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.
ECA Group is working on a new UAS service for hydroelectric power plants to provide aerial monitoring of infrastructure including penstock pipes to detect leaks, the company announced on 29 August.
The service is initially being implemented for an unnamed customer using the IT180 UAS.
The UAS will carry a range of payloads to detect damage to penstock pipes and potential leaks. The pipes can run for 1,000+km in some sections, through very steep terrain where inspection from the ground is difficult and time consuming.
Pipes are typically damaged along their top half by lightning strikes or rock slides. ECA is working on developments to allow surveys to cover the majority of the pipe circumference, to allow UAS to inspect between 180 to 270 degrees of the pipe circumference from the air.
The aim of the service is to allow utility managers dealing with those structures to take safe and optimum decisions during the repair and maintenance season, by precisely selecting and minimising the ground work that inevitably has to be done on the structure itself, on a regular basis, to ensure full capacity operation of pipes and dams all year round.
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.