Solicited in partnership with the UK MoD, the competition is the first bilateral opportunity of its kind. 

The US Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) has launched a new low-collateral counter-drone competition under the Replicator 2 initiative.  

Published on 5 May, the initiative seeks systems that can take out drones in highly populated areas, minimising the risk to friendly forces.  

The US-UK competition – which is the first ever bilateral commercial solutions opening (CSO) – closes for submissions at 04:59 BST on 20 May (23:59 EST on 19 May). After which time, teams from the US Department of Defense and UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) will assess them conscious of their respective national requirements. 

“The best solutions will be considered for prototype and production contracts with the US and UK”, the UK’s Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) said on LinkedIn. 

Countermeasures which can operate within a GPS-denied environment are preferred by the DIU, especially those which can deny “salvos or swarms” in a single engagement, the notice reveals. 

The replicator programme was first announced by the DIU in August 2023. Replicator 1 was intended to field thousands of “all-domain, attritable autonomous” drones, whilst Replicator 2 focuses on countering those systems. 

Counter-drone technologies are a major priority for militaries amid the proliferation of uncrewed systems. DSEI recently reported on a NATO challenge, announced on 28 April, designed to counter fibre-optic first-person view (FPV) drones.  

Requirements 

Providing that they are low-collateral, the DIU does not restrict its call to any particular type of system. The notice outlines an openness to a variety of solutions, including kinetic, energy, or capture/ entanglement-based products. 

The DoD is eyeing solutions which “minimise cost per defeat”, do not reply upon commercial radio frequencies, and can reduce operational burdens. 

In addition, proposals will need to be scalable and capable of being integrated alongside existing equipment such as radars, and command and control infrastructure, it stipulates. 

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