Anduril has been awarded a $642,210,000 contract by the US Marine Corps to deliver and sustain the Installation-Counter small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (I-CsUAS), a defensive system designed to protect US bases from small UAS, according to a 7th March announcement from the US DoD
Anduril was selected over proposals from ten other companies to provide its solution, with $ 9,486,676 in funding being allocated at the time of contract award for the first system to be delivered. Funding will be allocated at the procurement level for ten years, with the contract set to be complete by 2035.
The programme was initiated in 2022 with the USMC trialling different options and approaches. The Corps originally looked at leasing services from a provider, before eventually settling on procurement as the most cost-effective route. A request for proposals was issued in 2024 leading to a selection in the last quarter of last year.
“The Marine Corps, and DoD in general, required the capability to defend against sUAS years ago,” said the Program Manager for Ground-Based Air Defense at PEO Land Systems Don Kelley in 2022. “The threat of sUAS is only proliferating every day. The bottom line is, we need to provide this capability to our Marines as rapidly as possible.” Fast forward to 2025 and it seems that the USMC has finally reached a conclusion.
The system is intended to defeat Commercial Off-The-Shelf Group 1 and Group 2 UAS, as well as providing detection, tracking and identification capabilities, the Fixed Site Project Officer serving under Don Kelley explained in 2022.
At present, there are understood to be five USMC sites that are protected by leased systems, the programme of record that Anduril has now been contracted to deliver will replace these leased systems over the coming years. This includes USMC bases in the continental USA, as well as bases located abroad.
In the past, Anduril has supplied its Sentry Towers to USMC sites around the world, and won a $ 200 million contract in 2024 to develop and deliver a Counter Unmanned Aerial System (CUAS) Engagement System (CES) for the Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS). The Sentry Tower system uses a variety of sensors including radar and electro-optical systems to detect small drones, paired with radio frequency effectors to help bring them down. The system uses Anduril’s Lattice software to provide sensor fusion and improved understanding of the air environment.
A recent spate of drone sightings over military bases has re-emphasised the need for this type of capability as well as the legal basis for militaries to engage and defeat drones that are found above their installations.
Image courtesy Anduril