Anduril’s autonomous weapons stumble in tests and combat, WSJ reports

Protection tech startup Anduril Industries has confronted quite a few setbacks throughout testing of its autonomous weapons methods, in accordance with new reporting by the WSJ. The issues cited embrace greater than a dozen drone boats that failed throughout a Navy train off California in Could, with sailors warning of security violations and potential lack of life; a mechanical difficulty that broken the engine of Anduril’s unmanned jet fighter Fury throughout a summer time floor check; and an August check of its Anvil counterdrone system that brought about a 22-acre fireplace in Oregon.

Based in 2017 by Palmer Luckey, Anduril raised $2.5 billion again in June at a $30.5 billion valuation led by Founders Fund, which assist incubate the corporate. The corporate has gained quite a few army contracts, together with packages to construct autonomous plane and counter-drone methods.

Past testing failures, the Journal studies that Anduril’s solely actual battlefield expertise in Ukraine has additionally been problematic. Entrance-line troopers with Ukraine’s SBU safety service discovered that Altius loitering drones crashed and didn’t hit targets. The problems have been reportedly extreme sufficient that Ukrainian forces stopped utilizing the drones in 2024 and haven’t fielded them since, although Anduril maintains that its challenges are typical of weapons improvement, that its engineering crew is attaining significant progress, and that the aforementioned incidents don’t point out any underlying flaws in its expertise.