“We will speed up the timeline of rapid innovation. We have to, on behalf of our warfighters, on behalf of the threats that we face around the globe, on behalf of the changing face of warfare,” Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said.

During the “Multi-Domain Autonomous Solutions” event in the Pentagon courtyard, Hegseth and other Defense Department leaders shared new details about their near-term plans to quickly and drastically enhance the military’s drone arsenal, and deepen partnerships with producers across the sprawling American industrial base as they confront a range of contemporary policy and supply chain challenges. 

Eighteen autonomous prototypes currently under accelerated development to support joint military operations were showcased at the event, which was hosted by the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering. 

Some of those systems included the long-endurance unmanned aerial system with a 36-foot wingspan dubbed Vanilla and the Global Autonomous Reconnaissance Craft, or GARC — a small unmanned surface vehicle that can deploy independently or as a swarm.

“[This is] really a whole effort to sort of adapt to the current threat environment, which has changed in the last … year. And what you see here is a response to that. And you’ll see continued iterations — we are not stopping. This is just the beginning of what a rapid program looks like, and a rapid effort looks like,” Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Emil Michael told reporters.

The prototypes on display, he noted, went from concept to development in an average of 18 months.

“It’s an extraordinary achievement. This kind of thing was going to take five, six years,” Michael said.

It’s no secret that over the last half-decade, the U.S. military has increasingly faced serious challenges with buying, integrating and defending against unmanned systems. Further, while America has excelled at producing sophisticated, high-priced drones, the industrial base is struggling to compete with the proliferation of smaller and lower-cost systems being developed by China, Iran and other adversaries.

DOD leaders during the Biden administration launched the Replicator initiative in August 2023, with the overarching vision to accelerate industrial production and the military’s adoption of different drones in multiple combat domains through replicable processes by mid-2025. Future plans to continue or cancel that effort have not been revealed by Trump appointees to date.

“This is not the Replicator initiative,” Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Prototyping and Experimentation Alex Lovett said at the event. “The Replicator phase I tranche was looking at scaling. What we were able to do is — and you’ll see some of the platforms here were also participating in the evaluation of that — but our experimentation identified capabilities that were ready to scale for some of those.”

DOD’s new approach to “rapid prototyping experimentation,” according to Lovett, marks the institutionalization of the now defunct Rapid Defense Experimentation Reserve (RDER), also set up under the Biden administration, to get new technologies in the hands of combatant command users as early as possible for testing and refinement.

“What we learned is: Yes, that is good and it is working. We don’t need a separate program telling me to go do RDER. We’ve adopted that and established [Mission Capabilities] under Mr. Michael as an entire directorate that does mission-based analysis, engineering experimentation, and operational assessment to facilitate the transition. So we’ve completely adopted that, and we’re continuing to do operational experimentation,” Lovett explained. 

Technology Readiness Experimentation (T-REX) events were a key component of those RDER pursuits in recent years. 

For now, the T-REX live-fire exercises and prototype demonstrations are set to continue to unfold at least twice a year to help military users assess the capabilities of new and innovative technologies for use in real-world operations.

“If you’re looking for a new initiative, part of this enabling of drone dominance [per Hegseth’s guidance] is the services now are standing up, [first-person view] drone schools and drone capabilities. At this next T-REX [in August], we will be starting to host ‘Top Gun’ school. We’re going to start playing red versus blue. Their best will come after our best defenses,” Lovett told DefenseScoop at the event.

“We are [also] looking at how to expand our T-REX too, in conjunction with NASA and the [Federal Aviation Administration] and the department. So again, across the whole federal government, that says we’re working together and breaking down the barriers,” he said.

All of the drones on display Wednesday already passed through the T-REX program and are being evaluated by the services for transition and fielding.

“What we’re trying to do is lower the barriers [and] invite more people in to do experimentation if they want to — but there’ll be other kinds of things [as well],” Michael said.

In his view, President Donald Trump’s recent drone-accelerating executive orders and Hegseth’s related memorandum will help address policy constraints and open the DOD’s aperture for drones and systems to accept.

“[They] say, ‘Hey, we’re open for business. We want your inventions. We want you to be qualified on our [Blue UAS] list, and we want the services to see what you can have — so you can build it, so that they can buy it,’” Michael said.

The undersecretary declined to comment on any forthcoming plans to change or cancel the 14 critical technology areas identified under the previous administration for strategic and focused investments. 

In response to questions from DefenseScoop on that topic, Michael responded: “It’s drone day!” 

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The unit, based in the Indo-Pacific in Okinawa, Japan, will experiment with the system as the service pursues new capabilities to keep troops out of harm’s way and better position them to operate in contested environments against advanced adversaries such as China.

“One of the critical things … is how do you resupply [Marines in dangerous areas], whether that’s just food, fuel, ammunition?” Brig. Gen. Simon Doran said Wednesday at the Defense News Conference. “If you have that unit located inside a weapons engagement zone, contested logistics and the ability to maneuver in the littorals becomes key. And for that, what we’re looking at is trying to acquire systems that we deem risk worthy, meaning that we don’t necessarily want to just waste them, but we’d rather put something in there that’s autonomous, that doesn’t have humans on it, that can do some of these higher-risk missions without having personnel put in that riskier situation.”

Through the Pentagon’s Rapid Defense Experimentation Research (RDER) effort, a signature initiative of Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Heidi Shyu, the Corps was able to accelerate its autonomous low-profile vessel (ALPV) technology effort.

Doran suggested the system is similar to those that drug traffickers have used.

“Truth be told, this is just a narco boat. You know, we stole the idea from friends down south,” Doran joked. “And so this is, you know, 55-feet long, completely autonomous. It’s able to go hundreds or thousands of miles. It’s able to carry weapon systems that we have that are new. It can carry fuel. It can carry food. It can carry pretty much anything you want to put in it.”

The III MEF, a key “stand-in force” unit highlighted in Commandant Gen. Eric Smith’s new planning guidance, is about to get its hands on the technology.

“We will actually be sending the ALPV out to III MEF later on this fall for them to, you know, start to experiment with it. And it kind of goes back a little bit to the question about how do you determine which, you know, new technology or technologies will be the ones where you want to place your bets? And part of that is getting it into the hands of the Marines, you know, because our Marines find unique ways to use equipment almost each and every day,” Doran said.

The service has already been putting the technology through its paces in other venues, including at a Project Convergence capstone event earlier this year, part of which took place at Camp Pendleton, California.

In one case, the Corps was able to train a Marine to use the system in only three weeks. Using proliferated low-Earth orbit communications technology, that service member at a location in Japan was able to drive the platform off the west coast of the United States, according to Doran.

“That’s an example there of a capability that then can enable us to have resupply with a risk-worthy vessel in contested environments, and then help resupply the force,” he said.

But more experimentation is needed with these types of unmanned technologies as the Marines and the U.S. military writ large look to incorporate them into the force.

Safety is still a concern, Doran noted.

“Even though I have an autonomous vessel that can go hundreds or thousands of miles, I’ve got to have a chase ship with it to make sure that it actually works. And so then, how do you do that transition to where you’re comfortable with having these autonomous fleets, you know, traveling the seas and making sure that they’re doing it safely so that they’re not, you know, in conflict with commerce or anything else that’s out there? So that’s something we’re struggling with, but that’s part of our test plan to make sure that we can demonstrate the capability for this particular ship,” he said.

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Pentagon officials have already secured roughly $500 million from Congress for fiscal 2024 to move forward with tranche one, and they requested an additional $500 million for fiscal 2025. Tranche one includes kamikaze drones, unmanned surface vessels and counter-drone systems. Defense Department leaders are expected to decide on their selections for tranche two capabilities soon, which could include additional platforms and supporting technologies such as command and control, artificial intelligence and other software that are intended to boost the overall effectiveness and collaboration of these systems.

A key goal of Replicator — a signature initiative of Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks — is to field thousands of “attritable autonomous” platforms across multiple domains by August 2025 to counter China’s military buildup in a cost-effective manner.

“The Committee recommends full funding for Replicator funds requested in the fiscal year 2025 President’s budget request,” SAC members wrote in their report for the bill.

They also suggested there could be a further plus-up, possibly by diverting funds from the Rapid Defense Experimentation Reserve (RDER) — a signature initiative of Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Heidi Shyu — which lawmakers faulted for not showing more progress. The Pentagon requested $450 million for RDER in fiscal 2025.

“Additionally, the Committee understands that Replicator Tranche Two selections are forthcoming, and that the Department may seek congressional action to ensure additional funding for Tranche Two systems is included in the Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2025. In anticipation of these emerging requirements, and in light of the Committee’s substantive concerns about the lack of results of RDER, the Committee recommends reallocating RDER resources into a Rapid Defense Innovation Reserve. The intent of this reallocation is to enable the Department of Defense to reassess the RDER concept and provide the Committee additional information on the most effective use of requested funds for fiscal year 2025, which may include continuing RDER efforts or accelerating Replicator Tranche Two systems, until such time as funds for these systems can be aligned in the appropriate appropriations accounts in future budget submissions,” according to the report.

The legislation would direct the secretary of defense to brief the congressional defense subcommittees about an assessment of these types of efforts that includes “a determination of whether the funding proposed in the fiscal year 2025 President’s budget request would be better allocated in support of alternative innovation concepts, to include Replicator.”

However, along with the appropriations committee’s recommendation to fully fund Replicator in fiscal 2025, lawmakers also raised concerns regarding doctrine, organization, training, materiel, leadership, personnel, facilities and policy — known as DOTMILPF-P in Pentagon parlance — as well as test and evaluation.

“The Committee believes that this comprehensive understanding and plan to address the DOTMLPF–P implications are critical to the initiative’s success and has apparently not yet occurred in full. Additionally, the Committee believes that selected programs would benefit from the development of robust test and evaluation master plans [TEMP] or similar test and evaluation [T&E] plans to ensure that concepts as envisioned are technically capable of meeting stated objectives,” they wrote.

Within 60 days of the enactment of the legislation, the deputy secretary of defense and vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff would need to brief lawmakers on the DOTMLPF–P and T&E plans for each system that’s been selected for Replicator.

The bill would also task the head of the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) — a Silicon Valley-headquartered organization that’s playing a major role supporting Replicator — to work with technical leadership among the military services and the Pentagon’s director for operational test and evaluation, to ensure that T&E plans are “adequate” and “fully resourced.”

Defense Department officials have acknowledged the need for robust test and evaluation for Replicator capabilities and fleshing out DOTMLPF–P.

“The services lead on fielding at scale and organize, train and equip. Not [the Office of the Secretary of Defense] — not OSD. And so what’s really, really important is much beyond the technology and the widget, is what we call DOTMILPF — the doctrine, the training, the operations. Otherwise, it just doesn’t really matter,” Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment William LaPlante said in May during a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense hearing.

That same month, DOD officials acknowledged that the Pentagon had a lot more work to do after securing funding in fiscal 2024 to move ahead with the first tranche.

“That includes continuing to refine the concept of operation and employment for these capabilities; accelerating the experimentation timelines for individual capabilities, but also the collective portfolio to make sure that we are adequately testing and experimenting the mass effects that that we hope to achieve,” a senior defense official said during a background call with reporters.

The fiscal 2025 defense appropriations legislation still has many steps to go through before its provisions become law. It must be passed by the full Senate, reconciled with the House version after conference, passed by both chambers of Congress and signed by the president.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon’s top watchdog just initiated an evaluation of the Replicator initiative.

The department’s Office of Inspector General issued a memo earlier this week to multiple DOD components about its plans for the effort.

“During the evaluation, our focus will be to determine the effectiveness with which the Services and Defense Innovation Unit selected capabilities for the Replicator Initiative to meet the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command’s operational needs,” an OIG spokesperson told DefenseScoop in an email shortly after the memo’s release.

The memo noted that the office may revise or expand the objectives of the assessment as it unfolds.

“As with all Inspector General reviews, we intend to cooperate fully and with expediency to support the Office of the Inspector General’s important work to ensure full accountability for the American taxpayer,” Pentagon spokesman and Hicks’ public affairs advisor Eric Pahon told DefenseScoop in an email.

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Heidi Shyu, undersecretary of defense for research and engineering, has identified 14 “critical technology areas” that she is prioritizing, including trusted AI and autonomy, space, integrated sensing and cyber, integrated network systems of systems, renewable energy generation and storage, and microelectronics. They also include human-machine interface, advanced materials, directed energy, advanced computing and software, hypersonics, biotech, quantum, and 5G/FutureG.

Although S&T funding for budget activities 6.1 basic research, 6.2 applied research and 6.3 advanced technology development only account for about 2% of the Pentagon’s overall budget, it’s considered critical for military modernization because it lays the seed corn for next-generation capabilities.

Of the $17.2 billion that the Pentagon has requested for these budget activities in fiscal 2025, 98% would be divided among those 14 critical tech areas, according to Shyu’s slide presentation during a webinar hosted by NDIA’s Emerging Technologies Institute on Tuesday.

“If you see where the bulk of our funding is going … the biggest bar chart is trusted AI and autonomy. So that’s not going to be surprising. The second area that we found a lot of money in is in the space technology arena. The third piece is the integrators sensing and cyber … Those three categories of areas we’re funding composed about 65% of our S&T budget,” Shyu noted.

The proposal includes about $4.9 billion for trusted AI and autonomy, $4.3 billion for space, and $1.9 billion for integrated sensing and cyber.

Additionally, it includes $1.6 billion for integrated network system of system, $1.5 billion for renewable energy generation and storage, $515 million for microelectronics, $458 million for human-machine interface, $414 for advanced materials, $355 million for directed energy, $333 million for advanced computing and software, $242 million for hypersonics, $224 million for biotech, $76 million for quantum, and $38 million for 5G/FutureG.

The majority of that — approximately $9 billion — is for advanced tech development, with $5.8 billion and $2.5 billion slated for applied research and basic research, respectively.

Among DOD components, about $8.3 billion would go toward “Defense-wide” agencies not aligned with the services — also known as the Fourth Estate — such as the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Defense Innovation Unit, Strategic Capabilities Office, Missile Defense Agency, and other agencies and field activities under the Office of the Secretary of Defense, according to Shyu’s slides.

Among the services, the Army would receive about $2.8 billion, the Air Force $2.7 billion, the Navy $2.5 billion and the Space Force $840 million.

The total S&T funding request for fiscal 2025 is 3.4% lower than the 2024 request, per Shyu’s slides.

Shyu noted the importance of technology transition from the S&T enterprise as the U.S. aims to field new capabilities at scale.

A total of 105 projects in critical technology areas were transitioned in fiscal 2023, with trusted AI and autonomy topping the list at 30, according to the Pentagon CTO.

There are several potential transition pathways, she noted.

“The most typical way that people think about is transitioning into a program of record. Right. So that’s the one pathway. However, it could be a piece of software that we’re delivering capability to upgrade a capability that’s already been fielded. So that’s a different way of fielding a new capability. The other way could very well be, we have developed a technology, the technology is being utilized by a DOD prime or commercial company, [and] we then end up procuring that technology. And the fourth way is we’ve transitioned technology for the DOD [and] it could be used by another government agency,” she explained.

She highlighted the Rapid Defense Experimentation Reserve (RDER) and the Accelerate the Procurement and Fielding of Innovative Technologies (APFIT) programs as examples of initiatives aimed at helping transition promising warfighting capabilities into production.

Several RDER-related technologies are on track to move into production, according to Shyu.

“We have developed some capabilities as part of … the RDER activities. Once we develop it and its mature and the services say, ‘We really would like to have it,’ there are ways that we can just put it right onto the [General Services Administration] schedule and literally a service that wants to procure it just can buy it outright. So it doesn’t have to go through a long procurement process into a program of record,” she explained.

In April, the Pentagon announced the latest tranche of APFIT projects to receive funding, geared toward small and nontraditional contractors. To date, the department has funded 38 companies via the initiative, Shyu said Tuesday.

“We’re helping to fund small companies to get into low-rate initial production. This is helping them to bridge the valley of death that they typically face from [budget activity] 6.3 to get into 6.4 and into-low rate industrial production,” she said, noting that technologies from the first tranche are being fielded by the services and the combatant commands.

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RDER, which was established in 2021, is a signature initiative of Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Heidi Shyu. Its purpose is to accelerate technologies through the development pipeline from prototypes to validated military capabilities, working directly with the services, combatant commanders, the Joint Staff and industry partners.

The program is focused on capabilities that would be key to joint warfighting in a highly contested environment, including counter-command, control, computing, communications, cyber, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and targeting (counter-C5ISRT); contested logistics; joint fires; command and control; and information advantage, according to Shyu. Using what she calls “agile development methods,” the goal is to shave two to four years off the timeline for delivering capabilities, compared to traditional processes.

The Pentagon is requesting $450 million for RDER in fiscal 2025, significantly down from the $687 million it sought for fiscal 2024. However, it’s still more than its fiscal 2023 request, which came in at $359 million.

Budget documents released Monday did not explain the reason for the drop in funding proposed for 2025. However, a DOD spokesperson suggested it stemmed from budget pressures related to a law passed in 2023.

“The Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA) caps are mandatory and, if disregarded or exceeded, would be enforced by sequestration. Understanding those fiscal constraints, the Department made responsible choices to prioritize readiness and take care of people but make targeted reductions to programs that will not deliver capability to the force until the 2030s, preserving and enhancing the Joint Force’s ability to fight and win in the near term,” the spokesperson said in an email to DefenseScoop.

Last year at the annual McAleese Defense Programs Conference, Shyu attributed the bumped-up funding request for 2024 to the fact that the department wanted to conduct multiple technology “sprints” that year.

The department will typically need around $300 million to $350 million per sprint, she said at that event.

“The RDER process draws on the strengths of iterative feedback loops between warfighters and technologists throughout the testing and experimentation phase,” Shyu explained in her prepared remarks for NDIA’s Pacific Operational Science and Technology Conference last week, which were provided to DefenseScoop. “While commercially available components are crucial building blocks, often these systems need to be tailored for military-specific use, demonstrating the value of mission engineering. This is exactly what we are doing through RDER and our rapid prototyping process.”

As an example of a RDER success, Shyu highlighted the demonstration of the family of integrated targeting cells (FITC) that can integrate data from multiple domains into a single, mobile system — noting that the Marines expect the experimentation to accelerate fielding of that capability by four years.

During recent technology readiness experimentation, or what the Pentagon calls T-REX, the department has validated a variety of advanced capabilities including drones — such as loitering munitions and unmanned surface vehicles — resilient communication systems and decoys, according to Shyu. They were tapped for further evaluation and testing by troops at the Northern Edge or Valiant Shield exercises.

The procurement of three RDER-related capabilities was green-lit by the Deputy’s Management Action Group — a key Pentagon resource decision-making board — late last year, according to Shyu, and officials plan to bring more RDER capabilities to the group for review later this year.

“We have stuff … go through the process continuously. Right? So the stuff, like over 30 items that we tested in Indiana [at Camp Atterburry], went to Northern Edge for experimentation. The stuff that graduates and proves its military utility will come up to the DMAGs ready to accelerate it,” Shyu told reporters on the sidelines of the Potomac Officers Club’s annual Defense R&D Summit in January.

She noted that the Pentagon is also planning to conduct a T-REX event in Australia this year and RDER experiment there next year.

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The Rapid Defense Experimentation Reserve (RDER), and the Technology Readiness Experimentation (T-REX) efforts that feed into it, will be heading to Australia, Heidi Shyu told reporters Wednesday on the sidelines of the Potomac Officers Club’s annual Defense R&D Summit.

Australian officials attended T-REX 23-2 last year at Camp Atterbury, Indiana, which was held in partnership with the Indiana National Guard. During that event, DOD conducted 11 full-scale assessments of new warfighting technologies to measure their effectiveness and capability for further development based on the U.S. military’s needs, according to a Pentagon press release.

“The cool thing is, when we did our last technology readiness experimentation in Indiana, I invited the Aussies and U.K. to come down to witness what we’re doing. OK. They were thrilled. Right after that, our key lead flew down to Australia to witness their Autonomous Warrior experimentation. We’re in the process of planning integrated experimentation. We’re literally going to do T-REX in Australia. OK. So this is all the cool stuff we have ongoing and this will eventually lead to one of the RDER experimentations in Australia,” Shyu told DefenseScoop during the meeting with reporters.

The T-REX event Down Under is expected to take place this year, and a RDER experiment there is slated to follow next year, according to Shyu.

RDER, one of Shyu’s signature projects, was established in 2021. The aim is to accelerate technologies through the development pipeline from prototypes to validated military capabilities, working directly with the services, combatant commanders, the Joint Staff and industry partners. It’s focused on capabilities that are key to joint warfighting in a highly contested environment, including counter-command, control, computing, communications, cyber, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and targeting (counter-C5ISRT); contested logistics; joint fires; command and control; and information advantage, she noted during her keynote at the Potomac Officers Club summit.

A goal is to accelerate capability delivery by two to four years compared to the traditional development process.

With T-REX and RDER, troops have an opportunity to put prototypes through their paces and provide feedback to DOD officials and industry.

“The RDER process draws upon the strength of iterative feedback loops between the warfighter and technologies throughout the testing and experimentation phases,” Shyu said.

The Pentagon’s R&E directorate has been working with the acquisition and sustainment directorate to find the best pathways for transitioning capabilities from development into procurement.

The procurement of three RDER capabilities was recently green-lit by the Deputy’s Management Action Group — a key Pentagon resource decision-making board.

“We had a classified DMAG. So, there were three initial experimentations we’ve gone through that proved military utility. And all three of those are moving forward. I can’t really get into a lot of the specifics, because you got to remember one thing, OK — RDER is scenario-based experimentation with a focus on joint warfighting capabilities, right, and pushing capabilities out as quickly as possible. So, these are the capability that’s maturing and going through and pushing out. So, I don’t want to tell China what we’re doing specifically, but the pipeline is started,” Shyu told DefenseScoop last month during a meeting with reporters at the Reagan National Defense Forum.

On Wednesday, Shyu said the services have stepped forward to be the executive agents for these capabilities.

“They actually have POM’d for” them, she said, referring to the program objective memorandum that sets funding plans for acquisitions. “So, this is how we’re pushing stuff through much quicker.”

Officials plan to bring more RDER capabilities to the Deputy’s Management Action Group for review later this year.

“We have stuff … go through the process continuously. Right. So the stuff, like over 30 items that we tested in Indiana, went to Northern Edge [a U.S. military exercise] for experimentation. The stuff that graduates and proves its military utility will come up to the DMAGs ready to accelerate it,” Shyu told reporters.

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Those chosen for the so-called “transition concierge” role will act as “the translator between the non-traditional [companies] and the weapon system developers,” Dave Tremper, director of the Pentagon’s Acquisition, Integration and Interoperability (AI2) Office, said Thursday at Defense One’s future of defense acquisition summit.

Tremper’s office is working with the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Industrial Base Policy to identify candidates who currently serve program executive officers that would be able to create a communications pathway between non-traditional vendors and the department. The selectees are expected to begin work “in the next few months,” he said.

The Defense Department has recently been working to transfer more technologies from the commercial sector into warfighter capabilities — having created a number of dedicated organizations and funding programs to do so. However, Tremper said a lot of significant conversations about capabilities and technology can get lost in translation.

“There is a significant language barrier between the non-traditional commercial community and the Aegis weapon system developer,” he explained. “There’s a ton of acronyms [that] if you work in the military, you understand. There’s tons of acronyms that are used in their day-in-the-life.”

At the same time, the Pentagon’s acquisition professionals and operational users in the military can sometimes have a difficult time understanding what exactly a piece of innovative technology is and how it can be applied for warfighters, Tremper noted. 

“The concept of a transition concierge is actually the doorway into that community, who can act as that translator between the weapon system developer and the non-traditional technology developer so that you can marry the two up together,” he said.

Tremper was tapped as the first director of the Pentagon’s AI2 Office, created in 2022 to synchronize the various acquisition efforts happening across the services in order to promote joint requirements and integrate cross-domain warfighting capabilities. Much effort is focused on Joint All-Domain Command and Control (JADC2), which aims to seamlessly connect battlefield sensors, shooters and networks for enhanced decision-making.

Tremper said his past experience as a science-and-technology program manager combined with his current role in acquisitions has shown him that a lack of requirements is one reason why some technology never moves into production and fielding, a phenomenon known as the “valley of death.”

“There are things that are being pushed, regardless of whether there’s a need or requirements to do that,” he explained. “The problem is if there’s not a requirement for it, it’s not going to be magically transitioned because there is no money to pay for the acquisition of that thing in the absence of a requirement.”

Formal requirements are also key to certifying and approving innovative technologies, in addition to ensuring that operators are properly trained to use them, Tremper added. However, the Pentagon’s Rapid Defense Experimentation Reserve (RDER) is helping speed up that process, he said.

The RDER initiative aims to identify and experiment with prototypes through a series of technology “sprints” in order to rapidly field new systems, close capability gaps and address joint warfighting requirements — particularly for U.S. Indo-Pacific Command.

Tremper said the effort takes prototyping “to the next step” by actually integrating it into real-life systems during the experimentation process, where it can simultaneously be certified and approved.

“Now you’ve gotten to a point where it’s effectively been integrated — potentially even to [initial operational capability] — without ever having acquired it. Now when the requirement shows up, it’s on the shelf [and] you can move it in,” he said.

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RDER is a signature initiative of Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Heidi Shyu that started about two years ago. It includes a series of technology “sprints” to identify and experiment with prototypes in order to more rapidly field new systems, close capability gaps and address joint warfighting requirements, particularly for U.S. Indo-Pacific Command. Focus areas include resilient communication, joint command and control, contested logistics and “asymmetric capabilities,” according to Shyu.

The department has conducted RDER-related experiments in recent months to put promising technologies through their paces.

The procurement of three capabilities was recently green-lit by the Deputy’s Management Action Group — a key resource decision-making board — Shyu said at the Reagan National Defense Forum.

“We had a classified DMAG, okay. So, there were three initial experimentation we’ve gone through that proved military utility. And all three of those are moving forward, okay. I can’t really get into a lot of the specifics, because you got to remember one thing, okay — RDER is scenario-based experimentation with a focus on joint warfighting capabilities, right, and pushing capabilities out as quickly as possible. So, these are the capability that’s maturing and going through and pushing out. So, I don’t want to tell China what we’re doing specifically, but the pipeline is started,” she told DefenseScoop during a meeting with reporters at the conference.

The Pentagon CTO declined to identify the types of capabilities that were given the go-ahead.

“I really can’t talk about that. I don’t want to get into classification problems,” she said, adding that they’re “pretty special.”

The tech is not part of the Defense Department’s Replicator initiative which aims to field thousands of autonomous systems in less than two years, Shyu disclosed, noting that technologies that could apply to Replicator are only a subset of the types of capabilities that fall under RDER.

The department hopes to push the three DMAG-approved approved capabilities into production during this budget cycle and get them into the hands of warfighters as quickly as possible, according to Shyu.

“I will say [they could be fielded] quite quickly, that’s exactly it. We’re ready to go into production — as long as there is production money,” she told reporters.

However, Congress has yet to pass a full-year defense appropriation for fiscal 2024 and federal agencies have been operating under a continuing resolution. A year-long CR would throw a wrench into the Pentagon’s plans for moving forward with the three DMAG-approved RDER capabilities because they’re a “new start” procurement that doesn’t have funding yet, she noted.

“My biggest fear is we have a yearlong CR this year. That is my number one fear. We’re on the pipeline with demonstrating capability. We’re demonstrating multi-domain command-and-control capability. We’ve just demonstrated that a couple months ago, right. So the things that worked really well, we want to push it forward, right? If you have a CR that’s going to create problems,” Shyu told reporters.

For fiscal 2024, the Pentagon requested $687 million for RDER efforts.

“The question is: Are we gonna get a budget, right? Everything’s depending on us getting a budget so I can field quicker if the budget supports the procurement. Here’s the fundamental problem that we’re running into: We can move really fast but there’s a lot of activity we have in the pipeline that we want to fund as a part of rapid prototyping that’s stuck because I can’t give the contractor the money to move fast, okay. So please, give us a budget,” she added.

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Hosted Oct. 10-20 at Camp Atterbury, Indiana, in partnership with the Indiana National Guard, the second Technology Readiness Experimentation 2023 (T-REX 23-2) conducted 11 “full scale assessments” of new warfighting technologies to measure “their effectiveness and capability for further development based on the Joint Force’s needs,” according to a DOD press release.

Notably, Australia and the United Kingdom also participated in the event. The release noted that the exercise aligned with the Pentagon’s efforts to develop multi-domain uncrewed and autonomous systems equipped with resilient communications and that the evaluated capabilities focused on “strategic overmatch capabilities” to support future operations in the Indo-Pacific and elsewhere.

If deemed successful, capabilities demonstrated at T-REX 23-2 could also move forward to the upcoming joint training exercises such as Northern Edge or Valiant Shield.

“Experimentation like T-REX allow us to better understand the next-generation technologies being developed across the defense innovation base so we can take steps to expedite their transition and fielding,” Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering David Honey said in a statement.

The T-REX demonstrations directly support the Pentagon’s RDER initiative being spearheaded by Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Heidi Shyu.

The Pentagon kicked off the demonstrations in May, which assessed signal devices, cyber protection, counterintelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities during a simulated disaster scenario. Some of those technologies were further put through the paces during this year’s Northern Edge joint training exercise series, the department said.

By conducting multiple technology “sprints,” RDER aims to identify and experiment with warfighting prototypes in order to more rapidly field new systems to combatant commands, close capability gaps and address joint warfighting requirements. Focus areas include resilient communication, joint command and control, contested logistics and “asymmetric capabilities,” according to Shyu.

The Defense Department requested $359 million for the program in fiscal 2023 and is now seeking $687 million in fiscal 2024, according to budget documents. 

More than 300 members of government and industry observed T-REX 23-2 on Oct. 19, the Pentagon said. Along with demonstrations, 42 participants — including large and small businesses, combatant command leadership and representatives from the services —  displayed additional technologies as part of a Prototype Technology Display. 

“The display allowed leaders to see the latest RDER-aligned prototypes in-person, and for companies to help shape the development of front-line military technologies,” the release stated.

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Via RDER, the Defense Department is funding various technology prototypes — that notably fill capability gaps identified by combatant commanders, the Joint Staff and the services — at an accelerated pace. The Pentagon is investing hundreds of millions to back the nascent effort, with the ultimate aim of fielding new tech that can meet the needs of military personnel much faster than it notoriously has.

“We’re taking the lessons learned from [the war in] Ukraine and we are incorporating that into our strategy in the next highly contested fight. One of the things that we have been doing, which we don’t talk about too much publicly, is incorporating those lessons in terms of what we need to drive in terms of the technology and how we can leverage the commercial side. And one of the key things that we’re doing is a Rapid Defense Experimentation Reserve,” Shyu said during a panel at the Aspen Security Summit.

She explained that the RDER team recently planned out a precise scenario chosen by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, then worked closely with the Joint Staff and combatant commanders to determine the specific capabilities that would be required to fight in that particular scenario. 

Officials then pinpointed companies that were delivering such technologies that were “already at a prototype stage” and ripe for experimentation, and hosted an industry day to connect the businesses with representatives from all parts of the military. Shyu said more than 500 people attended the event.

The RDER team and their military stakeholders selected some of the top solutions from there. “And in the May time frame, we leveraged the National Guard to literally conduct a week-long experimentation, and we provided feedback to the small companies” regarding their products, she explained.

“All that equipment is going to a Northern Edge exercise,” Shyu continued. And “from that exercise, this fall” her team will create a list of all the top technologies demonstrated that make sense for expedited fielding.

Northern Edge is a massive event that happens twice a year — usually around Alaska — where assets and service members from across the military branches operate in a realistic threat environment. The second event in the 2023 series, which is ongoing and will wrap up July 21, marks the first time it’s unfolding in other areas around the Pacific region. Shyu did not detail which of the exercises this year involved RDER prototype deployments.

Still, at the Aspen summit she also confirmed that she’s been working with Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment Bill LaPlante to generate “a number of rapid acceleration processes” as pathways to procure and fully field the best of the tech.

Shyu did not specify any of the technology focus areas the prototypes fit into, but in the past she has pointed to using RDER for resilient communications, joint command and control, contested logistics and “asymmetric” military capabilities.

“There’s one [prototype that a Marine recently] tested out. He said, ‘This is fantastic. I absolutely need this. I’m going to deploy.’ … He wouldn’t give us back the prototype. He literally took it and deployed with it. So that tells me that it’s great. There’s a demand signal for the product,” Shyu said. 

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