The Department of Defense’s (DoD) Office of the Inspector General (IG) has set its sights on the department’s high-stakes Replicator initiative as the subject of its next review.
The DoD’s top watchdog issued a memorandum on Monday to multiple military and civilian components officially kicking off a comprehensive evaluation of Replicator.
Replicator was launched last summer by Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks, who presented it as a strategic countermeasure to China’s rapidly expanding military might. The initiative aims to accelerate the adoption of “attritable autonomous systems” across multiple combat domains within the next 18 to 24 months.
Since the initiative launched, DoD leadership and insiders have been surprisingly mum about this ambitious effort, frequently citing security concerns to explain their discretion.
So far, Pentagon officials have secured around $500 million from Congress for fiscal year (FY) 2024 to kick off phase one, with another $500 million request already in the works for FY 2025.
The initial tranche of Replicator capabilities features uncrewed surface vehicles, uncrewed aerial systems, and counter-uncrewed aerial systems of various sizes and payloads from a mix of traditional and non-traditional vendors.
“The objective of this evaluation is to determine the effectiveness with which the Services and Defense Innovation Unit selected capabilities for the Replicator Initiative to meet the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command’s operational needs,” the IG memo reads.
Although, the IG primarily aims to assess how effectively the services and the Defense Innovation Unit selected capabilities to meet Indo-Pacific Command’s operational requirements, the memo does note that the IG may revise or broaden the scope of the assessment as the evaluation proceeds.
The Pentagon has until the end of the week to designate two individuals – knowledgeable with the Replicator Initiative capabilities – to assist the IG in this assessment.
