Watch out, y’all. The British are coming.
Earlier today, Arondite, a UK-based startup building integration tech to make those autonomous systems we all know and love work together nicely, announced a “multi-million” pound contract with the UK Ministry of Defence to deploy its Cobalt software across the British Army’s Very High Readiness Force.
Teamwork: If you know anything about drones, you know that there are a whole lot of them and a whole lot of companies making them. Arondite, founded in 2023, builds battle management software that makes these drones—and all of the other tech and software on the battlefield—work together. Like glue, but high-tech and lethal.
- Cobalt, Arondite’s flagship C2 software platform, is a kind of AI-powered connective tissue connecting software platforms, robotic systems, autonomous vehicles, and data.
- Put simply, it allows users to plan missions with these assets, simulate options, integrate data streams, and speed up decision-making.
- Cobalt has been a hit with the UK MoD, and the British Army has put it to the test in major exercises, including at NATO’s Forest Guardian exercise on the eastern flank in October.
Ready to roll: Under the startup’s new contract, Cobalt will be deployed with the British Army’s 16 Air Assault Brigade Combat Team, part of the service’s Very High Readiness Force (i.e., the lads who drop into scary places from the sky at a moment’s notice). Cobalt will act as the integration and C2 platform for the formation’s drones and other unmanned systems, allowing operators to control them on a single interface.
“The 16 Air Assault Brigade Combat Team is the tip of the spear for the UK military, and they rightfully demand the best and have extremely high standards when it comes to any of the kit and equipment they use,” Arondite co-founder and CEO Will Blythe told Tectonic. “The same goes for the AI software and the new wave of technologies they’re adopting, so for us to be working with them at this stage is really important for us, and it’s bang on why we founded the company.”
“They have a whole variety of disparate sensors and autonomous systems, and they need to be able to process that data at machine speed, connect them up, and accelerate in the battle space,” he added. That includes everything from EW systems, radars, sensors, and uncrewed platforms. “As new systems are getting released, they’ll be integrated as well.”
Blythe couldn’t disclose contract numbers, but said they’re also working with a number of other elements within the British military that they can’t talk about publicly.
“With Cobalt, we’re focused on making sure that it can be used by the Army, the Marines, the Navy, and by parts of the Air Force,” he said. “We’ve worked on and won contracts in all of those areas.”
Looks like teamwork really does make the dream work.