Anduril launches a smarter drone and picks up more money to build a virtual border wall

TechCrunch ^ | September 10, 2020 | Taylor Hatmaker

[BeauBo]

The company building the virtual border wall has a new version of its stealthy fast-flying drones — and a fresh contract with Customs and Border Protection to match. Anduril, a young defense-friendly tech company from the founder of Oculus, received $36 million from Customs and Border Protection this month for its AI-powered autonomous surveillance towers...

In July, CBP awarded Anduril $25 million for a previous set of surveillance towers. The agency plans to implement 200 towers by 2022 in an ongoing relationship with the contractor worth more than $200 million...

Now, Anduril is launching the fourth iteration of its small, ultra-quiet “Ghost” drones, adding some key features.

Ghost drones are capable of staying aloft for long stretches and communicating what they see to a central AI-powered nervous system. They combine data with Anduril’s sentry towers and any other hardware, relaying it back to the company’s Lattice software platform, which flags anything of interest. In the case of CBP, that looks like a system autonomously identifying someone crossing U.S. border and sending a push alert to border agents.

Ghost 4 is the latest version of the Ghost drone, boasting 100 minutes of flight time and a “near-silent acoustic signature” that makes it difficult to detect. The Ghost 4 drones now apparently pack Anduril’s Lattice AI software on board, which allows them to operate and identify potential targets in spots with low connectivity or “contested” areas. The new version of the Ghost drone also allows one operator to command a group of Ghost drones to form a swarm, collecting data across many devices.

According to the company, the Ghost 4 is designed for an array of mission types, including “aerial intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, cargo delivery, counter intrusion, signal intelligence and electronic warfare.”

[BeauBo]

This is in addition to the physical Border Wall.

I say again, we are still getting an awesome physical Border Wall system - this is in addition to the bollards - part of an incredible integrated Border Wall "System".

This awesome new capability, casting a dome of detection, identification and tracking over huge swathes of land and airspace, will deploy quickly and cheaply.

The Autonomous Surveillance Towers they are already providing can each cover miles, and a hundred costs only about as much as a single mile of the high end physical wall.

The bottom Line is that this is a powerful new part of an explosive deployment of Technology, that is surging out across the whole Southern Border.

[montag813]

Anduril was founded by Palmer Luckey, the Trump supporter who founded VR company Occulus and sold it to Facebook for a few billion. Progressives got him booted off the Facebook board in 2016 for slamming Hillary.

Peter Thiel is an investor in Anduril. Anduril, like Palantir, is named after an object from J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy writings (as is all of Thiel's company names)

[BeauBo]

10 miles of new Border Wall System per week - but more than that of “Virtual Wall” Technology rolls out each week as well.

The technology provides a deep band of coverage, miles in from the border, and lots of unique necessary capabilities as well (like running down those who do jump the Wall). It also rapidly covers the gaps between stretches of physical Border Wall System, so the whole stretch will be covered much quicker.

These new systems are game changers.

[montag813]

Anduril does things on "the cheap". They use high end, but inexpensive cameras ($400-$500), for example, which Boeing charged DHS $500,000 EACH! They focus on smart SOFTWARE to use the inexpensive tech to find and isolate threats and deploy resources accordingly. It is VERY effective. I have seen a demo.

Boeing hosed taxpayers for over $1 billion under Janet Napolitano, with zero oversight, and NONE of it works.

Btw, Anduril founder Lucky was homeschooled, and is only 27 years old. He is worth $763 million from his sale of Occulus.

[bakkentom]

How are commercial drones regulated and policed?

Recently read about cartels using c4 on drones to deliver explosives. How about drones capable of lighting fires across the West. Or explosives delivered anywhere in the US.

Worried about Antifa using this courtesy of left wing donors and companies.

[DesertRhino]

Virtual walls detect Mexicans AS and AFTER they cross and they are apprehended and welcomed in to begin processing. I want an actual wall that is damned tough to get over.

[bakkentom]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3769181/posts

[Fester Chugabrew]

Looks like Anduril is hiring Diversity & Inclusion Recruiting Program Managers.

[Americannae1362]

What we need is a moat along our border wall, with lots of pirhannas, alligators, and cottonmouths. Warning signs every 100 feet in English, Spanish, Arabic, and Chinese.

[Lurkinanloomin]

Virtual walls stop virtually no one.

[proud American in Canada]

Pretty darn awesome!

[proud American in Canada]

Now that’s an interesting idea! And of course, a physical wall would be great too.

[Governor Dinwiddie]

Ever since the Bush administration we have been bamboozled with talk of a "virtual border wall" (wink wink — they know it won't work).

What now? Trust but verify. No "virtual wall" without a real physical wall (and not just strands of barbed wire).
 

[BeauBo]

Super bang for the buck with Anduril - their stuff works!

We can cost effectively scale up to thousands of these drones, and they can carry all kinds of sensors (cameras, heat sensors, sound, RF, radar), and perform all kinds of missions (Patrol, response, tracking, counter-drone, communication relay, jamming cartel comms).

Detection goes way up, and probability of getting away goes way down.

[rlmorel]

My take is none of these are meant to be used instead of physical walls, they are meant to be used in conjunction with them.

I am also going to guess they can be used autonomously.

I think BeauBo posted an article a while back that showed modular tower units that can be deployed and contain and link to a host of sensors.

I see these drones being deployed autonomously by software alone, being able to fly to a region (perhaps four of them, and they can take up a perimeter in a square moving in unison with each other and keeping the square moving as the target moves, and their sensors linked with each other and with a central location. They can have them parked in a small group near a contested area of fencing with a modular tower controlling them, and all of them data-linked back to humans. Who can put eyes on them and approve missions.

[rlmorel]

The tower with its powerful array of sensors could issue a mission with coordinates for the drones to take up station and begin streaming all kinds of data back where AI could be used to categorize various types of things.

So the drones would just sit there, if something was seen, one of them could start up automatically and deploy to check coordinates, and if something is seen, the other drones could be called in (to save money, wear, and tear) as needed.

I could even envision a modular bay or holder for the drone, where various payloads could be changed out without human interaction, and drones deployed.

[Truthsearcher]

Anduril is Aragorn’s reforged sword, meaning “flame of the West”

[rlmorel]

Were you the one a few weeks back that provide a link to a mobile modular sensor tower? If so, could you post it again if you can find it?

[BeauBo]

I can’t cut and paste the link right now, but I saw the post (from 2 July), by using the search function ofFree Republic (“Search” in the top left corner).

I searched for the word “Anduril”, in the category “title”.

Also, some time further back, I posted another article about a contract award for a lot of rapidly deployable buildings - the size of shipping containers, that fold out/ pop up in a few hours on site.

The speculation was that the Border Patrol might be planning to establish some rural operational bases, for improved monitoring and response in remote areas - perhaps operating some of the new technology, such as tower or aerostat (blimp) basing sensors, and/or a squadron of drones.

Alternatively, those shelters may have been a contingency for housing a surge in the number of detainees, which was at crisis levels back then.

[BeauBo]

I’d guess the FAA has some regulations on drones, and the FCC on the command and data links they radiate.

ISIS used some some modified off the shelf (commercially available) drones to drop small explosives. Some Mexican cartels have used that tactic in Mexico, and more extensively, they have used drones to lookout for Border Patrol, and to carry drugs across the border.