The Pentagon program to rapidly deploy tens of thousands of low-cost drone weapons is paying off in bolstering deterrence against China in the Indo-Pacific region, according to military sources.

The Replicator program remains couched in secrecy but is being credited with strengthening U.S. military power in the region along with current aircraft, missiles, naval forces, land forces, cyber power, information warfare tools and space systems.

Replicator is providing some key advantages that will deny the Chinese military the use of airspace and maritime areas that remain tense flashpoints, the military officials said.

Militarily, the drones when fully deployed by later this year or next year will prevent China from deciding to carry out military attacks against Taiwan or other allies.

The new mass drone system means U.S. and allied force will not need to achieve air or naval superiority in a potential East Asia conflict. Instead, military forces can deter attacks by denying China’s military the ability to conduct its own successful strikes in air, sea and ground areas.

The effort to deploy the new weapons technology is being rolled out very rapidly in one or two years, and some of new drone weapons for the Pacific are expected to be initially ready for use by the end of this year. Without the program, a similar strengthening of military forces would have taken a decade to achieve, the sources said.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin stated in a memorandum made public Monday that the Replicator program is progressing, and that Replicator 2 is now planned.

“In Replicator 1, we focused our aim on attritable autonomy, and we are on track with the initiative’s fielding plan for next summer,” Mr. Austin wrote in the Sept. 27 memo. “This work has, in turn, helped ignite our efforts to scale autonomous systems across the force more generally.”

Replicator 2 will focus on building defenses against aerial drones that threaten critical American and allied military installations and force concentrations, Mr. Austin told senior Pentagon leaders and combatant commanders.

Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks, the lead official for the program, announced in May that the first tranche of Replicator weapons had been deployed to the Pacific.

The first weapons were sent in early May and are “producing real results,” Ms. Hicks said.

The goal of the program is to have thousands of land, sea and air drones in place by the end of 2025.

“This is a critical step in delivering the capabilities we need, at the scale and speed we need, to continue securing a free and open Indo-Pacific” said Adm. Samuel Paparo, commander of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command in the May Pentagon statement.

The sole weapon identified under the program so far is the Switchblade 600 loitering munition. The Switchblade 600, built by the contractor AeroVironment, is a backpack-sized precision-guided weapon that can destroy tanks and hardened targets while loitering up to 40 minutes before attacking.

Other weapons in the program remain secret, including maritime weapons and some counter aerial drone system, the Pentagon said in its May statement. 

Congress funded Replicator with $500 million in fiscal 2024 that ended Monday. An equal amount has been requested for the current fiscal year budget.

Few details of Replicator arms have been made public. They are described by the Pentagon statement as an “all-domain attritable autonomous systems,” dubbed “ADA2” weapons.

The initial weapons include uncrewed surface vehicles, uncrewed aerial systems, and counter-uncrewed aerial systems “of various sizes and payloads from several traditional and non-traditional vendors,” the statement said.

The Replicator 2 counter-drone program appears motivated by the growing effectiveness of Russian drones that have been used in Ukraine, including variants of the Iranian Shahed-136 large one-way attack drone. The Shahed-136 flies at a speed of 114 miles per hour and carries a 110-pound explosive warhead.

Replicator is part of an effort by the Pentagon to simplify and reduce weapons’ costs and speed up often slow arms procurement.

• Bill Gertz can be reached at bgertz@washingtontimes.com.