Skynet?
Re: anduril+palantir+starlink/kuiper
https://www.anduril.com/article/anduril-and-palantir-to-accelerate-ai-capabilities-for-national-security/
Anduril and Palantir to Accelerate AI Capabilities for National Security
12/6/2024
Partnership will facilitate the flow of national security data from the tactical edge to the cloud-based enterprise
[SIMI VALLEY, CA; December 6, 2024] – Palantir and Anduril, two leading companies at the intersection of commercial technology and national security, are launching a new consortium to ensure that the U.S. government leads the world in artificial intelligence. Our goal is to deliver the technological infrastructure, from the edge to the enterprise, that can enable our government and industry partners to transform America’s world-leading AI advancements into next-generation military and national security capabilities.
This partnership is focused on solving two main problems that limit the adoption of AI for national security purposes. The first is data readiness. Most useful national security data—government data that are collected and created by sensors, vehicles, weapons, and robots at the tactical edge—are not retained for AI training and algorithm development. Exabytes of defense data, indispensable for AI training and inferencing, are currently evaporating. What should be America’s ultimate asymmetric advantage over our adversaries is instead our biggest lost opportunity.
To solve this, we will utilize Anduril’s Lattice software system and the Anduril Menace family of deployable compute and communications systems to instrument the tactical edge for the government’s secure, large-scale data retention and distribution. Lattice connects directly with third-party defense systems at the edge, delivers autonomy to machine operations, securely distributes their information across a large-scale data mesh, and backhauls all tactical data into government enclaves for the purposes of AI training and inferencing. Menace devices are also purpose-built for the tactical edge, customized down to the silicon level for the unique requirements of national security operations in tactical environments—including, soon, next-generation encryption.
The second problem that we seek to solve exists when processing data at scale. Even with national security data that are retained, no secure enterprise pipeline exists to turn that data into AI capabilities. U.S. companies are developing world-leading models but struggling to deploy them at scale with government partners for defense applications.
To solve that, we will utilize Palantir’s AI Platform (AIP) to deliver a cloud-based data management and AI development capability that operates at the hyper-scale of commercial industry while meeting the unique requirements of national security. This will enable the structuring, labeling, and preparation of defense data for AI training and development at all levels of classification, including Secure Compartmented Information (SCI) and Special Access Programs (SAP). Palantir’s AIP provides a seamless interface for commercial and government AI developers to conduct imitation and reinforcement learning. It also provides a secure pipeline to deploy, retrain, and redeploy those AI models onto national security systems—a process made even easier, faster, and more reliable through the integration with Anduril’s unique edge capabilities.
We will also provide a rapid and ready mechanism to operationalize these new AI capabilities directly through defense production programs that are already fielded. Maven Smart System, powered by the Palantir Platform, provides an enterprise mission command platform that integrates large-scale operational data and utilizes AI-based capabilities to improve and accelerate human decision-making across joint missions, such as intelligence and fires. Similarly, Anduril’s Lattice software platform provides an edge-based mission autonomy platform that integrates directly with robotic systems and utilizes AI-based capabilities to automate and orchestrate their conduct of joint missions, such as air defense and reconnaissance. Anduril and Palantir are joining these complementary systems together, providing a seamless operational capability from the edge to the enterprise that serves as a deployment platform for new AI applications that anyone can build. This platform is already in place and in use by Anduril and Palantir for their own corporate purposes and with government contracts that enables this work to begin immediately.
Ultimately, Palantir and Anduril expect to expand the partnership to other industry partners that have unique contributions to make to this unique mission. No single company is capable of delivering on the promise of AI for national security. It takes a team of companies that are willing and able to ensure that the U.S. government remains the world leader in fielding advanced technologies that keep our citizens safe.
Anduril Is Building Out the Pentagon’s Dream of Deadly Drone Swarms
https://www.wired.com/story/anduril-is-building-out-the-pentagons-dream-of-deadly-drone-swarms/
The US military aims to maintain its dominance by building autonomous attack drones that collaborate with humans and overwhelm defenses in swarms.
WhenPalmer Luckey cofounded the defense startup Anduril in 2017, three years after selling his virtual reality startup Oculus to Facebook, the idea of a twentysomething from the tech industry challenging the giant contractors that build fighter jets, tanks, and warships for the US military seemed somewhat far-fetched. Seven years on, Luckey is showing that Anduril can not only compete with those contractors—it can win.
Last month, Anduril was one of two companies, along with the established defense contractor General Atomics, chosen to prototype a new kind of autonomous fighter jet called the Collaborative Combat Aircraft, or CCA, for the US Air Force and Navy. Anduril was chosen ahead of a pack of what Beltway lingo dubs “defense primes”—Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman.
“Anduril is proving that with the right team and business model, a seven-year-old company can go toe-to-toe with players that have been around for 70+,” Luckey wrote on social media platform X shortly after the contract was announced. The company declined to make anyone available for this article.
That business model has seen Anduril focus on showing that it can rapidly deliver drones, submarines, and other hardware infused with advanced software at relatively low cost. It also reflects a shift in America’s war-fighting outlook toward quicker development of less expensive systems that feature more software and autonomy.
Cont.
Investors seem to think it’s working. Anduril has raised a total of $2.3 billion in funding, according to Pitchbook which tracks startup investment and, according to The Information, is seeking $1.5 billion more.
Anduril’s prototype CCA aircraft, named Fury, is still at an early stage of development. Another test aircraft will be developed by General Atomics, a 68-year-old defense firm with a history of making remotely operated systems that include the MQ-9 Reaper, which played a key role in the US expansion of drone warfare in the 2000s.
The US Air Force wants the new CCA drones to be more capable and more independent than existing uncrewed craft, which still depend heavily on ground staff. They are envisioned performing a wide range of missions, including reconnaissance, air strikes, and electronic warfare—either alone or in collaboration with aircraft piloted by a human or autonomously. A core part of the program is developing new artificial intelligence software to control the aircraft that can operate autonomously in a wider range of situations than existing military systems, which are typically autonomous only in narrow circumstances.
“This is a big shift,” says Stacie Pettyjohn, a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security , a Washington, DC, think tank. She says that the US military has so far mostly used AI for target recognition and planning rather than for controlling systems. The CCA project is “a huge step forward for uncrewed systems and for the Air Force and Navy,” she says.
The CCA project is the culmination of years of work inside the Pentagon developing a vision of more automated aerial warfare. In 2014, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency conducted a study called the Air Dominance Initiative and concluded that a combination of next-generation fighter jets and uncrewed systems or “loyal wingman” capable of working in teams would be the surest way to gain an advantage in future conflict. The ultimate goal is for several drones, similar to those in development by Anduril and General Atomic, to accompany a conventional, crewed aircraft on a mission and collaborate in flexible ways.
The underlying philosophy is that on the battlefield there is safety, and overwhelming power, in numbers. Giving US pilots a clutch of robot wingmen is supposed to make them deadlier and more likely to return from missions unharmed. And the project is intended to be just the start of a bigger shift toward deploying autonomous aircraft in much larger numbers.
“The CCA represents a move toward swarms or at least larger numbers of uncrewed systems,” Pettyjohn says. “As a tactic, swarming could potentially allow smaller cheaper drones to overcome more expensive systems. It could be a game-changing asymmetric capability.”
Cont.
could go to a target, select the target, and if they saw that they were under attack they could change their flight path.”
Such autonomy might test public attitudes toward the use of autonomy in weapons systems but it would be permitted under official policy. In January 2023, the Pentagon updated a directive on the acceptable limits of autonomy in weapons, which now states: “Autonomous and semi-autonomous weapon systems will be designed to allow commanders and operators to exercise appropriate levels of human judgment over the use of force.”
The US Department of Defense is also investigating how autonomous aircraft could collaborate with sea-going drones. One US Navy project is testing whether autonomous surface vessels, submarines, and drones spot targets in the Red Sea and other parts of the Middle East.
Gerstein says there is some evidence that Israel has developed and deployed more intelligent drone swarms. The Israel Defense Forces used a swarm of AI-controlled drones to hunt Hamas militants in 2021, according to a report in New Scientist.
Cont.
Although drone warfare has been pitched by militaries as more clinical than conventional weaponry, there’s also evidence US drone missions have caused significant civilian casualties and crossed legal boundaries. Some experts believe that deploying huge numbers of swarming autonomous systems will bring new risks.
“Swarming means more drones operating in more complex ways across more domains,” says Zachary Kallenborn, a drone expert affiliated with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, another think tank. “Swarming also means many more weapons operating without human control, creating more risk for error—and when the systems communicate, one drone's mistake may cascade to a thousand more.”
The US appears committed to building and deploying more drones and giving them more complex autonomy. Air Force officials have said it will spend around $6 billion on the CCA program over the next five years, including future contracts. Another major US aerial drone project is the Replicator initiative, announced by Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks last August. It aims to spur the development of thousands of flight-ready autonomous systems and related technology within the next 18 to 24 months.
Anduril issued a lengthy statement applauding the initiative when it was announced last year, suggesting it hopes to secure contracts through the program. DefenseScoop recently reported that the company will be among the first to receive Replicator grants, for a surveillance system capable of tracking drones called WISP. Fury could just be the start of Anduril’s role in the Pentagon’s plans for the swarm era of aerial warfare.
Updated 5-28-2024, 9:20 pm EDT: This article was updated to correct a mispelling of Northrop Grumman.
End.
On Ukraine’s Front Line, a Sky Full of Killer Robots
As Russia presses its summer offensive, Ukraine’s defenders work to keep their edge in drone technology
https://www.wsj.com/world/ukraine-russia-drone-war-adef7e49?st=qndpgs&reflink=article_imessage_share
KOSTYANTYNIVKA, Ukraine—On the sun-drenched eastern front of this grueling war, Ukrainian drones are doing more and more jobs, from killing Russian troops to evacuating casualties to bringing dinner to foxholes.
Around this city, some infantry from Ukraine’s 93rd Mechanized Brigade have been stuck in their dugouts for three months. Rotating the troops must wait for fog and rain to block the view of Russian drones.
So Ukraine’s air and ground drones bring the men food, water and ammunition, said Lt. Col. Yehor Derevianko, a battalion commander in the brigade. “We even deliver burgers.”
He’s been fighting Russian forces in Ukraine’s east since 2014, and says the war is evolving faster than ever. Drones are now so dominant that they force everything else—infantry, armor, artillery, logistics and even trench design—to adapt to a sky full of buzzing robots.
The wiry commander leads the defense of his sector from a basement full of large screens under an abandoned apartment block. Men with laptops direct drone pilots to where Russian infantry are trying to infiltrate the fields and woodlands around the city.
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On Ukraine’s Front Line, a Sky Full of Killer Robots
As Russia presses its summer offensive, Ukraine’s defenders work to keep their edge in drone technology
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Lt. Col. Yehor Derevianko, a Ukrainian battalion commander, sits and smokes in Kostyantynivka.
Lt. Col. Yehor Derevianko, a battalion commander in Ukraine’s 93rd Mechanized Brigade.
By
Marcus Walker
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and Ievgeniia Sivorka | Photographs by Manu Brabo for WSJ
July 21, 2025 11:00 pm ET
KOSTYANTYNIVKA, Ukraine—On the sun-drenched eastern front of this grueling war, Ukrainian drones are doing more and more jobs, from killing Russian troops to evacuating casualties to bringing dinner to foxholes.
Around this city, some infantry from Ukraine’s 93rd Mechanized Brigade have been stuck in their dugouts for three months. Rotating the troops must wait for fog and rain to block the view of Russian drones.
So Ukraine’s air and ground drones bring the men food, water and ammunition, said Lt. Col. Yehor Derevianko, a battalion commander in the brigade. “We even deliver burgers.”
He’s been fighting Russian forces in Ukraine’s east since 2014, and says the war is evolving faster than ever. Drones are now so dominant that they force everything else—infantry, armor, artillery, logistics and even trench design—to adapt to a sky full of buzzing robots.
The wiry commander leads the defense of his sector from a basement full of large screens under an abandoned apartment block. Men with laptops direct drone pilots to where Russian infantry are trying to infiltrate the fields and woodlands around the city.
Ukrainian soldiers monitoring drone footage in a basement command center in Kostyantynivka.
Members of the 93rd Brigade monitor drone footage in a basement in Kostyantynivka, eastern Ukraine.
Lt. Col. Yehor Derevianko in an armored vehicle.
Derevianko inside an armored vehicle.
On one screen, the crosshairs of a reconnaissance drone fixed on a Russian soldier squatting in a bush. A small quadcopter drone closed in slowly and dropped a grenade. It missed.
“He’s going to die of old age out there,” grumbled Derevianko. The bush swayed gently in the summer breeze. A second grenade turned it into a cloud of gray smoke.
Kostyantynivka, an industrial city once home to 67,000 people, is one of the main targets of Russia’s summer offensive. Moscow’s invasion forces are inching westward across the fertile Donetsk region, exploiting their greater numbers but losing hundreds of assault troops a day for small gains. Drones have overtaken artillery as the number-one cause of Russian fatalities, according to Ukraine’s military.
Dystopian fantasies
With the experienced 93rd Brigade holding firm in Kostyantynivka, the Russians are trying to outflank it via the countryside. Russian infantry must first cross miles of deadly open farmland. They try on foot or on motorbikes.
Cont.
Most are picked off before they come near Ukrainian lines by first-person-view drones, known as FPVs—aircraft the size of dinner plates with four rotors, controlled through a live feed on a pilot’s goggles.
The surviving Russians try to regroup, then assault a Ukrainian trench or dugout. “We have to hit them one by one, before they gather,” said Derevianko.
The most recent armored attack here was around New Year’s, when 14 Russian armored vehicles tried to run the gantlet of drones. Only two got close. Then the defending infantry hit them with rocket-propelled grenades.
But Russia’s drones are also tormenting Kostyantynivka. Their fixed-wing Orlan and Zala reconnaissance drones survey the city continually. Russian FPVs connected to long fiber-optic cables, which make them immune to electronic jamming of the signal, hit anything they see, including civilians.
Outside the tidy command basement, the city is dying. Only a fraction of its residents remain. Most shops have closed. Airstrikes scar buildings. Orange husks of burned-out civilian cars lie where they were hit by drones.
Army vehicles rumble about covered in grills, nets and other welded-on drone shields, looking like dystopian fantasies from a Mad Max movie.
Pvt. Nikita Kremnov rescues wounded infantry in a Nissan Navara pickup sprayed a dull green and sporting a full-body cage with netting. Beyond the city limits, he uses a more nimble quad bike. The last mile to the trenches is now so exposed to Russian fiber-optic drones that the battalion uses only unmanned ground vehicles—drones with tires or tracks—to carry wounded men back from a foxhole.
Kremnov was hit and wounded by a fiber-optic drone while evacuating a wounded man who was having an epileptic seizure. “There was nothing I could do about it. I had to carry on driving.”
Hiding the tanks
Thirty miles to the southwest, the city of Pokrovsk is further down the road to destruction. It hasn’t fallen so far, but the damage is extensive. The Russian advance, like slow-moving lava, is consuming every town it touches with drones and heavy glide bombs.
A T-72 tank of Ukraine’s 68th Jaeger Brigade hides under the thick summer canopy of a copse outside the city. The unit’s tanks work in shifts, rolling into Pokrovsk to fire at Russian targets from long range.
The Soviet-era tank was captured from the Russians early in the war. Its crew call it “Lyalya,” an affectionate name a small girl would give a doll. The previous night, Lyalya killed a group of Russian infantry with three direct hits on their dugout.
In a drone war, tanks are useful only as mobile artillery pieces, said the company sergeant, who goes by the call sign Puma. Used in an assault, it wouldn’t even get near the fight, he said. “FPVs are just going to kill us.”
The tank had a narrow escape from a Russian FPV drone only days earlier. It was heading into Pokrovsk before dawn when a car’s headlights lit it up from behind. “Morons,” said Puma. The tank’s electronic defenses soon sensed a drone and tried to jam it.
are tinkering with technology to stay a step ahead of the Russians in a robotic arms race.
Serhiy Ignatukha, the unit’s leader, holds up one kind of answer to the Russians’ fiber-optic drones. It’s an FPV armed with four 12-bore shotgun barrels.
Recently, one such drone had a dogfight with a Russian FPV. Its shotguns missed, so it downed the enemy drone by ramming it and breaking its propellers, said a drone technician known by his call sign Udav.
The unit is also working with Ukrainian drone manufacturers on more sophisticated solutions, including FPV-borne lasers that can cut fiber-optic cables.
FPVs using artificial intelligence could become the next big thing, said Udav. He held up a drone with a tiny AI chipboard. Once a pilot has selected a moving target, the drone can complete the attack autonomously from up to 700 yards away, even if jamming blocks the signal.
Improved versions are coming out every few months. “This one is the sixth generation and it has had no failures,” Udav said.
“Previously, when you saw 15 Russian vehicles, it was scary. Now it’s fun,” he said. “Sadly it’s the same for the enemy’s drone units.”
A bomb maker with the unit used a 3-D printer to make drone-dropped mines. Costing $9 each to make, the mines stick in the ground, spray out several 26-foot-long tripwires with small anchors and wait for Russian infantry.
The Bulava unit is part of Ukraine’s Presidential Brigade, which also performs ceremonial guard duties in Kyiv but mostly became a regular combat brigade after the 2022 invasion. Ignatukha and his men saw the war changing and got into drone technology, using their own salaries to buy equipment and build their skills.