Anduril uncloaks Thunder, an attack aircraft built alongside Archer
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Thunder, a hybrid-electric, vertical-takeoff-and-landing rotorcraft. Photo: Courtesy Anduril Industries
Anduril Industries on Monday unveiled Thunder, a military variant of an autonomous rotorcraft jointly developed with Archer Aviation.
Why it matters: Thunder's reveal coincides with the first day of the Farnborough International Airshow in London, and its design appears to align with Project NYX, a British pursuit of robo-wingmen for Boeing-made Apache helicopters.
- Anduril was one of four companies shortlisted for NYX in May.
What they're saying: "It's a global airshow. We'll have the eyes of pretty much everybody that we're interested in discussing this system with," Chris Brose, Anduril's chief strategy officer, told reporters.
- While Brose declined to provide a specific price tag for the aircraft, he did say it's a "fraction of the cost" of traditional manned assets.
- "The whole question of attritability is, obviously, in the eye of the beholder," he said. "It is going to be a system that you want to get back when you launch it, but you can afford to lose it if you have to."
Context: Thunder has been in the works for years. Development has been kept relatively hush-hush.
Zoom in: Thunder sports hybrid-electric propulsion and landing gear, can fly on its own, and is designed with armed reconnaissance in mind, according to Shane Arnott, an Anduril senior vice president.
- "This has the range of a Cheyenne, has the speed of a Cheyenne, but the payload equivalency of the Apache," he told reporters.
- "The main payload bay can be configured in a bunch of different ways. It can carry up to 10 Hellfires, 16 air-launched effects, 76 rockets."
Zoom out: Militaries around the world are creeping closer to everyday man-machine teaming. Ukraine's success with drones of all sizes has accelerated this.
- "I think a lot of the the nearer-term pain that inspired this has been in European theater," Arnott said.
What's next: Thunder is expected to take first flight next year. Its software has already flown aboard surrogate aircraft.
- Meantime, Archer is expected to announce customers for its commercial variant later this week.
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