Anduril unveils VTOL Roadrunner-Munition for aerial defense, one US customer buying in
Defense firm Anduril announced a new VTOL counter-UAS system called Roadrunner on Dec. 1, 2023. (Handout via Anduril)
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Mums the word on who, but Anduril Industries officials say they have a US customer for a new subsonic, vertical takeoff and landing drone that can be reused on surveillance missions or in a kamikaze-like fashion to strike moving aircraft.
For the past two years, the company has been working on the Roadrunner autonomous drone, which is powered by twin jet propulsion and can be outfitted with a variety of payloads. The first such variant is the Roadrunner-Munition or Roadrunner-M that contains 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 aircraft up to “full-sized” aircraft, Anduril founder Palmer Luckey told reporters on Wednesday.
“It’s somewhere between a reusable missile and a full-scale autonomous aircraft [with] the ability to preemptively and speculatively deploy large numbers of anti-air interceptors so you can … buy yourself time, and then only consume the munitions that are required to defeat whatever the threat is while returning all of the rest,” he said.
While the company has not released additional details about the Roadrunner-M design to include information about its dimensions, speed and payload, it is billing it as an air defense weapon that can be integrated into existing command and control systems. When a potential threat is detected, the autonomous drone is designed to launch vertically, track the potential target and destroy it. However, if operators decide not to strike, the Roadrunner-M can return to the pre-designated location, vertically land, refuel and be reused again, Anduril says.
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Luckey said the company now has one “US customer,” but declined to disclose just who it is. However, US Special Operations Command fiscal 2024 budget request documents note that the special operations community is seeking $19 million this year to “accelerate” development of a counter-unmanned aerial system (cUAS) dubbed “Roadrunner” that is designed to down Group 3 drones. (In DoD parlance, Group 3 refers to UAVs that weigh less than 1,320 pounds, so at least the special ops effort does not appear directed at full-sized aircraft.)
As the effectiveness of small- and medium-sized drones has proved itself in Ukraine especially, the US military has made the development and acquisition of cUAS systems a priority, experimenting with tech from microwave systems to other “kinetic” options.
As for Anduril, from here Luckey said the company is moving into a limited production run that will still produce a “pretty sizable number” of drones for sale in the hundreds of thousands of dollars range, and is aiming to get costs further down.
“Our priority has been moving very, very fast with this customer, not optimizing every penny out. We’re now well into the process of cost reduction,” Luckey added.
This report was updated 12/1/2023 at 1:25pm to clarify the estimated cost range for the drone.