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Palmer Luckey’s American defence contractor, Anduril Industries, has announced its acquisition of North Carolina aerospace company Blue Force Technologies and the Fury autonomous aggressor aircraft.
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The 7 September agreement will expand Anduril’s existing autonomous fleet to include large high-performance, group five aircraft and significantly increases Anduril’s reach and impact within the Department of Defense.
Blue Force is known for its extensive development of high-end composite aircraft and the Fury autonomous air vehicle over the last five years. The company has reportedly completed a flight test of the flight software on board a Variable Stability In-flight Simulator Test Aircraft and a ground test for Fury’s novel carbon fibre composite propulsion flowpath system.
An Anduril spokesperson said the company is moving fast to engineer, prototype, develop, and produce new capabilities for the Department of Defense and promote fielding of autonomous and artificially intelligent systems as fast as possible.
“These new capabilities are critical to maintaining deterrence in an era of strategic competition,” the spokesperson said in a publicly published acquisition statement.
“To project force, deter aggression, and regain affordable mass, the DOD will need to rely on large quantities of smaller, lower-cost, more autonomous systems.
“The US Air Force, US Navy, and US Marine Corps have all signalled their intention to modernise and adopt advanced autonomous capabilities. This ecosystem of autonomous systems must be powered by software that enables a single operator to control multiple assets to accomplish a wide range of missions.
“This acquisition follows Anduril’s successful launch of Lattice for Mission Autonomy earlier this year, the artificial intelligence-enabled software platform that enables teams of autonomous systems to dynamically collaborate to achieve complex missions, under human supervision.
“By investing in both hardware and software capabilities, Anduril will further accelerate the development of autonomous operations like manned-unmanned teaming and other critical advanced autonomous solutions for warfighters around the world.”
