Spy Balloon Redux? Pentagon to Monitor China Via 'Thousands' of AI Drones

06.09.2023 - 20:07 / pcmag.com / Ai

The US Department of Defense plans to deploy thousands of autonomous drones across the globe via land, sea, and air.

It's part of a new program called Replicator, which the Pentagon announced last week. In a speech today, US Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks painted a more concrete picture of the initiative.

"Imagine pods of self-propelled systems powered by the sun, packed with sensors to give us new, reliable sources of information in near real-time," Hicks said at the Defense News conference in Arlington, Virginia.

But this is no single spy balloon. The goal is to deploy as many of these units, known as anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) systems, in as many areas of the globe as possible. Hicks says the US will create "constellations" of them in orbit, and "flocks" of them "flying at all altitudes." With such a large fleet, it will be "impossible to eliminate or degrade them all."

Hicks repeatedly used the phrase "small, smart, cheap, and many" to characterize the approach. The plan is to overcome China's "advantage in mass," drawing on the US's own advantage: its satellite programs.

“Since 2018, the US has outpaced the PRC’s growth in satellites," Hicks says. "We are approaching a future where the web of satellites we can draw upon would be futile, not even worth contemplating or trying. That’s what 'small, smart, cheap, and many' can do. Replicator will allow us to explore this in even more domains.”

The devices will be in use for just three to five years, as opposed to the decades of past military and space programs. Then, the US will "move on to the next thing—as we must, given the dynamic, fast-moving adversary and the pace of innovation," Hicks says.

The US government will not allocate new funding to the program, and will instead re-work existing funding allocations through a new steering committee. One of the biggest challenges will be the relatively speedy timeline to deploy these units around the world—approximately 18 to 24 months—given a wide set of public and private stakeholders.

"We are worried about proving out with all parties that the department can lead itself through this and not get mired in red tape," says Hicks. "We must be bold and move with unity and purpose to ensure we can maintain peace and have our troops ready for whatever may come. That is what’s required in this area of strategic competition with the PRC.”

Acknowledging fears about the widespread use of AI in the military, Hicks drew on the US's history of embracing new technologies during World War II, the Cold War, the Gulf War, and in Afghanistan. She also noted the US military is already using autonomous weapons systems, such as self-piloting ships, and that "there is always a human responsible for the