February saw defense tech unicorn Anduril Industries swoop into a troubled contract and make it their own, increasing their already formidable technological prowess. The company’s recent purchase of Dublin-based Klas shows its firm resolve to lead the way in developing military and law enforcement solutions. Klas, which currently employs 150 people, has been privately acquired for an undisclosed sum. This acquisition is now pending regulatory approval. This marks Anduril’s ninth acquisition to date.
The joint venture between Anduril and Microsoft is flourishing. Microsoft is the cloud partner for the largest of the above-referenced new contract wins. Now, Anduril has added Klas’ flagship product Voyager with Menace command center offerings already in its solution set. Voyager is a powerful, flexible family of parallel, distributed compute and networking systems. Its ability to flourish in unforgiving climates makes it an ideal fit for Anduril’s mission of military advancement.
Along with the acquisition, Anduril has unveiled a new, smaller-form factor version of their product for land applications—Menace-T. This field-deployable Command, Control, Communications, Computers, and Intelligence (C4I) system makes a great fit in the tactical environment. It takes one operator only minutes to set it up, and it conveniently packs down to fit into two carry-on cases. The Menace-T is designed to enable the military to succeed in operations by providing trusted communications and data processing at the tactical edge.
As currently configured, the Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS) project is a $21.9 billion boondoggle. It will reap tremendous benefits from the capabilities that Menace-T affords. This product runs the compute and communications components of IVAS’s virtual reality headsets. That’s a huge plus since it really addresses the historical issues associated with data accuracy.
Anduril’s Senior Vice President of Engineering Tom Keane reiterated Klas’ technology’s versatility.
“The technology and products from Klas have many use cases: military, national security, law enforcement, autonomy and more. Anduril, together with our partners, will continue to support customers with a wide array of use cases,” – Tom Keane.
He added further insight into the operational implications of Klas’ technology, stating:
“There are scenarios where those soldiers need to communicate with the tactical edge to send data, to receive data, to task autonomous systems, and that’s a place where the Klas technology can help,” – Tom Keane.
Anduril’s interest in being the dominant force in defense technology in both military and domestic law enforcement sectors highlights its role as one of the major players. The firm addresses pressing issues in these areas. They intend to address these negative impacts with forward-thinking solutions such as Menace-T and by incorporating Klas’ sophisticated systems.
