The Replicator program, initiated under the Biden administration to acquire thousands of low-cost „attritable” drones for the Pacific Theater of Operations, is alive and more relevant than ever, albeit under a new name and with a reconfigured strategy. Top Pentagon officials have confirmed that the once-controversial initiative is continuing its course, now focusing on the development of larger attack drones.
Replicator Returns, Under a New Identity
The ambitious Replicator effort was met with criticism, including from lawmakers, and its fate was left in question, especially amid other drone initiatives announced by the new Trump administration. However, Admiral Samuel Paparo, the four-star chief of Indo-Pacific Command, recently stated at the Reagan National Defense Forum in California that Replicator is far from dead. „It’s alive. It’s alive,” Paparo affirmed, adding that the deputy secretary of defense has integrated it into an „autonomous warfighting group,” alluding to the Defense Autonomous Warfare Group (DAWG), the initiative’s new „home,” according to initial reports in the American press.
Wargames and Secret Exercises: How the New Program Comes to Life
What does it mean for the program to be „alive”? Paparo clarified: it means wargames, both realistic simulations of how technology could help win a future fight, and live exercises with real equipment, conducted in secure locations, safely distant from prying eyes. „We are simulating to it,” Paparo said. „We’re exercising to it, live — not in any space in the Western Pacific, but in secure spaces where we can do our maximum learning.”
Giant Drones for the Pacific, Mini-Drones for the Front: A Dual Strategy
The renamed Replicator, under the DAWG umbrella, is now specifically focused on larger types of drones, added Emil Michael, the Pentagon’s Chief Technology Officer and Under Secretary for Research & Engineering. Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Hegseth’s newer campaign, dubbed „Drone Dominance,” emphasizes smaller systems for use by small units, similar to the First-Person View (FPV) drones that have demonstrated lethal effectiveness in Ukraine. Although Michael did not explicitly state it during the discussion, military experts generally agree that the vast expanses of the Pacific require longer-ranged and therefore larger drones, unlike the close-quarters distances of the Ukrainian front. „We have embarked on a Drone Dominance initiative… funded by Congress, and that’s for smaller drones,” Michael said. „What we’re working on with Adm. Paparo and the [Defense] Autonomous Warfare Group is larger drones, one-way attack drones. We have to be dominant in both. We can be dominant in both,” he continued. „What we’ve learned from the Ukraine-Russia war is that the front lines of a conflict over territory are robot-on-robot now.”
Counter-Drone Defense: A National Priority
There is also a third imperative in this domain, the R&D chief added: counter-drone defense. This is especially crucial for the US homeland, and above all for high-profile events like the 2026 World Cup and the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. „We’ve got to make sure those sites are protected,” Michael said. „So we have to have a robust small-drone program, a robust large-drone program, and even more robust counter-drone program.”
From Dominance to Denial: A New Philosophy of Warfare
The good news here for the US and its allies, Paparo argued, is that the proliferation of drones and other advanced technologies is shifting the balance of power from aggressors to defenders. By whatever name, the DAWG/Replicator effort aims to capitalize on that strategic shift. „It’s been renamed from Replicator, but the quality of it is the same,” the admiral said. „In some spaces you need not fight for air or maritime superiority. All you need do is deny it to another.” Paparo’s comments must be understood in the context of an epochal shift in American strategic thinking: After three post-Cold War decades of seeking absolute „dominance” over air, land, and sea in places like Afghanistan and Iraq, the US military is looking at more formidable adversaries and realizing it doesn’t have to dominate them, just deny them their objectives. Kyiv and its allies don’t have to march on Moscow: They win if Russia can’t conquer Ukraine. Taipei and its allies don’t have to burn Beijing: They win if China can’t conquer Taiwan. Once Pentagon analysts looked at long-range, high-tech, multi-layered defenses – what insiders clunkily called Anti-Access/Area Denial (A2/AD) – primarily as a barrier to US operations; now they’re realizing the US can use A2/AD to protect the Free World. „This gets back to that… changing character of warfare,” Paparo said. „The commoditization of drones has made assault more costly. … Having the kind of capability, that can be quickly deployed in that space and make assault cost-prohibitive, will inherently benefit a denial defense and will inherently benefit a state that does not care to have another state…change the facts on the ground with force.”
