Pentagon buying thousands of battle drones to counter China

The ‘replicator initiative’ program involves the US bulk-buying every type of unmanned combat system.

The abundance of drones being used by both sides in the war in Ukraine have encouraged the US to invest in them. Picture: Getty Images

The Pentagon is set to deliver hundreds of thousands of drones to the Indo-China region in the next two years, in an effort to counter the threat posed by the Chinese military.

The “replicator initiative” program involves bulk-buying every type of unmanned combat system, such as aerial armed drones and underwater and surface sea drones.

The effectiveness of drone warfare has been underlined by the Ukrainian and Russian armies, whose relatively cheap unmanned systems have played a dominant role in the war.

China has the world’s biggest navy, with 350 ships and submarines, compared with America’s 293. But the US navy’s superiority in aircraft carrier numbers – 11 against three – has always been in the forefront of Pentagon planning for a possible war with China.

The US carriers are vulnerable, however, to China’s arsenal of anti-ship missiles, known as “carrier killers”. So the idea of flooding the region with drones able to pick on targets at will has become a priority.

US Deputy Defence SecretaryKathleen Hicks told a Washington conference: “We’ll counter the PLA’s (People’s Liberation Army) mass with mass of our own. But ours will be harder to plan for, harder to hit and harder to beat.”

China’s military modernisation program has been aimed at blocking US carriers from the South China Sea and elsewhere if Beijing tries to seize Taiwan. China’s leaders have set a date of 2027 for the PLA to be ready to invade the self-governing island.

Ms Hicks told the National Defence Industrial Association: “We must ensure the PRC (People’s Republic of China) leadership wakes up every day, considers the risks of aggression and concludes, ‘Today is not the day’. And not just today but every day between now and 2027, now and 2035, now and 2049 and beyond.”

President Xi Jinping has said he wants China to be a military and economic global superpower by 2049.

Ms Hicks said the drones were cheaper than traditional systems, put fewer people at risk and could be changed, updated or improved quickly. America’s latest carrier, the USS Gerald R Ford, cost $US13bn ($20bn) and needs a crew of more than 4500.

The Times