Palmer Luckey captured world attention with the Oculus Rift, a virtual reality headset that promised to revolutionize multiple industries 10 years ago. Subsequently, he left Oculus and ventured to found Anduril, a startup focused on defense projects, some of them controversial. Now, he presents his most recent creation: Fury.
Fury is a “high-performance, multi-mission Group 5 autonomous aerial vehicle”, according to Luckey. Although he hasn’t provided many details on this unmanned drone, he highlighted its ability to withstand forces of up to 9Gs at a speed of Mach 0.95, and it does so at a fraction of the cost of fighters with similar performance.
In accordance with xatakathe most intriguing thing about Fury is that is piloted by an artificial intelligence (AI). The aircraft uses the Lattice software platform, which was already in use on other Anduril military projects. This software is based on artificial intelligence and allows “autonomous systems to dynamically collaborate to carry out complex missions under human supervision”both on the ground and in the air.
Fury’s announcement coincides with Anduril’s acquisition of Blue Force Technologies, the company behind Fury’s development. Blue Force Technologies had already successfully completed flight tests of the software in a simulator and evaluated the drone’s propulsion system on the ground.
Elon Musk interested in Fury
Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, took an immediate interest in Fury, asking why it was limited to a speed of Mach 0.95.. According to Musk, compressive strength decreases at higher speeds, and air density decreases with altitude, suggesting that higher speeds could be achieved.
Palmer Luckey responded that the limitation was due to the pre-existing commercial engine used in the aircraft, stressing the importance of keeping costs low and maintainability high. However, Luckey revealed that they have plans to develop a supersonic vehicle in the future..
This focus on autonomous drones like the Fury represents a significant shift in the way military air operations are thought of. Elon Musk commented that in hindsight, manned combat aircraft will seem reckless.
Autonomous drones are looking to become the new norm in air battles, offering high-quality performance at a significantly lower cost compared to manned aircraft like the expensive F-35.