Archer Aviation & Anduril Collaborate for Omen Breakthrough

Archer Aviation has announced it will supply its hybrid powertrain to third parties, beginning with the Omen drone which is being developed by Anduril and Edge Group. 

This collaboration will bring highly optimised technology to the defence sector and will help drone production scale rapidly.

The hybrid aircraft acts as the first in a potential list of collaborative projects between the companies.

Collaboration for success

Anduril Industries is a defence technology company, bringing the latest expertise and technology to the defence industry. It works to bring cutting-edge AI, computer vision, sensor fusion and networking technology to the military, aiming to transform military capabilities with advanced technology. 

For years, it has been collaborating with Edge Group to create the Omen drone - a hover-to-cruise, runway-independent Autonomous Air Vehicle (AAV).

Edge Group is a leader in advanced technology, bringing breakthrough innovations to the market with speed and efficiency. It merges R&D, emerging technologies, commercial market trends and digital transformation with military capabilities. 

After facing propulsion issues, Anduril turned to Archer Aviation to work through concepts and collaboration. Archer is an aircraft company which designs and develops technologies which helps power the future of aviation. Due to the development of its hybrid-electric VTOL systems, it has been able to help on production of the Omen.

This agreement of collaboration is the first time Archer will allow its powertrain technology available to a third party. This technology is highly optimised for commercial and defence aviation use-cases, and the powertrain will accelerate the development and scaled production of the drone.

“While most see our Midnight eVTOL as an aircraft, we view Midnight as a platform that plays host to a wide range of new and exciting aerospace technologies that will be leveraged way beyond our own aircraft," says Adam Goldstein, founder and CEO of Archer.

"Our powertrain deal with Anduril is the first of what we expect to be many examples of this. For almost a year, we have worked closely with Anduril’s team as we advance our hybrid-electric aircraft project.

"As we’ve familiarised ourselves with each other’s technology, new and interesting opportunities to collaborate beyond the scope of the initial hybrid aircraft project have been uncovered. We could not be more excited to expand the scope of our partnership with Anduril as we open up a new revenue stream for Archer’s business as a powertrain supplier for next-generation electric aircraft.”

Technological advancements

The Omen has already seen high demand, with the UAE committing to an initial acquisition of 50 systems. This establishes a demand for Archer's powertrain technology, which has proven vital for this project. Through making its technology available to a third party, it has introduced a new revenue stream to its company and formed a new supply chain relationship. 

The Omen will be based within the UAE, from local production, sales and sustainment, relying on an in-region, 50,000-square-foot R&D center to better support engineering, integration and testing.

Shane Arnott, Anduril’s SVP of Engineering, added: “We’ve been working on Omen for more than five years.

"By combining the Archer team’s expertise in powertrain technology with a little bit of Anduril magic, we’ve been able to mature our propulsion solution to achieve the ranges, speeds, and payload capacity we need to make Omen operationally relevant for a variety of dual-use mission sets.

"The maturity and reliability of Archer’s powertrain platform de-risks our plans to deliver a production variant of Omen to customers at scale.”

Through Archer's decision to supply electric powertrains to defence applications, it diversifies its experience and expertise in battery and electric technologies.

The powertrain is being manufactured across 1,000,000-square-feet of manufacturing and test facilities across the US, utilising automation to help reliability and growth to scale.