The Pentagon on Monday confirmed AeroVironment’s [AVAV] Switchblade-600 loitering munitions is one of the capabilities selected for mass production under the first tranche of its Replicator initiative to field thousands of attritable autonomous systems by August 2025.
“U.S.-supplied Switchblade drones have already demonstrated their utility in Ukraine, and this system will provide additional capability to U.S. forces,” the Pentagon said in a statement.
The selection of the Switchblade-600 attack drone was the most specific update the Pentagon provided in its Replicator announcement on Monday, which also included reiterating plans to spent about $1 billion on initiative over the next two years and offering insight into the capability areas that will make up the first tranche of systems.
“The first tranche of Replicator capabilities include uncrewed surface vehicles, uncrewed aerial systems and counter-uncrewed aerial systems of various sizes and payloads from several traditional and non-traditional vendors,” the Pentagon said on Monday.
Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks first announced the Replicator initiative last August, detailing the effort to produce and field thousands of “all-domain attritable autonomous systems, or ADA2 capabilities, over the next 18 to 24 months “to help us overcome [China’s] biggest advantage, which is mass” (Defense Daily, Aug. 28 2023).
“We are taking an important step toward strengthening our defense and technology industrial base. And, we are demonstrating the Department’s ability to break down barriers to scaling innovation at speed not just for ADA2 systems, but in our ability to develop new capabilities and processes for the Department and key stakeholders, including Congress,” Hick said on Monday.
The Pentagon has declined to disclose many details on Replicator, to include naming specific systems involved or breaking down funding lines, with the department on Monday reiterating the first tranche involved “certain capabilities that remain classified, including others in the maritime domain and some in the counter-UAS portfolio.”
During DoD’s rollout of its FY ‘25 budget request, Hicks noted the Pentagon plans to spend $1 billion over the next two years on Replicator, to include $500 million in FY ‘24 and another $500 million included in its FY ‘25 budget submission (Defense Daily, March 12).
The department on Monday noted its secured $300 million in the final FY ‘24 defense appropriations bill, with the remaining $200 million for this fiscal year funded via a reprogramming request.
Doug Bush, the Army’s acquisition chief, said in March the service would be the “biggest participant” in the first tranche of Replicator “in terms of quantity, while he did not name any specific capability that had been selected, to include AeroVironment’s Switchblade-600 (Defense Daily, March 20).
“In the Army’s case, we had something that we were already working on that was similar [to Replicator’s requirements]. So we nominated that and luckily that made the cut. And so that was a win-win for the Army. Those are the ideal situations I think, when it’s something that the service needs to do, can’t quite get through its own system, [the Office of the Secretary of Defense] (OSD) is doing its cross-look oversight and accelerating where they believe it’s necessary for the enterprise. I think that’s the best use of an OSD-led system approach like Replicator,” Bush said at the time.
The U.S. has included Switchblade-600s in previous weapons aid packages for Ukraine, with Defense Scoop having first reported in February that the attack drone system was selected for the Replicator program (Defense Daily, Feb. 24 2023).