Pentagon watchers are getting more detail about the high-stakes, hush-hush Replicator project and its growing emphasis on assembly line prowess — not just fancy blueprints.

Why it matters: Amid interrogations about production levels and stockpile health, Replicator promises to set the pace for cheap, fast, proliferated weapons.

• It's a bet that a behemoth bureaucracy can keep up with a breakneck commercial sector and a rollercoaster security environment.
• As I've written before, industrial capacity is king. You can't go to war with empty magazines.

Driving the news: The Defense Department lifted the veil of secrecy last week. Here's what we now know:

• More than 500 companies large and small want in. A fraction are actually playing ball.
• Anduril is providing its Altius-600 and Ghost-X drones, as well as its autonomous Barracuda-500 missile through the Air Force's Enterprise Test Vehicle program. Three other companies are working ETV, as well.
• Performance Drone Works is chipping in its C-100 Unmanned Aerial System, already part of the Army's Company-Level Small UAS effort.
• AeroVironment is supplying its Switchblade 600.
• Equipment the Pentagon doesn't want to publicly discuss includes "low-cost, long-range strike capabilities and maritime uncrewed systems." (DefenseScoop reported Anduril's 3-ton Dive-LD as a contender.)

Anduril Industries CEO Brian Schimpf and PDW CEO Ryan Gury told me attitudes are changing.

• "It's about, 'How do we get the department to just move faster?'" Schimpf said at the Future of Defense summit in Washington. "There isn't, like, a five-year research program to figure out exactly what they need. They assessed what worked, are scaling it, and are moving out."
• "We're starting to see a huge swell in small robotics," Gury said in a separate interview.
• "We want truly tactical assets capable of kinetics and [intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance and signals intelligence] in the hands of every soldier."

Catch up quick: Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks introduced Replicator in August 2023.

Yes, but: In analysis first shared with Axios, advocacy group Public Citizen described it as a "mad dash for Silicon Valley's AI weapons."

• "Tech companies have swept into the military-industrial space with gusto, claiming to bring an innovative edge to an otherwise clunky and slow-moving, albeit lucrative, industry," it reads.
• "The question is not if war robots can be made, but whether or not they should be."

The bottom line: The Pentagon needs to nail this. The drone-counter-drone race is not one the U.S. wants to lose.

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Speaking of shifting the military-industrial complex ...

President-elect Trump's pick to lead the Defense Department, Pete Hegseth, this week shared a sizzle reel on X. It concluded with all-caps bombast: "MAKE AMERICA LETHAL AGAIN."

Why it matters: It's an unorthodox declaration, one suggesting the military he may inherit is too feeble to fend off Russia, too toothless to spook China.

State of play: Every defense secretary enters the Pentagon with goals. Some public. Some private. Some personal. Some popular.

• Some achieve them. But good luck finding a perfect scorecard.
• The building is infamously stubborn, with decades-old antibodies on hair-trigger alert for anything too radical.

What we're hearing: Secretaries need a few things to exact change. Among them: executive-branch backing and budget finesse. (A Republican sweep of Washington should simplify the latter.)

• "The main focus right now seems to be on whether Hegseth has the executive experience to reform the Pentagon. After all, it is a huge bureaucracy," Colin Dueck, a nonresident senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, told me.
• "But if the secretary has the support of the president in reforming defense, a great deal can be accomplished. If not, far less so."
• "Successful change agents as [defense secretary] need to change what the DOD spends money on and how it spends money," Bryan Clark, director of the Hudson Institute's Center for Defense Concepts and Technology, said separately.
• "Trying to make changes through training, doctrine or operations is hard because those are primarily the purview of the uniformed military."

Previous defense chiefs, effectively CEOs, have notched wins still discussed today.

• Ashton Carter, William Perry and Robert McNamara come to mind.
• Breaking Defense in 2022 eulogized Carter, saying we live in the world he saw coming.

What they're saying: "It really does take the secretary himself, backed by the president, waking up every single day, prioritizing one to three issues in order to bend the Pentagon bureaucracy to his will," Mike Gallagher, the lawmaker turned head of defense at Palantir Technologies, told Axios' Mike Allen.

• As for Hegseth? Expect a "very aggressive reform agenda. I mean, he's written about it in his book."

My thought bubble: Exactly what MALA means is squishy. To what metrics of success will it be held?

• Also, zingers and phonk won't intimidate world leaders.

What's next: Hegseth's planned overhauls will face stiff resistance. That is, assuming Trump keeps him around.

Go deeper: Pete Hegseth paid settlement to accuser but denies sexual assault

🇰🇷 A Gray Eagle drone modified for abbreviated takeoffs and landings launched from a South Korean warship designed "solely for helicopters," according to the country's chief of naval operations.

• Why it matters: The Nov. 12 flight was the first of its kind. The Gray Eagle STOL, made by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, left the amphibious landing ship Dokdo and touched down at Pohang Navy Airfield.
• 💭 My thought bubble: This is great for two reasons. One, it brings Washington and Seoul closer. Two, you're not always going to have the perfect runway, especially considering agile combat employment.

😞 The Pentagon failed its seventh audit in a row. Defense officials are eyeing a passing grade years down the line.

• Why it matters: Under examination were trillions of dollars of assets and liabilities. The audit itself employed more than 1,000 people and cost $178 million.
• 💭 My thought bubble: Yikes? Imagine being a business and getting away with this.

🚀 The Biden administration gave Ukraine the green light to use the Army Tactical Missile System to strike parts of Russia.

• Why it matters: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said "long-range capabilities" are a key component of the "victory plan," Axios' Barak Ravid and Rebecca Falconer write.
• 💭 My thought bubble: This is the latest U-turn by the Biden administration. Drip-feed assistance — think Abrams tanks and F-16 aircraft — does little good.

This week's conversation is with Jake Loosararian, the chief executive at Gecko Robotics.

• Before we began this interview, we bonded over houseplants (I have about 35) and decorative pots.

Why he matters: Loosararian is at the helm of a company that keeps online U.S. critical infrastructure and warships alike.

• The team was last year tasked with building a maintenance baseline and inspecting welds for the $132 billion Columbia-class nuclear submarine program.

Q: When you hear "future of defense," what comes to mind?

A: I think about getting the chance to get to the future of defense. It's more around "what is the reality of our defense today?"

• It's hard for me to talk about future defense when the biggest problem for the Navy is, "Hey, we can't get our ships out of dry dock, and only one-third of them are available to defend Western values."
• As it relates to earning the right to build the future of defense, I think economics really drives this.
• I don't think the future of defense will change all that much, as it relates to big, manned tanks and aircraft carriers. I think it's going to become smarter. What will really drive the future of defense will be conflict.

Q: When will wars be waged solely by robots?

A: At the end of World War III. If we get there.

Q: What region of the world should we be watching? Why?

A: My real answer is the Middle East, and the reason, obviously, for that is because it's always been the place for us to watch and has spawned some of the largest conflicts, if you look throughout all of history.

• The contrarian answer is probably Africa.

Q: How many emails do you get a day, and how do you deal with them?

A: Probably about 350-450 emails a day.

• I have a fantastic executive assistant that is ferocious about prioritizing.

Q: What's your secret to a successful overnight flight?

A: I put those stupid eye covers on, and I just sit there and force myself to go to sleep.

• I also take off my shoes, which is yucky and disgusting. But it does help me relax for some reason. But I put [them] under the covers, under the blanket.

Q: What advice would you give your younger self?

A: Learning martial arts would've been the advice I'd give myself as a kid.

• Mostly it's for the discipline. The definition of humility is power under control, and I really love the idea of that.

Go deeper: Exclusive: Gecko Robotics to expand its U.S. Navy gigs

The Future of Defense summit in Washington last week was a blast. Thanks to all who showed up and pitched in.

The big picture: We made some news, saw some cool kit and had a drink or two. Here's what you might have missed:

• 💾 Defense companies are increasingly comfortable picking sides and being public about it, said Mike Gallagher, the head of defense at Palantir Technologies. His advice for new parents? "Read a lot of books, and force your kids to go outside."
• 🛥️ A fourth autonomous surface vessel from Saronic "will be coming very soon," according to CEO Dino Mavrookas. He also thinks The Salt Lick is the best barbecue in Texas.
• 🏭 Arizona, Ohio and Texas is an "inaccurate list" of places Anduril Industries is considering for its Arsenal-1 megafactory, said CEO Brian Schimpf. He's also laughing off the Theranos comparisons.
• 🇺🇦 Ukrainian troops are growing disenchanted with some U.S. weapons as they fail to work as promised, said Shield AI cofounder Ryan Tseng. He benches less than his brother, Brandon, but the two can certainly lift more than me.
• 🤖 Armored columns in the future could be augmented by packs of robots that deploy off the sides of vehicles, according to Gavin Kenneally, the CEO of Ghost Robotics. In a previous life, Kenneally spent time in a vet's office.

My thought bubble: The specialty cocktails at the reception were great.

• Which did you like more, the Admiral's Punch or the General's Cider? (If you want recipes, shoot me an email.)

The bottom line: Missed the event, or just want to relive every single moment? We've got you covered.