Defense startup Anduril is responsible for one of the “principal” systems used against the Iranian Shahed drone during Operation Epic Fury, per the company’s president.
Matthew Steckman, who is also chief business officer for the startup, said in a podcast appearance on Monday that Anduril has been “for the most part, a defensive company in the Middle East” as the war rages into its fourth week.
“We’re heavy participants in the current conflict in the Middle East, mainly on the defensive side,” Steckman said to Harry Stebbings, host of the “20VC” show.
Steckman declined to say which systems are being used in the fight and which specific combat scenarios these weapons are addressing.
He did, however, mention the Shahed long-range loitering munition as a key threat.
“So if you’ve read about the Shahed drone, as an example, we’re one of the principal systems to defend against that threat in the Middle East,” Steckman said.
The company’s cofounder, Palmer Luckey, previously confirmed to Axios in the war’s second week that Anduril was involved in the conflict, but declined to name any systems.
Anduril offers a suite of sensors, hard-kill interceptors, and jammers, but only some of them would be typically effective against larger, Group-3 drones such as the Shahed.
For example, the company sells a 360-degree sensor called the Wisp, which uses infrared to detect drones, and a jet-powered drone called the Roadrunner, which is supposed to fly into cruise missiles or larger uncrewed aircraft and destroy them.
It’s unclear if either of these systems was deployed in the Middle East recently. Anduril also provides an AI-powered battle management system, Lattice, that interfaces with all its weapons.
Last week, Lattice was selected by the US Army under a $87 million contract to link its counter-drone systems and enable troops and agents to share data quickly.
Iran has launched thousands of Shahed drones at American forces and their allies in the Middle East after the US and Israel began Operation Epic Fury on February 28.
The sheer number of aerial threats, paired with salvos of Iranian missiles, has raised concerns that the US is depleting its already thin stockpiles of conventional defensive munitions and is not fully prepared to deal with the drone threat.
The Pentagon has since shifted counter-drone assets and teams to defend bases in the Middle East. Ukraine, leveraging years of experience fighting thousands of Russian-made Shaheds, has also sent several hundred experts to the region to assist the Gulf states and the US.
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