Pentagon to Disclose More Drones in Secretive China Program

The Pentagon, seeking to balance deterrence of China’s Pacific ambitions, industrial base concerns, and secrecy, plans to reveal as soon as this week more details about its “Replicator” drone program. So far, the Defense Department has disclosed one specific system—the AeroVironment SwitchBlade 600 killer drone.

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The integration of software that could enable the launch and control of autonomous aerial drones by manned aircraft “is part of the capability set that we’re looking at.” The biggest improvements likely are going to come from the software or the algorithms that make these drones autonomous rather than the hardware, said Pettyjohn. “As autonomy becomes more mature, the older models will quickly be obsolete. Think of
these more like your phone, which you replace every few years, versus an expensive weapon that you plan to keep for decades. This is again a paradigm shift for the department.”

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