While the Trump administration plans to reshuffle funding priorities at the Defense Department (DoD) and eliminate “unnecessary” programs, President Trump’s nominee for the Pentagon’s second-highest civilian position, Steve Feinberg, assured lawmakers today that advancing autonomous capabilities would remain a top priority if he is confirmed – suggesting that the agency’s Replicator initiative may be continuing on a safer funding track.
In his nomination hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Feinberg did not explicitly endorse the initiative but emphasized that autonomous technologies, like those being pursued by Replicator, are vital to the U.S. military’s ability to deter foreign adversaries in the near term.
“We need to develop autonomy – autonomy in significant numbers, with a centralized command, effectively ‘brain.’ And we have to make the right decision on whether we need to build a next-generation aircraft, or we can rely on autonomy,” Feinberg told lawmakers.
The Replicator initiative, overseen by the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), aims to deploy thousands of autonomous systems across multiple domains to warfighters by August 2025, as part of the Pentagon’s strategy to counter China’s rapid military buildup. Simultaneously, the department is advancing Replicator Two, announced in September 2024, which focuses on scaling up the deployment of existing counter-drone systems.
If confirmed, Fineberg pledged to ensure the department remains focused on addressing these pressing challenges and delivering innovative capabilities to warfighters, “in line with the Secretary’s priorities of rebuilding the military and reestablishing deterrence.”
“I will work with the appropriate stakeholders to review the value of initiatives like Replicator,” Feinberg wrote in response to advance policy questions from the committee ahead of his confirmation hearing today.
“I believe the department must utilize all of the authorities available to acquire capabilities to meet the most pressing and urgent needs, to include the capabilities being accelerated through Replicator,” Feinberg stated. He added that Replicator creates the rapid acquisition pathway necessary rapidly acquire and deploy “items urgently needed to react to an enemy threat or respond to significant and urgent safety situations.”
No date has been set for a full Senate confirmation vote on Feinberg’s nomination.
Fineberg Calls Recent Layoffs ‘Hard but Necessary’
A major point of contention among many Democratic members of the committee was the recent layoffs of high-ranking military officials and DoD probationary employees, with much of the questioning during Feinberg’s nomination hearing focused on these issues.
Feinberg explained that in his experience as a businessman, layoffs and budget cuts, though difficult, are “hard but necessary” to make an organization more effective.
The Pentagon announced it will cut about 5,400 probationary civilian workers and impose a hiring freeze as part of broader workforce reductions under the Trump administration. The DoD aims to shrink its civilian workforce by 5 to 8 percent to improve efficiency and focus on the President’s priorities.
While the cuts were initially said to target probationary civilian employees, President Trump caused a stir by firing the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force General C.Q. Brown, along with Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Lisa Franchetti, Air Force Vice Chief of Staff General James Slife, and the judge advocates general for all three branches.
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., during her questioning today, accused Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and the Trump administration of failing to conduct the necessary review before carrying out the layoffs. She asked Feinberg if he agreed that a thorough review of the Pentagon’s workforce was necessary before more layoffs take place.
Feinberg responded that, if confirmed, he would “look at it super carefully” and work to ensure that any cuts made would not impact the military’s mission, but said these cuts were “hard but necessary.”
“There’s great people in the Pentagon, great people, and there’s so much to work with, [but] at any time when you’re trying to improve operations and efficiency and do better, there’s going to be changes. Those changes can be initially difficult,” he said. “We will find the top people. We will give them autonomy, flexibility to do things, but of course, we will hold them accountable.”
