Replicator Initiative

The Replicator Initiative is the US Department of Defense’s bet that quantity has a quality all its own. Announced by Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks in August 2023, it set out to field “attritable autonomous systems at a scale of multiple thousands, in multiple domains, within the next 18 to 24 months.” Hicks framed it bluntly as a way to offset China’s advantage in sheer mass — “more ships, more missiles, more people” — by buying large numbers of cheap, expendable, software-defined drones rather than a handful of exquisite platforms.

The first phase, Replicator 1, focused on all-domain attritable autonomous systems. Its first publicly named tranche, revealed in May 2024, included AeroVironment ’s Switchblade 600 loitering munition, Anduril ’s Altius-600, Shield AI ’s V-BAT, small drones from Performance Drone Works, and autonomous surface vessels from Saronic . A second tranche followed in November 2024, adding Anduril’s Ghost-X, the Performance Drone Works C-100, and an Air Force “enterprise test vehicle,” alongside software enablers — some systems remained classified. The Pentagon planned roughly $1 billion across fiscal 2024 and 2025 to fund it.

Replicator 2 was set in motion by a September 2024 memo from Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, who tasked Hicks with a plan; this phase turns the same fast-fielding model toward countering small uncrewed aircraft. By 2025 the department touted Replicator 1 as a “successful transition,” though officials acknowledged that hundreds — not thousands — of systems had actually been delivered against the original target, with more on contract. The first Replicator 2 purchase came in January 2026, when a counter-drone task force selected Fortem Technologies’ net-capture interceptors. As an experiment in defence acquisition speed, Replicator remains as closely watched as the hardware it buys.