US army to deploy 500 AI-guided jets that hunt drones, return home
Technology
These can eliminate costly aerial threats or be reused at minimal expense
(Web Desk) - The US Department of Defense (DoD) has awarded Anduril Industries, a defense technology and weapons manufacturer based in Southern California, a $250 million contract to provide advanced air defense capabilities across services.
As a part of this contract, Anduril will deliver more than 500 Roadrunner-Ms and additional Pulsar electronic warfare capabilities.
The capabilities will address the growing threat of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) attacks against the US forces.
Deliveries will begin in the fourth quarter of 2024 and continue through the end of 2025, according to Anduril.
Anduril’s Roadrunner system, a high-explosive vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) interceptor unveiled last year, has been developed to rapidly intercept and neutralize larger UAS threats with unmatched speed, maneuverability, and cost efficiency.
Paired with Anduril’s Pulsar family of AI-enabled electronic warfare systems, the US military will deploy this new generation of UAS defense capability to operational sites in priority regions where US forces face significant UAS threats, further enhancing US air defense capabilities at the tactical edge.
The team deployed Roadrunner for combat evaluation starting in January 2024, and Pulsar has been operational across multiple regions since August 2023.
Roadrunner went from an idea to a combat-validated and fieldable solution in less than two years, much faster than most traditional contractor timelines.
As the world’s first recoverable explosive weapon, Roadrunner exemplifies the next-generation capability required to confront the increasingly complex threat landscape.
Roadrunner is a modular, twin-jet powered autonomous air vehicle with extraordinary performance at low cost.
The vertical takeoff and landing capability gives Roadrunner the flexibility to launch from and return to any location rapidly, pairing high subsonic speed with exceptional agility and stability.
Designers have crafted Roadrunner to be future-proof. The modular payload system can carry a variety of payloads to accomplish a broad set of missions and can be constantly updated to meet tomorrow’s threats.
Roadrunner-M is a high-explosive interceptor variant of Roadrunner for ground-based air defense that can rapidly identify, intercept, and destroy an array of aerial threats that are up to 100 times more expensive or be recovered and reused at near-zero cost.
Malicious actors are increasingly using state-owned and commercially available drone technology to threaten the personnel, infrastructure, and assets of the United States and its allies around the world.
Anduril already provides a family of counter-UAS systems to protect against such threats, and Roadrunner-M is the newest addition to that family.
Roadrunner-M addresses threats that extend across legacy air defense echelons, combating adversary attempts to design around gaps in current air defense architectures.
Similar to traditional approaches to deter and defeat incoming aerial threats, such as scrambling expensive and airfield-dependent jets, Roadrunner-M can take off, follow, and intercept distant targets at the first hint of danger, giving operators more information and time to assess the target and rules of engagement.
If there is no need to destroy the target, Roadrunner-M can return to base and land at a pre-designated location for immediate refueling and reuse.
Roadrunner-M can swiftly destroy the target if it needs to be destroyed. Unlike legacy missile systems, you can reuse all craft launched but not consumed.
This radical shift in thinking allows large-scale defensive launches at extraordinarily low cost, increasing redundancy for a higher probability of lethality and enhancing the ability to engage many targets simultaneously.
Roadrunner-M’s performance capacity is far superior to competing air defense solutions, and it already has an overmatch capability against current and emerging threats.
Its employment approach significantly expands the decision-making options for the operator, which are currently limited.
Roadrunner-M innovations include faster launch and takeoff timing, three times the warhead payload capacity, ten times the one-way effective range, and three times more maneuverability in G force compared to similar offerings on the market.
A single operator can launch and supervise multiple Roadrunner or Roadrunner-M squadrons.
Roadrunner-M can be controlled by Lattice, Anduril’s AI-powered command-and-control software suite, or fully integrated into existing air defense radars, sensors, and architectures to provide immediately deployable capability.
