The first tranche of the US Navy’s “Replicator” initiative aimed at obstructing a Chinese invasion of Taiwan would be ready by August, a US Naval Institute (USNI) News report on Tuesday said.
The initiative is part of a larger defense strategy for Taiwan, and would involve launching thousands of uncrewed submarines, surface vessels and aerial vehicles around Taiwan to buy the nation and its partners time to assemble a response.
The plan was first made public by the Washington Post in June last year, when it cited comments by US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue defense forum in Singapore.
Photo courtesy of the Ministry of National Defense
USNI News cited Captain Alex Campbell, the maritime portfolio director of the US Department of Defense’s Defense Innovation Unit, as saying that the initiative involves integrating various systems in a fast-paced manner through the use of common software.
His team is trying to stitch together “a pretty wide and diverse set of systems and a wide and diverse set of software, and smashing them all together at a pace that is really more akin to commercial software tempos,” Campbell said.
The report also cited US Pacific Fleet Commander Admiral Steve Koehler as saying he wanted “more lethal and inexpensive systems” available for the initiative, and that he wanted them “in the hands of sailors to experiment with and field quickly.”
Photo: AP
Replicator, for which the US Navy has budgeted US$1 billion, would make use of uncrewed systems in every domain, including one-way attack drones and loitering munitions.
The overall strategy would also involve intelligence gathering, and the use of infrastructure to support a GPS and intelligence denied environment, a previous report by Naval News said.
Connected by satellites, high-altitude long-endurance uncrewed aerial vehicles and other networked systems would engage large amphibious fleets crossing the Taiwan Strait from multiple vectors, with the US drones coming from islands, undersea and from drone motherships far outside the first island chain, that report said.
The Replicator program has prompted the US military to rethink the use of autonomous combat systems, and emphasize learning and rapid adjustments to meet future battlefield needs, US Navy Director of Integrated Warfare Rear Admiral Christopher Sweeney said.
Chris Brose, strategic director of defense contractor Anduril Industries, said that with Replicator, the navy also aims to “quickly field disparate systems,” and to adopt a more flexible development approach to ensure that the technology could be quickly put into actual combat applications in the Taiwan Strait.
Koehler said the US military should deploy more “low-cost and high-lethality” uncrewed systems, and that troops should conduct combat tests and exercises with such systems in the Strait.
In related news, the Ministry of National Defense yesterday reported that seven Chinese military aircraft were detected in the Taiwan Strait in the 24-hour period from 6am on Thursday to 6am yesterday, five of which crossed the median line of the Strait, moving toward areas to the north and southwest of Taiwan’s airspace.
Five Chinese warships were also detected operating around the Strait during this period, it said.
In the previous 24-hour period from 6am on Wednesday to 6am on Thursday, in addition to the five Chinese warships, six military planes were detected in the vicinity, three of which crossed the median line and flew toward areas near the northern and southwestern parts of Taiwan’s airspace, ministry data showed.
Three Chinese weather balloons were also detected over waters northwest of Taichung late on Wednesday afternoon, it said.
The ministry said it monitored the movements of the Chinese military and balloons using aircraft, ships and shore-based missile systems, and was ready to respond at all times.
Additional reporting by Huang Ching-yan
COMBINING FORCES: The 66th Marine Brigade would support the 202nd Military Police Command in its defense of Taipei against ‘decapitation strikes,’ a source said The Marine Corps has deployed more than 100 soldiers and officers of the 66th Marine Brigade to Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) as part of an effort to bolster defenses around the capital, a source with knowledge of the matter said yesterday. Two weeks ago, a military source said that the Ministry of National Defense ordered the Marine Corps to increase soldier deployments in the Taipei area. The 66th Marine Brigade has been tasked with protecting key areas in Taipei, with the 202nd Military Police Command also continuing to defend the capital. That came after a 2017 decision by the ministry to station
‘INVESTMENT’: Rubio and Arevalo said they discussed the value of democracy, and Rubio thanked the president for Guatemala’s strong diplomatic relationship with Taiwan Guatemalan President Bernardo Arevalo met with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Guatemala City on Wednesday where they signed a deal for Guatemala to accept migrants deported from the US, while Rubio commended Guatemala for its support for Taiwan and said the US would do all it can to facilitate greater Taiwanese investment in Guatemala. Under the migrant agreement announced by Arevalo, the deportees would be returned to their home countries at US expense. It is the second deportation deal that Rubio has reached during a Central America trip that has been focused mainly on immigration. Arevalo said his
‘SOVEREIGN AI’: As of Nov. 19 last year, Taiwan was globally ranked No. 11 for having computing power of 103 petaflops. The governments wants to achieve 1,200 by 2029 The government would intensify efforts to bolster its “Sovereign Artificial Intelligence [AI]” program by setting a goal of elevating the nation’s collective computing power in the public and private sectors to 1,200 peta floating points per second (petaflops) by 2029, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. The goal was set to fulfill President William Lai’s (賴清德) vision of turning Taiwan into an “AI island.” Sovereign AI refers to a nation’s capabilities to produce AI using its own infrastructure, data, workforce and business networks. One petaflop allows 1 trillion calculations per second. As of Nov. 19 last year, Taiwan was globally ranked No. 11 for
Israel yesterday said it has begun preparations for the departure of large numbers of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip in line with US President Donald Trump’s plan for the territory, while Egypt has launched a diplomatic blitz behind the scenes to try and head off the plan. The Trump administration has already dialed back aspects of the proposal after it was widely rejected internationally, saying the relocation of Palestinians would be temporary. US officials have provided few details about how or when the plan would be carried out. Trump yesterday said that Israel would turn Gaza over to the US after the
RSS