What's next for the Pentagon after the Replicator programme?
Although the Replicator initiative has made several accomplishments, there are still multiple gaps to plug across the US Department of Defense (DoD) and its services.
SeeByte, the global leader in creating smart software for unmanned vehicles, has completed a successful Confined Area Search (CAS) trial on Bluefin Robotics’ Hovering Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (HAUV) with the US Office of Naval Research. The goal of the trial was to demonstrate the automatic tracking of the propeller shafts of a ship hull. In this task, the HAUV and SeeByte’s control technology software detected both shafts, tracked each and returned to the starting point autonomously.
“We are proud of the team that worked very hard for these achievements. The CAS technology proved it was able to communicate, take control and act out an inspection task, showcase real-time 3-D reconstruction of the complex areas and accomplish all of this autonomously. This is a remarkable technology that can be utilised by the military for mine identification/verification and port and harbour security measures, as well as for pipeline inspections and floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) ship hull inspections for the offshore oil and gas industry. This will be a fantastic new enhancement within the SeeTrack Military and Offshore offerings,” said Dr. Scott Reed, SeeByte Engineering Manager.
“We are pleased to see the success of this system and value the mutually beneficial partnership we’ve had with SeeByte,” commented Dr. Jerome Vaganay, Bluefin Robotics Project Manager.
“The underwater security sector is continuously growing and demanding new capability. The technological accomplishments demonstrated by the HAUV with the SeeByte software will prove beneficial for a number of new applications even beyond the security sector.”
SeeTrack Military has become the de facto standard smart technology for the worldwide defence market to provide a situational awareness solution assisting personnel that conduct maritime Mine Counter Measures (MCM) build a single picture of the operational environment by processing data from a wide variety of assets. Showcased in a multitude of military situations, the product is currently used by Navy teams to identify man-made underwater objects, search and recovery missions and to enhance the capabilities of their remote vehicles, marine mammals and divers. As a result, users save time, money and valuable man-hours while reducing unnecessary risk for the human operators who eventually have to interface with the underwater objects.
Source: SeeByte
Although the Replicator initiative has made several accomplishments, there are still multiple gaps to plug across the US Department of Defense (DoD) and its services.
Cummings Aerospace presented its turbojet-powered Hellhound loitering munition at SOF Week 2025, offering a man-portable solution aligned with the US Army’s LASSO requirements.
PDW has revealed its Attritable Multirotor First Person View drone at SOF Week 2025, offering special operations forces a low-cost, rapidly deployable platform for strike and ISR missions, inspired by battlefield lessons from Ukraine.
Teledyne FLIR is highlighting the emerging requirements for 'recoverable and re-usable' loitering munitions across the contemporary operating environment during this week’s SOF Week conference in Tampa, Florida.
High-performance maritime industry player Kraken Technology Group, based in the UK, has used the SOF Week conference in Tampa, Florida this week to debut its K3 Scout uncrewed surface vessel (USV) to the North American market.
Red Cat and Palladyne AI recently conducted a cross-platform collaborative flight involving three diverse heterogeneous drones.