Defense Department announces Software vendors to support Replicator Initiative

The U.S. Department of Defense’s Defense Innovation Unit announced Wednesday contract awards for several software developers contracts in support of the unit’s Replicator Initiative.

Officials said the vendors will play a key role in enhancing the DoD’s efforts toward resilient command and control (C2) and collaborative autonomy solutions for domain attritable autonomous (ADA2) systems. Resilient C2 and collaborative autonomy vendors provide user interfaces, collaborative autonomy architectures and software, and network orchestration, which will allow the Replicator systems to connect long-haul communications solutions to redundant local mesh networks, ensuring they can continue to operate as a system-of-systems in disconnected, disrupted, low-bandwidth and intermittent environments.

“We believe that best in breed commercial software solutions can significantly enhance DoD modernization efforts,” Doug Beck, director of DIU, said. “Many leading AI and autonomy firms are outside of our traditional defense industrial base, and DIU is working actively with partners across the Department to bring the very best capabilities from the U.S. tech sector to bear in support of our most critical warfighter needs. This latest step in the Replicator initiative is a critical example of that teamwork in action.”

The contract awards are part of two Commercial Solutions Openings announced earlier this year. The DIU team was able to lead the process from solicitation to award in just five months, officials said. Opportunistic, Resilient & Innovative Expeditionary Network Topology, or ORIENT, asked for solutions to improving the resilience of C2 for ADA2 systems, and received 130 proposals from 119 companies, and awarded prototype contracts to Viasat, Aalyria, Higher Ground, and IoT/AI.

The other opening – Autonomous Collaborative Teaming, or ACT, sought out solutions for the automated coordination of swarms of hundreds or thousands of uncrewed assets across multiple domains in order to improve their lethality and efficiency. That request received 165 proposals from 132 companies and awarded contracts to Swarm Aero, Anduril Industries, and L3Harris Technologies.

“Replicator is cutting across silos and accelerating the pace of development for autonomous systems,” Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff U.S. Navy Adm. Christopher Grady said. “This effort is serving as a pathfinder, and we are learning lessons about processes and technology that will apply to future problems. This will allow us to continue to expand the use of uncrewed systems.”