Pentagon begins awarding contracts for next round of Replicator

The Pentagon has chosen systems for the second tranche of Replicator — an initiative to quickly field thousands of drones to counter China in a future conflict.

Doug Beck, director of the Defense Innovation Unit, told reporters Thursday the program has awarded contracts for some, but not all, of the systems it will buy in the second phase of the program.

Speaking at the National Defense Industrial Association’s emerging technologies conference, Beck declined to confirm how many platforms the Defense Department selected but noted that since the program’s inception, DOD has awarded contracts for 30 different hardware and software efforts with more than 50 major subcontracts to “a range of different companies.”

Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks unveiled the department’s plans for Replicator nearly one year ago . Since then, the Pentagon has selected its first tranche of capabilities, crafted acquisition strategies and concepts of operation, trained units to use the initial systems and secured nearly $1 billion for the effort in fiscal years 2024 and 2025 .

“Although we have lots more work to do, we are on track to meet Replicator’s original goal of multiple thousands in multiple domains in 18 to 24 months — that is, by end of August 2025,” she said.

DIU is taking the lead on helping vet the hardware the Pentagon will buy through Replicator and is working closely with the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office, or CDAO, to identify the digital backbone that will enable those systems to work together.

CDAO is setting up an AI hub for Replicator and its Alpha-1 capability set — which the office rolled out earlier this year and is being used by the Navy and Marine Corps — will provide tools to help DIU validate that systems are performing as expected.

Asked what companies have been selected to support the digital elements of Replicator, Beck said the department isn’t ready to discuss that piece in detail.

“We are well down the races, and we have hundreds of companies that are involved in pitching against that,” he said.