Iris is a family of airborne imaging and targeting sensors designed to autonomously detect and track hundreds of targets at long ranges in contested environments. Anduril Industries is excited to announce Iris, a family of passive airborne imaging and targeting sensors with advanced technology to support a range of airborne combat applications such as infrared search and track (IRST), missile warning, visualization, and targeting. Iris is a passive sensor, meaning that it does not emit significant radiation and cannot be easily detected or disrupted when operating in contested environments. Iris is adaptable to most aircraft, including Autonomous Air Vehicles (AAVs) and uncrewed platforms, to enable autonomous, artificial intelligence-powered image processing at the edge to detect and track hundreds of targets at long ranges. Like all Anduril products, Iris is built to be future proof. As a software-defined, hardware-enabled family of systems, Iris benefits from rapid iterations and timely software updates to continuously improve performance, adapt to new situations, and ensure that operators are able to keep pace with the speed of modern conflict.
“Iris builds on the success and broad adoption of WISP, our CPI-enabled long-range passive sensing solution that is now deployed for critical Counter UAS, Air Defense, and Counter Intrusion missions around the world,” said Matthew Steckman, Chief Revenue Officer at Anduril. “We are proud to offer cutting-edge performance at low cost, with scalable production that leverages novel material science and manufacturing approaches to drive affordability and competitive lead times of critical components. Like all Anduril products, Iris is backed up by our software-first mindset that ensures continuous algorithm improvements across the entire lifecycle of the platform.”
“In a future fight, airborne systems will be faced with numerous targets and threats moving across all domains,” said Brian Schimpf, Co-Founder and CEO of Anduril Industries. “Airborne sensors must be able to rapidly and autonomously detect, track, identify, and classify each of those targets simultaneously. We built Iris with this in mind, leveraging our expertise in advanced infrared imaging technology and sensor integration that has been at the core of Anduril’s product offerings since our founding.”
Iris leverages Anduril’s proprietary and proven Computational Pixel Imager (CPI) technology that uses processors in every pixel to reduce noise and enable accurate detections at more extreme ranges than previously thought possible. That capability is facilitated by real-time AI detection and classification that autonomously identifies and tracks hundreds of objects of interest to help operators see potential targets through the noise. Anduril Industries will offer the Iris family of systems as a mission systems supplier to government customers and prime contractors seeking advanced airborne imaging solutions. Inherently modular and flexible, Iris offers several configurations across lens type, wavelength, and pixel image format to bring best-in-class imaging performance to any mission set. Iris is designed to be Open Mission System (OMS) compliant and leverages an adaptive and low size, weight, and power (SWaP) design that can be used on a variety of airborne platforms.
Iris is the latest addition to Anduril’s suite of advanced, software-enabled imaging and sensing capabilities and follows Anduril’s 2021 acquisition of Copious Imaging. Anduril is a leader in developing critical next-generation aerospace capabilities such as advanced sensors, autonomous vehicles, and software-defined hardware to solve the toughest challenges of U.S. and allied warfighters. Anduril Industries, Inc. is an American defense technology company that specializes in advanced autonomous systems. It was founded in 2017 by inventor Palmer Luckey with investors and founders associated with Palantir and SpaceX. Anduril aims to sell technology including artificial intelligence and robotics to the U.S. Department of Defense. Anduril’s major products include unmanned aerial systems (UAS), counter-UAS (CUAS), semi-portable autonomous surveillance systems, and networked command and control software.
