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Protection agency Anduril introduced a brand new VTOL counter-UAS system referred to as Roadrunner on Dec. 1, 2023. (Handout by way of Anduril)
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Mums the phrase on who, however Anduril Industries officers say they’ve a US buyer for a brand new subsonic, vertical takeoff and touchdown drone that may be reused on surveillance missions or in a kamikaze-like style to strike shifting plane.
For the previous two years, the corporate has been engaged on the Roadrunner autonomous drone, which is powered by twin jet propulsion and could be outfitted with a wide range of payloads. The primary such variant is the Roadrunner-Munition or Roadrunner-M that accommodates a high-explosive interceptor meant to destroy an array of aerial threats, from a smaller Iranian Shahed loitering munition — which have been terrorizing Ukraine — to plane as much as “full-sized” plane, Anduril founder Palmer Luckey informed reporters on Wednesday.
“It’s someplace between a reusable missile and a full-scale autonomous plane [with] the power to preemptively and speculatively deploy massive numbers of anti-air interceptors so you possibly can … purchase your self time, after which solely devour the munitions which might be required to defeat regardless of the risk is whereas returning all the relaxation,” he stated.
Whereas the corporate has not launched extra particulars concerning the Roadrunner-M design to incorporate details about its dimensions, velocity and payload, it’s billing it as an air protection weapon that may be built-in into present command and management techniques. When a possible risk is detected, the autonomous drone is designed to launch vertically, observe the potential goal and destroy it. Nevertheless, if operators determine to not strike, the Roadrunner-M can return to the pre-designated location, vertically land, refuel and be reused once more, Anduril says.
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Luckey stated the corporate now has one “US buyer,” however declined to reveal simply who it’s. Nevertheless, US Particular Operations Command fiscal 2024 price range request paperwork word that the particular operations group is in search of $19 million this yr to “speed up” improvement of a counter-unmanned aerial system (cUAS) dubbed “Roadrunner” that’s designed to down Group 3 drones. (In DoD parlance, Group 3 refers to UAVs that weigh lower than 1,320 kilos, so no less than the particular ops effort doesn’t seem directed at full-sized plane.)
Because the effectiveness of small- and medium-sized drones has proved itself in Ukraine particularly, the US navy has made the event and acquisition of cUAS techniques a precedence, experimenting with tech from microwave techniques to different “kinetic” choices.
As for Anduril, from right here Luckey stated the corporate is shifting right into a restricted manufacturing run that may nonetheless produce a “fairly sizable quantity” of drones, and the corporate shall be making an attempt to get the value level down into the low tons of of 1000’s of greenback vary.
“Our precedence has been shifting very, very quick with this buyer, not optimizing each penny out. We’re now nicely into the method of value discount,” Luckey added.
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