LONDON—Shortly after securing the U.S. Air Force’s drone wingman production contract, Anduril revealed plans to develop an autonomous attack tiltrotor intended to operate alongside U.S. Army helicopters in future missions.
Nicknamed Thunder, the vertical-takeoff-and-landing aircraft will be autonomous, heavily armed, hybrid-electric, and approximately Group 5 in size. According to Anduril, it is engineered to fit inside a standard shipping container for streamlined transport and is being co-developed with Archer Aviation, a California-based company, with a maiden flight targeted for next year.
Company representatives indicated that several uncrewed tiltrotors could support each manned helicopter during operations.
“By teaming three Thunder aircraft with each Apache, for example, a Combat Aviation Brigade will achieve a threefold increase in available munitions without exposing additional pilots to danger, at a fraction of the cost of an all-crewed formation of comparable size,” Anduril stated.
In June, the Air Force selected the California firm’s drone wingman prototype for production. Anduril officials told reporters the new tiltrotor follows similar principles, including reliance on a commercial design that can be produced affordably and efficiently.
“It’s going to be a fraction of the cost of something like a Cheyenne or an Apache,” said Chris Brose, Anduril’s president and chief strategy officer. “It is a system you want to recover after launch, but you can afford to lose it if necessary.”
“I think the Pentagon, and the Army in particular, have never been more open to these new ideas and collaborations than they are now,” Brose added.
Chris Arnott, senior vice president of maneuver dominance, said Thunder is designed to carry diverse payloads: up to ten air-to-ground missiles such as Hellfires, 16 launched effects, or 76 70mm rockets, plus 12 counter-UAS effectors in the nose, per the company’s release.
Arnott noted the program has been in development for two to three years and, if sold, could enter construction by the end of the decade.
“Depending on how quickly demand builds, we then move to production, but we’re looking at rate production in the 2030–2039 timeframe,” he said.
Although officials frequently referenced the Army in a press roundtable, unveiling a model at Farnborough signals interest in international buyers.
“It’s a global air show. We’ll have the attention of virtually every party we want to discuss this with,” Brose said. “We look forward to talks with the U.K., European partners attending Farnborough, and the U.S. Army.”
Other firms are pursuing comparable concepts.
At last year’s Association of the U.S. Army conference in Washington, Boeing presented its own tiltrotor drone wingman concept for the helicopter fleet, drawing on experience from its MQ-28 Ghost Bat.
