The U.S. Armed Forces have awarded Anduril a new contract for the acquisition of hundreds of VTOL Roadrunner-M drones, along with other systems, in order to strengthen air defense capabilities against other unmanned threats.
The contract, valued at USD 249,978,466, includes the delivery of more than 500 Roadrunner-M unmanned systems, in addition to “additional Pulsar electronic warfare capabilities.” Deliveries are scheduled to begin in the fourth quarter of 2024 and will extend until the end of 2025.
The addition of these drones aims to deploy them in priority regions where U.S. military forces face significant threats from enemy drones. Since January 2024, the Roadrunner has been in operational deployment for evaluation under combat conditions, while the Pulsar system has been in operation since August 2023 in various strategic areas.
Roadrunner and Roadrunner-M Characteristics
First introduced in December 2023, the Roadrunner is a dual-propulsion, vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) autonomous aerial vehicle, which is supervised by an operator and powered by two twin turbojet engines. Thanks to its modular payload system, it can carry various loads, enabling it to execute multiple types of missions. This vehicle can be quickly launched and return to any geographic point, characterized by its flexibility, agility, and stability.
The Roadrunner-M, on the other hand, is a variant of the Roadrunner designed as a high-explosive interceptor. Its mission is to detect, intercept, and quickly destroy various threats in the airspace. Even if the vehicle does not intercept a target, it can return to its pre-established base for recovery and can be relaunched at virtually no cost. This means the vehicle is reusable, which is one of its key differentiators compared to other AAVs.
It’s also worth noting that both the Roadrunner and Roadrunner-M take off vertically from an autonomous and mobile hangar, which serves both as a launch platform and as a system maintenance and continuous monitoring hub. Therefore, although the Roadrunner and Roadrunner-M are supervised by humans, they operate autonomously as smart missiles.
Furthermore, according to Anduril, due to all the mentioned features, both AAVs are more flexible and cheaper to operate compared to those currently used on the international stage, even challenging traditional logic.
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