In August 2023, Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks announced the Replicator initiative, a US Department of Defense effort to field large numbers of comparatively cheap autonomous systems quickly. The Defense Innovation Unit, which leads implementation, describes Replicator as focused on “improving the United States’ ability to counter the People’s Republic of China’s military mass by fielding attritable autonomous systems in multiple thousands across multiple domains.”
The first line of effort centered on all-domain attritable autonomous systems, meaning systems cheap enough that the military can tolerate losing them. The Defense Innovation Unit frames these as capabilities that are “less expensive, put fewer people in the line of fire, and can be changed, updated, or improved with substantially shorter lead times.” DIU Director Doug Beck described Replicator as “first and foremost about transforming internal processes to accelerate capabilities in their lifecycle.”
The official materials emphasize that Replicator relies on authorities Congress had already granted, rather than new ones, to move faster. The Defense Innovation Unit began posting solicitations starting in December, with early requests focused on uncrewed aerial systems not already under contract.
Replicator marked a shift in stated US procurement philosophy toward large quantities of lower-cost autonomous systems alongside small numbers of expensive, exquisite platforms. It reflected lessons that defense officials drew from the use of cheap drones in contemporary conflicts, and it placed autonomy and software speed at the center of the department’s modernization plans.