the Pentagon will be “deliberate” about what it shares publicly on Replicator, while noting the effort will include working with Congress, industry and allies and partners.
“And some things we will only reveal at a time and place and manner of our choosing. I know that isn’t easy. Engineers want to take pride in their work. CEOs want to share good news with investors. People in government want credit for their good ideas. And all that will come in time if we succeed, but not today,” Hicks said. “Yes, absolutely, we are worried about proving out with all parties that the department can actually lead itself through this and not get mired in red tape.”
Chris Brose, Anduril’s chief strategy officer, told Defense Daily in an interview on Tuesday the Replicator initiative is “very much an indication” the Pentagon can take a new approach to its role as a buyer of emerging technologies that can help bolster deterrence.
“You know, this has very much been our belief, which is that the resources are there, the technology is there, the talent is there, the authorities are there,” Brose said.“ This is about industry responding to the demand signal that the department is now generating for large quantities of production ready autonomous systems to bolster deterrence against China at a time where we may only have a few years to generate alternative capabilities that can push a Chinese decision to move against Taiwan off into the future and, and hopefully, hopefully forestall it altogether.”