Air Force picks Anduril, General Atomics to develop unmanned fighter jets • Hacker News Board

Re: Air Force picks Anduril, General Atomics to develop unmanned fighter jets

#231

Post by wbl » Thu, Apr 25, 2024, 3:14 PM UTC

pantsforbirds wrote: post #225

anyfactor wrote: post #40

Is Anduril really that good? I am trying to figure out what is the potential of Anduril is. Their first phase product was in observability towers for border protection, then they made drone-ramming drones and now unmanned fighter jets. I am genuinely curious. I was in the whole retail investor space since early 2010s which saw the EV hype. Workhorse was supposed to supply vans for federal postal vans, Nikola had that…

I think their biggest differentiator is the way they sell their products. They haven't made a habit of winning big research contracts, blowing past the budget, and then blowing past the original per-unit manufacturing price estimates. It's probably much easier to make a deal with a company that is able to meet pricing and delivery dates

You've forgotten blow past the previous state of the art in those contracts. That's part of why overruns happen is the goals tend to be ambitious.

Re: Air Force picks Anduril, General Atomics to develop unmanned fighter jets

#232

Post by stackedinserter » Thu, Apr 25, 2024, 3:15 PM UTC

chasd00 wrote: post #206

threeseed wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ukraine is constantly inventing new techniques that are re-thinking what drones can do. Recently they have been using them to drop spikes to slow vehicles which are then hit by a second set of drones. At some point soon these drones will have specialised capabilities and will go out in swarms to autonomously figure out how to take down objects.

Aren’t these drones regular cots drones with some modification? Wouldn’t taking the door off a microwave and pointing it at the drone cause it to fall to the ground? Surely it’s more complex than that and I’m missing something.

Frontline on both sides is saturated with electronic warfare system which are essentially microwaves with open doors. Both sides put them on trucks, armored vehicles, set up near trenches and even carry on their backpacks. There were absurd cases like this https://imgur.com/a/4LqgLED

Drones evolve under this pressure. Dynamic frequency changes, computer vision, maneuvering (like "go up when lost signal") and many more counter measures are adopted on both sides.

Re: Air Force picks Anduril, General Atomics to develop unmanned fighter jets

#233

Post by ninetyninenine » Thu, Apr 25, 2024, 3:16 PM UTC

llamaimperative wrote: post #134

ninetyninenine wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Marketing. Trust me... it's not that cool. They hire artists to design this stuff. Not kidding. The exterior is made by an industrial designer more so then an actual engineer. I would know, I worked at the company previously.

Umm... this product was acquired into the company via Blue Force. It was pretty much fully designed prior to Anduril getting its hands on it. It sounds like you don't know what you're talking about despite having "worked at the company," which could mean anything.

I left before this was “acquired”. So I won’t know specifically for this product.

I do know that Anduril has done this for many of their products including the single rotor drone. Additionally it has all the hallmarks of industrial design. That shell looks way too over the top with those lines.

So I was exaggerating a bit. My mistake. I should say “very incredibly likely an industrial designer was involved to the point of obviousness due to my previous experience with the company”

Re: Air Force picks Anduril, General Atomics to develop unmanned fighter jets

#234

Post by season2episode3 » Thu, Apr 25, 2024, 3:17 PM UTC

rhaps0dy wrote: post #72

pupileater wrote: post #69

What's with defense and militech companies using Tolkien nomenclature as branding?

I think it's a feature of followers of Peter Thiel Thought (and, in this case, Peter Thiel was one of the early investors).

The name Anduril means “Flame of the West”, which sounds cool as hell. But it feels a little icky to me given the ideological proclivities of Palmer Luckey and Thiel.

Re: Air Force picks Anduril, General Atomics to develop unmanned fighter jets

#235

Post by ninetyninenine » Thu, Apr 25, 2024, 3:18 PM UTC

shitlord wrote: post #159

RealityVoid wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Oh yeah this is supposed to be "classified" but I could give a flying shit. Oh, never change Hacker News. Got to love the casual breach of classified information.

He was even kind enough to point out exactly how to defeat such a system!

Drones are so cheap you can send a full constellation of drones waaaay cheaper than the cost of one sentry tower and it will defeat it. These systems have limited handling capacity. With enough drones you can get through anything.

The main problem is, there are more than enough drones. All I’m saying above is you probably just need 8 of them to get through Andurils system.

Also, the method to defeat such systems is not classified. It’s quite obvious and china can even easily overwhelm carrier defenses using this method.

Re: Air Force picks Anduril, General Atomics to develop unmanned fighter jets

#236

Post by yakshaving_jgt » Thu, Apr 25, 2024, 3:18 PM UTC

nbzso wrote: post #178

1oooqooq wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> zala aero I'm not following the war but thanks to your comment just read about them. They are a subunit of Kalashnikov and the latest drone uses PET bottles for fuel tank and a plywood fuselage and a banal model airplane engine found at hobby shops. It's almost like some 90s game designer is writing the plot for this.

Yep, you can check a thousand videos of those bottles with AI burning tanks, BMP’s, m777, etc. Or you can continue living in the Hollywood Metaverse. My country is part of NATO. Nobody asked us. No referendum. No voting. Nothing. The political class is filling their pockets with money, while propaganda is beyond the level of USSR and Nazi Germany. Some of us have military service behind our backs. Some of us lived un…

> but know that East Europeans see clearly who is the reason for this bloodbath

Eastern European here.

The putin regime is the reason for this bloodbath.

Re: Air Force picks Anduril, General Atomics to develop unmanned fighter jets

#237

Post by abenga » Thu, Apr 25, 2024, 3:22 PM UTC

ninetyninenine wrote: post #229

llamaimperative wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to mention an unscheduled demo. How often do software engineers have a reliably working local state of a repository that they could just start up and demo whenever someone walks by their desk?

Makes sense. The Chinese government will never launch an unscheduled attack. It’s always on my calendar.

One would hope all hiccups are worked out by the time the systems go into production.

Re: Air Force picks Anduril, General Atomics to develop unmanned fighter jets

#238

Post by yakshaving_jgt » Thu, Apr 25, 2024, 3:24 PM UTC

nbzso wrote: post #182

llamaimperative wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Russia getting its ass kicked by 40 year old American equipment is the strongest argument I've yet seen for the military-industrial complex :)

With shovels and washing machine chips I see:) Please open any map and see. Easy way: Check Weeb Union channel. But please, be seated.

I've checked Weeb Union. I have been checking for years now.

He's a vatnik, of the same ilk as [thankfully deceased] Gonzalo Lira, convicted sex offender Scott Ritter, or the disgraced Douglas Macgregor.

Why are you promoting a kremlin propagandist on this website?

Re: Air Force picks Anduril, General Atomics to develop unmanned fighter jets

#239

Post by jessriedel » Thu, Apr 25, 2024, 3:25 PM UTC

sandworm101 wrote: post #216

jessriedel wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you think anyone else thinks that eliminating the job is the valuable thing bere? I have always heard the benefits to be things like less risk to life (vs piloted), quicker reaction (vs piloted and remote), can’t be jammed (vs remote). Literally never heard anyone mentioned salary saved ever, and indeed everyone expects it to be more expensive.

>> never heard anyone mentioned salary saved ever When it comes to fighter pilots, salary is irrelevant. The few pennies paid in salary is absolutely nothing compared to the millions of dollars a year it takes to train and maintain an active combat pilot. Those costs are at the center of nearly every discussion re military drone tech. An autonomous pilot, a computer program, doesn't need check rides. It doesn't need…

You’re not responding to my question. You’re listing reasons the elimination of the job valuable, which partially undermines your original comment (because some of these reasons do not apply to drone pilots) but does not answer why you think other people consider the eliminated job to be the key benefit.

Like is any of this mentioned in the article or this comment section? Or are you just complaining about bad arguments you heard elsewhere?

Re: Air Force picks Anduril, General Atomics to develop unmanned fighter jets

#240

Post by potatoman22 » Thu, Apr 25, 2024, 3:25 PM UTC

basil-rash wrote: post #103

aprilthird2021 wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Innovation has not been in defense engineering lately because the US has lost A LOT of public trust when it comes to the defense industry in the wake of Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan. The US is not the country, nor do they have the reputation in front of the public that led to the Manhattan project, where the greatest minds would willingly work on defense projects, not just willingly but eagerly. The breakthroughs a…

I also went to a/the top CS school. When I graduated I would have never considered working at a defense company. Now, after bouncing around big tech and startups for a few years, I am a few days away from accepting a position at one. What changed? Appreciation for how entirely insignificant to downright harmful the rest of the industry is, perhaps. I made changes that impacted tens of millions of users in... no signi…

The defense industry isn't just "defense" against bad people. Is it better to optimize the colors of buttons, or work on projects that could potentially kill innocent civilians?