U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) has paid over ten million dollars for a new autonomous aircraft made by Anduril, the defense startup run by Palmer Luckey, which is capable of carrying explosive warheads and taking down other aircraft, or re-landing itself if it doesn’t engage in an attack, 404 Media has found.
On Friday, Anduril announced the existence of the person-size drone called “Roadrunner.” In his own Twitter thread, Luckey said Roadrunner has been “operationally validated with an existing U.S. government customer,” but did not name the agency. Multiple publications which appeared to have the news under embargo, including Bloomberg and Defense One, added that the company is not allowed to say which customer bought the technology.
It took 404 Media around 25 seconds to find the customer is likely USSOCOM. 404 Media reviewed a procurement record that says USSOCOM signed for a piece of technology described as “Roadrunner,” and also found a reference to the technology in a Department of Defense budget estimation document for 2024.
“Roadrunner CUxS Hardware,” one procurement record reads. The listing was for $12.5 million between the headquarters of USSOCOM and Anduril last December, the record says. Bloomberg reported that each Roadrunner costs in the range of “low six figures” according to the company, and that Anduril expects costs to go down as it ramps up production.
CUxS stands for “Counter Unmanned Aerial System,” according to the budget estimation document. That document suggests USSOCOM may ultimately spend more on Roadrunner units, earmarking $19.15 million for “an increase” to support CUxS and “accelerate Roadrunner Group3 interceptor development, testing and operational assessment.”
Screenshots from the budget document reviewed by 404 Media.
Roadrunner comes in multiple variations, according to Anduril’s own press release. The base unit is a “twin-jet powered autonomous air vehicle” which takes off vertically and which can return to ground too. One variation is “Roadrunner-M” which Anduril describes as a “high-explosive interceptor” which could be used to target various aerial threats. In a video published along with the announcement, a Roadrunner-M appears to intercept and then crash into another aircraft, destroying it.
Anduril puts Roadrunner-M into the context of countering other drones. “Malicious actors are increasingly using state-owned and commercially-available drone technology to threaten the personnel, infrastructure and assets of the United States and our allies around the world. Anduril already provides a counter UAS family of systems to protect against such threats, and Roadrunner-M is our newest addition to that family. Roadrunner-M was designed to address threats that extend across legacy air defense echelons, combating adversary attempts to design around gaps in current air defense architectures,” the press release reads.
It adds that Roadrunner-M can be controlled by Lattice, Anduril’s operating system, and that a single person can operate multiple Roadrunners at once. On Wednesday, 404 Media reported that Customs and Border Protection is testing Anduril’s AI-powered surveillance towers in the Great Lakes region on the U.S.-Canada border. Those towers also integrate with Lattice.
In January last year, Anduril announced it was awarded a nearly billion dollar indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contract with USSOCOM to support the agency’s CUxS efforts. That work will be performed within and outside the continental U.S., according to another procurement record 404 Media reviewed.
Neither USSOCOM or Anduril immediately responded to a request for comment.
