Anduril Unleashes Ghost Defense Drone

Drone provider Anduril is telling a new ghost story – with high-flying results.

The California-based startup this week announced the launch of the Ghost 4 “intelligent VTOL” drone.

The American-manufactured, single-rotor drone joins Anduril’s product growing suite of defense technology solutions.

A company spokesperson says the Ghost 4 provides “real-time intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities, creating a common operating picture. [That] enables servicemen and women to make more informed decisions.”

“The Ghost platform drastically reduces manpower and pilot skill requirements, enabling one operator to command and control large teams of autonomous Ghosts from a single ground control station. Groups of Ghosts collaborate to achieve mission objectives that are impossible to achieve via a single unit.”

The autonomous, modular drone system operates on Anduril’s secure Lattice software platform. Ghost’s all-electric powertrain provides more than 100 minutes of flight at a full mission payload with a near-silent acoustic signature.

Other features include:

• Onboard Lattice AI Core capable of performing 32 trillion operations per second, “nearly 100 times faster than the computational speeds of other sUAS currently available.” The Lattice AI Core runs computer vision and sensor fusion algorithms enabling Ghost to identify, classify, and track objects of interest in low-bandwidth and contested environments with a low radio frequency signature.
• Flight capability on local, secure, closed-loop networks or distributed operations on encrypted backhauled networks. This allows the drone to be flown from anywhere in the world with remote commanders collaboratively viewing live video and data feeds to monitor mission progress.
• Swarming capability enables advanced data collection that would be impossible with a single airframe, distributing synchronized sensors and relaying data across a sky-spanning web.
• Modular, fully customizable platform containing multiple waterproof payload bays with data and power links for easy payload integrations by customers, Anduril or third parties. The airframe can be outfitted with a variety of sensors, payloads, effectors and power sources that are configurable for any mission and can be field-swapped in just seconds.
• Anduril EO/IR gimbal with added support of other mission payloads like sensor balls, electronic warfare systems, spotlights, designators, communication relays and loudspeakers onboard the aircraft simultaneously. This allows the operator to switch between mission profiles in a single flight. Ghost’s single-rotor design enables precise vertical takeoff and landing from confined spaces in land and maritime environments.

Defense agencies continue to fund swarming autonomous drone projects. Earlierthis year, DARPA’s OFFensive Swarm-Enabled Tactics (OFFSET) program tested a swarm of 250 unmanned vehicles in a mock city at Camp Shelby Joint Forces Training Center.