The US Special Operations Command (SOCOM) has awarded Anduril Industries a 10-year, $1 billion counter-unmanned aerial systems (UAS) integration contract.
The contract requires the California-based defense technology firm to “deliver, advance, and sustain” counter-drone sensors and systems in a layered configuration wherever the command operates.
Lattice Counter-Drone System
Along with delivering and deploying the system, Andrunil will also configure it according to the evolving needs of specific missions. The contract also includes designing, prototyping, and developing new counter-UAS technology.
Anduril’s Lattice counter-unmanned system consists of Sentry Tower and Anvil sUAS running on the Lattice operating system to “fuse data from across the electromagnetic spectrum — from thermal to visible to radiofrequency.”
The system “autonomously detects, classifies, and tracks targets, alerting operators to threats and allowing options for mitigation or engagement.”
SOCOM Counter-Drone Efforts
The contract comes three years after SOCOM spokesperson Navy Lt. Phillip Chitty revealed that the command had been “looking at everything from handheld to a ‘system-of-systems’ capability that optimizes all methods of detection and mitigates all threats that small UAS present.”
He added they had been “working on handheld, backpack-sized, mobile and fixed-site configurations that detect and defeat small UAS.”
“The use of small, lightweight, unmanned aerial systems by our adversaries presents a force protection threat to the US and … partner nation special operators,” he said. “These systems are used primarily for reconnaissance and are capable of carrying light payloads.”
Anduril also clinched a five-year, $99 million Department of Defense counter-drone system contract last year.
