Pentagon Plan to Buy Thousands of Drones Faces Looming Snags
The Pentagon wants to acquire thousands of drones over the next two years that can fly to their targets, confuse radar, overwhelm enemy defenses, fire missiles and gather intelligence. But making the uncrewed aircraft quickly and cheaply is another matter. Mass production of large and small drones is crucial to the Pentagon’s plan to build big stocks of weapons and ammunition to deter China, which the Defense Department describes as the U.S.’s prime strategic competitor.
U.S. military leaders have lined up to warn of China’s ambitions to absorb Taiwan, perhaps in the next few years. The scale of China’s own military buildup, including thousands of missiles, jets, ships and drones, can only be challenged by the U.S.
making more, and soon, say Pentagon leaders. The Pentagon has proposed two marquee drone concepts. The Replicator program championed by Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks would produce a huge fleet of air-, land- and sea-based drones that could be deployed by the thousands.
These would swarm to ensure some evade defenses to reach their target or relay information, and be cheap enough to use just once. The Air Force’s “collaborative combat aircraft" program would fly much bigger autonomous drones alongside the new B-21 bomber and the advanced F-35 jet fighter, working as a wingman and adding dots on an enemy’s radar screen. Uncrewed aircraft are much cheaper than the U.S.’s premium jet fighters, and pilots take years to train.
“This is about affordable mass," said Gen. Dale White, head of the fighters and advanced aircraft programs at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio. But the Pentagon’s goal must contend with booming demand in the commercial aerospace market that has left a shortage of skilled
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