Hermeus picks Anduril autonomy for Quarterhorse drone

WASHINGTON — Aircraft startup Hermeus ‘s Mk 2 Quarterhorse high-speed drone will be equipped with autonomy software provided by defense tech firm Anduril , the two companies exclusively told Breaking Defense.

Under the new teaming arrangement, Anduril’s mission autonomy suite, dubbed Lattice, will be paired with the Quarterhorse for flight testing that will kickoff next year. The Quarterhorse is being developed with funding from the Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Unit , with a goal to fly the aircraft at speeds as fast as Mach 3.

“As we evaluated a bunch of solutions, we viewed Anduril as the natural partner,” Hermeus CEO Zach Shore said in an interview ahead of the announcement.

Hermeus is developing the Quarterhorse iteratively through a series of flight tests, which have, to this point, been manually controlled remotely. “We now need to automate a lot of those flight controls,” Shore explained. “I want to be able to push a button, have the aircraft spin up, have the aircraft auto takeoff, all those basic features that allow one person to manage multiple platforms. Irrespective of the mission, just that level of command-and-control and scalability, we needed a partner to help us do that.”

Brett Darcey, Anduril’s general manager and vice president for mission autonomy in air dominance and strike, told Breaking Defense that Anduril will provide an “end-to-end” solution for autonomous operations, from the software needed for flying to the ground control systems used by operators.

“We really want to emphasize the fullness of the stack,” Darcey said during the interview. “This isn’t just a mission autonomy science project. This is really readying the Quarterhorse for live operations in a way that really accelerates here.”

The partnership will carry benefits for Anduril too. While the company’s Lattice solution is currently in the mix for the Air Force’s Collaborative Combat Aircraft program, partnering with Hermeus offers a chance to test out the autonomy system’s performance on a large, high-speed speed platform.

“It’s really about the mission envelope that opens up there,” Darcey said. “This is expanding the addressable market for our mission autonomy solution,” a partnership that Darcey later observed can “increase the diversity of our experience, so that our product is better.”

The two executives declined to comment specifically on dollar amounts associated with the teaming arrangement.

“This is a partnership with a contract, with funds exchanged,” Shore said. Darcey, for his part, described the partnership as one “of mutual economic and probably future economic benefit.”

Shore also noted that the partnership can dovetail with ongoing work for the government to develop the Quarterhorse, particularly as it relates to integrating an autonomous solution using a government reference architecture. However, he declined to comment specifically on discussions with government contracts.

“There is tremendous alignment, support, and backing for this effort within the government,” he said.

Shore said there’s “really no horizon” on the partnership, while noting that customers like the Pentagon reserve the ability to integrate the autonomy vendors they want if they decide to acquire the Quarterhorse as a weapon system.

“In a dream scenario, as these aircraft become more real and higher volume, and they’re out there in the world, there’s all sorts of go-to-market opportunities together to team and say, you know, ‘This airplane and this brain,’” he said.

华盛顿——据 Breaking Defense 独家报道，飞机初创公司 Hermeus 的 Mk 2 Quarterhorse 高速无人机将配备由国防科技公司 Anduril 提供的自主软件。

根据新的合作协议，Anduril公司的自主任务系统“Lattice”将与Quarterhorse无人机配对，进行飞行测试，测试将于明年启动。Quarterhorse无人机由五角大楼国防创新部门资助研发，目标是实现3马赫的飞行速度。

Hermeus 首席执行官 Zach Shore 在宣布合作之前接受采访时表示：“在评估了一系列解决方案后，我们认为 Anduril 是天然的合作伙伴。”

Hermeus公司正在通过一系列飞行测试迭代开发Quarterhorse无人机，迄今为止，这些测试都是通过远程手动控制完成的。“我们现在需要实现许多飞行控制的自动化，”Shore解释说。“我希望能够按下一个按钮，让飞机启动，让飞机自动起飞，所有这些基本功能都允许一个人管理多个平台。无论任务是什么，仅仅是这种级别的指挥控制和可扩展性，我们就需要一个合作伙伴来帮助我们实现。”

Anduril 的总经理兼空中优势和打击任务自主性副总裁 Brett Darcey 告诉 Breaking Defense，Anduril 将提供自主操作的“端到端”解决方案，从飞行所需的软件到操作员使用的地面控制系统。

“我们真的想强调整个系统的完整性，”达西在采访中说道。“这不仅仅是一个任务自主性科学项目。这实际上是在以一种真正加速的方式，让‘夸特霍斯’号做好实战准备。”

此次合作对Anduril公司也大有裨益。虽然该公司的Lattice解决方案目前正在参与美国空军协同作战飞机项目的竞标，但与Hermeus的合作使其有机会在一个大型高速平台上测试该自主系统的性能。

“这实际上关乎任务范围的拓展，”达西说。“这扩大了我们任务自主解决方案的目标市场，”达西后来指出，这种合作关系可以“增加我们经验的多样性，从而使我们的产品更好。”

两位高管拒绝就合作安排的具体金额发表评论。

肖尔说：“这是一项有合同约束、有资金交换的合作关系。” 达西则将这种合作关系描述为“互惠互利、未来可能带来经济效益的合作关系”。

肖尔还指出，此次合作可以与政府正在进行的“四分之一马”（Quarterhorse）项目开发工作相辅相成，尤其是在利用政府参考架构集成自主解决方案方面。但他拒绝就与政府合同的讨论发表具体评论。

他说：“政府内部对这项工作给予了极大的支持和拥护。”

Shore 表示，这种合作关系“真的没有期限”，同时指出，像五角大楼这样的客户如果决定采购 Quarterhorse 作为武器系统，他们保留整合他们想要的自主系统供应商的能力。

他说：“在理想的情况下，随着这些飞机变得越来越现实，产量越来越高，并且它们出现在世界各地，就会出现各种各样的市场推广机会，可以携手合作，说，‘这架飞机和这个大脑’。”