The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) has contracted Anduril Australia to demonstrate autonomous base defense capabilities against air and ground threats for northern bases.
A range of capabilities will be demonstrated during the three-year trials, including active and passive sensors and kinetic and non-kinetic effectors.
The base protection system is tailored to RAAF Base Darwin’s specific security requirements and Darwin’s environment and includes counter-drone and counter-intrusion capabilities.
Open System Architecture
The system is powered by the Lattice open architecture software platform, which allows the integration of third-party sensors and effectors.
“Lattice enables 24/7 persistent awareness and autonomous detection, classification, and tracking of objects of interest. It alerts users to potential ground or airborne threats and prompts users with options for mitigation or engagement,” Anduril explained.
Capability-as-a-Service Approach
Anduril will provide continuous software and hardware updates and new capability induction into the system without additional costs to ensure its relevance against evolving threats.
“Current conflicts have shown us how rapidly warfare has developed. It is critical that advanced technology is in place to protect Australian Defence Force personnel and equipment against air and ground attacks – now and into the future,” Anduril Australia Executive Chairman and CEO David Goodrich said.
“Our capability-as-a-service approach is designed to anticipate and respond to rapid technological developments. Capability-as-a-service is new to the defense industry, but frequently used in the tech industry where fast-moving developments need to be rapidly deployed.
“Hardware and software are regularly updated and upgraded as new developments are available. This is different to the traditional block upgrade process used in Defence where upgrades may only happen annually or even less frequently.”