Anduril Industries is developing an autonomous attack rotorcraft designed to operate alongside crewed attack and assault aircraft in contested battlefield environments. The aircraft, called Thunder, is a Group 5 unmanned tiltrotor intended to carry weapons, launched effects, electronic warfare systems and cargo. Anduril is developing the platform with Archer Aviation and other industry partners, with a first flight planned for 2027.
Thunder is based on a dual-use aircraft platform co-developed with Archer. Its tiltrotor configuration combines vertical takeoff and landing with wingborne cruise, allowing it to operate without runways while providing greater range than conventional rotorcraft, according to Anduril.
The aircraft uses a series hybrid-electric powertrain and variable-speed rotors that adjust their revolutions per minute during different phases of flight. Anduril said the configuration is intended to reduce fuel consumption and power requirements during cruise while lowering the aircraft’s acoustic signature during low-altitude operations.
Thunder is being designed for long-range deployment and can also be packed into a standard shipping container for transport by air, road, rail or sea.
The aircraft includes modular internal payload bays in its main fuselage and nose. Anduril said the bays can accommodate precision-guided missiles, rockets, air-launched unmanned systems, electronic warfare equipment, counter-drone systems and cargo.
One proposed configuration would carry 10 air-to-ground missiles, including Hellfire, Joint Air-to-Ground Missile or Anduril’s Barracuda-100M. Alternative configurations could carry 16 Altius-600 launched effects or 76 70-millimeter rockets. The nose bay could hold an additional 12 counter-unmanned aircraft effectors.
Thunder is intended to operate in formations controlled through Anduril’s Lattice for Mission Autonomy software. The system is designed to translate instructions from human operators into routing, timing, tasking and aircraft-separation decisions, reducing the need for pilots to control individual unmanned aircraft directly.
Multiple Thunder aircraft could accompany a single crewed helicopter. The company estimates that assigning three Thunder aircraft to each AH-64 Apache would triple the available munitions in a Combat Aviation Brigade without adding pilots.
The aircraft’s onboard perception system combines passive and active sensors with computer vision, mapping data and edge computing. These systems are intended to detect terrain, obstacles and threats while supporting navigation when satellite positioning, communications or visibility are degraded.
Data collected by Thunder would be shared through the Lattice network with other aircraft and battlefield systems. The software is intended to combine sensor, threat and mission information into a common operating picture for the formation.
Anduril said it has completed several test flights using full-scale surrogate aircraft. Development will focus on integrating the propulsion system, payload architecture, autonomous flight controls and crewed-uncrewed teaming capabilities ahead of the planned 2027 flight.
