LONDON — Because the U.S. Defense Department looks to purchase 1000’s of autonomous systems over the following few years through its Replicator initiative, Pentagon officials and industry leaders say production readiness and capability will drive its selection process.
Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks in late August unveiled the initiative, which goals to field a fleet of small, attritable, uncrewed systems across multiple domains over the following 18 to 24 months. Replicator is supposed to vary the best way the department buys high-need capability to counter China’s military advantage.
Officials have been light on details about many points of the initiative, including where those platforms will come from and the way the Pentagon will field them at such a rapid pace. Talking to reporters Sept. 13 on the sidelines of the Air and Space Forces Association’s Air, Space and Cyber Conference in National Harbor, Md., Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment Bill LaPlante said that because the department considers which systems to field through Replicator, production capability can be an element.
“One in every of the factors of regardless of the approach [is] that’s undergone should look . . . at production capability,” he said. “Not only the capability, but how close we’re to production. There are some capabilities . . . some things that may go into production pretty fast. So, I’m not ruling out one or the opposite, but you must have a look at that as well.”
Across the Atlantic on the DSEI conference here, industry executives emphasized the necessity for clear signaling from the Defense Department to assist corporations — particularly small and mid-size firms — make smart investments within the manufacturing capability needed to deliver on programs like Replicator.
Retired U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Neil Thurgood, who previously led the service’s Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office and is now senior vice chairman of Anduril Industries, said during a panel discussion at DSEI that corporations must not only put money into the product they’re developing but additionally the manufacturing capability to provide it in large quantities.
“You’ll be able to’t just make the thing. You’ve got to make the thing bankable,” Thurgood said during a Sept. 13 panel hosted by Defense News. “As soon because it looks just like the user has a viable need for this, then you’ve got to make the investment within the manufacturing process to maintain pace with the choice.”
He continued: “There are numerous examples within the U.S., U.K., Israel, other countries, where they made a choice and went right to scale — a number of examples where that worked really good because corporations invested in a producing process. And there are some examples where we didn’t quite invest fast enough, and it didn’t go in addition to we wanted it to.”
Andrea Garrity, chief growth officer at mobile mesh networking company goTenna, stressed that corporations must play close attention to DoD messaging to make sure their supply chain can meet those demands. She noted her company moved its manufacturing to the U.S. last 12 months on account of supply chain concerns and growing demand from U.S. government customers.
Still, it might help to have more insight from the federal government into their plans, she said — especially because the military prepares for a possible conflict with China in the approaching years.
“If anyone got here in and dropped a ten,000 goTenna order, we’ll work to scale up the manufacturing to get that delivered,” Garrity said. “But I all the time return to the partnership discussion. If we all know things are coming, then we will plan to ramp as much as make certain that . . . we’re delivering capability that we want to deliver when it must be delivered where it must be delivered.”
On Replicator, given its short delivery timelines and potentially large quantities, some level of certainty from DoD is critical, based on Tom Foldesi, chief revenue officer at Saildrone.
Foldesi said the trouble may very well be “game changing,” especially if DoD makes its capability and capability needs clear and consistent enough for industry to adapt its supply base to the brand new cadence.
“Before we will even make things makeable, we’ve to give you the option to send a reliable supply chain signal,” he said. “For us to send a reliable supply chain signal, we’ve to have certainty.”
Brendan Groves, vice chairman of regulatory and policy affairs at Skydio, said dual-use corporations which have a business and defense market are in position to reply to DoD’s near-term production needs for Replicator.
Skydio, a U.S. drone manufacturer that has supplied lots of of systems to Ukraine, opened a brand new manufacturing facility in California earlier this 12 months, making a tenfold increase in its production capability. That growth, Groves said, prepares the corporate to reply to DoD’s production needs, and he expects other dual-use corporations are in an analogous position.
“A variety of dual-use corporations can be ready for this primary phase, partially because they’re not waiting for the federal government,” he said. “We’re serving real needs at once across the U.S. government, across the enterprise. Those are the businesses that can be able to answer that decision.”
Courtney Albon is C4ISRNET’s space and emerging technology reporter. She has covered the U.S. military since 2012, with a deal with the Air Force and Space Force. She has reported on among the Defense Department’s most vital acquisition, budget and policy challenges.
Stephen Losey is the air warfare reporter for Defense News. He previously covered leadership and personnel issues at Air Force Times, and the Pentagon, special operations and air warfare at Military.com. He has traveled to the Middle East to cover U.S. Air Force operations.