US Special Operations Command awards Anduril Industries a $1B counter-drone contract.

The US Special Operations Command (SOCOM) has awarded Anduril Industries a 10-year, $1 billion counter-unmanned aerial systems (UAS) integration contract.

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Anduril's current products: Lattice platform, Sentry tower, Ghost 4 sUAS and Anvil sUAS (Picture source: Anduril)

Anduril Industries Inc., Irvine, California, was awarded an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract (H92402-22-D-0001) with a maximum ceiling of $967,599,957 for a counter-unmanned systems, systems integration partner (SIP). Fiscal 2022 operations and maintenance funds in the amount of $1,096,092 were obligated at time of the award. The work will be performed in various locations within and outside the continental U.S., and is expected to be completed by Jan. 19, 2032.

Anduril's  products actively support a wide range of missions. Here are some examples:

Base defense:

Military bases and ranges can span millions of acres of varying terrain, posing an impractical security problem with limited human resources. On the other end of the scale, remote outposts face similar situational awareness challenges. In force protection applications, sensor assets like Sentry towers and Ghost sUAS can autonomously patrol and monitor in and around the facility, feeding real-time data into Lattice. Lattice classifies and sorts this data based on user-defined filters, reducing false positives and enabling security personnel to respond with up-to-the-second intelligence.

Counter drone:

Consumer drone technologies have flourished — enabling abuse ranging from nuisance, to public safety, to casualties on the battlefield. The primary challenge continues to be detection, especially in noisy environments. Using modified Sentry towers and integration with existing RF detection and long range radar, Lattice applies sensor fusion to diverse data streams, providing real-time awareness. In addition, an operator can launch autonomous Anvil intercept vehicles to seek, positively identify and destroy threats.

Lattice is an AI backbone that uses computer vision, machine learning and mesh networking to fuse real-time data into a single, autonomous operating picture. Each Anduril product houses a Lattice AI Core that performs sensor fusion, target classification and multi-track reconciliation at the edge. Lattice also integrates third-party data to further expand context for decision-making. Everything communicates through a resilient network to create real-time situational awareness so human operators can respond instantly and accurately with the best information possible (Picture source: Anduril)

Sentry towers are equipped with the latest sensor and networking technology, using Lattice to fuse data from across the electromagnetic spectrum — from thermal to visible to RF. With a compact footprint, hardened onboard processing and solar power architecture, Sentry can be rapidly deployed and sustained with minimal maintenance in austere conditions (Picture source: Anduril)

Ghost 4 is an autonomous VTOL sUAS that operates on the Lattice AI platform. Ghost 4 is modular, man-portable, waterproof, and combines long endurance, high payload capacity and a near-silent acoustic signature for a wide variety of mission capabilities. Ghost 4 is designed and manufactured in the US to meet the needs of our military users. Ghost 4 provides real-time surveillance, intelligence, and reconnaissance capabilities, creating a clearer common operating picture which enables service men and women make more informed decisions. (Picture source: Anduril)

Anvil is the kinetic element of our end-to-end cUAS capability. Cued by Lattice, Anvil navigates autonomously to intercept potential drone threats and provide visual feedback for positive identification by a human operator. Once authorized, Anvil uses physical speed and onboard terminal guidance to deliver kinetic energy to the threat with minimal collateral damage (Picture source: Anduril)