Anduril Industries, a defense technology company, has officially announced its acquisition of Blue Force Technologies, a company specializing in autonomous aircraft development, and an integrated aerostructures division serving a diverse clientele in defense and commercial sectors. This acquisition marks a significant expansion of Anduril’s autonomous fleet, now encompassing large, high-performance group 5 aircraft. Furthermore, it substantially extends Anduril’s influence and presence within the Department of Defense. The financial terms of this transaction have not been disclosed.

Blue Force Technologies is known for its expertise in designing and producing advanced composite aircraft and associated components, with manufacturing facilities in North Carolina. Notably, Blue Force Technologies has been actively developing Fury, an autonomous air vehicle falling under the category of group 5, known for its fighter-like performance, since 2019. Fury leverages a proprietary combination of rapid prototyping, digital engineering, and an open architecture designed to deliver next-generation flight capabilities. This approach provides the flexibility to integrate various sensors and payloads, supporting air dominance missions. Most recently, the company achieved a significant milestone by successfully conducting a flight test of the flight software aboard a Variable Stability In-flight Simulator Test Aircraft (VISTA) and conducting ground testing for Fury’s innovative carbon fiber composite propulsion flowpath system.

Anduril is committed to making substantial investments to advance the Fury autonomous air vehicle development, expand its manufacturing facilities in North Carolina, and expedite the progress of technologies vital to future capabilities, including autonomous collaborative platforms. As a nontraditional company that uses its capital for research and development, Anduril operates with agility to swiftly engineer, prototype, develop, and produce innovative solutions for the Department of Defense.

These emerging capabilities are crucial in upholding deterrence in an era of strategic competition. To effectively project force, deter potential aggressors, and achieve cost-effective scalability, the Department of Defense (DoD) will increasingly rely on many smaller, more autonomous systems that come at a lower cost. The U.S. Air Force, U.S. Navy, and U.S. Marine Corps have all indicated their intent to modernize and embrace advanced autonomous capabilities. This ecosystem of autonomous systems must be underpinned by sophisticated software enabling a single operator to manage multiple assets, effectively carrying out a wide array of missions.

This acquisition aligns with Anduril’s previous successful launch of Lattice for Mission Autonomy earlier this year. This cutting-edge, artificial intelligence-enabled software platform empowers teams of autonomous systems to collaborate and execute complex missions under human supervision dynamically. By investing in both hardware and software capabilities, Anduril is poised to expedite the development of autonomous operations, including manned-unmanned teaming, and deliver other critical advanced autonomous solutions to benefit warfighters worldwide.

Post Image: A 1:2 scale model of Fury, the group five autonomous air vehicle (AAV) designed by Blue Force Technologies. (Image Credit: Anduril Industries)