Australian drones to take to US skies in Anduril deal

The defence company founded by tech billionaire Palmer Luckey has placed a major order with a local start-up for Australian-made drones that could be used in US military missions.

The Domani is an unmanned aerial vehicle by Carbonix. it has vertical takeoff and landing capability (VTOL) with fixed wings for efficient forward flight.

Anduril, the US defence tech start-up led by billionaire tech entrepreneur Palmer Luckey, has placed an order with Australian drone manufacturer Carbonix, a deal that could see Australian drones used in US defence missions.

Carbonix is teaming with ASX-listed independent aerospace manufacturer Quickstep Holdings to fulfil the order, with components for Carbonix’s Volanti aircraft to be manufactured at Quickstep’s facility in Geelong, Victoria, and then assembled in Sydney. The companies would not disclose the size of the deal.

Quickstep provides composite components for aircraft such as the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, C-130J, F/A-18 and F-15E, working with customers including Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman and BAE Systems.

The manufacturing partnership will immediately ramp-up production of Volanti airframes, Carbonix chief executive Philip van der Burg said. It comes after Anduril recently won a $US1bn counter-drone contract from the US Special Operations Command, though Mr van der Burg could not confirm whether his company’s technology would be used as part of that tender.

“With state-of-the-art facilities in NSW and Victoria, Carbonix is thrilled to be partnering with Quickstep and their highly trained and enthusiastic workforce, renowned for their innovative approach”, Mr van der Burg said.

“Quickstep’s global reputation for their quality and expertise in aerospace manufacturing is critical in ensuring the highest standards we expect to deliver to our customers as well as continuing our path to aircraft certification.”

Mr Luckey, who sold his first company Oculus to Facebook for billions, told The Australian in a recent interview that he wanted Anduril to become one of the biggest defence companies globally.

Anduril CEO Palmer Luckey. Source: Supplied.

Anduril recently signed a $140m deal with the Royal Australian Navy to co-fund the design, development and local manufacture of extra-large autonomous undersea vehicles, and is opening a Sydney R&D facility.

“Australian tech talent in particular understands defence issues a little more intuitively, and I find that people in Australian tech understand that working on defence is one of the most important things you can work on,” he said.

“Our goal is to be a very significant player in the defence industry, ideally the biggest one and in the process save Western countries hundreds of billions of dollars a year by replacing ancient legacy capabilities with much more capable and much more affordable systems.