Joe Gomes: Right. And one last one, for me. On Sierrea acquisition, I think they’re based at airport in California there. I was wondering, is there opportunities to do some of the same things there as you do in Oklahoma? Is that could be a potential additional benefit to that acquisition?
Eric M. DeMarco: That Joe, that’s a great question. The facility is in [Tatchapine] (ph). It is actually on the runway. It’s on the air base with the hangars. Absolutely unequivocally, that was a strategic element of our plan here.
Joe Gomes: Great. Thanks, Eric. I appreciate it.
Eric M. DeMarco: Thank you.
Operator: Our next question comes from Pete Skibitski with Alembic Global. Your line is open.
Pete Skibitski: Hey, good afternoon guys.
Eric M. DeMarco: Hey, Pete.
Pete Skibitski: Eric, can you help me understand the nuances to the extent you’re able to on replicator a little bit more because you mentioned in your remarks, replicator being distinct from Air Force CCA. But I thought replicator wasn’t really a funded program of record. I thought it was more so kind of a, I don’t know, a concept or kind of an umbrella program. What’s the right way to think about that?
Eric M. DeMarco: Right. Replicator is not a program of record. Replicator is an initiative. That is what Secretary Hicks calls and Schuh, [ID Schuh] (ph), an initiative. It is part of the office of the Secretary of Defense. It is going to be managed by the defense innovation unit out of Silicon Valley, and who is in charge of it, I believe, is the Vice Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. That is the ultimate decision maker. I believe that has what has been reported. I believe that Air Force officials have very clearly stated. Replicator is completely separate from their CCA program. I believe that’s been reported. These are two complete initiatives. And, I believe it’s been publicly reported also that the people involved with replicator have said that that they’ve identified the funding.
I know something about this. That’s why I’m choosing my words very carefully. They’ve identified the funding, and how they want to deploy thousands of these in the next few years. That’s how I would frame it up. They’ve talked about the RDER funds. I mentioned the RDER funds, the RDER funds. You should take a look at that, that’s a tidbit that is out there on this. And there are some other ones where you can connect the dots, and I think you can see where the money is coming from.
Pete Skibitski: Okay. But I guess most importantly, it’s not a program of record, but there’s money behind it, which I is, I guess, is what matters.
Eric M. DeMarco: That is what they — that is what OSD is saying. Absolutely.
Pete Skibitski: Okay. Okay. Last one for me. Just on this powered JDAM I guess your press release was the first time I heard about that. But are we kind of early days in development of powered JDAM, and maybe it’ll be a few years before a production would start. Is that the right way to think about that?
Eric M. DeMarco: You could see, if you could see me, buddy, I’m smiling ear-to-ear. I cannot get ahead of our Boeing partner. I cannot. However, we’re standing up a production factory as I mentioned to do some things and I’ll leave it at that.
Pete Skibitski: Okay. Fair enough. Thanks so much.
Eric M. DeMarco: Okie-dokie.
Operator: One moment for our next question. [Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from Sheila Kahyaoglu with Jefferies. Your line is open.
Sheila Kahyaoglu: Good afternoon, guys. Thank you. I know it was somewhat asked, but I wanted to get into more detail. Eric, can you talk about, the tactical drone programs showing some of the biggest promise here of Valkyrie, Mako, and Air Wolf. Can you just talk about potential scenarios for ‘24 on those three programs?
Eric M. DeMarco: Yes. The potential scenarios I’m comfortable talking about, Sheila as we will continue to work with our customers and test and evaluation and mission development, flights and scenarios. And that is what we modeled in for 2023, then it worked out and that is what we’re going to model in our base case 2024, that we will continue to sell drones, two here, three there, fourth here, for test and evaluation, RDT and in the S&T, but no we will not assume any production until it happens.
Sheila Kahyaoglu: Cool. And then Thanatos, you had an image in the press release on that one. And Athena, I think you brought back. You haven’t talked about those two, I think, since August 2022. So, maybe just, what brought those back into the fold and just near-term milestones there?
Eric M. DeMarco: Yep. Good question. Customer interest, that Sheila, it’s that, that’s what it is. It’s customer interest and customer funding. And as I said, we’re in contract negotiations/discussions. I’m confident these will turn into contract awards mid next year or so, confident and then we’re going to go fly underfunded contracts.
Sheila Kahyaoglu: Awesome.
Eric M. DeMarco: There — it’s a — your question is indicative of, there’s a lot going on and it’s accelerating in the low cost and attritable drone area. And I believe it’s because of what’s going on in the world.
Sheila Kahyaoglu: Actually. Thank you, Eric.
Eric M. DeMarco: Yep.
Operator: Thank you. That concludes the question-and-answer session. At this time, I would like to turn it back to Eric DeMarco for closing remarks.
Eric M. DeMarco: We appreciate you all joining us this afternoon and your interest and support in the company. And we’ll be chatting with you after we close out the year. Thank you.
Operator: Thank you for your participation in today’s conference. This does conclude the program. You may now disconnect.
