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U.S. defense engineering company Anduril has unveiled its new Bolt family of military lagger powered byartificial intelligence(AI ) — including one model equip with " lethal preciseness firepower . "
The drone have been developed for the U.S. Marine Corps ( USMC ) as part of an on-going modernization program call Force Design . The arrangement is a " world - packable , vertical takeoff and landing place ( VTOL ) Autonomous Air Vehicle " that hail in two configurations — the Bolt and Bolt - M , Anduril representatives said in astatement .
The Bolt-M drone comes equipped with explosive munitions for active combat scenarios. It can fly for more than 40 minutes, with a range of 12.5 miles (20 kilometers).
The Bolt is the stock configuration of the drone , stand for for usage in surveillance and search - and - rescue operations , while the Bolt - M get along equip with volatile munition for active combat scenarios . It ’s effectively a " kamikaze " pilotless aircraft fit with surveillance equipment and explosive ordination . This let the drone identify and fell into a butt before detonating the payload .
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The Bolt - M is compatible with a reach of munition packages from both Anduril and third - party manufacturers , with a maximum ordnance payload capacity of up to 3 British pound ( 1.4 kilogram ) . The system focuses on modularity and simpleness of use , enable operators to swap between anti - personnel and anti - materiel warheads in the field establish on " change battlefield prerequisite , " representative append in the instruction .
In the promotional video above , company representatives tell the drone can be assembled and deploy in less than five minutes . It can also be establish from practically any emplacement because it does n’t need any launch setup and has VTOL capabilities . The Bolt - M can vanish for more than 40 minutes , with a mountain range of 12.5 Roman mile ( 20 km ) , while thestandard Boltcan fly for more than 45 minutes because it lacks a impenetrable payload .
Under the hood , the Bolt - M is controlled by a " tactical edition " of Anduril ’s existing Lattice computer software chopine . According to the statement , this artificial insemination - power software drastically reduce the education and expertness needed to fly the bourdon , enabling human operators to find , runway , and , if necessary , work stoppage targets with minimal endeavor . This is in contrast with thefirst - individual sight laggard currently being utilized by both sides in the Ukraine war , which require significant education and attention from their operators .
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Another key feature is agnostic object trailing , which let manipulator manually highlight an physical object by drawing a box around it — which instructs the radio-controlled aircraft to track it . This supplements the onboard calculator ’s ability to key typical battlefield objects , have soldiers override the computer and learn it to conform to any threat they have identified . This is n’t too unlike to the automatic trailing technology in consumer trailer , such as theActiveTrack mode find on the DJI 4 Mini Pro .
This number in accession to autonomous waypoint navigation , which lets the hustler set a flight path using the onboard GPS . The lagger can be go under on its course without requiring ceaseless control or observation , rent humans concentrate as they traverse potentially uncongenial terrain .
The Bolt and Bolt - M were developed as part of the USMC ’s Organic Precision Fires - Light ( OPF - L ) program , in which eight companies vie to rise " preciseness fire system " that could be used for smaller social unit like squads or platoons . Out of those eight companies , three were selected for contracts in April 2024 — AeroVironment , Teledyne FLIR and Anduril .
Anduril wasco - founded in 2017by a mathematical group of investor headlined by Palmer Luckey , the Divine of the Oculus Rift practical world headset ( the predecessor to the Meta Quest , which is among thebest VR headsetsout there ) .
