US 'Replicator' drone program to cost $500 million per year, Pentagon says

Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks arrives for a closed briefing for all senators to discuss the leak of classified U.S. intelligence documents on the war in Ukraine, on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., April 19, 2023. REUTERS/Amanda Andrade Rhoades/ File Photo

By Mike Stone

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The Pentagon plans to spend about $500 million annually on the plan to network and task thousands of cheap, smart combat drones for any future conflict, U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks said on Monday.

The Pentagon’s “Replicator” program, announced last year, is an ambitious effort to quickly muster and deploy large numbers of cheap drones within 18 to 24 months.

Hicks told reporters at the Pentagon that in fiscal 2024 the Pentagon anticipated spending $500 million and in fiscal 2025 also “it’s around $500 million. That’s sort of the sum total of what we anticipate. This is a ‘pathfinder’, it’s largely about reducing barriers inside our system.”

Hicks told reporters at the Pentagon that in fiscal 2024 the Pentagon anticipated spending $500 million and in fiscal 2025 also “it’s around $500 million. That’s sort of the sum total of what we anticipate. This is a ‘pathfinder’, it’s largely about reducing barriers inside our system.”

She said that after the “pathfinder” she envisions there will be a “significant potential investment” that would come from the individual military service branches once the Pentagon is a able to reduce the internal barriers to working with new technology.

Pentagon CFO Mike McCord later said that the $500 million needed for Replicator in 2024 could come from “reprogramming,” a method that has been used in the past to shift funds around within Pentagon accounts to meet urgent needs.

But he said this may not be necessary because Hicks has been working with Congressional appropriators to earmark funds in the stalled 2024 appropriations bill that would fund Replicator for the fiscal year that is currently under way.

“Reprogramming should not be necessary in ’25 because we’re proposing it in the budget,” McCord added.

(Reporting by Mike Stone in Washington; editing by Susan Heavey and Sandra Maler)