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.
Echodyne has announced on 8 November the first successful test of an airborne Detect and Avoid (DAA) radar onboard a small unmanned aerial vehicle (SUAV), providing an opportunity to open up the national airspace system to beyond-visual-line-of-sight UAV operations.
Echodyne's DAA radar was set up on a commercial UAV that flew multiple missions below 400ft over several days. The size, range and payload of the vehicle were suited for infrastructure inspection, agricultural monitoring and package delivery applications according to the company.
The radar enabled the SUAV to identify stationary and moving obstacles as it flew through airspace beyond the operator's line of sight. The tests were conducted using Echodyne's developer kit radar with its proprietary MESA technology, along with an undisclosed partner.
During the tests, the radar successfully scanned a broad field of view and tracked multiple aircraft types, including an SUAV, an ultralight aircraft and a Beechcraft Bonanza flying through its airspace. The radar also provided a 4D cube of radar returns that depicted stationary obstacles such as barbed wire fences and ground vegetation, as well as the tracked aircraft flight paths.
The developer kit radar is a precursor to Echodyne's MESA-DAA radar that will be able to detect and track objects the size of a Cessna aircraft up to a range of 3km, and UAVs up to 750m. The radar is expected to launch commercially in early 2017.
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.