The first iteration of the Pentagon’s Replicator initiative should achieve its goals of providing thousands of cheap, autonomous platforms in all combat domains by July 2025, the deputy director of the Defense Innovation Unit said Dec. 12.
Anduril Industries said it received $350 million to build 500 high-explosive-equipped examples of its Roadrunner uncrewed VTOL aircraft. If detonation isn't needed, it can be safely recovered and re-used, the company said.
The Enterprise Test Vehicles being evaluated by the Air Force and Defense Innovation Unit are chiefly aimed at exploring modular technologies and rapid manufacturing approaches, not necessarily producing a weapon, Pentagon officials said. But the door is open to such an outcome if the program ...
Members of the Minnesota Air National Guard’s 133rd Security Forces Squadron learned to fly and operate the Skydio X2D, a quadcopter equipped with 4K cameras, night vision, a thermal sensor, and artificial intelligence that keeps the drone aloft so that operators can focus on gathering ...
Following the Department of Defense announcing its new Replicator initiative, lawmakers and experts voiced a range of opinions on the effort’s potential and challenges in a House Armed Services subcommittee hearing Oct. 19.
An Air Force task force charged with advancing new technologies is considering fielding one-way attack drones in the Middle East, the top USAF commander for the region told reporters Oct. 4. Task Force 99, a small detachment in Air Forces Central (AFCENT), is exploring kinetic ...
The Pentagon plans to field thousands of drones in the sea, in the air, and possibly on land to counter the large size of China’s military under its new Replicator Initiative. And the Department of Defense’s No. 2 official insists the DOD needs no new ...
Through a new effort called the Replicator Initiative, the Department of Defense is seeking to rapidly expand its capacity through relatively inexpensive autonomous systems. And the DOD wants those systems fast—in the “volume and velocity required to deter aggression or win if we’re forced to ...