Several witnesses at a House Armed Services subcommittee hearing have urged the Department of Defense to follow the example of Ukraine in deploying low-cost, commercial unmanned aerial systems and autonomous technologies to guide its Replicator program, Federal News Network reported Thursday.
The panelists agreed that Ukraine’s success in using various commercial drones to deter Russia and inform decision-making is a good example of technology proliferation that DOD could copy for its new initiative.
“What we’re seeing there is that the proliferation of commercial technology is influencing an agile acquirer and the Ukrainians are being very agile in this and pulling together various commercial technologies to achieve military significant means,” said Bill Greenwalt, a nonresident senior fellow at American Enterprise Institute.
The Replicator program aims to deploy attritable, autonomous technologies and capabilities across multiple domains within the next two years to stay ahead of adversaries like China.
In September, Kathleen Hicks, deputy secretary of defense and a three-time Wash100 awardee, said the new initiative will use existing funding, programming lines and authorities to “accelerate production and delivery at scale.”
