WASHINGTON, D.C. — The White House requested $54.6 billion for the Defense Autonomous Warfare Group in its fiscal year 2027 budget, a near 24,000 percent increase over the unit's initial fiscal year 2026 allocation of $225.9 million. Of the requested total, $1 billion sits in the standard base budget and $53 billion is in a flexible future reconciliation pot that the group has up to five years to obligate.
The Pentagon dissolved the Replicator Initiative in late 2025 and absorbed it into the Defense Autonomous Warfare Group, or DAWG. The Replicator Initiative was announced in 2023 to field large numbers of affordable, expendable drones as a strategic counter to China.
By 2025, the program had stalled following congressional criticism over a lack of progress, the absence of a permanent institutional home, and inconsistent funding. The drones procured under the initiative suffered from persistent technical issues, struggled to integrate with existing military command-and-control systems, and were too expensive and slow to manufacture in the quantities needed. The initiative also failed to procure software capable of orchestrating and commanding large swarms of different drones. Without a dedicated line-item budget, defense officials had been forced to reprogram funds, and Congress increasingly pushed back over a lack of transparency regarding long-term lifecycle costs.
DAWG will emphasize procurement, operations, maintenance, training, and sustainment over the first few years before scaling back active manufacturing lines. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced the creation of a dedicated Sub-Unified Command for Autonomous Warfare, and U.S. Southern Command established its own autonomous warfare command to work with DAWG.
Acting Pentagon Comptroller Jules Hurst described DAWG as a "pathfinder" embedded with private tech firms, live-testing orchestration tools for autonomy and providing real-time combat feedback. Shield AI has been tapped to integrate its Hivemind AI pilot software into the Low-Cost Uncrewed Combat Attack System, known as LUCAS.
Retired general and former CIA Director David Petraeus said the group represents the "largest single commitment to autonomous warfare in history." Department of Defense Directive 3000.09 mandates "appropriate levels of human judgement" for AI weapon systems.