HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — The Army’s top acquisition official said this week Anduril Industries’ Roadrunner autonomous air vehicle (AAV) could be an “attractive system” for the service, to include as a priority capability for U.S. Central Command.
“I can imagine if it works well and we get the price down at scale that Roadrunner could be an attractive system for some elements of the Army in the future,” Doug Bush, assistant secretary of the Army for acquisition, logistics and technology, told reporters at this week’s AUSA Global Force Symposium in Huntsville, Alabama.
Bush’s comments follow the Army’s inclusion of $4.5 million for research and development work with Anduril’s Roadrunner-Munition on its FY ‘25 unfunded priorities list that was recently submitted to Congress (Defense Daily, March 25).
“This is us looking at options at bringing that capability into the big Army,” Bush said.
Bush described Roadrunner as a “capable missile,” adding that “some elements of the Army have been working on that system for a while.”
Anduril first detailed the jet-powered, highly-maneuverable and recoverable Roadrunner AAV last fall, with company founder Palmer Luckey noting the Roadrunner-M version is able to destroy full-size aircraft (Defense Daily, Dec. 1).
Luckey said at the time that Anduril has an unnamed U.S. customer for Roadrunner-M, adding that the capability has been “operationally assessed” and will begin low-rate initial production shortly for the customer with the expectation to scale to thousands of units.
Bush told reporters this week that funding tied to counter-drone priorities in the pending foreign aid supplemental as well as the additional request for resources on the unfunded priorities list could support further activities with Roadrunner.
“As I mentioned there’s money in the supplemental [for] counter-UAS. Some of that could be for that system, too, including R&D work in theater to make sure it’s tied into our community. So it’s one of those things we are certainly looking at as part of the family of counter-UAS,” Bush said.
Army Gen. Michael Kurilla, the head of CENTCOM, said recently that the supplemental includes $686 million in counter-UAS funding to meet CENTCOM requirements (Defense Daily, March 21).