Defence technology company Anduril Industries has signed Memorandums of Understanding (MOU) with Sumitomo AeroSystems Corporation, Itochu, and another undisclosed but ‘prominent’ Japanese trading company, Anduril announced in Sydney on 31 May.
David Goodrich, executive chairman and chief executive officer of Anduril Asia Pacific, described the MOUs as ‘an incredibly significant milestone for Anduril’. The company intended having a significant presence in Japan, and had a diverse range of autonomous products and capabilities that it could tailor to meet Japan’s unique defensive requirements.
“Our trading house partners facilitate discussions with potential Japanese customers ... these collaborations bring together great technical and local knowledge to focus on ideas, products and solutions to meet distinctive Japanese needs,” he said.
Goodrich also disclosed the company was ‘in deep discussions’ with Japan’s Ministry of Defense to deliver Anduril’s autonomous capabilities across a range of applications in all domains.
He gave no specifics, but said joint operation command and control as provided by Anduril’s Lattice OS (Operating System) was likely to be of interest.
“This enables small numbers of people to command large numbers of robotic systems for national security missions – helping them gain better situational awareness, make better and more timely decisions, and deliver successful mission outcomes, all at faster speeds and greater scale,” Goodrich said.
“Lattice does this by providing core software services like sensor fusion, target identification and tracking, intelligent networking, and command and control that can be integrated differently for different missions and for different nations.”
Goodrich also anticipated future interest by Japan in Anduril’s recently-announced Lattice for Mission Autonomy system, a platform-agnostic, end-to-end software platform.
This enables not only autonomous machine to machine tasking, but also the ability to sense and make sense of the battlespace, identify threats and objects of interest, manage signature and communications to enhance survivability, orchestrate multi-asset manoeuvres, and synchronise the delivery of effects.
US-based Anduril Industries established its Sydney-based Australian subsidiary in March 2022.