Second Replicator tranche to include Anduril’s autonomous underwater drones
Pentagon leadership selected Anduril’s Dive-LD autonomous underwater vehicles as part of the second tranche of capabilities to be quickly mass produced via the high-profile modernization effort known as Replicator, multiple sources told DefenseScoop this week.
This news marks the first public report of technologies that made the Defense Department’s cut for Replicator 1.2 — and it also follows the company’s recently revealed plans to launch a new factory in Rhode Island to speed-up the manufacturing of these advanced uncrewed platforms.
Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks unveiled the Replicator initiative one year ago as a strategic effort to deter China by incentivizing and accelerating industrial production capacity and the military’s adoption of attritable, autonomous systems in multiple combat domains — through replicable processes — by mid-2025.
Hicks has been frank about DOD leaders’ aims to be deliberately tight-lipped and secretive about certain aspects of the project as it comes into fruition. Ahead of the Pentagon’s official announcement, DefenseScoop reported in April that the first tranche of capability selections to be expedited through this initial pursuit — referred to as Replicator 1.1 — included loitering munitions, counter-drone assets, and multiple types of unmanned surface vessels.