Pentagon Picks Anduril, L3 for Software to Control Drone Swarms

The Pentagon has picked Anduril Industries, L3 Harris Technologies and Swarm Aero to build software to coordinate automatically swarms of thousands of drones.

The Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Unit selected the companies from a pool of 132 for the prototype contracts for the Replicator program, which is aimed at blunting China’s military advantages and fortifying quick production of cheap, but effective, drones.

Deadly but inexpensive drones—including those designed for hobbyists—have become a leading weapon for Ukraine, Russia and Iran-backed militias. Matching and beating those agile new weapons is a special challenge for a Pentagon that’s steeped in multibillion-dollar projects from old-line ...