'Replicator'

Unleashing a Swarm of Intelligent Drones to Counter China's Mass

Last week, the Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks made waves when she announced the ‘Replicator’ program during the National Defense Industrial Association’s Emerging Technology Expo.

Replicator seeks to counter China’s greatest strength, mass, through the production of “multiple thousands” of “attritable autonomous systems” across “multiple domains” within two years.

This is a fantastic announcement that has broad implications for how we conduct warfare and even more importantly how we prepare the defense industrial base for conflict in the future. But to understand that, we need to look backwards briefly, first.