Officials published a new directive in March that aims to streamline and standardize the Army’s approach to developing software — an extensive policy outlining how it plans to develop requirements, perform testing, procure, sustain and manage personnel for software-based capabilities. The Army later posted a notice to Sam.gov in May which sought industry feedback on a multiple-award contract vehicle for its software efforts, estimated to be worth more than $1 billion over a 10-year period of performance.

Not long after, members of industry — mainly non-traditional and venture-backed defense contractors — began publicly sharing their concerns with both the directive and the request for information (RFI). Many took issue with the Army’s push to use cost-plus contracts for software “to the maximum extent possible” while minimizing firm fixed-priced models, as stated in the service’s software directive.

Several company executives, who all spoke to DefenseScoop on the condition of anonymity to talk candidly, claimed that the contract language showed preference for large, traditional defense prime contractors and would cause smaller, non-traditional vendors to avoid bidding on future Army software programs.

“It’s not worth trying to bid or convince them if what they’re stipulating as sort of a requirement to even enter isn’t something you can meet,” one defense tech executive said. “I think they would see a lot less innovation in their responses, and it sort of starts leading down the path of custom-build, services-companies approach — which in some cases could be appropriate, but we find it a little affronting for the Army to say, ‘You must agree to this as a condition to even participate.’”

Cost-plus versus firm-fixed-price

During a roundtable with reporters Sept. 5, Army acquisition lead Doug Bush emphasized that the service never planned to exclusively use cost-plus contract types for its future software programs. Rather, he said the organization is committed to customizing acquisition strategy to each specific capability and is open to using hybrid-contract approaches.

“Every contract needs to be tailored to the task, and it’s not a simple world of cost-plus versus fixed-price,” Bush said. “Those are ends of a spectrum. In between those things are a vast array of hybrid approaches that are tailored to different things.”

Under cost-plus contracts, the Defense Department agrees to pay contractors for a project’s expenses — including labor hours, materials and any other costs accrued while under the contract’s terms — as well as an additional fee to account for profit once the project is completed.

While cost-plus contracts do guarantee reimbursement for contractors and mitigate risk to them, the model requires companies to use government-approved cost-accounting systems that track their software engineers’ hours and other expenses for the contract. One defense tech executive explained that implementing and approving the necessary infrastructure is a time-consuming, expensive effort — especially for smaller companies.

Others shared that overall, cost-plus contracts have made development cumbersome, are contradictory to the culture of how non-traditional defense companies operate, and do not value software the way that it should be.

“Through a cost-type contract, it is valued through what the government can count,” a source told DefenseScoop. “It can count the number of people working on it, it can count the number of hours that they’re billing — and that is almost antithetical to how value is generated in software.”

On the other hand, many software-focused companies prefer contracting using a firm-fixed-price model, in which the Defense Department and vendor agree on a set price for products at the start of the contract. This means companies do take on added risk if there are cost overruns during the program, but they would not have to implement additional infrastructure to track labor hours.

“I think startups and more innovative companies — because of our model and how we’re valued in the market — we’re willing to eat some of the costs to make the changes and deliver the best thing where necessary,” one defense tech executive explained.

When asked why the service intended to maximize use of cost-plus contracts for software, an Army spokesperson told DefenseScoop that agile software development and continuous delivery hinge on iterative requirements based on user feedback. Therefore, assessing the price of a software capability before awarding the contract award becomes “impossible,” they said.

The Army has since clarified that it won’t solely be using cost-plus contract types for its software capabilities. In response to industry feedback, the service has added all contract types to the IDIQ in order to provide flexibility, Jennifer Swanson, the Army’s deputy assistant secretary for data, engineering and software, told reporters at the roundtable.

In an upcoming RFI set to be released in October, the Army will also update how it differentiates labor-category costs that will allow the service to better understand how industry pays its software engineers, she said. Where the government historically uses education degrees to differentiate, industry has largely moved away from that practice, she added.

The Army is also looking to initiate a pilot program that would allow the service to not specify contract types upfront in a task order requirement for the IDIQ. Rather, vendors can pitch software solutions and a proposed contract type they believe would fit best, giving both the service and industry more flexibility, Swanson said.

“The reason we’re doing that is so that we are able to consider all solutions that are out there,” she said. “There may be a commercial solution we’re not aware of, and so this would allow a company to bring that forward with a firm-fixed-price contract type that would make sense for a commercial solution.”

Although the Army is now considering all contract types moving forward, the service will use cost-plus models in some cases, Bush said.

“There will be times when a cost-type contract of some flavor is the appropriate thing to use to protect the government’s interest. I’m not going to apologize for that,” he told reporters. “This is the American people’s money. Our contracting approaches are gauged to both achieve the capability, but also make sure funding is not wasted.”

Remaining concerns

In the software directive, the Army noted that “[c]ustomization to commercial software solutions will be minimized to limit risk to the government. Where appropriate, microservices will be used to add capabilities not present in commercial software solutions. Customization to commercial software should only proceed where potential cost and technical risks are understood and mitigated.”

Defense tech executives told DefenseScoop that they believed the policy would steer the Army away from commercial products and services in favor of custom-built solutions — shutting themselves off to large segments of industry. Many non-traditional vendors have existing software products sold commercially that can be customized with new tools so they can be sold to the government as well, they said. 

“You can think about bringing into an architecture some software that was commercially developed that you are accessing by virtue of a license or some other type of agreement — a fixed-price contract agreement of some kind — because it’s already built, you only have to modify it,” one defense tech executive said.

The Army spokesperson said the service still fully supports customizing commercial software, but previous experiences in doing so have resulted in cost increases and cybersecurity risks to their systems, while also decreasing the capability’s quality and ability for the Army to update to newer versions. 

Because of those experiences, the service plans to “maximize configuration of commercial software while limiting customization” for systems using commercial software products at their core — such as most of the Army’s business systems, they said.

“This will reduce costs, increase capability and encourage more widespread use of commercial software while allowing the Army to leverage firm-fixed-price contracts,” the spokesperson said. “Commercial-off-the-shelf software products will remain the Army’s primary choice. The Army will only develop software when no viable commercial capability is available.”

One defense tech executive said that while they understood concerns with commercial software customization, industry must realize that not every software tool can meet the Army’s requirements — especially for military-specific capabilities.

“The easiest way is you use what is out there, but I think it’s incumbent upon industry to recognize that industry hasn’t created every piece of software that the government is going to need,” the defense tech executive said.

Despite some negative opinions, Bush emphasized that a majority of industry’s feedback to the RFI was positive. He said the Army continues to field industry’s responses and will reasonably address any concerns companies still have moving forward, adding that it’s okay for people to not fully agree with what the service is doing.

“Of course there’s always going to be some people who have concerns. And that’s fine,” he said. “I think we’ve listened to a lot of it. But if some companies don’t want to bid on a contract, it’s a free country. Don’t bid, others will. My goal is simply to get the capability for the Army, not to make everybody happy.”

A final request for proposals for the IDIQ contract vehicle will likely be published before the end of 2024, Swanson said.

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Under the contract, SNC will integrate a variety of sensors for communications intelligence, electronic intelligence, synthetic aperture radar and moving target indication onto a fleet of Bombardier Global 6500 business jets. The high-altitude ISR aircraft will replace the Army’s legacy RC-12 Guardrail enhanced medium reconnaissance and surveillance system, as well as the Airborne Reconnaissance Low aircraft — both of which have been in service for more than four decades.

“HADES is the centerpiece of the Army’s long-promised aerial ISR transformation strategy,” Lt. Gen. Anthony Hale, deputy chief of staff for intelligence, said in a statement. “HADES allows the Army to fly higher, faster and farther, which directly impacts our ability to see and sense deeper, delivering an organic capability in line with the Secretary of the Army’s number-one operational imperative — deep sensing.”

SNC beat out an industry team comprising L3Harris, Leidos and MAG Aerospace to secure the contract award. The 12-year indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract is worth an initial $93.5 million and has an overall ceiling of $991.3 million, according to the Army.

The deal marks the second major contract award for SNC in 2024. In April, the company also won the Air Force’s Survivable Airborne Operations Center (SOAC) program to replace the service’s fleet of E-4B Nightwatch or “Doomsday” planes that can serve as mobile nuclear command-and-control outposts in emergencies.

In January, the Army awarded a contract to Bombardier Defense to transform one Global 6500 jet that would serve as a prototype for HADES, expected to be delivered by Oct. 1, 2024. The contract also included options to purchase two additional aircraft over a three-year period.

Since 2020, the service has developed a number of technology demonstrators to inform the HADES program, such as the Airborne Reconnaissance Targeting Exploitation Mission Intelligence System (ARTEMIS), the Airborne Reconnaissance and Electronic Warfare System (ARES) and the Army Theater-Level High-Altitude Expeditionary Next Airborne Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ATHENA) platform.

The prototype efforts provided insights into platform and sensor performance, integration and data distribution, while also allowing the Army to better understand doctrine, training, personnel, facilities and sustainment efforts required for those systems.

Along with high-altitude, next-generation ISR capabilities, HADES is expected to be globally deployed within days rather than a period of several weeks that current aircraft are capable of. The Army has also said subsequent increment upgrades could allow the platform to host payloads to conduct electronic warfare, radio frequency-enabled cyber and launched effects.

“This is a great day for the continuing effort to modernize the Army’s aerial intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance collection strategy,” Doug Bush, the Army’s acquisition chief, said in a statement. “The thoughtful and disciplined execution of the HADES program strategy will deliver the transformational capabilities we need for the Army’s next-generation aerial ISR aircraft.”

Development of HADES is under one of the Army’s newest cross-functional teams focused on improving deep sensing, or the ability to see and sense targets over vast distances. The team has multiple efforts underway that will serve as foundational capabilities that can be iterated on over time. Those programs include the Tactical Intelligence Targeting Access Node (TITAN) ground system, Terrestrial Layer System (TLS) family of systems, Theater SIGINT System (TSIGS) capability and the Multi-Domain Sensing System (MDSS) family of systems — which HADES is a part of.

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M-SHORAD increment one has been rechristened the SGT Stout in honor of Sgt. Mitchell Stout, an air defense artilleryman and Medal of Honor recipient who was killed in combat in Vietnam, the service announced Saturday during its 249^th birthday festival near Fort Belvoir, Virginia.

The move comes as the force is rebuilding its capabilities to shield troops on the move from enemy unmanned aerial systems and other aircraft.

Increment one integrates Stinger missiles, a 30mm XM914 chain gun, a 7.62mm machine gun and multi-mission hemispheric radars onto a Stryker A1 armored vehicle.

Army officials describe it as a family of systems that can detect, track and engage UAS Groups 1-3, rotary-wing and fixed-wing aircraft, as well as rockets, artillery and mortars.

General Dynamics Land Systems, Leonardo DRS are Moog are key industry partners on the effort.

“The great thing about the SGT Stout system is that it combines multiple elements of capabilities that are critical on an ever-evolving battlefield. One is maneuver and mobility with the Stryker platform. Two, the inherent force protection that the Stryker platform and the turret provide. Three, the lethality aspects associated with the Stinger vehicle universal launch system … the associated built-in radar, and the FAADC2 command-and-control elements, along with the 30-millimeter chain gun, which provides not only air defense capabilities, but also self-protection capabilities, and then obviously inherent communications capabilities. So … it’s a mixture of many different vital capabilities that make it very effective on today and tomorrow’s battlefield,” Brig. Gen. Frank Lozano, program executive officer for missiles and space, told reporters during a roundtable ahead of the official announcement about the renaming.

The service used a rapid prototyping strategy for the program to speed things up. Three of the four initial battalions have already been fielded and the service is planning for more in the future.

“We now are actually fielding a short-range air defense system that among other things, provides counter-UAS capability to forward forces, which everyone can see are an increasing danger … So I think we really got this one right and we did it really fast,” Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology Doug Bush told reporters.

The service is planning to build 312 systems, although that could rise to 361, depending on future decisions, according to Lozano.

Meanwhile, officials are looking at what comes next.

Increment two and directed energy

Officials had previously envisioned increment two of M-SHORAD being equipped with a laser weapon, but the Army is still trying to flesh out its approach to putting directed energy systems on vehicles.

“We’re taking a very hard look at the full spectrum of directed energy capability. And the Army will likely be making decisions on that in the future, probably across the [2026 program objective memorandum] time frame. So we’re trying to determine right now what’s the best element of capability from a directed energy perspective [that] makes sense relative to the SGT Stout platform,” Lozano told reporters.

Bush suggested there are no concrete plans yet to add DE upgrades to that system.

“I think laser upgrades would be on a vehicle, [but] it might be a Stryker or it might be some other platform … To be to be determined,” he said.

“We’re still in prototyping phase for a lot of things. We’ve deployed a lot of things. I think the decision the Army’s working through now is just when to actually get to production on which of those is most promising, and in what form. But I believe I can say that directed energy will be part of the family of systems for UAS and air defense going forward. But the exact tech and mix is still being worked through by the air defense branch,” he told DefenseScoop at the roundtable, noting that prototyping activities will inform decisions tied to POM ’26, which covers 2026-2030.

“The critical decision is whether you put procurement dollars [into it] … To field at scale and to get industry, you know, actually ramped up for meaningful production, not smaller scale, you gotta lay in procurement dollars. That’s the hard choice in front of [the Army]. There are many priorities right for procurement dollars. But I think we’ve learned a ton from these prototypes, which is the idea and not a small investment. But I think at least now, our senior leaders have real data to go by,” he added.

A vehicle armed with a directed energy weapon won’t necessarily be referred to as an M-SHORAD increment, he suggested.

Meanwhile, the Army has deployed a 50-kilowatt laser system to the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility in the Middle East. Bush said the service is getting important feedback from the effort.

“We picked a Stryker to try to do the 50-kilowatt system. I think we’re learning a lot about the challenges of integration of that powerful laser system … on a vehicle versus doing it at a fixed site or versus doing a lower-power laser on a vehicle like a Stryker. So I think the learning that’s going on, though, is absolutely informing the POM decisions being made, budget decisions being made right now in terms of what is most likely to succeed first in the directed energy realm. You know, beyond that, the fact that it’s deployed and being used by real soldiers, again, that’s just the best test we can have. I can’t get into more detail on effectiveness right now because of just security concerns,” Bush told reporters.

Increment three and next-gen missiles

For what the Army is calling “increment three,” the service is looking to boost the capability of its missiles.

A development program is underway for the next-generation short-range interceptor that’s part of a future increment of the SGT Stout capability, Lozano noted.

“It’s really the replacement for the missile, right? So it’s the Stinger replacement, and obviously with that … we’re looking for something that has a shorter time of flight, that has greater range, and that has a seeker and a warhead tailored more towards those gen-five fixed-wing aircraft, the new variants of rotary-wing aircraft that we’re seeing, and especially against the UAS threat that we’re seeing continually evolve almost on a weekly and monthly basis. So that new interceptor in the future increment of the SGT Stout system is going to be key and critical to maintaining relevancy on a future battlefield,” he said.

Officials have a rapid prototyping effort underway using Middle Tier of Acquisition authority. Bush green-lit the program last year, according to Lozano.

“We’re coming to the end of the first year of that MTA effort,” Lozano told reporters. “The intent is to carry a couple of vendors forward for the next two years to get to a shoot off. And then, based on affordability aspects that have yet to be determined, we may continue to carry two vendors, or we may downselect to one and then go into a three-year very intense, aggressive developmental effort to try to get to a materiel solution that I can transition into potentially a major capability acquisition pathway. And we’re forecasting sometime within the FY ’28 timeframe is the current plan that I’m executing to.”

Bush said he anticipates a Milestone C decision in the second quarter of 2028.

Meanwhile, Army officials are open to incorporating vehicle-mounted Advanced Precision Kill Weapon Systems (APKWS) armed with proximity fuzes to defend against enemy drones.

“If that proves out, that is a very low-cost way compared to other systems that have a counter-UAS capability. I hope it works. The Army provides the rockets of course, it’s a Navy program — APKWS. But I can see the Army, if it works, procuring those proximity fuzes — also something we know how to do, something we have in the inventory — but buying more of those to give vehicles like SGT Stout. And even theoretically, if you carry that logic out, you know, something like a Bradley with the right kind of ammunition also would give you a counter-UAS capability. So you just have to have the right ammo,” Bush said.

Increment four

In May, the Army released a request for information for what it calls an increment four M-SHORAD capability.

“We’re really in the infancy of understanding what that program increment might look like. But the bottom line is, this platform is great for a lot of formations. But the current platform is not really optimized for light divisions like the 101st [Airborne], the 10th Mountain, the 82nd [Airborne]. And so the increment four RFI is really to try to start to understand what type of SHORAD capability, leveraging what we’ve already done with the SGT Stout, what kind of SHORAD capability do we need to evolve to for those lighter forces to make them effective, but also as agile as they need to be on tomorrow’s battlefield?” Lozano said.

According to the sources-sought notice, priority performance characteristics include Forward Area Air Defense Command and Control (FAADC2) and supporting equipment for vehicle commanders to manage engagements; reconfigurable mounted capability that’s tailorable to support various missions and effector load out; compliant with modular open systems architecture; and the capability to integrate onto platforms such as the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle and robotic vehicles.

Additional characteristics sought are the capability to support mounted and dismounted operations, with multiple effectors and sensors integrated on a single platform or “manned/unmanned pairs,” including kinetic effectors — such as the next-gen interceptor, Coyote, APKW and 30mm multi-mode proximity airburst — electronic warfare tools, and active and passive sensing combinations.

Other supporting capabilities that officials are eyeing include network enablers, human-machine integration, AI, machine learning and “automated defense management aids.”

Bush suggested the service still needs to make decisions about timelines for increment four.

“We’re in [the] gathering information phase, so decisions to follow on potential timing, which would require then laying in funding, etc., and understanding the maturity of the technologies that our industry partners come back with. But that’s why we do the RFIs. So we eagerly await to see what we get. I think … there’s a lot of companies in this space, there’s a lot of innovation, so we’re hoping for some competition options,” he told reporters.

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A stated goal of Replicator, a signature project of Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks, is to accelerate production and field thousands of “attritable autonomous” systems across multiple domains by August 2025 to help the U.S. armed forces counter China’s military buildup. The Defense Innovation Unit, which falls under the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD), is supporting the effort.

Last week, the department announced that it had secured about $500 million for this fiscal year to move forward with tranche one, and it’s requesting an additional $500 million for fiscal 2025.

As DefenseScoop has previously reported, the first tranche includes kamikaze drones, unmanned surface vessels and counter-drone systems. Pentagon officials are already looking ahead at the second tranche, which is intended to help the services field additional platforms and supporting technologies such as command and control, autonomy and other software that are intended to boost the overall effectiveness and collaboration of these systems.

“One of the things that that has been underscored in this committee is that OSD-led efforts have a clear path to be fielded at scale, which is really the responsibility of the military services. Drones or other innovative capabilities just can’t be bought — they [also] need to be incorporated into the tactics and the procedures for how the military services prepare and fight … as well as being maintained and modernized,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said during a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense hearing on Thursday.

She asked DOD acquisition leaders who were testifying whether there is sufficient rigor to ensure that efforts like Replicator and other OSD-spearheaded efforts have robust transition plans that include how the services are going to employ, field and maintain systems at scale.

“By asking the question, senator, you’re actually making a really, really important point. The services lead on fielding at scale and organize, train and equip. Not OSD — not OSD. And so what’s really, really important is much beyond the technology and the widget, is what we call DOTMILPF — the doctrine, the training, the operations. Otherwise, it just doesn’t really matter,” Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment William LaPlante replied.

To be successful, the services need to be ready to sustain capabilities that are cranked out in large numbers, he noted.

Doug Bush, the Army’s acquisition chief, has applauded the Replicator initiative for putting the service in a better position to accelerate its new LASSO program with the production of more Switchblade 600 drones, which are manufactured by AeroVironment.

During Wednesday’s hearing, he noted that Replicator is tightly coupled with an official Army program, which gives it a clear path for scaling.

Nickolas Guertin, the acquisition chief for the Department of the Navy, said the sea services are supportive of Replicator, but it’s not just a matter of scaling production.

“We actually brought two Navy and one Marine Corps projects to the first tranche of Replicator in partnership with OSD, and … that partnership is critical to fielding at scale,” he told lawmakers.  “One other aspect to that is when we’re looking at these kinds of initiatives, we want to make sure we carry forward the sustainability and support work to make sure that our soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, guardians can actually use this stuff in a reliable way when they need to in a fight.”

The Navy is pursuing multiple types of unmanned surface vessels via Replicator, including through a partnership with the Defense Innovation Unit via DIU’s Production-Ready, Inexpensive, Maritime Expeditionary (PRIME) commercial solutions opening. Contracts are expected to be awarded this summer.

Additionally, Anduril’s Wide-Area Infrared System for Persistent Surveillance (WISP) counter-drone technology was tapped for ramped-up production in association with efforts put forth by the Marine Corps’ Ground Based Air Defense program.

The 2024 Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, which Congress passed in March, included a provision that requires the Pentagon to brief Congress on the concept of operations, updated spending profiles and requirements for sustaining each system — through fiscal 2029 — that’s been selected to receive Replicator funding.

In a call earlier this month, DOD officials acknowledged that the Pentagon has a lot more work to do now that funding has been secured for moving ahead with the first tranche.  

“That includes continuing to refine the concept of operation and employment for these capabilities; accelerating the experimentation timelines for individual capabilities, but also the collective portfolio to make sure that we are adequately testing and experimenting the mass effects that that we hope to achieve,” a senior defense official said during the background call with reporters.

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The extra money for the loitering munitions — also known as kamikaze drones or one-way attack drones — is coming from the national security supplemental passed by Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden last week, as well as the Defense Department’s Replicator initiative, according to Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology Doug Bush.

“That was part of our request was additional funding for those munitions as part of answering a European Command [joint urgent operational need]. That’s why it was in there. So yeah, they fully funded that” in the supplemental, Bush told DefenseScoop during a roundtable with reporters at the Pentagon. “That, plus the funding we had ourselves, plus help from our friends at OSD in Replicator … moves us way further down the line to just getting into larger-scale production than we would have been otherwise this year,” he said.

DefenseScoop asked Bush about the total amount of extra funding that the Army is expecting for LASSO.

“I have to be careful because on Replicator, I can’t give specific numbers. But … we’re north of $100 million if you add it all together. And we had done some ourselves. So we had done about 20 [million dollars] of our own internal reprogramming. And then we got Replicator. And we got the 72 [million]. So we’re well north of 100 [million] now when you put it all together. But I don’t want to get ahead of any Replicator announcements on specifics,” he said.

The Army chose AeroVironment’s Switchblade 600 for the first increment of LASSO. However, it doesn’t intend for it to be a winner-take-all program for industry, Bush has said.

Earlier this year, DefenseScoop broke the news that the Switchblade 600 was picked for the first tranche of the secretive Replicator effort. Other types of unmanned systems for the Navy and counter-drone systems for the Marine Corps, were also selected by Defense Department leaders for the first tranche, DefenseScoop recently reported. The Pentagon has been seeking funding approvals from lawmakers to support the initiative, including through reprogramming.

With regard to reprogrammed funding related to Replicator and LASSO, “I can’t say it’s in our bank account yet, but we believe it’s coming. And then we get our supplemental funding. So you know, we’re piecing together a way to go faster than we would have been otherwise, which is great for the Army,” Bush told DefenseScoop at the roundtable.

Unlike traditional munitions, loitering munitions can fly around until they identify a target. And unlike armed unmanned aerial systems that launch missiles, kamikaze drones destroy their target by crashing into it. They can be armed with a warhead to enhance their potency.

LASSO weapons are part of the Army’s vision for a family of low-altitude UAS that are “semi-autonomous (human-in-the-loop) unmanned aerial systems that improves the Infantry Brigade Combat Team (IBCT) lethality in terms of stand-off and destruction against dismounted formations, armored vehicles, and tanks,” according to budget justification documents.

“Unlike existing direct and indirect fire weapon systems, LASSO’s discreet payload and unique capability delivers Soldiers the ability to abort against targets in a dynamic situation (e.g., use of human shields) or prosecute targets that would have been deemed non-viable in past due to the higher collateral damage associated with alternative munitions,” officials wrote. “The LASSO base capability will be optimized to defeat tanks rapidly and precisely for IBCTs. Follow on increments will support future capabilities for company and below echelons. Future increments will focus on additional range increases, enhanced lethality, and advanced payload options (personnel, hard sites, etc.).”

Looking ahead as part of its regular budget submission, the service is asking lawmakers for an additional $120.6 million to procure LASSO production systems in fiscal 2025, including 54 fire control units, 434 all-up rounds and 144 reconnaissance, surveillance and target acquisition components.

Meanwhile, the Army has proposed three additional systems for the next tranche of Replicator, Bush told DefenseScoop last month, although he didn’t disclose what they were.

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The stated goal for the initial push of Replicator, which Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks announced last year, is to deliver thousands of relatively low-cost, “attritable” systems across multiple domains in 18-to-24 months to help the Pentagon counter China’s military buildup. Officials have suggested that Replicator could continue beyond that to address operational needs.

The 2024 Further Consolidated Appropriations Act — the text of which was released Thursday — would task Hicks to brief members of the House and Senate defense appropriations subcommittees no later than 60 days after the enactment of the legislation. She would be required to lay out “the concept of operations for the employment of each such system and relevant threat assessments,” according to the text of a joint explanatory statement accompanying the bill.

The directive would also require the Pentagon to provide updated spending profiles and requirements for sustaining each system that’s been tapped to receive Replicator funding — with the information broken down by fiscal year and military service through fiscal 2029 — as well as security classification guidance related to the effort.

Additionally, lawmakers want a report within 90 days of enactment that provides more insight into how the DOD plans to adopt technologies from the commercial sector for the initiative.

It’s “understood that there is a growing ecosystem of technologies from commercial entities capable of contributing to Replicator’s identified objectives. Therefore, the agreement directs the Deputy Secretary of Defense to provide a report to the congressional defense committees, not later than 90 days after the enactment of this Act, which identifies: (1) the total amount of Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) funds that have been obligated against projects with technologies consistent with the Replicator initiative (such as autonomous, attritable systems); (2) to the extent available, no less than five examples from each Service of commercial entities that have demonstrated autonomous, attritable systems; and (3) instances of commercial entities demonstrating autonomous, attritable systems that transitioned from SBIR projects to programs of record,” according to the explanatory statement.

Last week, Hicks said the Pentagon is looking for around $500 million to facilitate Replicator in fiscal 2024 and another $500 million in fiscal 2025. The appropriations agreement includes upwards of $200 million to support Replicator in fiscal 2024, although the DOD components are also seeking approval to reprogram funding.

“For the first year, we’re taking a reprogramming approach and we need Congress’ support to get through that,” Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology Doug Bush said Wednesday during a panel at the Ronald Reagan Institute’s National Security Innovation Base Summit.

Bush told DefenseScoop at the conference that one Army system was chosen for the first round of Replicator and the service is proposing three systems for the second round.

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The stated goal of Replicator, which Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks announced last year, is to deliver thousands of relatively low-cost, “attritable” unmanned systems across multiple domains in 18 to 24 months to help the Pentagon counter China’s military buildup.

“The initiative focuses on creating on-ramps for new capabilities, systems and commercial partners that fill both operational and scaling gaps with available resources,” according to fiscal 2025 budget documents. “The Components [of the Department of Defense] have been asked to prioritize Replicator capabilities and systems given the relevant operational need.”

The DOD aims to spend about $1 billion total in fiscal 2024-2025 on its Replicator initiative, Hicks revealed last week.

The Army proposed three systems for the first round of Replicator — one of which was selected, Assistant Secretary for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology Doug Bush told DefenseScoop Wednesday on the sidelines of the Ronald Reagan Institute’s National Security Innovation Base Summit. Officials are already looking ahead to the second round, and the Army is proposing three systems for that, he added.

“The Army … I think, actually, we’re the biggest participant [in Replicator] if you look at what’s actually going to come out of round one in terms of quantity,” Bush said during a panel at the conference.

“In the Army’s case, we had something we were already working on that was similar, so we nominated that. And luckily that made the cut. And so that was a win-win for the Army … Those are your ideal situations, I think, when it’s something the service needs to do [but] can’t quite get through its own system, [the Office of the Secretary of Defense] doing it’s kind of cross-look oversight and accelerating where they believe it’s necessary for the entire enterprise — I think that’s the best use of a OSD-led system approach like Replicator is,” Bush said. “So for the Army, that’s what we got on round one. We’re hoping to do it again in round two.

He did not identify the Army system that was picked for the initial tranche, which the Pentagon has been highly secretive about at the direction of Hicks.

DefenseScoop has previously reported that AeroVironment’s Switchblade 600 attack drone was in the running for mass production under the initiative.

“We are limited in what we can talk about. That’s the choice the department’s made to keep it rather buttoned up. So those in industry who we’re working with, of course, know, but there’s gonna be a bit of a gap on those who aren’t involved directly just because of the classification structure they’ve put around it,” Bush said.

Now, the Army needs to get the funding from the Hill.

“For the first year, we’re taking a reprogramming approach and we need Congress’ support to get through that. Hopefully, we’ll get it. Going forward, you know, as long as it’s done the right way … when you’re handing out hundreds of millions of dollars of the American people’s money, there has got to still be some process involved to make sure that’s done fairly and appropriately. Now that’s the case so far, we just got to keep at it. But I think the urgency [Hicks] has added to the system is welcome,” Bush said.

Meanwhile, the Air Force is contemplating multiple systems for Replicator, according to Vice Chief of Staff Gen. James Slife. However, he suggested they won’t be part of the initial tranche.

“The Air Force has got several compelling programs in the pipeline that will be considered. They’re not quite as technologically mature as some of the Army programs that are going to be kind of in the round one on this. But we’re excited, frankly, about the prospects of Replicator,” he said during the panel at the conference.

He noted that he regularly sits in on budget-related meetings with Hicks.

“There’s no question from anybody in the room that we are going to do this. And so the question is, you know, how quickly can we go and not whether we’re going to do this or not. So we’re excited about it,” Slife said.

A Department of the Air Force official told DefenseScoop that the service didn’t request any funding for Replicator in its fiscal 2025 budget proposal, which was released last week.

“If an effort is selected to move forward in the future, then the DAF will fund it internally via re-programming or include in future budgets,” they said in an email.

No Navy officials spoke at Wednesday’s summit, but officials have previously indicated that the sea service is also keen on Replicator.

“Navy is heavily invested in unmanned [capabilities]. And I’ll let [the Office of the Secretary of Defense] speak to the overview on Replicator. But we are highly involved in that program,” Undersecretary Erik Raven told reporters earlier this month during a meeting to preview the fiscal 2025 budget request.

Unmanned surface vessels have been picked for the first tranche of the initiative, according to USNI News.

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That amount would go toward procuring 3,162 IVAS 1.2 heads-up-display systems, according to newly released budget justification documents. The HUD/puck tactical kits will come with conformal wearable batteries, advanced battery chargers, and a “tactical cloud package.”

The proposal also includes $98 million for research, development, test and evaluation related to the technology, officials told reporters last week during a meeting to preview the Army’s budget proposal, which was officially rolled out Monday.

IVAS is one of the Army’s highest-priority modernization initiatives. The tech includes ruggedized headgear with augmented reality capabilities, inspired by Microsoft’s HoloLens 2 device. The service aims to use the equipment for both training and battlefield operations for dismounted troops.

“Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS) HUD provides a multiple generation single platform for [a] Soldier to fight, rehearse, and train in day and night that provides increased lethality, mobility, and situational awareness necessary to achieve overmatch against our current and future adversaries,” budget justification documents state.

The new variant, known as IVAS 1.2, was developed to address soldier complaints stemming from testing of previous versions.

“The investment [planned for fiscal 2025] … is all tied to 1.2. Right? So the new improved, we believe, we hope — still gotta go through a lot of testing — you know, combat-capable version of it,” Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology Doug Bush told reporters last week during a meeting to preview the Army’s budget proposal. “Those amounts are in there based on our hope for success there.”

The Army’s R&D plans for 2024 included developing software for IVAS “that enables soldiers to intuitively relay reconnaissance intent to a team of autonomous sensors and quickly interpret feedback from the systems and make targeting decisions,” according to budget justification documents.

The Army also wants to explore algorithms that use voice commands, eye movements, and hand gestures to interact with the system for “relaying intent and closing the targeting cycle more effectively,” as well as develop “feedback mechanisms” in the Android Tactical Assault Kit and IVAS to improve the AI algorithms “once soldiers recognize mistakes by the autonomous sensors.”

Plans for 2025 include making improvements related to the heads-up-display design, thermal and low-light sensors, IVAS extensibility, form factor, reliability, reducing weight, and developing AI data integration and applications, per the budget justification documents.

The Army is slated to conduct operational testing in the second quarter of fiscal 2025, which will inform a production and fielding decision in the fourth quarter of that fiscal year. The plan is to transition IVAS to a major capability acquisition pathway no later than October 2025.

Microsoft delivered the first IVAS 1.2 headsets to the Army last year for soldier evaluation, and the service awarded Microsoft $95 million to build more systems for what Bush called “the next step in rapid prototyping.”

The IVAS program could be worth as much as $21.9 billion if it comes to full fruition.

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LASSO is a new-start program for fiscal 2025 that’s part of the service’s vision for a family of low-altitude UAS that are “semi-autonomous (human-in-the-loop) unmanned aerial systems that improves the Infantry Brigade Combat Team (IBCT) lethality in terms of stand-off and destruction against dismounted formations, armored vehicles, and tanks,” according to newly released budget justification documents.

The goal of the project is to make infantry brigades as lethal as armored brigades, according to the Army.

Unlike traditional munitions, loitering munitions — also known as kamikaze drones or one-way attack UAS — can fly around until they identify a target. And unlike armed unmanned aerial systems that launch missiles, kamikaze drones destroy their target by crashing into it. They can be armed with a warhead to enhance their potency.

The Army describes the LASSO capability as a lightweight, man-portable weapon that can operate day or night. It includes all-up rounds with a launch-and-delivery system and payload.

It also comes with a fire control system that consists of the fire control unit, ground data link and terminal, and other ancillary equipment.

“LASSO can range less than or equal to 20km (straight line with auxiliary antenna) with a flight endurance that enables the Soldier to make multiple orbits within the IBCT typically assigned battlespace, to acquire and attack targets within and beyond current crew served and small arms fire. The range/endurance enables the unit to utilize reach back capability and maximize standoff … from enemy fires, significantly reducing risk to the Soldier,” according to budget justification documents.

“Unlike existing direct and indirect fire weapon systems, LASSO’s discreet payload and unique capability delivers Soldiers the ability to abort against targets in a dynamic situation (e.g., use of human shields) or prosecute targets that would have been deemed non-viable in past due to the higher collateral damage associated with alternative munitions,” officials wrote. “The LASSO base capability will be optimized to defeat tanks rapidly and precisely for IBCTs. Follow on increments will support future capabilities for company and below echelons. Future increments will focus on additional range increases, enhanced lethality, and advanced payload options (personnel, hard sites, etc.).”

The $121 million that the Army is requesting would support the procurement of 54 fire control units, 434 all-up rounds and 144 reconnaissance, surveillance and target acquisition components.

The Army has picked AeroVironment’s Switchblade 600 for the first increment of LASSO. However, the service doesn’t intend for it to be a winner-take-all program for industry.

“We’re gonna have multiple variants and we’re gonna have competition. So, to meet the urgent need, we’ve gone sole source to a limited number of SB 600, which is a very good system. But there’s a lot of companies in this space with a lot of good tech. So, we want to have really continuous competition because different companies have things that fit different parts of the mission space better … This is one where I think it’d be unwise to pick one at the start and just say, ‘Nope, this is it. Nobody else gets anything. This one company is it.’ There’s too much competition in this space. We want to leverage that innovation,” Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology Doug Bush said in an interview with DefenseScoop at the Reagan National Defense Forum in December.

For loitering munitions with modular payloads, the Army would like to retain some flexibility on what those payloads are, based on the service’s needs, Bush said last week during a meeting with reporters to preview the fiscal 2025 budget request.

“We might be heavy one year in [intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance] and heavy the next year on strike,” he said.

The newly released budget justification documents did not include any additional funding for LASSO beyond fiscal 2025.

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Giving soldiers additional capabilities to protect themselves against threats from above is a top modernization for the service. American troops in the Middle East under U.S. Central Command have repeatedly come under attack.

“The world awoke to this threat after Oct. 7 of last year [when adversary UAS assaults ramped up in the Middle East after the Israel-Hamas conflict intensified], but the Army has been under attack for years in Centcom. We have worked very quietly in a lot of ways with our industry partners, a whole range of them to provide on the ground counter-UAS capabilities over a number of years starting before I arrived. That is paying off now in combat. So while we have taken losses — this is a conflict — we would have taken a lot more if that work hadn’t been done by my predecessor and then my team since I arrived to get more stuff to Centcom. And we have to keep going on that even faster,” Doug Bush, the Army’s acquisition chief, said last week at the McAleese Defense Programs Conference.

Gen. Randy George, the chief of staff, suggested that long-term force planning will also need to account for drone threats.

“One of the big things that we are focused on with this new Army structure document is how are we going to have to fight in the future … We know we’re going to need more counter-UAS batteries and more counter-UAS inside of our formation. So we are focused on that,” he said at the McAleese event.

On Monday, the Army released its budget request for the next fiscal year.

“I do want to mention a continued emphasis on counter-small UAS capabilities,” Undersecretary Gabe Camarillo told reporters during a budget preview ahead of the official rollout.

The funding plan includes $447 million for related programs, according to the Army, including money for the mobile and fixed-site LIDS family of systems. The acronym LIDS stands for “low, slow, small UAS integrated defeat system.”

LIDS capabilities include a suite of sensors, command-and-control tools and weapons designed to detect, track and take out enemy drones that are in the Group 1-3 categories of unmanned aerial systems.

For mobile LIDS, the service wants $82.5 million for procurement and $6.6 million for research, development, test and evaluation. For fixed-site LIDS, it’s requesting $26.4 million for procurement and $20.2 million for RDT&E.

It also seeks $116.3 million to procure Coyote interceptors (plus $10.3 million for RDT&E), $33.6 million for “C-UAS effectors,” and $28.5 million for procurement related to “ground readiness.”

The Army request also includes $140 million for research and development of various directed energy systems, according to Camarillo. For example, the service wants $31.6 million for RDT&E for the Indirect Fire Protection Capability (IFPC) high-energy laser, $4 million for RDT&E for the IFPC high-power microwave, and $88.5 million for RDT&E of a mobile short-range air defense (M-SHORAD) directed energy capability.

The Army is also requesting more than $500 million for counter-drone tech as part of a larger supplemental funding package for fiscal 2024.

“Our investments in critical munitions as well as counter-small UAS are two good examples of where we are dependent not only on the base budget, but the supplemental to get where we need to go to,” Camarillo told reporters.

Army officials see opportunities for tech insertion to improve existing capabilities.

“We’ve been developing counter-UAS systems for a number of years and fielding a lot — primarily to Centcom. The Coyote missile, for example, was started as a counter-UAS missile. That’s one of the most effective ones we have right now. So you will see additional funding for those things. However, it’s not a locked configuration … There’s not like a new program [transitioning from R&D into production in 2025], but I think if you compare what we want to buy in ‘25 for FS-LIDS to what we bought two years ago, it’s different and better. So there’s also a big supplemental aspect to our counter-UAS plans in the near term … That would be enormously helpful,” Bush told DefenseScoop during the budget preview with reporters.

“The big increases in dollars are those supplemental things and also two rapid acquisition contracts we awarded after Oct. 7 to increase production of two different interceptors in response to, you know, the situation in the Middle East. So I think we don’t want to wait ’til FY ’25. So, you know, we need that procurement now. And then, as the situation evolves, you know, this could be a running conversation with Congress about potential need for additional counter-UAS investments in the near term, not just in ’25,” he added.

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