The Pentagon’s chief technology officer, Heidi Shyu, has announced the approval of the first set of projects under the Rapid Defense Experimentation Reserve (RDER) initiative, aimed at rapidly transitioning joint experimental projects to production. The initiative focuses on prototypes from military services and combatant commands, assessing their readiness and utility for production, with the first round targeting long-range fire needs in the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command. The progression of these projects to manufacturing and fielding in fiscal 2024 is contingent on Congressional approval of defense appropriations legislation. With a significant increase in budget requests for RDER, the Pentagon aims to double down on this initiative, which complements another innovation effort, Replicator, designed to quickly field large quantities of innovative, autonomous systems. Shyu emphasized the importance of RDER in validating prototypes for high-need capability gaps and its potential future crossover with Replicator projects.