US plans to build up force of combat drones, with an eye on China, Pentagon official says
- Replicator programme should ‘help us overcome the PRC’s biggest advantage … more ships, more missiles, more people’, Deputy Secretary of Defence Kathleen Hicks says
- Analysts say the initiative, building on lessons from Ukraine war, shows a new level of US interest in tactical drone use, but that it might be hard to implement
The US military intends to field thousands of drones within the next two years, a programme analysts called a significant move for possible conflicts in the Taiwan Strait, where the low-cost and mass-deployed unmanned systems could put pressure on Beijing.
This week, the Pentagon announced a new initiative dubbed Replicator, which aims to field “attritable autonomous systems” at scale of “multiple thousands in multiple domains” within the next 18 to 24 months.
“Replicator is meant to help us overcome the PRC [People’s Republic of China]’s biggest advantage, which is mass: more ships, more missiles, more people,” Deputy Secretary of Defence Kathleen Hicks said on Monday.
“We’ll counter the PLA’s mass with mass of our own, but ours will be harder to plan for, harder to hit and harder to beat,” Hicks told a National Defence Industrial Association conference in Washington.
The US has long invested in autonomous systems, including self-piloting ships and no-crew aircraft.