US starts delivering drones under programme aimed at China’s growing military

In a statement on Thursday, US deputy secretary of defence Kathleen Hicks said the unmanned system acquired under the Replicator initiative was delivered to the US military earlier this month.

“This shows that warfighter-centric innovation is not only possible; it’s producing real results,” Hicks said, according to military news site Breaking Defence.

“Even as we deliver systems, our end-to-end capability development process continues … the Replicator initiative is delivering capabilities at greater speed and scale while simultaneously burning down risk and alleviating systemic barriers across the department.”

Hicks, however, did not give details on the exact type and number of drones or where they were deployed.

Replicator, an initiative focused on fielding what it calls “all-domain attritable autonomous” (ADA2) systems, has remained in semi-secrecy. When Hicks first unveiled it in August last year, she cited countering China’s growing military as a key focus of the initiative.

“Replicator is meant to help us overcome the [People’s Republic of China’s] biggest advantage, which is mass. More ships. More missiles. More people,” Hicks said.

“We’ll counter the PLA’s mass with mass of our own, but ours will be harder to plan for, harder to hit, harder to beat. With smart people, smart concepts, and smart technology, our military will be more nimble, with uplift and urgency from the commercial sector.”

The initiative aims to field thousands of ADA2 systems – including uncrewed surface vehicles, uncrewed aerial systems and counter-uncrewed aerial systems – by August 2025.

Earlier this month, the Pentagon announced that the US Congress had approved US$500 million this financial year for the Replicator initiative, and the Department of Defence had requested an equal amount for the coming financial year beginning on October 1.

The Pentagon said Replicator would include AeroVironment’s Switchblade 600 loitering munition, a tank-destroying drone known for helping Ukraine push back against the Russian invasion. It is the only type of drone disclosed under the initiative and is likely to be deployed in the Indo-Pacific region.

“This is a critical step in delivering the capabilities we need, at the scale and speed we need, to continue securing a free and open Indo-Pacific,” Admiral Samuel Paparo, commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, said on May 6.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has launched a plan to transform the People’s Liberation Army into a fully modern force on a par with the US military in the Pacific by 2027 and to become a “world class” military by 2049, the centenary of the Communist Party’s rise to power.

In a push for military modernisation, China has been a leading producer and exporter of UAVs in recent years, with investment into cutting-edge military technology.

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) arms transfer database, China has exported more than 280 combat drones in the past decade – mainly the Wing-Loong I and II and the CH-3 and CH-4 to the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia.

Since December 2022, China has been building the world’s first dedicated drone carrier, mainly to host fixed-wing UAVs, according to a report based on analysis of satellite images.