In a press release and conversations over email, officials unveiled a new prize challenge for low-cost sensing technologies to enhance counter unmanned aerial systems and — in partnership with the Joint Counter-small UAS Office — a new solicitation for “low-collateral defeat options” that can be quickly integrated into existing C-sUAS programs of record across the joint force via the Replicator initiative.

“DIU’s low-cost sensing prize challenge combined with the LCD [solicitation] are a part of the overall strategic push to get after the toughest challenges and most pressing C-UAS problems identified by the warfighter,” David Payne, the unit’s C-UAS program manager, told DefenseScoop.

The new announcement marks the latest move associated with the Defense Department’s high-stakes — but hush-hush — Replicator effort. 

DOD leadership under the Biden administration established Replicator in August 2023 as a key military technology and procurement modernization initiative. At the time, it was billed as a strategic campaign to confront China’s massive, ongoing military buildup by incentivizing U.S. industrial production capacity and the DOD’s adoption of advanced warfare technologies en masse — through replicable processes — at a much faster pace than has been achieved before.

Tranches within the first capability focus area, Replicator-1, broadly encompass the purchase and making of loitering munitions and other technologies associated with all-domain autonomous systems. In September 2024, Pentagon officials revealed plans to prioritize the high-volume production of C-UAS capabilities through Replicator-2.

In DIU’s press release, officials wrote that Replicator aims to “deliver strategic capability and to build new innovative muscle for” DOD, and that the forthcoming solicitation aligns with the Trump administration’s recent executive order entitled “Modernizing Defense Acquisitions and Spurring Innovation in the Industrial Base.” 

The solicitation will be open for submissions from industry through May 16. 

Officials also noted that the call for LCD capabilities is envisioned to supply the military with the “most effective defeat options” for increasingly complex and custom-built drones — and also “help to minimize risk to friendly forces, civilians, and infrastructure in the homeland and abroad.”

“North America faces a variety of non-traditional threats, and key among these is the use of small uncrewed aircraft systems operating near installations and critical infrastructure — addressing these threats is a top priority and essential task,” NorthCom Commander Gen. Gregory Guillot said in the press release. “Partnering with DIU to employ low-collateral defeat capabilities is one example of how we are developing the forward-looking capabilities and policies necessary to ensure a seamless and well-coordinated defensive enterprise.”

The call for capabilities will also build on other ongoing DOD technology-enabling efforts, including collaborative work with the United Kingdom.

A DIU spokesperson told DefenseScoop that this is the first time the unit launched a bilateral commercial solutions opening where the U.K. government’s Ministry of Defence was involved from the start. They also confirmed that this effort “is very much part of the new U.K. Defence Innovation organization that will officially be stood up in July.” 

“This is both nations leveraging the commercial sector to develop novel technology to solve a defense requirement,” the spokesperson said.

Regarding the separate prize challenge that DIU is also posting Monday, the official said that it seeks “to enhance the DOD’s [C-UAS] capabilities while addressing cost and scalability limitations associated with traditional radars, optical sensors, and radio frequency detection systems.”

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“[President Donald Trump] has issued several executive orders directing the Department of Defense to take all appropriate and lawful measures to ensure the complete operational control of the border. The department, in turn, is responding by preparing the path for employment of [counter-small uncrewed aerial system or CsUAS] activities along the border — both in support of DOD interests and in support of [the Department of Homeland Security] as the lead federal agency,” said Mark Ditlevson, acting assistant secretary of defense for homeland defense and hemispheric affairs.

Ditlevson and Rear Adm. Paul Spedero Jr., Joint Chiefs of Staff vice director for operations, J3, revealed those plans in written and oral testimony during a House Military and Foreign Affairs Subcommittee hearing about recent reports of unauthorized drone activity that threaten U.S. national security.

“We know that cartels have used [uncrewed aerial systems or UAS] for unauthorized surveillance to assess our troop size, our movements, to solicit and enable attacks from other vectors. We know that they have used drones for kinetic attacks,” Spedero said.

The rapid emergence, proliferation and application of drones are fundamentally shifting the way that militarized groups and other adversarial organizations conduct warfare.

The two witnesses discussed with lawmakers DOD’s still-ongoing responses to several recent high-profile incidents that impacted military officials and American civilians domestically and abroad over the last few years, including in New Jersey and at Joint Base Langley-Eustis in Virginia.

Ditlevson and Spedero confirmed that the Pentagon is moving to buy hardware and software assets designed to help combatant commanders better understand their operating environments and their commands’ capacity to conduct non-kinetic and kinetic defense against UAS threats. 

Among other remedies, they also said DOD officials have identified and are pursuing a range of policy, process and technology improvements to govern and streamline DOD’s execution of counter-UAS activities.

However, several lawmakers warned that on some U.S. defense installations — and now, particularly at the southern border, where Trump recently authorized the military to take control — service members have suggested that they’re still not confident in gauging when and if they are permitted to respond to incursions from unidentified drones.

“This is the burden of command, and you need to understand that if there is something that is assessed as a threat to your forces and your installation, you not only have the authority, but the responsibility to act. I would counter that they have authority right now on the southwest border to engage UAS,” Spedero noted.

In their written testimony, he and Ditlevson further stated that “transnational criminal organizations are adapting to our operations by using drones to track the movements of U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents and DOD forces near the border” and that the department is puzzling out an associated initiative to defend against small UAS in the near term. 

They did not share implementation details or comment on possible policy changes and capabilities updates that need to be completed for the CsUAS “path to employment” to come into fruition.

“It’s critical — the cartels are using drones to surveil our military and law enforcement at the border. That’s not good, and they’re going to use everything they can to find holes that will then dictate their behavior. So yes, we need to have counter-drone technology there,” subcommittee Chair Rep. William Timmons, R-S.C., told DefenseScoop after the hearing. “If the border patrol is saying it’s a problem, it’s a problem.”   

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During a roundtable with a small group of reporters hosted by the Defense Writers Group shortly after that meeting concluded, DIB members Michael Mullen — a retired Navy admiral and former chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff — and technology investment executive Charles Phillips shed light on what participants addressed behind closed doors.

“For the last hour and a half, we had [conversations with four contractors we met with] that are at various stages and with various capabilities with respect to the drone world, just to review what their challenges were,” Mullen told DefenseScoop at the briefing.

Currently led by businessman and former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, the DIB was first set up in 2016 to produce independent recommendations to Defense Department leadership regarding emerging technologies and associated policies and innovative approaches.

“[One] topic to be tackled is a problem getting a lot of coverage in the press. In many cases, U.S.-made drones are failing in the Ukraine as Russia’s brutal invasion grinds on. And so we’ll also be thinking about how the military can develop more effective and less expensive drones, and how we can spur the market to produce a whole heck of a lot more of them. And we’ll be looking forward to getting to work on those potential new studies,” Bloomberg said before concluding the panel’s public meeting on Wednesday. 

In the roundtable with reporters, Phillips elaborated on how drone tech was the “one area that kept coming up” during the closed portion of the DIB’s discussion.

“The obvious thing is that the U.S. drones that we’ve sent [over to Ukraine] have not been effective. They’re too expensive. They get jammed all the time. And so, the ones that are working seem to come from other countries. So we have to learn to manufacture them at a much lower cost, not over-spec them, and basically design for the issues that they see on the ground there,” the retired Marine Corps captain explained.

Phillips said part of the meeting focused on ways the U.S. can better build drone technology at scale.

“The inventory levels are low. We’re using 10,000 drones a month in Ukraine. So multiply that — if we get something larger for the U.S., we need hundreds of thousands, or millions over time. And so we need to reset the scale of how we’re thinking about it and then learn to manufacture more cheaply,” he said. 

“One of the companies there manufactures composites. And so there’s a better way of manufacturing them to make them cheaper and lighter than we’re doing right now. So, that was another theme,” Phillips added.

Among other topics discussed was how to get drone-makers of all sizes easier access to partnerships or associated pathways for working with Pentagon components.

“One of the drone companies talked about their investment, which was tens of millions of dollars, and in hopes that they believed in what they’re doing and they did a lot of testing on the commercial side for commercial application — but they invested tens of millions in hopes that they would get a contract [with DOD]. There’s a lot of people that just can’t do that. So, how do you close that? And how do you have an understanding about what it takes to run a business, literally inside the [Pentagon] building, particularly as we’ve got to go so quickly now to meet the technological challenges that are at the speed that’s out there?” Mullen said.

In response to follow-up questions on Thursday, a DIB spokesperson noted that the board “held preparatory sessions to inform future work and these sessions are closed to the public.”

“As such we are unable to share the names of the companies” that attended, the official told DefenseScoop. 

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Earlier this week, the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Tactical Air and Land Forces released draft language for the fiscal 2025 Servicemember Quality of Life Improvement and National Defense Authorization Act. A provision would mandate the creation of a Drone Corps that would be given primary responsibility for programs, projects and activities involving small and medium unmanned aerial systems and counter-UAS weapons.

The organization would be tasked to serve as a “command center” for Army operations involving these types of systems; help integrate the systems with forces that have not traditionally used such platforms; conduct research, development, testing and evaluation of technologies; and provide personnel with specialized training.

Additionally, it would be directed to carry out programs to attract and retain personnel with relevant expertise, develop strategies and capabilities to counter drones, and “perform such other functions relating to unmanned aircraft and unmanned aircraft systems as the Secretary determines appropriate,” according to the draft legislation.

The secretary of the Army would be responsible for appointing the chief of the Drone Corps.

Army leaders are keen on modernizing the service’s UAS and counter-UAS capabilities as they look to introduce next-generation platforms into the force and address growing threats.

“I did see the language in the initial draft of the House bill. And I would say that it’s animated, I think, by a recognition that you know this is a very real threat. It is a problem that the Department [of Defense] and the Army in particular have to confront. And so we … share that urgency and we definitely share that focus,” Army Undersecretary Gabe Camarillo said Friday during an event hosted by the Center for a New American Security.

However, standing up a new drone branch like the one being proposed, wouldn’t be the best way to address the problem and might be counterproductive, he suggested.

“My view is that, you know, creating a corps or other institutional kind of structures to kind of get after it, in some way could take away some focus from some of the things that … we’re actually doing. It’s important in my view to get after giving units, you know, these [commercial off-the-shelf] UAS capabilities to let them experiment. I want to better understand the TTPs [tactics, techniques and procedures] about how they’re going to employ them at different echelons and to be able to understand, you know, how that affects the way that our formations will fight,” he said.

Camarillo noted that the Army is pursuing a concept called “transforming in contact,” which aims to use unit rotations to help determine what technologies and configurations its forces will need, including UAS and counter-UAS tools.

Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George is a strong proponent of the effort and has highlighted the need for the service to boost its prowess in these areas.

“One of the things we’re doing is experimenting with some of our brigades right now to kind of give them not only these launched effects and COTS UAVs, but to allow them to kind of figure out and train how they would use them … And really what it is it’s taking three brigades that are deploying or going to large-scale exercises, and giving them these types of kit so they have an opportunity to figure out how would they employ them. It will give us a tremendous amount of feedback,” Camarillo said.

These initiatives and others that the Army is pursuing, are more likely to yield benefits from an operational and acquisition perspective than creating a Drone Corps, he suggested.

“Things that we’re doing, like transformation in contact or some of the experiments that we’re performing today are critically important. I think the institutional implications of it to me are secondary at this point, as opposed to figuring out how we’re going to employ the technology, what technology works the best, and most importantly, do we have our buying processes in place in order to be able to get there,” Camarillo said. “Having a branch or, you know, a [Center of Excellence] or anything like that — it’s not going to help us buy anything faster or get us more resources against this problem set.”

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