Bush says Army has nominated three systems for Replicator

The Army has nominated three drone systems for the Pentagon’s new Replicator initiative, service acquisition chief Doug Bush said today.

The Pentagon’s Replicator initiative, announced this summer, aims to field thousands of low-cost, attritable, autonomous drone systems in two years or less. In the next few weeks, the Defense Department will select its “first tranche” of systems to be included in Replicator.

Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks said on Nov. 21 that those selections will be made from programs within DOD’s research and development pipeline.

Bush said during an event hosted by Defense One in Washington Thursday that the three systems the Army has nominated are ones that are in production rather than those requiring R&D. He provided few details on the three systems, saying that they are “bigger than a quadcopter, but smaller than an MQ-1.”

Bush said he was optimistic the Defense Department would select at least one of the systems for Replicator.

“OSD will decide, but I think we’ve got some real good candidates,” he said.

“One of the things [Army Chief of Staff] Gen. [Randy] George has talked about is wanting to go faster on unmanned capability. That pairs perfectly with what Replicator is trying to do,” he said.