El 11\u00ba Regimiento de Caballer\u00eda Blindada y la Oficina de Gesti\u00f3n de Sistemas de Amenazas operan un enjambre de 40 drones para probar las capacidades en las Unidades de Combate en el Centro Nacional de Entrenamiento. Un Grupo Directivo de Innovaci\u00f3n supervisa los esfuerzos del Pent\u00e1gono para desplegar r\u00e1pidamente capacidades tecnol\u00f3gicas para abordar problemas operativos.<\/p>\n
WASHINGTON \u2014 The Defense Innovation Unit plans to update industry on the status of the Replicator initiative during a technology summit next month.<\/p>\n
The event,\u00a0slated for Feb. 13<\/a>\u00a0at the organization\u2019s Mountain View, California headquarters, will focus broadly on\u00a0scaling autonomous systems<\/a>\u00a0and deepening connections among DIU, the commercial sector and other Pentagon offices with a particular focus on U.S. Indo-Pacific Command priorities.<\/p>\n \u201cThe summit aims to produce insights and deepen relationships that DIU\/DoD can use to shape thinking on efforts to close capability gaps,\u201d DIU said in a Jan. 25 notice.<\/p>\n Included on the agenda is\u00a0an update on the progress<\/a>\u00a0of Replicator \u2014 a Defense Department effort to quickly field\u00a0thousands of attritable, autonomous systems<\/a>.<\/p>\n Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks in late August\u00a0unveiled Replicator<\/a>, setting a goal to deliver the capability within 18 to 24 months. To achieve that target, the Pentagon will increase or speed up production and fielding of existing systems and solicit new ones.<\/p>\n DIU\u2019s role in the effort<\/a>\u00a0is to assess what gaps exist in the military services and combatant commands today \u2014 be it individual capabilities or enabling infrastructure \u2014 and\u00a0vet the proposed capabilities<\/a>, evaluating whether they meet the department\u2019s needs and determining whether they can be produced quickly and in large quantities.<\/p>\n The organization\u2019s director, Doug Beck, chairs the Defense Innovation Working Group, a panel of officials from the military services and combatant commands who will recommend projects that meet the Replicator criteria to the Deputy\u2019s Innovation Steering Group, which oversees Pentagon efforts to rapidly field high-tech capabilities to address operational problems.<\/p>\n Briefing Congress<\/strong><\/p>\n Aditi Kumar, DIU\u2019s deputy director for strategy, policy and national security partnerships, said this week that Hicks approved the initial slate of Replicator capabilities in December. Following that approval, she tasked the military services with developing strategies to buy specific systems that can deliver those capabilities.<\/p>\n \u201cThe services are identifying the specific systems,\u201d Kumar said at a Jan. 24 Hudson Institute event. \u201cOur next step is to work with Congress.\u201d<\/p>\n DIU is now meeting with lawmakers to update them on the capabilities and determine a funding strategy. The organization plans to make an announcement sometime after those briefings conclude, Kumar said, but noted DoD has not determined how much it will reveal about the individual systems.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have to think through which parts of Replicator we want to speak about publicly and then what parts we want to reserve,\u201d she said. \u201cThat is what the operational needs mandate, and so the department is working through those and then we\u2019ll share information at the appropriate time.\u201d<\/p>\n Along with its information strategy, DIU is also working with the services and INDOPACOM to determine how to train operators on the systems and identify exercises where they can experiment with them.<\/p>\n