Posted on 12/04/2023 7:25:29 AM PST by Alas Babylon!
A novel missile-like air vehicle called Roadrunner, with high degrees of modularity and autonomy, and that can be readily reused, has been unveiled by US defense contractor Anduril. There is already a version, the Roadrunner-M, with a high-explosive warhead that can be used as a low-cost loitering anti-air interceptor with the ability to return home for refueling and reuse if it isn't expended in the course of its mission. This is just one potential application for this twin-jet-powered platform that boasts high subsonic speed and takes off and lands vertically.
Anduril formally announced Roadrunner and Roadrunner-M today, but the company's founder Palmer Luckey and Chief Strategy Officer Chris Brose spoke about them both at length to The War Zone and other outlets during a media call earlier this week. Though only revealed now, the Roadrunner design, which began as a sketch on a napkin, has been in development for just under two years. Full-sized prototypes have been flight-tested extensively already, including in operationally-representative demonstrations for an unspecified U.S. customer.
"It's somewhere between a reusable missile and ... a full-scale autonomous aircraft," Luckey said in introducing the Roadrunner. "Roadrunner itself is a totally reusable aircraft and there's a lot of payloads you can put on it where it is totally reusable."
Luckey and Brose could only offer limited details about Roadrunner's specific performance parameters and capabilities. They were able to say that it is capable of reaching high subsonic speeds, is shorter than Luckey is tall (his words), and is small enough to be moved around by a single average individual. It is powered by a pair of small turbojets that Anduril has developed in-house, but exactly how fast it can fly, at what altitudes, or for how long are so far undisclosed.
Roadrunner is launched vertically and, if it returns in one piece from a sortie, it lands vertically on four flip-down outriggers at the base of its body, not unlike a SpaceX Falcon 9 space launch rocket booster. Unlike a Falcon 9 booster, Roadrunner can be quickly refueled and sent back out, if desired.
Read more: https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/roadrunner-reusable-anti-air-interceptor-breaks-cover
Flies like an Iranian Shahed 136 drone but uses a turbojet, not prop engine. Lands like a SpaceX rocket.
beat me by a couple of minutes :)
“Anduril”
Sound like the next Solyndra.
I’ll bet it has a radar signature of a Bumble bee. It’s also very likely the Chicoms have the plans already. Or soon will.
I was wondering if the contractor was getting their parts from Acme.
I am interested only in non jammable guidance for such tiny payload toys.
A standard bomb is 500 lbs. None of these quad toys carry that much boomage. They do no direct damage and if non jammed guidance they can’t deliver their tiny payload on anything that moves.
There is way too much attention being paid to tech edgy toys that don’t make craters. They are valuable only in helping reporters file copy by deadlines.
I saw that, too. What’s next? Narsil?
I knew the name sounded familiar.
Anduril is the name of the sword that Aragorn wields in the ‘Lord of the Rings’. Forged from the shards of Narsil, which was used to defeat Sauron.
Funny that they’d name their company after a ‘super sword’ from a popular story. I wonder if the family of J.R.R. Tolkien was consulted.
I wouldn’t be so dismissive.
Drones are a new method of warfare that are being used in various conflicts (not just Ukraine).
Maybe its role is not to take out manned aircraft but rather other drones.
Looks like something from an Estes model rocket catalog.
.
Is this real? Anduril was started by a VR tech dude.
WOW! Tanks for posting.
Add to that list the hazard of flying a bomb back home for refueling... one bad landing could be catastrophic for your fueling base.
I am dismissive.
There is no magic. There is no magical new change to the physics of chemical explosives. If you don’t have the mass, you don’t have the damage.
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