If you thought the dudes over at Anduril were done reimagining what the word “drone” can mean, think again.
On Friday, the UK subsidiary of the not-so-little defense company announced that it’s officially been downselected for the British Army’s Project Nyx—the MoD’s effort to build an autonomous loyal wingman for Apache helicopters.
“We think Nyx is critical for the MoD because they’ve got a suite of excellent helicopters in the Apaches, but their capabilities may well have been overtaken by events in recent conflicts,” Anduril UK CEO Richard Drake told Tectonic. “We think a program like Nyx could really create a next-generation capability for the Army and make the Apache very much lethal again.”
The MoD downselected four companies for the program—Anduril, Tekever, Thales, and BAE Systems. Let the prime vs. new entrant games begin.
Turns out everyone loves a tiny little…helicopter?
Rotor club: Doubtful y’all need much context on Anduril (what with that $5B raise last week and literal hundreds of billions in contracts), so let’s dive into Project Nyx.
The program—kicked off last year—is basically CCA but for helicopters. The goal is to have a fleet of drones that can fly alongside crewed AH-64E Apache helicopters to scout, jam, strike—basically make life annoying for adversaries.
- The MoD has said that the drones will do anything from ISR to targeting, precision strike, and launched effects.
- The idea is the same one behind, like, most drones—why risk a £100M+ helicopter (and the highly trained pilots flying it), when a drone could take the heat?
- The goal is to field the capability by the end of the decade (like, 2030). The MoD announced Friday that they were investing £10M in this prototyping phase.
Down and dirty: Now, for those of you fortunate enough to not know, attack helicopters are a tricky business.
- These monsters ride low and slow—that puts them in range of lots of nasty stuff, including short-range air defense, drones, EW, and even machine guns.
- The problem is, helicopters need to ride low to be effective. The point is to get close to the action—but that’s become increasingly dangerous, especially in recent conflicts. Lots of drones and kit out there.
- Super-exquisite helicopters like the Apache are also, like, super expensive to maintain and repair, and even pricier to replace.
- The UK currently has a fleet of just about 50 AH-64E Apaches (the modernized ones)—that’s not too many, especially with all that’s going on in the world.
- That limited number plus painful price tag means losing even one Apache is, like, a pretty big deal for the UK.
Sidekicks: That’s where the loyal wingmen—and Anduril—are hoping to help, and fast. Drake told Tectonic that his team plans to unveil a prototype for Nyx by the summer.
And to be fair, this ain’t Anduril’s first rodeo with the whole loyal wingman thing. As y’all are probably well aware, the company was tapped to build a tiny little fighter drone for America’s Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) program back in 2024 along with General Atomics.
- The company built a prototype called YFQ-44A (built on the company’s Fury drone) in about a year and a half. YFQ-44A completed its first flight test late last year.
- Drake said that the experience building CCA means they’ve got the experience to build a prototype for Nyx, and fast. Only difference is this one will be, well, helicopter-y and VTOL.
“We’re used to moving quick, and that seems to be what MoD want to do,” Drake said. “[With the Fury CCA] we’ve proven that we can do that and move at pace.”
Fast friends: It helps that Anduril’s already built up a pretty impressive team to get the dronecopter off the ground.
- Archer and Anduril will work together to design the aircraft.
- GKN Aerospace will work with Anduril to produce the aircraft.
- ISS and Rowden will provide a lot of the payloads.
- Isembard will support on the manufacturing side of things.
- And Anduril UK itself will build the autonomy stack (and a lot of the other fun stuff that will make the whole thing go zoom) in-country. The goal is to “maximize UK capability” and produce the majority of the thing domestically, Drake said.
The MoD plans to select up to two winning prototypes this fall, with the aim of fielding the aircraft by 2030.