Anduril wins Pentagon contract for ALTIUS-600

Californian company Anduril Industries has been awarded up to US$50 million ($77.6 million) in contracts under the Pentagon’s Small Business Innovation Research (SIBR) program for the ALTIUS-600 Uncrewed Aerial System (UAS). The ALTIUS-600 can be both a loitering munition and an Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) platform.

The ALTIUS-600, which weighs up to 27lb (12.25kg) and has an endurance of more than 4 hours, can be launched from ground, air or sea to conduct stand-off or close-in missions, including ISR, targeting, kinetic engagement, RF decoy, SIGINT, comms relay and cyber warfare. Anduril has shown video of it being launched under internal R&D programs both from pick-up trucks using tube launchers and from Black Hawk helicopters using launch rails under the Black Hawk’s stub wings.

The contract is for Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity (ID/IQ) of Agile-Launched, tactically-integrated unmanned systems and support services for testing, training, and supportability. It covers procurement and support of the ALTIUS-600 UAS itself and related Group 2 UAS variants, payloads, data links, launch tubes and other necessary features.

The aim of the contract is to support the US military’s integration of the ALTIUS-600 onto various (unspecified) platforms, as well as integrating new accessories onto the ALTIUS-600 itself. The work will be done at Anduril’s HQ in Costa Mesa, California, and is expected to be completed by late 2028. The Pentagon contract announcement makes no mention of quantity production at this stage.