The Anduril company reported that the US Department of Defence plans to deploy an innovative drone (Roadrunner) to destroy missiles as early as next year. Company founder Palmer Lucky announced the plans of the Ministry of Defence.
The Roadrunner vertical take-off and landing, jet-powered, AI-controlled drone is an innovation in the drone industry. It acts as an airborne interceptor that can return to base if it “misses” past the target or the mission is aborted, for which it has been compared to a boomerang. The ability to take off and land vertically gives the 1.8m long drone the flexibility to quickly launch from anywhere and return safely.
The Roadrunner-M is a high-power interceptor variant for ground-based air defence that can rapidly detect, intercept and destroy a variety of aerial threats, including large aircraft that cost up to 100 times more or can be safely disposed of and reused at almost zero cost.
Palmer Luckey is confident that the Ministry of Defence will launch the Roadrunner soon. Bloomberg notes that most news related to drones tends to revolve around events in Ukraine, as drones are a critical element for both sides. However, there are certain difficulties with deploying these drones in Ukraine. “I see him in my imagination, but whether he will be there does not depend on me. It depends on a group of people in the U.S. government, you know, the process of selling military equipment overseas, which is run by the government, not by the company,” Palmer Lackey said.
“I was in Kyiv to meet with Volodymyr Zelenskyy for the second time. I met with him before the war because he was interested in acquiring our technology to help protect his eastern border, added Anduril’s founder. – Unfortunately, we could not do this due to the restrictions I mentioned earlier. And therefore, this is something that I would like to see personally,” he said.
He also noted that Anduril has many other interested parties in UAV innovation outside the United States. European countries such as Great Britain are chief among them. He also suggested that we may see drones like the Roadrunner in the Pacific theatre in the future. “Everyone is saying that the forces and assets we are building today should be ready for combat in the Pacific in 2027 or earlier because that is the last time we see China trying to launch an offensive for various reasons,” said Palmer Lucky.
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