Anduril has revealed Steelfin, a family of surface-to-air interceptor missiles built on a common two-stage architecture so that one production line can turn out versions for everything from point defence to upper-tier ballistic missile defence, according to the company.
The company set out the problem it is addressing, saying adversaries have invested in large volumes of low-cost, mass-producible offensive weapons and that air defence batteries are too often forced to expend exquisite interceptors against lower-cost threats, straining stores of the most critical defensive weapons and putting defenders on the losing side of the cost exchange.
Steelfin pairs a first-stage booster, which can take different solid rocket motors to suit range, launch configuration or packing density, with a second-stage terminal interceptor sharing the same airframe, avionics, software, flight control system and interfaces across every variant. Open interfaces between the subsystems in that terminal stage let different seekers and mission systems be fitted without redesigning the missile.
Because the variants share an architecture and components, they move through the same production line using the same tooling, technicians and facilities, and Anduril said it is planning to produce on the order of several thousand Steelfin variants a year in the short term, with capacity designed to flex to demand. The same open interfaces allow commercial off-the-shelf components and competition between vendors, widening the supplier base.
The missiles are compatible with launch infrastructure already in service, including the M903A2 launcher used by Patriot, the Mk 41 vertical launching system fitted to warships, Typhon and emerging containerised launchers, and are designed to integrate with fielded fire control systems such as Aegis and IBCS. Anduril has completed ballistic testing with representative air vehicles and will begin flight testing next year.
The American company has built a European presence over the past two years, with Latvia selecting its Barracuda cruise missile family and a United Kingdom arm working on autonomy, counter-drone systems and command software. Its approach of designing weapons around mass production and common components is the same argument being made by Helsing, which launched its own pair of low-cost interceptors this week.
American company with American leverage and controls attached. Buy these, and you too can be just one middle eastern venture away from having your paid-for order sent elsewhere.
We should stay well clear of any US defence start ups. It’s bad enough having to deal with US primes like Boeing and Lockheed Martin but at least these companies have millions of shareholders and professional management.
Most US tech companies like Space X and Palantir are run by whack jobs that carry enhanced voting shares that give them absolute control. Space X is about to cancel NASA’s ability to put people in space and won’t budge on this no matter how much money NASA pays because it’s CEO wants to make the rockets bigger and pointier.
In Anduril case its founder Palmer Luckey just happens to be a radical Zionist with some very extreme views on Western European leaders. We should not indulge Americas cult of personality and no company with such an unstable corporate governance structure should be allowed any where near defence.
The UK needs a zero ITAR policy on its defence products, that will obviously take a lot of time to achieve but the sooner we start the safer we will be. We can and should be banding together with the CANZUK’s, EU and Japan to create alternative ITAR free equipment in every category.
The UK’s biggest contribution to this should be Tempest as well as very long range deep strike weapons we are building with Germany. We should also double down on one web and turn it into a real space X rival, even if its means spending billion and acquiring more shares in it or engineering a takeover of it by Airbus space, BAE or even BT.
Wow Anduril using nothing but it’s magic wand just created an entire family of missile interceptors for nothing, superior to everyone else in the world like Raytheon, MBDA, Lockheed, Boeing and Rafael who all spent billions and years trying to make missile than can intercept ballistic missiles.
But these guys just magically invent a missile family that can use any launcher and can do it all for nothing 🤔
The power of the tech bros 🤣😂
I like the Freya concept that UK is part of. If it takes Ukr twist on S300 systems , composite components and European sensors and seekers at £700k a missile, that seems a no brainer. Quantity over US costings.
Should be tested in 2027 and built on firepoints BM.
One area where NATO works and we could perhaps join is pooled Tanker and AEW assets. Similar could be done with airdefence interceptors. Pot of money, produce as many as possible and equip multiple nations..
Then more importantly is the power to hit Ru hard. That will come from Tempest and they need to get a massed produced euro Tomahawk into production asap. Container launched. Build 10,000s of them across NATO.