Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Anduril announces Roadrunner, jet-powered VTOL drone

anduril.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 259 posts

Re: Anduril announces Roadrunner, jet-powered VTOL drone

#71

Post by kumarvvr »

remarkEon wrote: post #24

So the emergency services use-cases seem obvious and straightforward, but rare. Can't be that big of a market for that, at least for repeat customers. Maybe I'm missing something, but I'd figure that those emergency services organizations would buy 2-3 and keep one in the field and the balance in inventory. The armed HE variant, that one does not seem that straightforward to me because I don't quite see how this is b…

> The armed HE variant, that one does not seem that straightforward to me because I don't quite see how this is better than a small missile. Is the benefit loitering? Because a larger drone can carry several armed payloads, and loiter for much longer. Is the benefit detection? Maybe that's it, given its size. Is the benefit autonomous deployment? That probably is pretty useful. Very curious who the government customer is (JSOC?).

I think the value compounding can come when these are used as a swarm or as part of multi strategy defense / offense system.

Re: Anduril announces Roadrunner, jet-powered VTOL drone

#72

Post by [deleted] »

justrealist wrote: post #63
gantron wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This really isn’t to sell any Roadrunners. Anduril has surely been talking to the right program offices and relevant government entities for some time now. This is more to establish the company’s general credibility & draw in new talent.

That's a bold assumption. Anduril is still fighting to get a foothold in DoD the procurement processes which is dominated by the big players (LM, Boeing, Raytheon). Never under-estimate how byzantine that process is. Tbh this could be to convince people within the DoD to stop blanket rejecting their bids just because they are new and unfamiliar.

[deleted]

Re: Anduril announces Roadrunner, jet-powered VTOL drone

#75

Post by contrarian1234 »

FL33TW00D wrote: post #66

Where is the UK/EU equivalent of Anduril? Seems this "neo-defense" revolution is a US only phenomenon.

I've never heard of a defense sector startup in Europe

In the US its quite common. A huge percentage of defense spending is specifically restricted to small businesses and big projects have percentages that must be subcontracted to small subcontractors. And then there is the whole SBIR program too. So anything R&D-ish goes there. It's a giant subsidy program for white christian enginners (bc you need clearance)

I say subsidy bc they have a near zero chance of actually supplying the military. You're extremely lucky to ever get a Phase II. The big players ensure none of the small businesses actually ever get big

Re: Anduril announces Roadrunner, jet-powered VTOL drone

#77

Post by doikor »

remarkEon wrote: post #24

So the emergency services use-cases seem obvious and straightforward, but rare. Can't be that big of a market for that, at least for repeat customers. Maybe I'm missing something, but I'd figure that those emergency services organizations would buy 2-3 and keep one in the field and the balance in inventory. The armed HE variant, that one does not seem that straightforward to me because I don't quite see how this is b…

I think the armed variants advantage is that you can launch 5 and call the rest back once you get a hit on the target.

Shooting down modern/future hypersonic or stealth missiles is hard and there is no guarantee you will take it down with just one. So this way you can recover the rest once you get a hit.

Re: Anduril announces Roadrunner, jet-powered VTOL drone

#79

Post by mplewis »

adastra22 wrote: post #61
goalonetwo wrote: post #47

The whole defense industry leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Once you peel the narrative that we are supposed to be the good guys (hint: in some/most cases, we are not), you realize that you really just help to kill people.

You can stick your head in the sand and pretend that humanity is not an intrinsically violent species, and that if we all held hands and sang Kumbaya we'd be able to get along peaceably and without need for defensive tools. Or you can wake up to the reality that a strong defensive, and sometimes offensive capability is required in order to enforce the state of peace that we all take for granted, and be part of the pr…

In reality, the “sheepdog” ends up being a government surveillance state that keeps you compliant with spending all the money on peacetime military waste, rather than serving any of the citizens.

The chickens always come home to roost.

Re: Anduril announces Roadrunner, jet-powered VTOL drone

#80

Post by silenced_trope »

jkachmar wrote: post #29

> i, personally, would not accept money from the company actively militarizing the southern US border but that's just me food for thought, and that was even before they were advertising offensive weapons technologies of this sort.

Counter-point: our borders should be protected
Post reply on HN