American defense company Anduril has presented the Thunder autonomous strike unmanned tiltrotor aircraft project. The aircraft is being developed to perform combat missions at low altitudes in high-risk areas where manned aircraft suffer losses due to the proliferation of air defense systems, reconnaissance systems, and FPV drones.
American defense company Anduril has presented the Thunder autonomous strike unmanned tiltrotor aircraft project. The aircraft is being developed to perform combat missions at low altitudes in high-risk areas where manned aircraft suffer losses due to the proliferation of air defense systems, reconnaissance systems, and FPV drones.
This is stated in the announcement by Anduril Industries.
Thunder is being developed in partnership with Archer Aviation based on electric vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) technology. The rotary-rotor configuration allows the drone to take off and land without a runway and perform long-range wing-based flights.
The tiltrotor uses a hybrid-electric powerplant and variable speed rotor (OSTR) technology, which reduces fuel consumption and acoustic signature. For logistics, the aircraft has been adapted for transportation in a standard cargo container.
The combat drone is equipped with modular internal compartments. The main compartment can accommodate up to 10 air-to-surface missiles (including Hellfire, JAGM or Barracuda-100M), 16 Altius-600 launch drones or 76 70 mm missiles. The nose compartment can accommodate up to 12 anti-UAV devices, electronic warfare equipment or additional sensors.
Autonomous operation and interaction with crews is provided by the Lattice for Mission Autonomy system. It calculates routes, processes computer vision data, and allows the vehicle to maneuver in the absence of GPS and communications.
Anduril notes that Thunder is being developed as an autonomous «known» for manned aircraft. For example, one Apache helicopter will be able to control three Thunder tiltrotor aircraft, which triples the firepower of the group without the risk of additional pilots.
Developers are currently testing individual systems and full-scale prototypes. The first flight of the Thunder tiltrotor is scheduled for 2027.
