Autonomous Weapons: Procurement

(asked on 17th October 2025) - View Source

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the full scope is of Project Replicator 2.


Answered by
Luke Pollard Portrait
Luke Pollard
Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
This question was answered on 27th October 2025

REPLICATOR 2 is a US Department of War initiative delivered through the US Defense Innovation Unit (US DIU) to Counter threats from Unmanned Aerial Systems (C-UAS). Under this initiative UK Defence Innovation (UKDI) has entered into a joint project with the US DIU to rapidly develop Low Collateral Defeat (LCD) solutions to counter small-Unmanned Aerial Systems (CsUAS) within the US or UK homeland.

The project is being run by the US DIU utilising their Commercial Solutions Opening (CSO) process. Phase 1 took place in May 2025, and saw over 200 US and UK companies apply to the Area of Interest issued by the USDIU. Following a period of evaluation, which included UK participation, 18 potential solutions were down-selected to present their solutions to a joint US-UK evaluation board. Upon completion of this board in September 2025, eight companies, including two UK options, were selected for Phase 2 – Prototyping. Following this, any successful protypes, will be considered for procurement by UK and US transition partners.

Reticulating Splines